September 24, 2007
The Week of Eating Dangerously: The Cooks, The Vodka, The Blueblood & The House
The scene: Several dozen foodies and friends in biz casual eagerly awaiting a vodka pairing dinner prepared by Beverly Hills chef Larry Nicola and pastry chef Ariel Fox of Nic's Beverly Hills and featuring Modern Spirits vodka.
The luminaries:
• Chef Nicola's mom, Leerese, and her childhood friend Eleanor, a retired antiques dealer.
• Gary Cheong, booker for the James Beard House, former Wall Street trader. Spends most of his time these days eating and finding rising star chefs.
• Jan-Roman Potocki, founder of Potocki Vodka. The first time I heard about this brand, I thought Potocki was a fiction along the lines of Bartles & Jaymes. But no. Turns out the tale of this aristocratic Polish family, like the man himself (on the right in this photo), is for real.
• Jeffrey Lindenmuth, wine specialist and self-proclaimed "most widely published wine and spirits writer residing in Allentown, Pennsylvania." Jeffrey dropped a hint that Rodale publishing is launching a new title, Men's Health Living, toward the end of this year. Watch for a November or December issue and his article on winter cocktails.
The afterparty: About a dozen of us, including the chefs and the vodka makers, went out to the Midtown West wine and cheese restaurant Casellula afterward, where we were plied with more wine and food. The party went on 'til the first light of rush hour the next morning.
The Menu
Starters (served in the brick courtyard behind the house under large trees and winking stars)
• Vodka-cured Scottish salmon with caper-dill aioli on pumpernickel crostini
• Cumin-crusted black pheasant in shiso leaf
• Chickpea fritters with Maytag blue cheese and microgreens
Paired with the Monrovia cocktail: grapefruit honey vodka with lychee and basil. Very easy to get tipsy on this one, which would be bad because the rest of the dinner was served indoors on the third floor....
First
Tuna belly, guahillo chilies, grapefruit and mizuna verrine
Drink: Candied ginger vodka
Then
Organic gazpacho martini with peekytoe crab and lemongrass soda, essentially a deconstructed Bloody Mary
Drink: Celery peppercorn vodka
After
Dandelion greens (very tough, kind of bitter) with burrata (described to me as the soft and creamy heart of an uncured ball of mozzarella — it was fantastic), pistachios, Asian pears, oranges and apricot vinaigrette.
Drink: Pear lavender vodka
More
Organic lamb T-bone au poivre with Leerese's homemade yogurt. A dish that was both Middle Eastern and American at the same time. The lamb looked and tasted a lot like a lean, baseball-cut steak with a gamey flavor at the end. Egad, that sounds like it was written by a wine snob....
Drink: "Au Jus" savory cocktail - black truffle vodka and demi-glace with roast sage leaf
Last
White chocolate semifreddo with blueberries (soaked in vodka) and cassis glaze
Drink: Modern Mar-TEA-ni - Three tea vodka and chocolate orange vodka with chocolate shavings