Celebrating this week
The Cuisine of the Jura & the Alpes
First Courses “Les Gaudes” au Girolles - A delicious and different Soup of Toasted Polenta with fresh local Chanterelles
-or- Croûte "Jurasienne" with a Butter Lettuce Salad. Our local Carpinteria lettuce, of course, with Sly's bread, moistened with wine, and melted over with Morbier cheese.
-or- La Soufflé Suissesse - an ethereal Gruyère soufflé in cream
Main Courses
Escalope de Veau Jurassienne - Thin veal scallopine with ham, mushrooms & Bleu de Gex, a creamy cows milk blue cheese from the Jura - with polenta, and green beans.
-or- Truite au Vin Jaune -trout filet poached in the sherry-style wine of the Jura - with polenta, and green beans.
-or- A Chicken Poteé Comptoise with Smoked Saucisse de Montbeliard - an aromatic boiled dinner with cabbage, celery root, carrots, onions, green beans, potatoes, our homemade smoked sausage and chicken breast. It's as delicious as it sounds complicated!
Desserts
Vacherin Glacé with Raspberries - frozen meringue, vanilla ice cream, Farmers' Market Raspberries
-or- Clafoutis of Sour Cherries à la mode - warm custard tart with sour cherries, vanilla ice cream-
or- Mousse au Chocolat - bittersweet mousse of Santa Barbara Chocolate Company chocolate with a hint of cognac.
Fromage de Morbier - traditional cheese of the Jura, cows milk, semi soft, made from the morning milking and evening milkings, separated by a layer of vegetable ash. With walnuts and toasted Sly's bread.
From C'est Cheese, where the knowledgeable gourmet shops for cheese (and much more) in Santa Barbara, and Michael, Katherine, and staff provide exceptional service, and a damn good grilled cheese sandwich, too.
As always the menu, with one choice from each course, is $35. per person, plus tip and tax. For only $55. per person we include two glasses of French wine - a great value. Mention this blog, and we'll add a third glass of wine for the same price.
Next Menu: The French Cuisine of Michael’s Waterside, one of the restaurants that put Santa Barbara on the culinary map.
This is an exciting one for us, for a couple of reasons. For one, Michael Hutchings is a great friend, and Annie and I always enjoyed going to the Waterside for a terrific dinner. So, we get a chance to include some things that are our favorites - just try to keep Annie away from Michael's incredible "a la minute" caramelized apple tart tatin with puff pastry.
Another reason we think that this menu will be a hit is that Michael's Waterside, located down on the Andree Clark bird refuge, was an important restaurant in Santa Barbara's history. In partnership with Albert Roux of the Gavroche in London, this is one of the first branches of a 3 starred chef alighting in America. Things were different thirty years ago, and Michael was one of the people instrumental in their changing for the better.
Who took Julia Child out to show here how to hunt Chanterelles? Why, Chef Michael Hutchings, of course. One of the first chefs involved in the American Institute of Wine and Food, Chef Michael currently runs a high end catering company in Santa Barbara, blogs regularly at Cooking on the American Riviera and has a great web page here
