MARIANI’S

  January 9, 2004                                                              NEWSLETTER

                                                      Zucchini flowers, 2004                     Photo: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                                                                                    
EDITOR'S NOTE:  Readers may now access an Archive of all past newsletters--each annotated--dating back to July, 2003, by simply clicking on www.johnmariani.com/archive .

NEW FEATURE! You may now subscribe (or unsubscribe) anyone you wish to this newsletter by clicking here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                                                                                    ~~

POST-HURRICANE PALM BEACH  by Edward Brivio

NEW YORK CORNER:  The Circus Moves On----Le Cirque 2000 Closes and Moves On  by John Mariani

QUICK BYTES

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                                                                              

TSUNAMI RELIEF EVENTS
On Jan. 11 NYC’s Black Duck Bistro at The Park South Hotel (122 East 28 St.) will hold a tsunami relief benefit that will include a  full open bar with passed hors d’oeuvres, live music by an array of international musicians, and a raffle of trips, dinners for two, and more.  A minimum donation of $50 per person will act as the entry fee, all of which will be donated to Oxfam America or The U.S. Fund for Unicef.  For info on these organizations and the relief services they are providing please visit www.oxfamamerica.org and www.unicefusa.org. . . . * On Jan. 16 NYC's Fleur de Sel will host a fundraising dinner with 100%  of the proceeds donated directly to the U.S. fund for UNICEF, supporting Southeast Asia Tsunami Relief Efforts. Chef Cyril Renaud will prepare a 4-course tasting menu with seatings at 5:00 pm and 8:30 pm for $150.00 pp.  Call 212.460.9100. . . . On Jan. 10 Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood and Barney's Beanery West in Santa Monica will forward 25% of each restaurant's dinner receipts to the American Red Cross. Call 310- 654-2287 and 310-656-5777

BACK TO PALM BEACH . . . AFTER THE STORMS by Edward Brivio
Photos: Robert Pirillo

The destruction wrought last summer and fall on Florida by two hurricanes   spared nothing on Palm Beach, shuttering most of the hotels and resorts there for weeks, even months.  But, as correspondent Edward Brivio is happy to report, all is up and running and, in many cases improved and better ready for whatever comes this wealthy enclave's way in the future.

   Located on the southern tip of what must be the most affluent barrier-island on the planet, the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach (100 South Ocean Blvd. 561-533-6000, www.ritzcarlton.com), opened in 1991 and shut down for months after the hurricanes hit. But it is back on line and running at the same level of posh refinement it was designed for, crafted in the architectural style of Addison Mizener, whose landmark buildings from the boom of the '20s are as much a part of Palm Beach's charm as the local glitterati, the gleaming sea, the endless sand beaches, and the sun-filled climate.
   Though lacking the historic grandeur of a grande dame like The Breakers, the Ritz's six stories of bisque-colored stucco, with terra cotta roof tiles, Mission-style bell towers and elaborate cornices, sit comfortably and unobtrusively on their 7-acre ocean front site,  providing the last word in luxury and up-to-the-minute amenities.  Rather than the piano nobile of some cinquecento palazzo, the public rooms here have the massive arched doorways, detailed woodwork, and heavy crown molding usually associated with pre-war NYC Fifth Avenue apartments. Chandeliers with enormous rock crystal drops, variegated-marble fireplaces, beautifully upholstered sofas and armchairs, and a serious collection of exquisite paintings complete the effect.
   The main building backs onto an interior courtyard and a large free-form pool within a cool oasis of swaying palms and tented marquees. The water is purified by using salt rather than chlorine, so there's no worry about red eyes or green hair. Just beyond the pool is the Atlantic, clean and warm. 
    The rooms, all with terraces, are either "ocean-view" (that is, facing the courtyard with an oblique view of the beach) or oceanfront. Our spacious, very comfortable oceanfront room opened onto a large, deep terrace just a stone's throw away from the surf and as hidden from the sight of other guests' terraces and they were of us.   
   One of the loveliest rooms at the Ritz,  done in warm, dark, wood paneling, lighted by candles and a gently glowing fireplace, is The Grill (left), where Chef  Sean McDonald, formerly of Maestro  at the Ritz-Carlton Tyson's Corner, VA, deconstructs the classics, playfully reworking the familiar into beautiful miniatures by a simple play of forms, either geometric or organic, against the stark monochromatic background of an eclectic mix of plates--round, oblong or square, made of china, glass, or even a small cast-iron casserole. But his visual flair never overwhelms his cooking. His preparations  always look as though they were created in a kitchen, not in an atelier.   
    Salmon confit topped with a quail egg and American caviar (really quite good) in a pool of cucumber granité, all centered, like some unexpected main attraction in a large, pure white bowl, made for a small jewel of a starter, with clean, saline flavors played off against the unctuous egg yolk.   Next appeared a deconstructed salad lyonnaise of frisée lettuce, poached quail eggs, a ragoût of wild mushrooms and glazed pancetta, followed by prosciutto-wrapped foie gras on toast that would have made the Earl of Sandwich put down his cards.  
    Whoever makes the pasta here knows what he's about. One large lobster raviolo in a foie gras sauce over shaved fennel couldn't have been better, while hand-rolled garganelli with taleggio in a butternut squash/rabbit ragoût with pine nuts and sultanas was comfort food of the highest order.  Filet mignon on a truffled mousseline of potatoes with bluefoot mushrooms sautéed in bacon, and, to gild the lily, a small nubbin of osso buco wrapped in a sheet of  spinach pasta was a Miró-like abstraction of organic forms in deep, rich colors,  artful, but still recognizable as meat-and-potatoes. 
     Before dessert, we enjoyed a cheese course of firm manchego,  semi-soft Stilton, and luscious, creamy taleggio, with a small piece of honey comb, a cube of membrillo (quince paste), and a tiny cluster of raisins dried on the stem.  Something  rustic and pastoral about the comb instead of just the honey, and raisins still on the stem made the experience like sharing some Iberian shepherd's al fresco lunch. 
    The Chocolate Sampler, once again served on bare white, was a study in simple forms, each a different, delicious chocolate confection--dacquoise, a mini-molten chocolate cake, and two scoops of ice cream, with two thin crossed lines of chocolate the only other decoration. Equally irresistible were the ginger and chocolate soufflés; Tahitian vanilla crème brûlée on slices of dried, peppered strawberries  in a lemon emulsion; and a grapefruit gratin with grapefruit marmalade, grapefruit gelato, and a vanilla "foam," that like a great white wine, carefully modulated between luscious sweet fruit and vibrant acidity.  
   For wines we drank an excellent Aligoté de Bouzeron '99 from A. & P. de Villaine , followed by a lush,  nicely balanced '99 Napa Syrah from Havens.  
       Appetizers run $12-$26, entrees $32-$52.
    
