The French Laundry.  Thomas Keller.  The man, the myth, the legend!

After first hearing about the man, his philosophy, and his amazing restaurant while I was in culinary school, it immediately went onto the 'must eat here before I die' list that I keep in my head.  When I found out we were going to be living in Monterey, CA for six months, I knew that if ever I was going to eat there, the time was NOW!

dressed and ready to go :)

After months of trying to get a reservation, one of my husbands classmates offered us one of his reservations (somehow both he and his wife managed to get a reservation at the exact same time on open table, which is about as likely as getting struck by lightning twice at the same time.  Seriously, they should have played the lottery that day)!!!

 We drove up to Napa, got all dressed up and made our way to The French Laundry. Our reservation was for 9pm so I couldn't get any cute pics of the famous blue door :(







But I did sneak a photo of the amazing kitchen crew, hard at work!

The restaurant is beautiful! The staff was everything you would expect- friendly, professional, courteous, etc. I thought about taking pictures of the inside of restaurant but decided to spare my husband since I was going to photograph all the dishes.  But let's get to the food!!!!

There were two nine course tastings available - the classic chefs tasting and a vegetable chefs tasting.  I thought about getting one of each so we could try more dishes but knew that I wouldn't want to share a single bite of mine, so we got the same tasting - the classic tasting.

Besides the scheduled nine courses, we were also presented with some delicious bread from Bouchon Bakery (another Thomas Keller property, just down the street) which was served with two different butters.  Next came a  couple of amuse bouches - a salmon cornet served in a cone, made to resemble an ice cream cone and a gruyere cheese gougeres.  Both of these were amazing and a perfect start to our dinner.

Here were our courses -

gruyere cheese gougeres

Salmon Tartare Cornet
It looks like an ice cream cone and tastes like heaven

Oysters and Pearls

I had read about this dish, seen the recipe and imagined it but nothing could really prepare me for how delicious this dish actually tastes! The flavors and textures are simply amazing.  This first course really prepares your heart and mind and tongue for all the fabulousness to come.

Mushroom a la Grecque

Seared Hawaiian Big Island Tuna
with mango-pineapple salsa

Butter Poached Lobster

The lobster was so sweet, buttery and delicious!

 

Quail Breast
Tender, moist and delicious

Lamb Saddle
Medjool Dates, Nantes Carrot, Sicilian Pistachios, Salsify and Cilantro

The cheese course
If I had to pick a least favorite course, it would be this one.  It wasn't bad it just wasn't as great as the others.

Blood orange mimosa

As a palate cleanser before desert we were served this lovely little dish - Champagne "Granité," Brown Sugar Streusel and Fresh Cream sherbet.

Happy, happy lady!

Chocolate torte

Served with cinnamon whip and banana ice cream.  

 "Coffee and Donuts"

French Laundry version of coffee and donuts is actually Cappuccino Semifredo with Cinnamon Sugar Donuts. and cocoa dusted hazel nuts.  Perfection!

Truffles

The truffles came after desert.  They were presented on the beautiful tray and you could choose as many as you wanted.  Of course I wanted them ALL but restrained myself and picked these two lovely bits of goodness! Not only were they delicious, they were beautiful.  They are hand painted.  Hand. Painted.   

At the very end, we were presented with some delicious shortbread cookies to take home in a nice little tin (which, of course, I kept). And the French Laundry clothes pin that was on the napkin when we were first seated.  Lovely little reminders of our wonderful dinner!

This meal was absolutely perfect!  While I will probably never have the pleasure to eat at French Laundry again, I will never, ever forget the experience.  This is by far the best meal I have ever eaten.  It was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so happy and blessed that I was able to do it.  Did I mention how very much I love my husband for this?

Merci St Tropez!

We went out to dinner in Carmel by the Sea last weekend.  We changed plans at the last minute and decided to visit a restaurant  called Le St Tropez.  I was a little worried since I am one of those freaks that researches restaurants and reads thousands of reviews before stepping foot in the door.  All I knew about this place was that it was French and close by.  Oh dear.

Luckily, it was wonderful.  I mean really, really wonderful.  We had our almost four year old daughter with us and we've heard that children are frowned upon at most nice restaurants in Carmel.  Not this place!  They not only had a kids menu but they chatted with my daughter and made us feel very welcome.  The kids menu was not the typical kids menu either.  It did have some of the junk you find on all kids menus across America - pizza, chicken nuggets, hamburgers- but it also had nice, French dishes.  We ordered her crepes with chicken, bacon, and mushrooms.  It came with some wonderful vegetables on the side and it was delicious! (Of course I sampled it, I had to be able to blog about it :) She ate almost the entire thing and it was not a small portion!  They offered to bring it out as soon as it could be prepared, rather than wait to bring it out with our entrees (another kid-friendly thing to do).

But let's talk about the rest of the dinner.  Oh. My. Goodness!  Seriously, almost every dish was out of this world delicious!  Anyone in the local area should definitely put this on your list of places to eat!





First there was the appetizer.  There were lots of good choices and after some deliberation we went with escargot with brioche served with pernod scented garlic butter. Freakin delicious!  I wanted to lick the plate to finish all the garlic butter but I controlled myself (barely).   We also had a delicious basket of bread that I did use to dip into the crack garlic butter.  Actually that may have been what saved me from licking the plate.















Next we each ordered a salad.  My hubby went with the salad that had watermelon and feta.  It was really good.  I had a deconstructed Caesar salad that was good but had waaaaay to much dressing on it.  LOOK at all the dressing on that salad!!!  Does anyone eat that much dressing???  Hubby made the better choice on the salad course.  Hubby 1, me 0.








Entree round totally went to me, but truly there were no losers this round.  I ordered the veal sweetbreads (in case you didn't know sweetbreads are a very nice word used to describe veal thymus gland, because who would order that off the menu??).  I had never had sweetbreads and I've been on the lookout for a nice place to order it to increase my culinary repertoire.  It was served with polenta and a mushroom cream sauce.  I'm telling you, I had no idea that thymus gland could taste so good!  I think I actually get 2 points for that round because it was so delicious and I was able to mark it off my 'to try' list of foods. Hubby 1, me 2!!!

Finally for dessert, we went with the soufflé for two - one traditional Grand Marnier (my hubby) and one chocolate (duh).  Mine was way better because you can almost never go wrong with chocolate.

So, I won, of course.  Not just because I ordered better dishes but because I was able to have a wonderful night out with my two favorite people in the world!

Wonderful dinner, great service, kid friendly.  We will go again before leaving California.  LOVED it!