Kathleen Hill: Gravenstein Apples, new wine menus and cider is hot!
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Two new menus at two wineries
St. Francis Winery, which has somehow won several Top 100 Restaurant awards from Open Table without being a restaurant, just appointed Chef Trevor Eliason as its new executive chef.
Eliason graduated from the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon and did his externship at the French Laundry in Yountville, which placed him at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro as a pastry chef, and has created wine-paired dinners for the likes of Kuleto Estate, Chappellet Winery and Francis Ford Coppola. His last position was as head chef at Press Restaurant in St. Helena.
Eliason now creates St. Francis’s multi-course food and wine pairings, estate dinners, weddings and seasonal dinners at the winery, and will oversee two acres of organic vegetables and herbs.
His debut wine-pairing menu at St. Francis includes medallions of free range organic chicken with housemade fettuccine and Brentwood yellow corn; pan seared California sea bass,
Nueske’s double cut candied bacon and Tokyo turnip gratin; a grilled Dixon lamb chop with cheddar cauliflower puree, and Meyer lemon buttermilk pound cake. $72 public, $57.60 wine club members. Seatings at 11 a.m., and 1 and 3 p.m. Thursday through Monday. 100 Pythian Road, Santa Rosa. 538-9463.
At Mayo Family Winery, executive chef John Locher and sous chef Oscar Perez offer a new menu of tapas sized plates including jumbo shrimp and white cheddar grits; Heirloom tomato salad with watermelon and red onion; soba noodle salad with sesame-ginger vinaigrette; St. Louis rib with zinfandel barbecue sauce; Taipei street corn, Armenian lamb khorovats; and prosciutto and melon with pickled watermelon rind. And plenty of Mayo wines to pair. $50. 13101 Arnold Drive at Highway 12, Glen Ellen. 938-9401.
Lu Luz’s Noche In Mystic India
La Luz’s Noche fundraisers seem always to be the best parties of the year, and are always conceived and produced by La Luz board president Marcelo Defreitas.
This year’s extravaganza took place at the King family’s K2 Ranch on Trinity Road in Glen Ellen, a former Arabian horse breeding ranch that has morphed into a horse boarding facility with riders’ accommodations.
Most of the 320 guests made it through the sweltering heat for outdoor cocktails, happily distracted by henna tattoo and other body decoration opportunities.
The heat inside the barn where dinner was served was a little overwhelming for some guests, but Elaine Bell’s catered Indian dinner kept most of us alive. This was the best Elaine Bell dinner ever, and a good reason to support La Luz.
During the cocktail time ample hors d’oeuvres such as fried padron peppers, corn cakes with cumin and green chilies, cardamom shrimp on melt in your mouth peppadum crackers, Sonoma Brinery pickles stuffed with curried chicken salad, and tiny pea samosas. There was also a station to make your own bbel puri with chopped potatoes, cilantro, onion, green chilies and fried kale leaves.
At our assigned tables we found flat bread and lots of Indian condiments such as scallions, chives and saffron cucumber mint raita. The entrées, served family style, included tandoori chicken with creamed curry, Indian lamb tenderloin kebabs with grilled red onion and peppers, spicy sea bass masala cooked in banana leaves (little dry but tasty and substantial), spiced potatoes in spinach with Indian gravy, and basmati rice steamed with star anise, fennel seed and cinnamon sticks.
