It Is The Small Things

What gets both fine dining restaurants their Michelin stars and make a supper club hosts a success? It is the small things. To get a Michelin star (or 3) has become the holy grail for chefs. As a host of a supper club dinner party, you certainly don’t need to obsess over details the way chefs at a 3 star restaurant would, but you can certainly learn a lesson or two.

One of the major revelations after touring wonderful restaurants in Europe is how well they do the small things. Plating can be a work of art. The minute details are designed and arranged to please the eye. It is a fact that we all eat with our eyes. The better chefs know how to leverage this fact.

The tricks developed to dress a plate at a restaurant with stars in the Michelin Guide were impressive. The chef used micro-planed tender young zucchini to dress the plate. He/She seared cheese into lace like heart shapes. Sauces were painted on the plate to add flavor and presentation impact. Pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the presentation. One can almost feel guilty eating.

(Note the Micro – planed zucchini, truffle shavings and lemon zest)

(Note the seared cheese in heart shapes)

The level of service is also impeccable. Chances are that you won’t have just one waiter, but rather a team of highly trained professionals making your meal most enjoyable. Their will be a maître d’, a waiter, a sommelier, a water/silverware guy and a server. All of them are very knowledgeable and well trained. The attention to detail is amazing.

We ate at Alain Ducasse’s La Bastide de Moustiers. Ducasse has restaurants around the globe and has amassed an amazing 21 Michelin stars. He has stated that his goal at La Bastide de Moustiers is not Michelin stars, but rather to serve the food he likes in a relaxed atmosphere. We were served imaginative food, by friendly people in a relaxed atmosphere. What more could one ask for?

(How could you not enjoy a meal in this type of setting)

Inevitably, one thing that is not small at restaurants with Michelin stars is the bill. Here is where supper clubs kick in. Learn the small things that made your meal at the restaurant with Michelin stars special and apply them to your next dinner party.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Rosé All Day – But Maybe Not

French wines are complex, and that is a good thing. Picking wines for your supper club dinner party can be a crucial element of preparation. We grew up on California wines that are relatively simple. You have red and white, then 5 or 6 types of grapes and voila! The choice is simple.

Picking a French wine is more complex in that you should know about the Appellation, Chateau, terroir…Then you have to consider what foods you will be pairing your wine with. American’s, we talk about food pairings in generalities (e.g. red with beef, white with chicken). French talk about wine food parings like it is religion. I once ordered a white wine with duck in Paris and the waiter reacted as if I had insulted his mother. Better yet, listened to a group of Frenchmen argue on a train between London and Paris for 30 minutes about the best mushroom to serve avec poulet. Mon Dieu!

Picking a French wine, to me, is about the experience. We recently had lunch at La Bastide de Moustiers, an Alain Ducasse restaurant in the hills of Provence. After an hour and half ride through the lavender fields on the way from Aix, a sparkling wine was perfect to start. With our venison for lunch we had a delicious vin rouge from Chateau Vignelaure. I had always associated Provence with Rosé, but there are a multitude of great wines: blancs, rouges and rosés from the region. Late that same night in Nice we had wonderful Rosé as we people watched along the Promenade Les Anglais. It was a day of a multitude of experiences and wines. The wines from our trip will always be special for us as they will connect us back to the wonderful experiences we had.

(Wine Tour Chateaus)

I did get in trouble at a vineyard in Aix. Our guide Stephan was telling us about the horrible wine blight in Europe in the mid 19^thcentury. Somehow the grape phylloxera bug from America was introduced into France and much of Europe with a devastating impact on the wine industry. Genetic selection was used to overcome this horrible aphid. Vines from America with genes that were resistant to the bug were grafted to European vines and the grape crop was restored.

Here is where I got in trouble. I said: “So what you are telling me is that all French wines are GMO” (genetically modified organism). That’s when the fight began.

It reminded me of the old joke:

A wife sits down on the couch as her husband is flipping channels on the TV and she asks: “What is on TV?” And he responds: “Dust”
Then the fight began.

You might have thought I called the poor man’s mother a prostitute. He was offended and quite defensive. Of course, there are many arguments relative to GMO:

Against:

They harm the environment. “It is not nice to play with mother-nature as science is creating “super weeds” that can be dangerous.
GMO has decimated butterfly population in the US
By the time we find out the true impact it will be too late.
Links to cancer and allergies
Nothing tastes better than nature

For

Using GMO crops increases yields and help feed the world at lower cost
Stronger crops mean less pesticide is needed
Biotechnology can be used to make crops healthier, increase antioxidants and less fat and more flavor
Genetic modification and selection has been going on for centuries (e.g. grapes resistant to phylloxera

The irony is that I had spent many years selling American agriculturally based products into Europe. A guaranteed way to end any business meeting was to mention GMO. That’s when the fight would begin…

At the end of the day, science hasn’t made French wines great. The experience you have while enjoying them has. The fun is to try many wines. Find out what you like and share them with your supper club friends.

