Our Courageous Cooks (. . . and why you pay the big bucks at Manresa Restaurant)

David Kinch clearly states at the beginning of his beautiful cookbook, Manresa, an Edible 
Reflection, that this is a cookbook for professional kitchens.   When I spoke with him, he said
to use our common sense to adapt the recipes to our home kitchens.   If you ever eat at
Manresa, make it point to ask your server if you can see his kitchen.  The centerpiece of
David’s kitchen is his $250,000 stove.  There are no individual burners on his stove top…
it is a continuous piece of thick metal that has different temperatures that are constant,
but in different spots on the surface.   Final prep is often done with tweezers.  Clearly this
does not look like our kitchens!

However, our club members are an intrepid group of gourmet cooks who forged ahead and tried
over 12 recipes from his book.   Many of the efforts either took ingredients that are not normally
found in everyday kitchens or used equipment we didn’t already have in our kitchens.  Some
of the ingredients were more like chemical ingredients, like ascorbic acid, carrageenan,
xanthum gum, etc. and the equipment ranged from a madeleine pan or egg topper to an
expensive sous vide.

 We started our dinner with Parmesan Churros while
drinking two Michel Arnould NV Champagnes; La Grand 
Cuvee and Rosé from France.  These delicate churros
were creamy AND crispy and the perfect appetizer while
waiting for everyone to arrive.  Willie served these as
they do at catered affairs, on a tray that he passed
around.  It was hard to resist taking several but we all
knew that we had a huge dinner ahead so we restrained
ourselves from eating too many (AND, finished the tray!)

While in the living room, we were served Red Pepper Pâte de Fruit and Black Olive Madeleines, two of my favorite Manresa amuse bouches.   Michelle said that she burned the first batch of sugar and the recipe says not to overcook the pâte so they weren’t as “set” as they are at the restaurant.  They tasted lovely, both savory and sweet as were the black olive madeleines.  She purchased the madeleine form pans especially for this dinner and because they were so delicious, I may buy a pan as well.  Michelle had followed the instructions but the resulting madeleines were undercooked so she made a second batch that was baked longer.   These were light, soft and crispy around the edges, perfection!   Many of us 
had problems with the cooking times and found that our ovens were not equal 
to a restaurant oven and needed longer oven times.  With these delicacies, 
we were treated to a Charles Oban NV Blanc de Noirs that was crisp and was a nice contrast
to the two sweet and savory dishes.

We then sat down to a table set with tons of silver and glistening crystal to enjoy a small dish of Strawberry Gazpacho that Sandy prepared for us.  She added a
bit of sugar to the strawberries since they are not in
season right now.  The soup was like a tomato
gazpacho complete with minced celery, cucumber,
garlic bathed in a strained puree of strawberry juice.   
Everyone loved the surprise of the first bite of not
tomatoes, as expected, but strawberries!  Bill
selected Peju 2010 Chardonnay Estate Bottled 
from Napa Valley to go with this soup.  This
chardonnay was apple-y rather than creamy and
as a result, perfect for this acidic dish.

I did not choose to have a wine to go with the next dish.   It’s Bill’s favorite amuse bouche from Manresa.  (They have a note next to his name in their files to make sure he gets one whenever we eat there.) I prepared it for Bill and because it’s a signature dish at Manresa.  The Arpége Farm Egg.   A topped egg shell that is divinely layered bites of a lightly coddled egg yolk, flavored with a touch of ginger, maldón salt, chopped chives, then topped with a sherry vinegar-ed heavy cream and then several drops of maple syrup.  This is definitely an OMG dish when you take your demitasse spoon and dip it to the bottom of the egg then bring it up through the layers into your mouth.   I’ve gotten better at topping the egg shell to get a smooth cut but you can see from the photo, it is a far cry from the perfect egg at the restaurant!

