Our French Laundry Extravaganza

As promised, here is my recap of our trip to the French Laundry in Yountville, CA during our mini-moon in May. My only regret (besides the lack of plentiful pictures I lamented in my last piece) is not asking our server for a copy of the night's menu, as a neighboring table did. Since the menu changes daily, the staff doesn't mind letting their guests take theirs away as a souvenir of one of the most expensive meals they've ever had...had I been woman enough to ask, I could've had a great reference piece to use for this story. As is, I will have to rely on my wine-fogged memories of the evening instead.


We decided to walk to dinner that night, since our hotel was literally across the street from the French Laundry. Just our luck, the slight misting in the air turned into a full-fledged torrent, and we entered the restaurant looking like two drowned foodie rats. First bonus point of the evening: we weren't made to feel like utter fools in our bedraggled state - the staff was all uber-courteous and pleasant right from the start, and not the least bit intimidating (always a fear of mine when visiting a fine dining establishment).

Arriving promptly at our reserved time of 5:45pm, we were quickly escorted upstairs to our romantic table for two and greeted almost immediately by our first of many servers. The menu was presented to us - you have your choice of two pre-set, nine-course menus, either the standard option or the vegetarian. Both my new husband and I opted for the regular menu, but whenever we had a choice between two dishes we made sure to avoid what the other had chosen, so that we got to try every dish available to us.


The first dish to arrive at our table was am amuse bouche which wasn't included in the nine-course menu - after more dishes of this sort arrived, we determined that the meal was closer to thirteen courses than a measly nine. The amuse bouche was a tiny, delicate cone wrapped around a dollop of something that resembled the best sour cream you've ever tasted and topped with a perfect mound of salmon tartare. It was one of the most mouth-wateringly amazing bites I've ever had in my entire life. This was followed by a delicious, if not quite equally astounding, fresh diver scallop, seared perfectly, served with beets. I'm a big scallop fan, and I'd never tasted one that had been cooked with such care - SO sweet and succulent.

Next up was our fish course - and here is where I bemoan my lack of the menu, because for the life of me I cannot remember exactly what kind of fish were in these two excellent preparations - grrr! The first was a seared fish that exploded in your mouth with juicy flavor, and the second was an absolutely to-die-for Japanese fish served in raw cubes with tiny tempura-fried vegetables and stellar dots of sesame cream.

I should mention at this point that we were already moderately buzzed - the wine sommelier made some excellent pairing suggestions for us to enjoy throughout our meal, and each glass or bottle arrived precisely at the start of the course to which it was coupled. We began the night with a glass of champagne, moved into a half-bottle of white for the fish courses, and then had a very interesting but tasty pick for our "salad" course - I had a rose (typically not my style but very, very good) with the salad and my husband, at the behest of the sommelier, had a glass of sweet dessert wine to go with his foie gras (you must pay extra for this option) - and believe it or not, the tastes were so complementary that I felt I could've died and gone to heaven right then and there.

We had never eaten foie gras before and probably never will again - I'm not entirely approving of the methods behind the product. However, I knew it was something I wanted to try just once in my life, and what better place to experiment than the top restaurant in the country? It was served with a warm brioche that was replaced as soon as it began to cool, as well as a trio of fascinating salts - a Jurassic salt, a sea salt from France, and my Lord I cannot remember the third, but all were a total delight. I couldn't stop trying each option with the foie gras atop a moist bite of brioche - the salt enriched the foie flavor and popped on the tongue. Delightful.

For our first meat course, I opted for the quail while hubbers got the rabbit terrine. I found the quail a bit underwhelming and sort of dry - by far my least favorite dish of the evening - but the rabbit was a revelation, buttery and full of salty bacon.

The other meat course was a phenomenal piece of beef from Snake River Farms that was cooked to divine perfection - I've never seen a meat cooked so evenly, medium rare throughout and red to the very edges on each side. I only wish this picture were a little brighter to do the dish justice - the light was beginning to fade by this point of the meal and I didn't have the heart (or the guts) to turn on my flash in such a classy joint.


By this time, we were on to a bottle of extraordinary red to finish off our meal. The dessert course seemed to last a lifetime - first we were treated to the desserts we chose from the menu (which I cannot recall - yes, this is when the wine coma truly began to set in), then we were presented with a bowl of chocolate and powdered-sugar coated macadamia nuts, THEN we were given a tiny tray of miniature chocolate truffles. And lest we forget, you are also sent away at the end of the night with a bag of the French Laundry's signature shortbread cookies. Just in case you're still hungry - ha.

I apologize for not hitting every course - I really do have a rather broken recollection of our evening. I know I missed describing the fabulous bread course (served with both salted and un-salted butter, of course) and the infamous oysters and pearls - a perfect, tiny oyster served with tapioca pearls and caviar, eaten with a miniature mother-of-pearl spoon - but it would be impossible to describe each and every nuance of this night. Suffice to say, it was and will always be one of the most exciting, experimental (for me, anyway), and downright delicious meals of my life. A bit on the expensive side, to be sure, but I can't recommend a night at the French Laundry enough for someone looking to have an incredibly special dinner out.