a voce

Photo by Evan Sung

When it opened in  2003, no one knew for sure if putting a bunch of restaurants on the third and fourth floors of the Time-Warner Center at Columbus Circle was going to be a good idea.   A lot of experienced restaurateurs wondered if people--especially New Yorkers--would be caught dead taking an escalator up to a dining room.
    But, aside from a couple of ill-advised, short-lived restaurants, the Center has proven an enormous success for places like Per Se, Porter House, Masa, and A Voce, which was opened in 2009 by London-based Marlon Abela Restaurant Corp.  (There is also a downtown A Voce.)
    Its location has never been a problem with: a) people who work in the building, b) those who stay next door at the Mandarin-Oriental or in the hotels that line Central Park South, c) those who love the panorama over Columbus Circle of Central Park, d) Broadway theater and Lincoln Center goers, and e) those who love stylish Italian cuisine.  Good mix indeed.
    So the bar is always packed by six o'clock, the tables full by eight, and all those people make a lot of noise in an interior that is very handsome in a sort of Milanese modern way but devoid of any textures to soak up the sound.  The Rockwell Group has designed the space to be both sexy and  romantic enough for those in thrall to the city’s lights, but businessmen and women feel comfortable coming here just for a plate of pasta and glass of wine after work.  There is also private dining available. The colors of ivory and brown and glass walls lined with 7,500 bottles from an 800-label list--overseen by Olivier Flosse--provide a contrast of cool and glistening surfaces.
    There has been some turnover in chefs in the past couple of years, but the kitchen is now under Chef Riccardo Bilotta (right), born in Trieste, with training and experience in diverse kitchens that include Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, Italy, El Cellar de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, and most recently Harvest on Hudson in New York, where he served as executive chef.  Whereas in the past A Voce had a reputation for modern but lusty flavors, Bilotta has added just enough refinement to recipes that incorporate first-rate American ingredients, so as to make the evolution of the kitchen both clear and very much his own.  Thus, I just abandoned the menu and let him feed me and my guests on a recent evening.

        With a lovely bottle of Gaja Rossj-Bass 2012 (a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc) chosen by Flosse, we began with a silky, tangy octopus terrine, with shaved marinated asparagus, capers, and a light sabayon.  One of the most beautiful plates of Ahi tuna carpaccio (left), with orange, Taggiasca olives, chervil, I’ve ever seen tasted every bit as good as it looked, and the precise amount of seasoning brought a tartare of Piedmontese  beef with pickled cucumber to vibrant life.    There were three pastas served: a perfectly tender, nicely chewy risotto with generous morsels of  Maine lobster, aromatic saffron, a touch of brandy and tarragon; parsley-imbued linguine with very delicate flavors of Alaskan king crab, scallions, Meyer lemon, and just the right amount of Santa Barbara sea urchin so as not to overpower the other ingredients; amatriciana di ricci  also had sea urchin--very subtly--and the sauce a classic sugo, with which we drank a Pieropan 2013.
    Quite clearly Bilotta adores seafood, as he should for a chef from Trieste, and I think he’s going one on one with Marea across the street.  Our next course was fresh cod with impeccably rendered artichoke purée, pearl onions, black breadcrumbs, and watermelon radish; halibut swam in a heady seafood casserole with meaty borlotti beans and cauliflower.   The single meat dish was an herb-crusted rack of lamb with buttery potato terrine, lamb cotechino sausage, and an enchanting pink lady apple mostarda.  With this we enjoyed a Schioppettino, Ronchi di Chialla  2009, which we sipped for a while before having desserts.

    Chocolate and Sicilian pistachio mousse was blended with olive oil and set with pistachio gelato, while a coconut semifreddo came with caramelized pineapple and passion fruit sorbet.
      Even sated we could not resist a bite of bombolini with a chocolate hazelnut fonduta and sprinkling of Maldon salt.
    This is clearly sophisticated Italian food and, although there were a few people at other tables ordering just a plate of pasta, most guests that night were in full swing, with good bottles of wine on every table.  In any other city A Voce would be very much a special occasion place, but in NYC it’s a restaurant people will go to simply for the love of it whenever they get the chance.

A Voce is open for lunch Mon.-Sat. and for dinner nightly; brunch on Sun.