Our next dish is actually a course at Manresa so we
made it a course for our dinner.  Bread and Butter.  
Bread and butter, you ask???  Aha! Yes, but not any
bread and certainly not any butter.   Since we didn’t
get any Manresa made bread, Annie drove up to San
Francisco to buy bread from Tartine Bakery, another
delicious chewy and crusty bread maker.   Annie
made the salted butter for this course as they do at the restaurant.  Manresa has their own special cows that
make their butter but  Annie used Clover heavy cream
and cultured it for several days to make hers.   Remember the days when the milkman
brought milk and cream to you?  The milk had a cream top in the glass bottle and butter
had that rich creamy flavor.  I suspect that the milk at Manresa is not homogenized or
his cows give especially rich milk because the butter is very yellow and has a cultured
flavor.  I have to give it a try. . .someday. Even though this was “just” bread and butter,
Jeffrey served his 2005 Mount Eden Vineyard estate Chardonnay with it.  It was creamy
and rich, like the bread and butter.  Thank you Jeffrey, for sharing your special wines with
our group.  We are so lucky to have a winemaker of your caliber in our cookbook club…not
to mention your culinary skills! 

Sharon spent 2 full days making the Garden Velouté with mustard cream.  The soup was absolutely divine!   Sharon spent days making the vegetable stock and the vegetable purée that is poured into the bowl at the very last minute.   The recipe gave the cook the option to prepare various purées but Sharon decided to make ALL of them so we were allowed to select the dollop(s) we wanted to add to our bowl.  She made beet, carrot, eggplant, turnip, and nasturtium purees.  So, in truth everyone’s bowl of velouté tasted a bit differently.  She added a few leaves of herbs, pansies to our bowl to turn it into a beautiful culinary painting.  We all added the mustard cream that blossomed in the bowl once the vegetable stock was added.  This was
the dish that I just loved but I am not sure I’d go to all the work that Sharon described to make
this dish.  Willie’s photograph shows the soup before the veloute is poured over the purees
to show that it truly was a work of art.  I asked bill to select one of his J. Rochioli’s to go
with this soup, a 2008 Chardonnay from South River Vineyard Russian River Valley but
after tasting the velouté, Michelle and I thought a Sauvignon Blanc would have been a
better choice.  So, of course, David, dips into his wine cellar to come up with a wonderful
White Bordeaux, 2005, Domaine Chevalier that was indeed a better choice for this soup.

Bill poured a Sauternes to complement our next course.  
He and I always drink sauternes with foie gras and this
evening was no exception.  Sandi made the Fois Gras 
and Cumin Caramel which is like a very rich and
savory flan made with a foie gras torchon and bathed
in a cumin caramel sauce.  If you like foie gras, you’ll
love this dish as much as we all did.   Every dish that
came out of David and Michelle’s kitchen was better
than the last dish and each one had its own distinct
signature taste, texture and umami.   I sipped some
Chateau Nairac 2001 Sauternes from Barsac, France with each bite.  Heaven!   Sandi
had the same issue that others had in terms of cooking time and found that it needed
more time than the recipe called for.  The smell of burnt sugar (in this case, for the 
caramel and also for Michelle's amuse bouche) seemed to also pervade a few of our
kitchens for this dinner!  As a result, preparations took longer than expected.  And, with
this dish, the foie gras is so expensive that it’s not a dish that one would prepare twice.
It’s a good thing that Sandi is such an accomplished gourmet cook!

Speaking of expense. . . this meal at the restaurant is similar to the $185 Chef’s Tasting Menu (before wine, tax and tip) and we now know why it costs so much to dine at Manresa.   It’s a good thing that the dishes were split among ten of us to prepare.   I would venture a guess that all together, we spent easily $1200+ in groceries, meats, spices, equipment, etc. and another $1500+ in wines and who knows how many hours of labor!!  We all made mistakes and it’s only our extensive culinary experiences that allowed for any error to be compensated well enough to create a dish that was more than palatable, but absolutely delicious.   