Rental Car Karma

The rental car experience in Europe is traumatic for most Americans and it is getting worse. Frequent travellers say that the best moment of your trip is when you drop off your rental car.

There are many challenges involved with renting a car and one should never laugh at another’s tragic experience as karma can be a bitch. Some of the most common challenges include:

Automatic transmissions are hard to find. Americans of a certain age grew up with a stick shift, but, it has been years since we drove with one. It is true that it is like riding a bike, you never forget, but our memories get fuzzy with age.
American young professionals are invading Europe en masse and they don’t have a clue when it comes to standard transmission. Sometimes the only automatic transmission is available in a large van, and this leads to an array of other challenges.
Roads in much of Europe were designed for Roman chariots. Needless to say, you are in trouble with an American sized car, or worse yet, that oversized van with automatic transmission.
The rules of the road are different. Speed on the autobahn and country road is governed by the size of the engine and drivers ego. The true rule is: “Neither a hitter or hittee be”.
Road signs are not in English and are just different. In the US signs will indicate direction, for example, east or west. In Europe, you have to know that Nice is towards the east and Arles is towards the west. Comprehension is a real challenge when stressed and confused behind the wheel. Your partner yelling inevitably incorrect instructions adds to trauma.
Apple Maps has made driving much easier. Using “the bitch in the box” will save your marriage. If you make a wrong turn at least you have someone else to blame. Being rerouted after a mistake is a godsend.
Parking is not just a challenge, it can be impossible. A European friend once told me: “In America you have two parking spaces for every car. In Europe we have two cars for every space.” If you find one, good luck resurrecting your parallel parking skills. If you got that oversized van, you are screwed.

Here is the story where the karma kicks in. We spent a day touring vineyards with three delightful young American ladies celebrating their 30th birthdays on a trip to Europe. They told us a hysterical rental car story. They rented the car and were handed the keys sans instructions. After loading the car, adjusting the seats and mirrors, they couldn’t get the car started. After 30 minutes, after Google and manual searches, still no luck. Somehow then, the car miraculously and mysteriously started, but they didn’t know how.

(The birthday girls)

The the girls drove to Aix where they found the address of their Airbnb, but where to park? They found a spot right in the middle of the road in front of a large stanchion. They thought it was perfect and neatly unloaded their car and walked their bags up to the apartment. Then the panic began. The stanchion was of the retractable variety and they had blocked the road. Their car was now surrounded by a dozen enraged screaming drivers. The birthday girl ran out with keys in hand to move the car, but alas she had no idea how to start it. Trying to explain to a screaming crowd of Frenchmen how she got there without knowing how to start the car got lost in translation. Finally, a calmer head prevailed and a handsome young man jumped to the rescue, started the car and relieved the traffic jam. More importantly a traumatized, crying birthday girl was relieved to enjoy the rest of her holiday.

(Susan showing one of the retractable stanchions that caused the girls difficulty)

Here is where the karma kicked in. We shouldn’t have laughed so hard. The next day we took off with our rental car. We had picked it up in Barcelona. Of course the automatic we ordered was not possible, but a stick shift should be like riding a bike. You never forget how…One caveat, bikes don’t go backwards. On day one, Susan had problems getting the car in reverse. The stick shifts we had driven were the type where you push down to get in reverse. In a parking lot of a rest area on day one, after 15 minutes of pushing and pulling she miraculously and mysteriously got the car in reverse. On day three, I am driving and the bitch in the box sends me down the wrong street. No problem, I think I can make a quick U turn. One problem, halfway through the turn, with both directions of the street blocked, I cannot get the car in reverse. Soon we have a traffic jam. I pressed and curse and still no reverse. One of the drivers blocked by us, went across the street and got a mechanic. He knew that you had to pull up on a toggle to get into reverse. Karma is a bitch.

(Susan and I with our rental car)

With all the challenges, the following ride through the lavender fields and mountains to La Bastide de Moustiers, then back down the mountains to Nice was a highlight of the trip. All made possible by the rental car. There is that old saying: You have to suffer if you want to sing the blues.

While this ramble is slightly off topic from supper clubs, I think it is hysterical. To my readers in Europe, have pity and patience with the American drivers invading your homelands. To my American readership, practice your stick shift driving skills before heading to Europe. And, no matter where you are or where you travel, remember, karma is a bitch.