Friday Night – Thanks Mom!

For Christmas of 2011, my mom bought Kathy and I a Groupon deal that entailed a professional Chef coming to the house and cooking a dinner for 4.  We kind of procrastinated on setting this up and didn’t get around to booking it until late August.  Between our schedules and Chef Jonathan’s, we ended up booking for Friday Jan. 11th 2013 as our date.

 

This past Friday was the date and we got together with Mick and Amy and Chef Jonathan came by to make us dinner. 

The first course was a wide range of foods, flavours and sauces so we decided to crack two different wines to accompany them.  The two bottles were a Roederer Champagne and a 2011 Darting Kabinett Gewurztraminer.

Here was the first course – Caesar bites wrapped in Proscuitto, Endive  topped with cream cheese, cranberry and pecans, beef skewers and rice paper wrapped vegetable medley.  They were served with a peanut sauce, a spicy mango sauce, spicy jerk sauce with mayo and very hot sauce which I don’t recall the exact name of.  As you can see, this is a very wide range of different tastes and I was concerned how the wines would pair.

 

We have reviewed the Roederer before so I won’t go into it again here but we did review the Darting.

 

The nose on the Darting was an interesting mix lavender, floral soap and lychee.  Tasting the wine, you’ll  find mango and pear flavours that run the length of the wine.  There was a slight oiliness to the wine but the fresh acidity did a nice job of cutting through it as well as the off-dry sweetness of the wine.  It was ok on its own but really shined with the food.  It was an exceptional pairing with the endive with cream cheese, cranberry and pecans and very good with any foods that were dipped in the spicy mango sauce.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 89, Mark - 90, Kathy – 90, Amy – 89, Overall – 89.5

Here  is the LCBO information on the wine -

DARTING DÜRKHEIMER NONNENGARTEN GEWÜRZTRAMINER KABINETT 2011
VINTAGES 944181
750 mL bottle
Price $ 16.95
Made in: Pfalz, Germany
By: Kurt Muller Weinexport
Release Date: Aug 4, 2012
Wine, White Wine
12.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Gewurztraminer
Sugar Content: 57 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: M - Medium

Tasting Note  -  Medium straw-gold colour with a youthful green tinge. Rich nose, featuring grapefruit, mineral, peach, melon, rosewater and spice cupboard. Medium in sweetness with excellent aroma replays on the palate. Textured and very flavourful, with an exotic spice that lingers on the medium-full bodied, fruit-packed finish. A great choice for spicy barbecued chicken or chicken vindaloo. (VINTAGES panel, June 2012).

Both wines worked really well with the starters, the Roederer I liked more with most items but anything that had a slight sweetness to it, the Darting was the better pairing.  As to the food itself, it was very good.  I really enjoyed how the four different sauces really change the experience of each of the foods.

The second course was Wedding Salad which was cucumber, celery root and apple and grilled shrimp.  I wasn’t overly excited about this dish when I read about it on the menu beforehand but really enjoy it.  It was a very lovely combination of flavours and the dish presented very well.  The Darting was a nice pairing with this salad and the Roederer wasn’t far behind either.

The main course we had our choice of four different dishes and pre-ordered the Beef Two Ways.  This dish was Beef Tenderloin and Braised Beef Short Ribs with potatoes, zucchini, beans and goat cheese.  I paired this with a 2004 Altair Red from Chile (Bordeaux-style blend).  We have reviewed this wonderful wine before so I won’t go into too much detail.  The wine was a good pairing with the Beef dish but we all thought a more fruit forward Californian Cabernet Sauvignon would have been a better pairing.  The Beef Short Ribs were simply mind-blowing; I usually lean towards Beef Tenderloin as my favourite beef dish/cut but I would have happily traded my Tenderloin for more Short Ribs as they were very tend and so flavourful.  That last statement was in no way a knock on the Tenderloin as it was very good too.  The goat cheese in with the vegetables was a lovely contrast to the beef and will be something I will keep in mind when doing vegetables in the future for my own cooking.

The final dish of the evening was Pot of Chocolate which was a very rich and sinful chocolate based dessert.  I could only manage a couple of bites of the dessert at this point as I was stuffed to the gills as the food portions were very generous; though my lovely wife didn’t have any problem finishing her dessert off and the rest of mine too!

 

I wasn’t sure how having a Chef come to the house would work as I didn’t know how I’d feel about someone taking over my kitchen, what the food would be like, etc.  After experiencing it, I’m happy to report it was a great time; Jonathan was professional and a font of knowledge which he was kind enough to share with us.  It was obvious that he had been doing for a long time and Mick and myself were in awe of the depth of his knowledge and experience.   My kitchen sparkling clean at the end of the night as well.

 

We discussed pricing with him, which I won’t cover here as that can be his prerogative to discuss with interested parties, but the rates were very reasonable.  I certainly have spent more going out for a nice dinner, especially when you add in cab fare to and from and restaurant prices on wines, Chef Jono prices really shine. 

 

It was an extremely fun evening; I would love to do this again in the future and highly recommend this service to any of my loyal readers.  I will update my Internet links on the right so there is a link there for Chef Jono’s website.

 

Cheers!

 

Mark