valentine's day winemaker dinner with roomforty.
chef libry darusman creating art from food.
wanting to try something a little different for valentine's day this year, we bought tickets for roomforty's annual valentine's day winemaker dinner. when i received the following in my inbox, i was more than intrigued:
On the day dedicated to romance, there's nothing less romantic than long waits and uninspired pre-fixe menus. That's why for nine years running, we've made Valentine's Day a truly memorable night of festivity and culinary inspiration.
Join us at The Fig House for a six-course seasonally prepared meal by our executive chef Libry Darusman, paired up with Guillaume Fabre and Paso Robles winery Clos Soléne's exclusive Rhone-style wine from barrel to glass, offering five of their wines. Guillaume's highly allocated offerings sell out every year, so the opportunity to taste these wines is truly remarkable.
finishing touches.
the event started outside with various hors d'eouvres, one of which was being assembled live in a pollack-esque fashion by the executive chef. glasses of clos solene's rose were being poured. for dinner, we were seated at a round table with three other couples, and each course was introduced by roomforty founder, steve fortunato, and wine presented by guillaume. the staff wore hedley & bennett aprons and a whole table's course was carried out by two people on a long wooden plank. it was a really lovely, well designed affair, and the food did not disappoint!
roasted celery root sheet, smoked parmesan creme, buttermilk, pumpkin see cheese, broccolini.
chestnut pasta, smoked potato filling, brown butter, wild mushrooms.
the highlights of the meal for me were the pasta and the fish dishes. savory pillows of potato and chestnut with umami-rich mushrooms - really simple, but so flavorful. the stealhead trout was a much more complex dish, but all the different flavors and textures worked really well together.
local steelhead, forbidden rice salad, cabbage chip, charred eggplant, roe.
ribeye, squash, bordelaise, radish sprouts.
black garlic ice cream, mango and cilantro gel, sweet potato cake, frozen coconut foam.
it was definitely not your typical valentine's day dinner. the food and wine and atmosphere were great, and we had a good time. i definitely wouldn't have said the evening was particularly romantic for a couple going by themselves. i'm really excited to to try one of their pop-in dinners one of these days!