      Every Friday the Ritz-Carlton offers an aptly named "Seafood Extravaganza" in its casual Soleil restaurant, a series of large, airy rooms right off the lobby.  I just love this dining room (right):  something about its blend of Louis XVI and Sunshine state decor perfectly suits its location. Walls sparsely decorated with the formal, rectangular molding of an 18th century salon are softened by the pale green and rich yellow color scheme, while wide-backed bergères made of bamboo, gaily striped banquettes, and bright jacquard table cloths made the whole space light and summery. A large bay window looks out onto the balcony and the cool, palm-fringed pool area and ocean beyond.
   Chef Andrea Munroe changes the buffet's menu every week, depending on what's freshest. The night we were there, a towering, finely-chiseled seahorse ice sculpture  was the centerpiece atop a bed of ice  with a king's ransom of jumbo shrimp and stone crab claws.  Pan-seared sea bass with a fruit salsa and a coconut/lemon grass sauce, vol-au-vents filled with shrimp and lobster bisque, hot and spicy Thai clams, and mussels cajun style, with bits of diced andouille afloat in the tangy tomato broth, cold seafood salad, Portobello ravioli with curried cream sauce and sun-dried tomatoes, and mulligatawny soup were all well-prepared. Chafing dishes tend to empty quickly here, and the whipped potatoes with chick peas suffered from too much time on the steam table.  The buffet is $52 per person.

     I doubt Palm Beach had any idea what it had been missing until the Breakers opened Echo (230A Sunrise Ave., 561-802-4222, www.echopalmbeach.com) four years ago. Before that Pacific Rim cooking was largely absent from this part of the state. Now a quick ride downtown is all it takes to savor the impeccable sashimi and sushi created by sushi master Lee Grossman (right), along with the kitchen's Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai specialties.
   Raw and cooked, everything is of top quality. Our first exquisitely decorated platter contained a selection of sashimi--big eye tuna, salmon, white "tuna," and superb toro,  as well as a selection of specialty rolls, including lobster, wasabi, topiko and Japanese mayonnaise in a tender sesame/soy wrapper, the whole topped with a large dollop of delicious American sturgeon caviar. The Dragonfly sampler ($28 for two) provides a quick study of the kitchen's favorite hot appetizers: crisp jumbo shrimp, succulent charbroiled pork spare ribs, a Vietnamese spring roll and skewered chicken topped with peanut sauce. A bowl of chicken ginseng soup with a chicken shiitake wonton, a few lotus seeds and some curls of snow mushroom worked well as a kind of intermezzo, bringing to an end the small tastes and clearing the palate for the main course to come--Peking Duck ($56 for 2), skillfully carved and wrapped into pancakes with ribbons of scallion and hoisin sauce.
   As is appropriate for  such an eclectic mix of flavors, more than 25 wines are available by the glass, along with a variety of sakes. Among the whites I recommend the Caymus "Conundrum" ($16 a glass), a delicious blend of viognier, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and semillon, with the complex aromatics and hint of sweetness that goes so well with this kind of food, the JJ Prum Riesling Kabinett ($11),  and the very Burgundian-style Steele chardonnay ($13), and  our red wine, a Sterling merlot ($15) that stood up beautifully to the duck.  Glasses of Muscat de Beaumes-de-Vénise, from Domaine de Coyeaux ($10) stood-in for dessert as an unfussy, readily available, gently priced sweet wine. 
      Sushi and sashimi $3-$30; small plates $8-$17; main courses $21-$36. 

