A night to remember
The first thing I have to say is that I am still in a quite good mood. I spent most of the day with the chef I am writing about. Talking to him made me remember my dark past. I know this guy for a long time, and today he remembered the evening we met and he asked me how was my husband. I was surprised that he still remembered that particular occasion.
It was my 32nd birthday, and I had been invited for dinner at this French restaurant. I went there with my former husband in a celebration mood -- I just had found out that I was pregnant with our third child. We didn't know what to expect from this posh restaurant. We ended up being seated on a table by all the foremost chefs of the country. Chefs are a talkative bunch and my ex-husband was a talkative fellow and in no time he was chatting as if all of them were his old friends. I still remember the menu: first there was a creamy soup made of frog legs. I had never had frog legs before, and I thought they tasted awesome. There was a wonderful fish in a crust of commin. It was so good that my ex-husband who hated fish ate it and enjoyed it. After the sorbet, there came pheasant on a red wine sauce. I had never had pheasant either and thought it was divine. Then, the chef made a special dessert for me for two reasons: 1) it was my birthday; 2) I was expecting a baby. It was in fact a platter with tiny samples of all the desserts in the restaurant, like the passion fruit crepe souflee, the guava cheese cake, and even a tiny creme brulee.
That dinner must have been remarkable for all involved, for different reasons. Yesterday, the chef's wife also talked about it. For me, it rekindled my interest in experiencing different foods and learning more about them. (Some of you might know it already, but my interest on this started when I spared one year in Europe after graduating from college. My boyfriend then was a young Irish chef). For my husband, it triggered an interest on wines that took us years later to France and then for an excursion along the vineyards in Napa and Sonoma valleys.
Food, to me, is a fascinating subject. What you eat and when you eat and how you eat tells a lot about different cultures, even in an anthropological level. It is a social pastime: a banquet is not meant to be enjoyed in solitude. So talking about food makes one remember special times and special friends. I always answer patiently the calls from my readers. Sometimes it is a secretary who has to find a good place for her visiting boss to eat risotto, sometimes it is a guy who wants to impress his girlfriend and take her to a special, surprising place. And once, I had the call from a lady whose boyfriend lived out of town. She wanted help to choose a romantic italian restaurant, for she felt he was about to propose. And he did it. She called me later to tell the details! Food is a happy topic, and this is probably the reason I don't mind to be still working with these stories after so many years.
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