If Charlie Trotter and Emeril Lagasse were running solely on adrenaline, it wasn’t apparent. Jet lag had to wait. For the moment, they were living testaments to energy and enthusiasm, sparked by their recent tour de France.
“A little tired” was all either one would admit to.
It was just three hours after the two renowned chefs-Trotter from Chicago and Lagasse from New Orleans-and an entourage of four others had arrived at Charlie Trotter’s restaurant from a whirlwind one-week power dining tour of the gastronome’s Nirvana.
The culmination of the trip and the immediate task at hand was to serve a Distillation of France dinner to 138 guests who were scheduled to start filing in within the quarter hour.
As they each related the story of how the trip came to be, they managed to make it sound like little more than happenstance.
“We had talked about taking a trip together for months,” Trotter said. “Finally we just said, `Let’s do it,’ and it was a done deal. The hardest part was finding a time.”
The two agreed on the dates, seven years to the week since Trotter last visited France. From there it was easy, Lagasse said.
“We both have the same drive and the same sensibilities. It wasn’t a question of where we’d go but rather how we’d fit it all in.”
Lunch at Jamin in Paris was the first stop, followed quickly by dinner at Arpege, also in Paris. And they wound their way to Vezelay for dinner at Esperance with chef Marc Meneau. Of course they crossed the border into Switzerland to visit chef Fredy Girardet. And Gerard Boyer in Reims.
The entire trip, all 164 hours of it, was a grand tour of fine dining, supplemented, as French tradition dictates, with fine wines. Sightseeing wasn’t part of the plan unless the sights were the caves at Veuve Clicquot, or the kitchen at Boyer’s Les Crayeres, both in Reims. The grand total-12 grand meals.
“The trip will be a series of meals and racing to get to them,” Trotter said before they left. “We’ll finish one meal, stuff the bags in the car and head for the next. I was put on this Earth to eat, so that’s exactly what I want to do.”
In a sense, it was a return to their culinary roots for the chefs. American chefs have found their own voice and are less prone to measure their worth against their Gallic counterparts. Nevertheless, many chefs still look to France for inspiration. Trotter readily acknowledges the enormous role France has played in shaping his destiny and palate.
“I still drive this restaurant’s philosophy through that experience,” he said. “The influence was so strong and so deeply embedded. It’s no less a part of what I do now as it was when I first started.”
A primary goal was to chart his progress as a chef against the current trends in France: “I want to see what French chefs are doing, see if it still meshes with my current fine-dining philosophy.”
Lagasse, chef/owner of Emeril’s, a Creole restaurant in New Orleans and author of the forthcoming “Emeril’s New New Orleans Cooking” (William Morrow), trained in restaurants in France and considers the classicism practiced there as the backbone and a prime motivator of his style of cooking. Hints of his Portuguese heritage and the myriad culinary influences of his adopted hometown are more immediately obvious, but he credits his experience in France as being pivotal.
“At the restaurant, we raise our own hogs, make our own cheese, basically make or grow anything we can,” Lagasse said. “That is very much a French tradition. Everything comes from there.”
The overload of culinary sensations the chefs took in will be assimilated into new ideas, meshed into their own styles and sensibilities. For the sold-out, $125 Distillation of France dinner, they spoke from the tip of the tongue and prepared a meal based on their most immediate thoughts.
Said Trotter: “It was a matter of saying, `This is what I see here and now,’ then deciding what was interesting and relevant to Lagasse and to me. We weren’t going to clone the meal or mimic another style, but rather express it as a product of our own sensibilities.”
Nine courses were on the evening’s agenda, none of which they had ever prepared, but Lagasse and Trotter appeared nonplussed. Impeccably clad in whites, they easily stepped into their role as chefs. A kitchen crew of 14, invigorated by a brief travelogue, was game and ready to help give shape to their ideas.
Daily communiques by telephone and fax gave Guillermo Tellez, Trotter’s sous chef, a sense of what the duo would prepare, but nothing was finalized until Trotter and Lagasse scribbled notes during the return flight. They listed nine key ingredients, from langoustine to truffles, which would be included. Then, as a pair, they turned them into solid ideas as they recapped the high points of their trip.
Baby skate wings with brown butter sauce and capers were inspired by Fredy Girardet; seared foie gras with julienned endive and apple sauce by Bernard Loiseau of Cote d’Or in Saulieu; lobster sandwiched between slices of turnip with a sweet/sour vinaigrette by Alain Passard of Arpege; sea scallops with roasted garlic puree and parsley sauce by Loiseau; warm smoked salmon with a galette of baby potatoes and golden osetra caviar sauce by Gerard Boyer; red potatoes and truffles wrapped in spinach and sauced with truffle essence by Michel Trama of L’Aubergade in Puymirol, who flew in to cook for them at the Veuve Clicquot residence; rack of lamb with walnut crust and caraway cream sauce with cumin-scented zucchini and a Roquefort tart with poached pear by Passard; and a trio of fruit sorbets with fruit “wafers” by Trama.
Several days after returning, Trotter reflected on the trip.
“Three restaurants-Arpege, Cote d’Or and Girardet-were doing far-visioned stuff. Mostly, though, the experience re-emphasized how important service is, the need to make the guest feel special and tended to. As for the food, I think it confirms that America is on the world stage.”
SKATE WITH BROWN BUTTER AND CAPERS
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
This simple preparation often appears on Fredy Girardet’s menu. In lieu of skate, any firm-fleshed white fish may be used.
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons drained capers
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Salt, ground white pepper
4 fish fillets, preferably skate
Grapeseed or vegetable oil
Minced parsley
1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over very low heat. Skim foam from the top and transfer the rest to a small clear measuring cup. Let stand 10 minutes or until a layer of white sediment falls to the bottom of the glass.
2. Carefully spoon off the clear liquid and return it to the saucepan. Cook gently until it is light brown and has a nutty fragrance, about 5 minutes. Add lemon juice, capers, vinegar, salt and pepper.
3. Heat a film of oil in a large skillet over high heat. When it is hot, add the fish in a single layer. Cook, turning once, until done, about 5 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over fish and garnish with parsley.