Annie made the Shrimp, Salted Butter and Apple Brandy for our next course.  She found live shrimp at the Chinese market, Marina Foods, on Stevens Creek Blvd in Cupertino AND drove all the way to Santa Cruz to buy the Osocalis Apple Brandy that Kinch recommends in his cookbook.  All of her efforts, despite her protestations that she chose an easy dish to prepare, were rewarded with an absolutely delicious dish.  The shrimp was tender, filled with flavors of her home-churned butter and the apple brandy.   Every bite was to die for!!  Because of the richness of this dish, Bill selected an Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg 2005 Riesling Spätlese from the Mosel region of Germany.  Another perfect pairing, the sweetness and acidity of the Spätlese provided a nice foil to the shrimp.  Thank you Bill!

Our next course was prepared by Jeffrey, who, because he is such a good friend of Kinch, was able to get his abalone for his dish, Abalone with pig’s feet, avocado, sans milk skin, from the restaurant.   Jeffrey also spent two days preparing his dish, braising the pig’s feet component of the recipe.  He tried several times to get the milk skin for the last part of the presentation but could never get the skin to congeal enough for him to lift it out of the pan in one sheet.  It must be a magical process.  There was much discussion about this part of the recipe and how a thicker skin could be developed, ranging from non-homogenized milk, to letting it sit longer for the top skin to form and adding cream to the milk to create a thicker top.   I don’t know, however, if anyone will test this out to find out the secret.  Maybe Kinch will give us some help!  It was delicious without the milk skin.  The pieces of pig’s feet were very flavorful and the abalone was tender, and a rare treat for us!  The green of the puréed avocado and sour cream added a bright touch to this very rich dish.   Bill poured two wines with this dish: Chateau Latour 1983 from the Pauillac region of Bordeaux, France and a Dominus 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napanook Vineyard.  Both wines were rich and still had a bit of tannins that countered the rich pigs feet and sauces and abalone.

Our second main course was Spring Lamb and Cucumber, Blueberries with juniper and olives  prepared by David.  He had to cook the lamb longer than the recipe instructed but it offered us a respite from eating and a chance for more lively discussions, mostly focused on culinary subjects.   While waiting we sipped some Chateau Fleur Cardinale, 2007, from Saint Emilion, France and a Mount Eden Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 1994, Estate Santa Cruz Mountains.   David challenged us to guess which decanted wine was from which winery.  I’d say that half of us got it correctly.  Many favored the Mount Eden Vineyard wine and both went very well with the lamb and blueberries.  The juniper and olive dish reminded me of the “dirt” in Kinch’s “into the Garden” dish that he prepares but this one was not made out of chicory but was perfumed with the juniper berries and very earthy because of the olives.   Annie couldn’t stop raving about this combination.  It was a wonderful dish that we could copy IF we have the time to prepare the sauces and reductions for it.

The Candy Cap Ice Cream dessert that Michelle made was another surprise to our palates.  Candy Cap Mushrooms grow in California and have a very earthy sweet flavor, similar to maple syrup.  It was the mushroom and maple syrup flavors that was a great combination!!  This ice cream has no eggs but was creamy and rich as any ice cream I’ve ever tasted.   She found dried candy cap mushrooms at her local farmer’s market in Menlo Park.  This vendor also has a shop in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.   She had also ordered some online so she ended up with an ample supple to make this ice cream.   Bill chose a Madeira Wine NV Malmsey from the Funchal Wine Company in Madeira, Portugal for this dessert.  Once again a perfect pairing with the nuttiness of the Madeira to go with the flavors of the maple syrupy mushrooms.

I decided to also make the Sea Salt and Vanilla Caramels, individually wrapped for everyone
to grab a handful on their way out the door, as they do at the restaurant.  The caramels were
easy to make but, oh, my goodness! it took forever to cut the cellophane into rectangles and
then wrap the candy.  Whoever does them at the restaurant must have carpel tunnel by now!
Each recipe creates over 350 pieces so multiply that by having to do it every day or so for
their customers.  Oh my!

This was another 6-hour gourmet feast for us and every course was distinct and delicious.
Thank you everyone for making this dinner such a great success.  And thank you David
Kinch for sharing your exquisite recipes with us.

Our next dinner is Saturday, June 7 and hosted by Janis and Bill who will have returned
from their Australian home.  She hasn’t selected the cookbook yet so stay tuned.  Until then,

Cook on!