AT HENNESSY, COGNAC CONSISTENCY
COMES FROM TASTING
AND TASTING
AND TASTING
SOME MORE

      They’ve been tasting cognac this way for a couple of centuries at Hennessy Cognac.
      Five days a week, at precisely 11 a.m., six men in coats and ties sit around a table behind closed doors in a room along the banks of the River Charente in southwestern France. Sharing one glass, they sniff and sample eau de vie, the spirit that is magically transformed into the region’s most distinctive product, Cognac. They evaluate aroma, color and flavor, making judgments on developments in the wine that may not take effect for decades, even into the next century.
    Cognac relies on tasting and blending skills that take years to master and little about the ritual has changed since the firm was founded in 1765.  Renaud di Gironde is one of that select group, known within Maison Hennessy as the Comité de Gustation (left). He likens the daily ritual to a religious observance: ”We are the guardians of a temple charged with maintaining the standards established by Richard Hennessy.”
    The idea of one tasting glass shared by six people may sound jarring, but Gironde explains, “We use the same glass to avoid any variation in how we evaluate the eaux de vie.” These sacrosanct sessions determine the potential of the barrel samples, identifying those ready to be blended and their role in the several styles of Hennessy Cognac, and identifying those that may need years before they go into a blend. The youngest members of that committee are not permitted to express an opinion until they have experienced ten years of these tastings, after which they are presumed to have acquired the palate and references needed for authoritative judgment.  
     Di Gironde is the nephew of Yann Fillioux (below), Master Blender and taster for Maison Hennessy. This is not exactly nepotism; it is more a matter of tradition and heritage. Richard Hennessy, who captained an Irish brigade in the army of Louis XV, chose in 1765 to create a new life producing Cognac. As the century was ending, Emile Fillioux joined him in Charente as a barrel cooper, becoming the first of seven generations of the Fillioux family to serve Hennessy. The sixth and possibly the most skillful member of the clan was Maurice Fillioux, a legendary master blender who directed production from 1958 to 1991.
     A dedicated musician, Fillioux observed of his craft, “You can’t play a melody as complex as the composition of a Cognac. You have to master all the notes.”   The ability to understand the scent of the spirits is vital for a blender and Maurice Fillioux achieved fame for his olfactory prowess. In a burst of promotional excess, marketing people once floated the idea of insuring Fillioux’s sensitive nose for a million dollars. Fortunately, that bit of hyperbolic exuberance never went further.
     Early on, Renaud di Gironde thought seriously of joining his uncle as a taster, but his career took a different turn after he earned an MBA in Wine Business in Australia. Gironde is in charge of grower relations, working with 1,500 farmers who supply grapes for Hennessy. When not in the vineyards Gironde relishes his mornings with the tasting group. “It is,” he says, “an incredible opportunity to join these elders, with accumulated centuries of experience, judging 40 to 50 samples every day.”
     The price of Cognac basically depends on the provenance and age of the youngest spirits in the blends. Hennessy created a labeling system still in use in France, classifying his first Cognac as Three Star, a name later changed to VS, meaning very special, on the lowest tier of the Hennessy line. The top standard cognac is XO, meaning extra old. That flagship brand is composed of spirits aged for up to 30 years, as opposed to eight years for VS.
      In 1817, another tier came into being when George IV of England asked for a very superior, old and pale cognac, meaning one whose color was not helped by caramel or other agents, giving birth to the category known as VSOP.  Maurice Hennessy created the XO formula in 1870, assembling a special blend for a group of friends and relatives. The price of being a friend today is about $200 a bottle.
     It is a tradition at Hennessy to celebrate events and anniversaries with distinctive bottlings, including the eponymously named Richard Hennessy. Early in its inception, the firm had developed a strong following in Russia, whose Empress Catherine the Great in 1818 placed a special order to mark the birthday of her son, who became Czar Alexander I. 
     Just a few years ago, Yann Fillioux conjured up that original formula , replicating it as Paradis Imperial, and it was opened publicly for the first time at lavish ceremonies in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. That blend contains reserves that have slept for as long as 130 years in the oldest of the Maison’s storage areas, the Founders Cellar. If any can be found, Paradis commands a price in the neighborhood of $450. 
     Yann Fillioux burrowed into those treasured reserves once again this year to formulate the 250 Collector Blend, commemorating the firm’s 250th anniversary. This most recent innovation is described as the crowning achievement of his 50 years at the Maison, and Renaud di Gironde was dispatched to New York to spearhead a lengthy promotion campaign.   The Hennessy legacy extends to five continents and Fillioux’s New York tasting was the opening salvo for a series of events to be held around the world. Hennessy advertises this international venture as a hybrid cultural event that will showcase the history of the house and future of the brand. Buyers and Cognac devotees in key markets will be exposed to work by contemporary artists, and iconic posters, advertisements and documents from the Hennessy library as well as musical events ranging from classical to rock and hip hop. “We have made a limited amount of this anniversary blend and much is already spoken for, so a little has to go a long way, ” di Gironde commented as he poured minuscule samples for a small group of journalists recently. He did not offer seconds.          
    About that Cognac, fire up the superlatives. It is richly aromatic with tones of bitter orange, nutmeg and saffron; velvety, plush, elegant, refined, complex, powerful, memorable, an costly. Hennessy produced 250 barrelsful, each barrel holding 250 liters; that's the equivalent off about 7,000 cases.  China, a favorite market whose devotees squirrel away expensive Cognac, is on austerity;  Russian oligarchs, also Cognac devotees, have seemingly curtailed their lavish entertainments in fear of incurring Putin’s petulance, and the high rolling rock stars who swigged Champagne and Cognac freely in past years now also appear less prone to excess.   
     Even so, there is demand for a posh spirit like the 250 Collector Blend (right). Hennessy expects those 7,000 cases to sell out in one year. At an initial tag of $600 per bottle, they will doubtless become treasures to be opened on the most special of occasions, or locked away in dark corners by collectors and speculators, possibly to emerge eventually as a rarity at an even greater price.