     The newest addition to the Breakers is the  Italian Restaurant, whose menu runs the gamut from the clear, pared-down elegance of true Italian cuisine to the hearty abbondanza of Italian-American cooking, served in a family friendly dining room.  A quiet path takes one away from the bustle of the main building through a well-tended, flower-filled garden, past a stone fountain, and up to a Mediterranean-style villa covered with bougainvillea in full bloom. The dining room is all about stylish rusticity, with sturdy very comfortable, high-backed, ladder chairs with woven rush seats  set against equally tough refectory-style wood tables and a casual ambiance heightened by hardwood floors and walls of exposed brick.
    Start with the chef's beef carpaccio with a small salad of arugula in the center topped with a few shards of Parmigiano- Reggiano and crisp-fried prosciutto,  simply dressed with a drizzle of EV olive oil and  freshly ground pepper. Mussels alla Napoli marries the mollusks with  white wine, garlic, tomato, herbs and a dollop of butter to make it creamy, to be sopped up with the crusty Italian bread provided. Typically Italian-American  are the chef's handmade tortelloni in a wild mushroom/tomato cream sauce  with a good grating of Parmigiano, and his version of shrimp scampi, served atop feather-light linguine.  Servings are  of comfort-food proportions. 
    Appetizers run $8-$16, pizzas $14-$18, pastas $16.50-$22, and main courses $24-$35.

      Right in the town of West Palm Beach,  a few blocks off Worth Avenue, is Café Boulud (301 Australian Ave. 561-655-6060, www.danielnyc.com), a spin-off of Daniel Boulud's wonderful restaurant of the same name in Manhattan. This branch is located in the Brazilian Court Hotel, a gem of 1920's style currently under renovation.
   Your first decision is whether to dine outside, overlooking the palm-filled patio with its stone fountain, in the shelter of spacious awnings and large market umbrellas, or inside (below, left), in a series of sleek,  earth-toned, softly-lit dining rooms hung with a collection of contemporary paintings. 
    As in the original Café Boulud, the menu here is organized around four themes: "La Tradition" (French classics), "La Saison" (based on the best seasonal ingredients), "Le Potager" (vegetarian dishes), and "Le Voyage" (dishes from around the world), which allow guests  to sample many different cuisines at one sitting, as prepared by on-premises executive chef Zacariah Bell. 
   Vietnamese grilled shrimp with green papaya salad and a spicy peanut sauce had a freshness and cayenne kick. Tuna carpaccio niçoise was topped with a salade niçoise of intensely-flavored, tiny cherry tomatoes, haricots verts, hard-boiled quail eggs, and olives, with the sun-drenched intensity and the light, quick hand of the best Mediterranean cooking. The Tunisian lamb-tasting, with Bharat spiced loin chop, a traditional brik of phyllo  filled with highly spiced ground lamb and a soft-boiled egg yolk, wonderful pickled eggplant, and a bulgur salad evoked the complex flavors and sweet spices of North Africa.  Sautéed Florida pompano mixed local and international flavors with its sides of delicious local corn, oyster mushrooms,  shrimp ragoût with watercress, and a thoroughly classic sauce diable.
    For dessert, try Pastry Chef Remy Funfrock's fôret noire, his version of Black forest cake with brandied cherry ice cream; the equally splendid trio macaron of orange crème brûlée, tea-scented chocolate mousse, and mendiant of dried fruits with  toasted almond ice cream; his warm upside-down chocolate soufflé with pistachio ice cream; or the chocolate mousse bombe with caramel, passion fruit cream and pistachio dacquoise.
   Café Boulud charges Palm Beach, or, if you will, NYC, prices, with starters $12-$24 and main courses $30-$38.

