Windsor Court Grill Room
The Grill Room is the sole survivor of a golden era for deluxe, grand restaurants in the mid-1980s. Except for a short slack period before and after Katrina, it has kept its standards high. For the past couple of years, its Reveillon menu has been excellent, save for a limited selection. Chef Daniel Causgrove, who took over the Grill Room’s kitchen during the past year, has fulfilled the two main requirements of the Reveillon: the menu emits a faint jingling of holiday bells, and the $60 price is an attractive price for this lovely restaurant.
Christmas at the Windsor Court.
Four courses, $60.
❉Blue crab gratin
Braised radish, black garlic, asparagus & caviar
~or~
❉Beets roasted in pecan shells
Vanilla vinaigrette, lobster, praline & nasturtium
~~~~~
❉Baby lettuces
Parmesan, black olive, fennel & lemon-sassafras vinaigrette
~or~
❉Potato-leek soup
Bowfin caviar, rosemary & hijiki seasoning
~~~~~
❉Roast Springer Mountain Farm chicken
Turnip & grilled sugarcane broth
~or~
❉Grilled hanger steak
Sea beans, oven-roasted tomatoes, wild mushrooms & bordelaise
~or~
❉Monkfish courtbouillon
Popcorn rice & grilled chicories
~~~~~
❉Flan with ginger consomme
Mandarin orange sorbet
~or~
❉Milk chocolate semi-freddo
Buttermilk chocolate cake
~or~
Goat cheese sorbet
Caramelized macadamia nuts
~~~~~
CBD: 300 Gravier. 504-522-1994.
FULL REVIEW
All the Reveillon menus can be perused here. We’ll feature one every day throughout the Reveillon season, which runs in most of the Reveillon restaurants until December 31.The snowflake ratings are for the Reveillon menu, not the restaurant in general. Dishes marked with the snowflake symbol ✽ are my recommendations.
Sunday, December 6, 2015.
Grueling Routine For A Sunday.
Aside from singing at St. Jane’s, taking a five-lap walk around the Cool Water Ranch, working on the NOMenu website’s never-ending need for minor adjustments, and assembling my
new desk chair (it took much longer than I would have imagined) I did nothing else.
Breakfast was my usual satsumas (while they’re still in season), toast and café au lait. My dinner was a ham sandwich. Even restaurant critics take time off the delightful plumbing of the food beat. Mary Ann spent most of the day at a birthday party for the her niece’s baby.
Speaking of babies, Jude sent me a photograph of his and his wife’s newborn son Jackson that makes it look as if Jackson were taking his first selfie. (It was not a setup.) I’d publish it here, but Jude has forbidden my posting photographs of Jackson. I will say that this has nothing to do with my grandson’s looks, which are almost identical to the pix I took of Jude when he was two weeks old. Anyway, we show the picture to everyone who passes by. We are as proud as we are charmed.
Monday, December 7, 2015.
A Birthday, And Don’t I Forget It!
Mary Ann’s birthday takes on a much less festive deportment than last year’s. That one was a true festival, with Jude flying in and Daniel the Gourmet Cellist performing and the main party. But this year the count of years is a prime number, and less prone to major celebration. It seems like mere confirmation of the bad news last year at this time.
Yesterday she told me that she liked the idea of going to the Windsor Court for their new lunch special. She heard a man call the radio show and rave about this new addition to the Grill Rooms offerings. The twenty-dollar price and the somewhat home-cookery quality of most of the dishes make it more appealing still.
So rare is is such a specific wish from Mary Ann that I sign on without hesitation, even though it will goober up my day. But everything was gong fine until Mary Leigh called me to check in. She told me in no uncertain terms that I have not called her often enough in the first two weeks of her new home in Virginia. I try to make up for that by staying on the horn for a half hour. As soon as I put the phone down, in came another long communication from Jude. And as soon as both of those calls played out, Jude and ML each were on the line with Mary Ann for their Happy Birthday wishes.
This made us an hour late for the Windsor Court reservation. Which meant that I would not be able to get back home in time for the radio show (I would walk the two blocks from the hotel to the radio station and broadcast from there.) And that meant that I would be at least a half-hour late for the second-to-last rehearsal of NPAS’s Christmas concert this weekend. But I would be a fool if I did not focus entirely on Mary Ann on this day.
The Windsor Court lunch lived up to its billing, and then some. Whoever thought of this is brilliant, especially since the Windsor Court rolled out nothing much of interest at lunch for many years. The menu concept is a tremendous enhancement of the meat-and-three concept popular in diners across America. You order one of the four entrees, then choose any three sides, followed by a little dessert.
Every part of this was remarkable. First we were given splinters of white asparagus, on which were loaded a couple dozen Louisiana caviar grains. This may be the first ever amuse-bouche in a meat-and-three.
