My third time at the French Laundry

After last year's FL experience, I realized I much preferred having lunch there rather than a heavy dinner that ended around 10 pm. So when I was making other restaurant ressies on OpenTable in January, I idly searched for a weekend lunch slot at FL. Much to my surprise, there was availability for 4 on Sat Feb 28 at noon. I've subsequently read an article that mentioned that FL ressies are easier to get these days with the economic malaise. No matter what the reason, we were in!

We all ordered the 9 course chef's tasting menu, although there are really way more than 9 courses offered. Our amuse was the usual smoked salmon cones, with a little creme fraiche and minced chive buried within the cone providing a lovely little burst of richness when first biting into it.





The first course was a White Truffle Custard with a ragout of Perigord truffles. The truffle flavor wasn't too overwhelming, and this was a nice mellow start to the meal and served in a cute eggshell. Hubby, who is not a truffle fan, requested the first course from the vegetarian tasting menu called "Bloody Mary". It was described as tomato pickle, celery branch, horseradish, brioche croutons and smoke. And smoke it did - the bowl you see on the left was covered by a glass lid and smoke was swirling around inside when it was brought to the table. When the lid was lifted up, the smoke swirled up and out, and a delicious applewood smoky smell permeated the air for a few short moments. I have no idea what it tasted like (although it seemed to vanish quite quickly) but the presentation was fabulous.




Somewhere around here, we were each brought a lovely warm roll with a very specific name which I cannot recall. We were served two kinds of butter - an unsalted, almost cheese-like butter from Andante Dairy that was very yellow, and a pale yellow salted butter from Vermont. I loved the latter!

Next up was sauteed foie gras. The standard preparation on the menu was "foie gras au torchon", which is a cold service that makes the foie gras taste a little too much like the pate de campagne you can buy from Trader Joe's. They were kind enough to switch the preparation to the warm sauteed foie gras for us. Which was small, but packed a wallop. It was delicious served with toasted brioche (which oddly enough, I had to request). The foie gras also came with a selection of fancy salts which I remember from last year - the jurassic salt from Montana, the french sel gris and a Hawaiian salt.





The other choice for this course was a salad of FL garden turnips, which looked perfectly composed on the plate. I was much happier with the foie gras, needless to say...









My next course was a confit of Columbia River sturgeon, served with some diced yukon gold potatoes and english cucumbers. The sturgeon was a great petite piece of fish. The other choice was a Japanese Bluefin Tuna tartare served with asparagus, tomato compote, olives and Jidori hen egg emulsion. Although the tuna presentation won the day, I think my sturgeon was the better dish.



We moved on to Maine lobster tail lightly poached in butter which I got so excited about that I forgot to take the requisite photo. Trust me, it was a pretty dish. And yummy.







Next up was a choice between Salmon Creek Farms pork belly or Wolfe Ranch white quail. The pork belly looked good but the quail was fabulous - the skin nicely crisped up.












And finally, the Elysian Fields lamb rib-eye served with black trumpet mushroom ravioli, carrots and spring garlic. A small and deliciously tender piece of lamb and a great finish to the savory courses of the meal.

By the way, all the servings are quite small, lest you think that we've stuffed ourselves with 6 mega courses so far. Thomas Keller's philosophy is the "three bite" approach; the palate is never as stimulated as it is in the first three bites.

We next had a cheese course of Zamorano, a Spanish sheep's milk hard cheese, served with an extensive choice of breads. This was followed by a palate cleansing course of Andante Dairy yogurt sorbet which was delicious but not quite tart enough to cleanse the palate. Also forgot to take a photo of these two courses.

Our next course was a little freebie that is usually available on request - "coffee and doughnuts" used to always be on the menu but they've moved on to other desserts these days. But this is one of my favorites - a hot donut, topped with a donut hole, served with a coffee semifreddo. Do ask for it if you're there, they don't charge extra for this bonus course.





I have to admit that I've not been wild about their desserts (aside from "coffee and doughtnuts"). I had the parfait au citron which was composed of various lemony items and it was light but just ok. The other choice was a chocolate mousse served with some toasted cashews and a wonderful banana ice cream.



Then we had a mignardises course, which is a choice of all sorts of miniature candies, chocolates and cookies. Served in a three tier rotating canister. I got too excited about this as well and my camera was left sitting in my purse. I had a nice apricot pate de fruit, a calisson and an orange chocolate almond thing that was delicious.

Finally, some chocolate covered macadamia nuts and homemade chocolates which were extremely fresh tasting. I had the salted caramel, the key lime and the peanut butter. The caramel was exceptional and the peanut butter was very good. Meh on the key lime.

Along with a nice coffee and tea service, plus a packet of shortbread cookies for us to take home, we rolled out 4 hours later, happy, satisfied and ready for a nap.