A seven-course meal is an event. A stage show. A symphony. Seven courses allows the chef to demonstrate the breadth of his talents, lets the diners use the full range of their senses. It is an exercise in gluttony, yes, but also artistry and social interaction, because what is a meal if not a communal experience? And if you throw in wine, it’s a lot more fun. Last week I took a companion out for just such an experience: seven luxurious courses at downtown Greensboro’s 223 South Elm paired with selections from the Kendall-Jackson collection.
Most of the ingredients for the feast, Chef Jason Jones assured me, were flown in overnight from Seattle, hand-picked at Pike Place Fish Market by a guy named Mike — a promising detail. As for the wines….
Kendall-Jackson, a company with Sonoma roots, is a favorite whipping boy of wine snobs and up-selling, eye rolling waiters for years and years. The reason is probably K-J Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay, which is produced on a huge scale, is widely available in most supermarkets and, due to its notes of fruit, buttery texture and slight hint of oak, has created a fan base among suburban soccer moms. But opening comments by Kim Wallace, a wine educator for Majestic Fine Wines, revealed a heritage behind Kendall-Jackson of which I was previously unaware — for instance, I did not know that Jackson Family Estates, which is the parent company, owns vineyards in Spain, Italy,
France, New Zealand and Australia; that it grows much of its own grapes, overseeing the process from the very first step; that it is the only American company with access to French oak, key for aging.
That’s the secret behind the first wine, a 2006 Freemark Abbey Estate Viognier, from the Rutherford region of California’s Napa Valley. It’s matched with a pair of oyster shooters: a Kumomoto oyster in a parfait with whipped cream flavored by tomato and ginger and roasted peppers, and a Quilcene yearling oyster swimming in truffled mignonette.
It was as good a way to start as any. A second course featured a crab cake, crumbling with Dungeness, over sweet corn and a single fried okra, doused with sun-dried tomato aioli. Its match was the 2006 Hartford Court Stone Cte Chardonnay, from the Sonoma coast.
Its butteriness blended seamlessly with the sweet corn and crab, and a subtle oak finish capped off the flavors nicely.
At this point, my dinner companion leaned over to me. “The thing about a seven-course meal,” she said, “is that by the end of the second course you’ve already eaten like a whole regular meal.”
Nonsense. Still, if you’re trying to take down seven courses, your appetite had best have an extra gear. The third course carried on the Italian theme with threads of Asian and French influence: tuna tartare, prepared Caprese style with olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and firm, house-made mozzarella. This was paired with a pinot noir, the 2005 Hartford Court Land’s Edge. Such daring! Pairing a fish course with a red wine! But come on… everybody’s doing it. And pinot noirs in particular are versatile enough that they can be paired with anything.
But a shiraz with shellfish? Positively shocking! Seriously, though, the taboo relationship between reds and seafood was lifted years ago. I promise. And that 2006 Yangarra Estate, from the McLaren Vale, melded beautifully with a
razor-clam risotto redolent of parmesan and black truffles. By the
fifth course, seven-course adventurists might start to feel flushed
with rich food and supple wine. By now you’ve been at it for an hour or
more, and you might feel like you’ve had enough. Trust me: You haven’t.
Courses one through four showcase the light and fanciful dishes in the
chef’s repertoire. By the sixth course, he’s getting down to serious
business.
For the fifth and sixth courses, Jones unveils the
most cherished of fruits from the Pacific Northwest: wild salmon. One
example posits troll-caught king salmon, poached with saffron and mint,
served atop a stew of local sweet potatoes and cinnamon, with essences
of honey and lavender. With this came one of Kendall- Jackson’s most
surprising wines: a 2004 Arceno Prima Voce, a super Tuscan nurtured
from grape to bottle by Jackson Estates.
The next selection, a
piece of roasted Coho salmon, showed simply under a buerre rouge and a
quadrangle of Manila clams, which were tiny, succulent and powerful in
flavor. Paired with a nice, big red — a 2004 Stonestreet Legacy,
straight from the slopes of Alexander Mountain — the piscine flavors of
the clams and fish were tamed into submission. And then there’s
dessert. And you eat it because, at this point, what’s the damn
difference. And you could use a little something sweet to finish off
your palate. This night’s final course was a superior flan, firm and
with a caramel sauce thick enough to maintain a significant layer over
the custard. Walnut sprinkles provided flavor and texture, and the
wine, a 2006 late-harvest chardonnay, proved a nectar that could put
the flavors in context.
At this point in the seven-course
experience, you can count yourself fully sated. You have tasted new
things and learned something about food. You have likely met a few nice
folks — my companion and I were favored with the company of a young
dentist, his even-younger wife and a couple who work with dogs — and
there’s nothing left to do but applaud the chef, wash your hands and
move slowly towards the door.
To comment on this story e-mail Brian Clarey at editor@yesweekly.com
223 South Elm 223 S. Elm St. Greensboro 336.272.3331