We ask if we may have one of our sides before the entree, instead of with it. Yes, of course we can. MA has turkey and andouille gumbo–a very fine, dark-roux version–her favorite ever, she says. I have a cream soup of white asparagus with some little wild mushrooms floating on top.
The entrees are a half-fillet of redfish amandine. Ah. This is how they make the Jackson price (I am talking about the currency, not my grandson) possible. My main is five square, quarter-inch thick slices/slabs of beef brisket. It has been cooked for a long time in soy sauce, and seared. Very good.
With these dishes come the other two sides. Mary Ann has roasted brussels sprouts and collard greens, (both favorites of hers) and a farro casserole. “What is farro doing here?” she asks. “I thought that you only see farro in hip cafes in Los Angeles?” Yes, there, as well as six thousand years ago, when farro was one of the earliest vegetables to be cultivated by human hands.
I have what may have been the best succotash of my life, made with fresh corn and black-eye peas. It’s not only good, but served in a portion large enough that I am beginning to feel full. But I also have truffled mac ‘n’ cheese. I hadn’t asked for that, but the meat-and-three plate had a gap because of our having the soup as the first course. (Note to Mike: Yes, I do occasionally get special treatment, the way some regular people often do on birthdays.) And we also have a Windsor Court salad floating free. That salad was the first dish Mary Ann and I shared after our marriage ceremony twenty-seven years ago. Somebody back there knows us.
You get a dessert with this deal. Three little balls of ice cream and sorbets. MA receives a special plate of chocolates since it’s her birthday. Chef Daniel Causgrove steps out of the kitchen to say hello. We linger a bit longer. And then it’s showtime for me. Mary Ann, having been a radio personality for years herself, knows that you can’t stop a clock.
When the radio show ends, I drive as fast as I like to Covington for the rehearsal. I think I was able to sneak in without our conductor noticing, but she’s a she, and I know only too well that men rarely sneak anything past women.
Windsor Court Grill Room. CBD: 300 Gravier. 504-522-1994.
Chicken Marengo
Chicken Marengo was invented by one of Napoleon’s cooks as the general’s first meal after the Battle of Marengo, which Napoleon considered his greatest victory. The original recipe included crawfish, but that has disappeared from most modern versions. Since we have crawfish here, I’ve returned it.
1 whole fying chicken, 3- 31/2 lbs.
1 cup flour
1 Tbs. salt
2 tsp. Creole seasoning
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped coarsely
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 oz. brandy
1 cup chicken stock
2 medium, firm tomatoes, diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 cup Louisiana crawfish tails
1. Cut the chicken into the standard pieces. Combine the flour with the salt and Creole seasoning and mix with a fork. Dust the chicken pieces with the flour mixture to coat thoroughly but lightly. (You probably won’t need to use all the flour.)
2. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a heavy saucepan. Add the onions and garlic and saute until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the chicken pieces and brown, all round. Add the brandy and (if you like and are very careful) flame it off. (You can also just let it boil mostly away.)
4. Add the chicken stock and tomatoes. Bring the pan to a light boil, then lower to a simmer and cover. Cook on the lowest heat for 50 minutes, turning the chicken now and then.
5. After 50 minutes, add the mushrooms, crawfish tails and lemon juice. Cover and continue simmering for another ten minutes.
6. Place two pieces of chicken per person on plates. Adjust salt and pepper in the sauce and serve around and over the chicken.
Serves four.
Fish In A Bag @ Borgne
Until Katrina, one of the most famous fancy restaurant fish dishes in New Orleans was pompano en papillote. Fish cooked in a paper bag. It was fancy and terrible, at least the way Antoine’s was doing it. But Antoine’s wisely chose to let the dish die in the flood, and unless you ask for it in advance you won’t find it there any more. But it was the recipe, not the concept that was flawed, and a few other chefs have tried their hands in reviving the dish. The best of them is so good that it has become a signature dish at Borgne. Chef Brian Landry reworked the dish by removing the heavy, gloppy seafood sauce of old and replacing it with some savory vegetables and crabmeat. This keeps the fish flavor as the top note, and releases enough steam inside the bag (that’s the idea) to keep the fish moist. The exact species varies, of course, with the market.
Fish in a bag.
Borgne. CBD: 601 Loyola Ave (Hyatt Regency Hotel). 504-613-3860.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
December 8, 2014
Days Until
Christmas–16
New Year’s–23
Our Great Chefs
Alon Shaya, the chef-partner of Domenica, was born today in 1978 in Israel. His family moved to Philadelphia, where he became interested in cooking. Almost all of his gigs were in Italian restaurants, including a lengthy spate in Italy in the months before John Besh opened Domenica in 2009. Alon has been the tastemaker at Domenica since the beginning, making his own extensive list of salumi and what I think are the best pizzas in town. One of his most interesting side projects has been serving special menus for the major Jewish holidays. They’re not kosher–too much prosciutto and pork sausage hanging around Domenica for that–but these dinners have been as delicious as they are engaging. Alon and John Besh will shortly open a new restaurant serving Israeli food on the site of the former Dominique’s on Magazine Street. The place will be called Shaya.
