Game

This is for Jenise and whoever else is a trios étoiles cook. My friend, who owns the Saratoga (NY) Wine Bar restaurant, is putting on a game dinner soon. He asked his award winning chef to plan elk, quail, rabbit and venison entrées. The cook leans toward trotteresque complexity, which is wonderful with such commonplace fare as, say, halibut, but I have always liked game very plain, reflecting its wonderful gameness (not misspelled). For example, the best elk I ever had were simple medallions in a berry reduction sauce at a country inn. The best quail was just a matter of perfect consistency and skin crispness on a pool of to-die-for stock sauce, at No. 9 Park in Boston. Rabbit, from a red-eyed pot smoking hunter who came in with it, and squirrel, ground hog, and maybe a small Beagle, for all I know. He sautéed it all. Couldn’t stop eating. The best venison off a wood chip fire at my brother’s girlfriend’s house, with a bottle of 1989 La Mission Haut-Brion.Wine will be carefully selected for each entrée. Does anybody know some sort of compromise between nature and high culinary art that I could recommend?

[Jenise]

Hmmm...classicism, high art and Trotteresque are words that stand out to me. I'm reminded of going to the home of an artist, by whom I own an musically abstract painting called 'Rhythm Section', and being surprised that she also had the kind of talent that could produce more conventional landscapes. She said words that have resonated for me in a thousand situations since then and I think they apply here, to the effect that for a real painter it's the training and knowledge to paint classically/conventionally that makes abstracts possible.

You can see how this applies to the situation you describe. If that cook--can we use 'chef'?--can impress you with his artistry on halibut, then he has the ability and knowledge to scale-down to the more rustic preparations you describe. But he has to want to, and has to see rusticity as a stylistic option and not a step backward from the food he aspires to be known for. Otherwise, all the suggestions you hurl won't make a pinch of difference. Most likely, he'll be insulted.

What I'd do if I were you is take the tack that you've been asked to oversee the wine pairings, and ask him (over a good bottle of wine) what ideas he has for food. It will put you in the position to tell him, if he knows it not, that mustard is a classic Bordeaux contrast so a French classic like lapin a la moutarde would be an excellent dish to consider. Discuss it in more depth to keep him from heading off into Rabbit Three Ways With Foam (barf) territory even if you have to beg him to indulge your idea of well-crafted simplicity, but you will have to leave the final say to him.

Arm yourself with other dishes/ideas and classic Bordeaux contrasts and compliments that you love. You might find the menus online for restaurants and chefs known for their game menus.

Hmmm...classicism, high art and Trotteresque are words that stand out to me. I'm reminded of going to the home of an artist, by whom I own an musically abstract painting called 'Rhythm Section', and being surprised that she also had the kind of talent that could produce more conventional landscapes. She said words that have resonated for me in a thousand situations since then and I think they apply here, to the effect that for a real painter it's the training and knowledge to paint classically/conventionally that makes abstracts possible.

You can see how this applies to the situation you describe. If that cook--can we use 'chef'?--can impress you with his artistry on halibut, then he has the ability and knowledge to scale-down to the more rustic preparations you describe. But he has to want to, and has to see rusticity as a stylistic option and not a step backward from the food he aspires to be known for. Otherwise, all the suggestions you hurl won't make a pinch of difference. Most likely, he'll be insulted.

What I'd do if I were you is take the tack that you've been asked to oversee the wine pairings, and ask him (over a good bottle of wine) what ideas he has for food. It will put you in the position to tell him, if he knows it not, that mustard is a classic Bordeaux contrast so a French classic like lapin a la moutarde would be an excellent dish to consider. Discuss it in more depth to keep him from heading off into Rabbit Three Ways With Foam (barf) territory even if you have to beg him to indulge your idea of well-crafted simplicity, but you will have to leave the final say to him.

Arm yourself with other dishes/ideas and classic Bordeaux contrasts and compliments that you love. You might find the menus online for restaurants and chefs known for their game menus.

Thanks. I'm not sure whether it is even appropriate for me to get involved with an opinion. I wasn't asked; it's just my paranoia and love for rustic game, and the opportunity of having a real chef prepare it, rather than take whatever you get in a mountain inn. I purposely used the term cook, because I hear knowlegeable people using it in New York for such folks as Danny Meyer. I thought it was the "in" way to say it. Mutarde, yes! And your idea of going online is a good one. I know what you mean about painters. I have Van Gogh prints from his early Classic Dutch style before he went postal. And Picasso's early work reflected classical artistry. I have been asked by guests if the Van Gogh prints are originals. People can't recognize the artist. Sure, just like my Vermeer.

Hmmm... I've never thought of Trotter's food as overly tarted up. My one meal at his eponymous restaurant (in '99, so take it for what it's worth) left me with the impression that he endeavored to showcase the ingredients, e.g. our amuse bouche of a cube of olive oil-poached salmon set atop some pea shoots. The contrast of that meal with my one encounter with "molecular gastronomy" last year at El Celler de Can Roca could hardly be greater. In fact, Charlie Trotter's cooking puts me in mind of the now-infamous dismissal of Alice Waters's cooking when she first cooked for the famous chefs of France: "That's not cooking; it's shopping!"

Mark Lipton

p.s. I agree with you about game, Covert: I usually stick to simple preparations, though I love stuffing quail with a chorizo-blue corn bread stuffing (from a Coyote Cafe recipe) and rabbit cooked in a mustard sauce.

Mark Lipton

Hmmm... I've never thought of Trotter's food as overly tarted up. My one meal at his eponymous restaurant (in '99, so take it for what it's worth) left me with the impression that he endeavored to showcase the ingredients, e.g. our amuse bouche of a cube of olive oil-poached salmon set atop some pea shoots. The contrast of that meal with my one encounter with "molecular gastronomy" last year at El Celler de Can Roca could hardly be greater. In fact, Charlie Trotter's cooking puts me in mind of the now-infamous dismissal of Alice Waters's cooking when she first cooked for the famous chefs of France: "That's not cooking; it's shopping!"

Mark Lipton

Mark, I probably shouldn't have used Trotter to represent complexity because I never dined at his eponymous restaurant. I just read about his presentations and was left with the impression of complexity. I probably should get myself there for the sake of cultural literacy. Will be dining in Chicago this spring.

Ask him to think Kaiseki, with an asterisk. The asterisk being that game is often very lean, thus it may need significant marinating, basting or some kind of fat adjustment. (My favorite preparation for guinea fowl involves rubbing it with minced pancetta, rosemary and olive oil, letting it sit for a few hours, then roasting it.)