NEW YORK CORNER

THE CIRCUS MOVES ON
by John Mariani

     Last week one of New York City's grandest and greatest restaurants--Le Cirque 2000--closed its doors.
       If this sounds like yet another blow to fine French dining in NYC, following the closings in the past two years of Lespinasse, Lutèce, La Caravelle, and La Côte Basque, each for very different reasons, it really is not. (I should add that several non-French restaurants of longstanding, including Gage & Tollner and the Oak Room at the Plaza, also closed this year.)  For if all goes well, the Maccioni family that ran Le Cirque 2000 (left) on Madison Avenue will re-open its doors next fall at a new, as yet undecided address on Central Park South. Le Cirque 2000 is no more; Le Cirque 2005 is yet ahead. 
    The widely publicized reasons LC2000 closed had to do with the end of a lease and the Maccionis' frustration at paying astonishing hotel union wages to its restaurant employees. (NYC  has a wholly separate Restaurant Union, but it does not exact the kind of exorbitant wages and unreasonable contracts as does the Hotel Union.)  The new Le Cirque  may be smaller and more intimate than the vast LC2000 housed in the glorious, landmarked Villard Houses beneath the Palace Hotel, and only time will tell if the new decor will echo the controversial circus-like colors and lighting of LC2000.  Somehow I doubt it: too many people refused to fall in love with what was sometimes referred to as "Haute McDonald's" design.  I myself didn't care much for it in the beginning, though I came to find it rather artful fun.
      Ringmaster and paterfamilias Sirio Maccioni has said that he wishes to return to a simpler plan, an almost nostalgic echo of the way Le Cirque was when it was housed in an L-shaped room on east 65th Street (now the premises of Restaurant Daniel, whose chef-partner was once chef at Le Cirque).  Opened in 1974 Le Cirque had reigned for more than two decades as the most chic, the most social, the most celebrated French restaurant in NYC, but it was also famous for its superb cuisine under a succession of chefs that included Boulud, as well as Jean Todeschini (an original partner with Maccioni), Alain Sailhac, Sylvain Portay, Sottha Khunn, and, for the past two years, Pierre Schaedelin.
       It was a place where on any given night you might spy Sophia Loren, Luciano Pavarotti, Woody Allen, Paloma Picasso, Bill Cosby, Rudy Giuliani, and Barbara Walters. The glory of the place was in its circus-like atmosphere, swirling with vitality and buzz, always with captains brandishing silver pots of white truffles, sommeliers popping corks on magnums of Champagne, and waiters bringing towering desserts to an applauding table.  
   Sirio  set a tone that never faded in all those years, carried on with increasing aplomb and finesse by his sons Marco and Mauro; another son, Mario, takes care of the Las Vegas branch of Le Cirque in Bellagio. (The photo at the right shows the whole family, with a regular customer next to Marco.) Never satisfied, always fretting, ever eagle-eyed, Sirio sees everything and takes it all in, enjoying his eminence in the fickle world of NYC gastronomy while constantly saying he'd rather be home in Montecatini eating his wife Egi's cooking. (So might you: her cooking is found at the Maccionis' other NYC restaurant, Osteria del Circo, and in her book, written with Peter Kaminsky,  The Maccioni Family Cookbook.)
                                                                  

    My last meal at Le Cirque 2000, in mid-December, was every bit as good as my first 25 years ago and as good as any since, beginning with a tasty little slice of Alsatian tarte flambée, a savory of stone crab meat with an apple-celery rémoulade and a compressé of jumbo asparagus, smoked salmon, shrimp tempura, and an American caviar vinaigrette. Then came two magnificent pasta dishes--mezzalune stuffed with porcini and a creamy, al dente risotto--both showered with the finest white truffles I've enjoyed this year. Roasted langoustine marinated in seven spices, with a fennel fondant and sauce vierge showed the delicacy this kitchen is capable of, and this was followed by roasted branzino stuffed with seafood, mushrooms, roasted artichokes and fennel, with a millefeuille of potatoes and olives and an anise jus.  The meat course options were a marvelously flavorful magret of duck with a crispy leg confit and gratin of baby vegetables with sweet-sour sauce, and filet of lamb with wild mushrooms, zucchini and greens.  Desserts ranged from a nostalgic crème brûlée (which le Cirque pioneered decades ago) to marvelous chocolate and fruit desserts and some of the finest mignardises in New York.  All of this was buoyed by a superb winelist with bottlings within everyone's budget, high or low.

Thieves stole an inflatable SpongeBob SquarePants balloon from a Burger King in Little Falls, Minnesota, leaving a ransom note that read, "We have SpongeBob. Give us 10 Krabby Patties, fries and milkshakes."

"I believe in delayed gratification. When it comes to making holiday appetizers, that is. Martyrs and deadline dynamos might live for that adrenaline rush of preparing everything in the last-minute frenzy as guests stampede through the door.  Not yours truly. I believe in a well-considered plan of attack, in doing most of the work ahead of time and in patiently sitting back for the kudos to cascade in later."--Carolyn Jung, "Chill!" Knight-Ridder Newspapers (Nov. 1, 2004).

QUICK BYTES

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani,  Naomi  Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson,  Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Lucy Gordan, Suzanne Wright. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,  Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).  
    

                  
copyright John Mariani 2004