Looking Up
Starting today, the time of sunset will be a little later each day, after months of heading backwards on the clock. Sunset in New Orleans has been at 5:00 p.m. for the last ten days or so. Today the sun will set at 5:01. This happens even though the days will continue to shorten until December 21. We’ll gain ten minutes of afternoon light by Christmas. It’s the very first sign of summer.
Today’s Flavor
It’s National Brownie Day. I can’t figure out why so few people make brownies from scratch. It’s flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, and milk. How complex is that? What do we need a mix for? Also, when you order a brownie in a first-class restaurant, doesn’t it seem a bit out of place to you? Regardless of the excellence of the brownie or the quality of the ice cream?
Gourmet Gazetteer
Spinach Creek is a tributary of the well-named Goldstream Creek in central Alaska. It’s about fourteen miles long, dropping over a thousand feet as it takes cascades of water down a mountainside. Fourteen miles is also about how many air miles it is to Fairbanks. Spinach Creek is exceptional, by Alaska standards, in having both of its ends accessible by roads. The lower end is even crossed by the Alaska Railroad. And it’s only seven miles to the nearest restaurant: the Blue Loon, on the outskirts of Fairbanks. Try the spinach-artichoke dip. It’s everywhere.
Deft Dining Rule #645:
If a restaurant serves a brownie as one of its main dessert selections, it is almost a certainty that hamburgers are among its best-selling entrees.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
Brownies are better the day after you bake them than they are that day. They’re much easier to slice, too.
Edible Dictionary
escargot, [ess-car-GO], French, n.–The French word for snail is the one most commonly used on menus. While escargots are identified with gourmet dining, they have been eaten since ancient time, and were much liked by the Romans. Not all snails are edible. The two most widely enjoyed are the petit gris snail (Helix aspersa) and the larger and slightly better gros blanc or “apple” snail (Helix pomatia). To get them ready for eating, they must first be purged for a few days, because snails eat some things that are poisonous to humans. They’re then removed from their shells, cleaned, then poached briefly. The classic preparation for escargots is bourguignonne–with garlic and herb butter. But many more recipes have come to the fore in recent years. Dirty secret about escargots: virtually all of them, even in the best restaurants–come out of cans. Live helix escargots are in fact illegal in Louisiana and many other states.
Food Inventions
On this date in 1896, inventor J.T. White patented a new kind of lemon squeezer that strains juice and keeps it off your hands. I’d like one of those! . . . Count Chocula was registered as a trademark for a kid’s chocolate-flavored cereal today in 1970. The Count was a harmless cartoon of the infamous vampire.
Today is the birthday, in 1765, of Eli Whitney. His famous idea–the cotton gin–accelerated the development of the American South. While the cotton fibers were the value part of the cotton crop, the seeds that were extracted by the gin were a good source of cooking oil–or would be, after they figured out how to remove the objectionable smell from cottonseed oil. Wesson Oil is cottonseed oil. I’m still waiting for some distiller to come out with Cotton Gin for making very, very dry martinis.
Food On The Funny Pages
The man who is probably more responsible for the vast amount of spinach eaten in America was born today in 1894. Elzie C. Segar was a cartoonist who began a newspaper comic strip called Thimble Theatre in 1919. Its two main characters were hapless adventurers Castor Oyl and Ham Gravy. In 1929, a new character named Popeye appeared and soon took over the strip. He was a sailor with unaccountable strength, which he attributed to his lavish eating of spinach. That fantasy inspired kids all over the land (myself included) to eat as much spinach as possible.
Music To Drink By
Moonlight Cocktail, a major hit for the Glenn Miller Orchestra, with Bob Eberle and the Modernaires on the vocals, was recorded today in 1941.
Food Namesakes
Actor Lee J. Cobb was born today in 1911. He played tough guys who probably would never be caught eating a Cobb salad instead of a steak. . . Baseballer Darryl Strawberry was indicted in 1991 for alleged tax evasion. . . James “Pigmeat” Jarrett, a Georgia blues pianist who played until his nineties, was born today in 1899. . . Richard A. Baker, a famous film makeup artist, was born today in 1950.
Words To Eat By
“Looks can be deceiving; it’s eating that’s believing.”–James Thurber, New Yorker magazine humor writer, born today in 1894. Here are two more of his lines about food and drink:
“The most dangerous food is wedding cake.”
Words To Drink By
“It’s a native domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you’ll be amused by its presumption.”–James Thurber again, in a New Yorker cartoon.
Food Relationships
They’re something like human relationships in that boredom cannot be tolerated in either.
Click here for the cartoon.