{"id":1864,"date":"2012-03-03T10:43:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T15:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1864"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:13:06","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:13:06","slug":"the-iron-sommelier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1864","title":{"rendered":"The Iron Sommelier"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Canada's three Master Sommeliers, Jennifer Huether, John Szabo and Bruce Wallner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Tuesday night, the disconsolate blue-and-white crowd that streamed out of the Air Canada Centre and past the soaring glass fa\u00e7ade of Aria Ristorante were unaware that a contest was under way, behind those lofty windows, of a much more subtle and hard-fought intensity than anything the Leafs have provided of late. The Iron Sommelier competition, 2012, came folded into a VISA Infinite dining event \u2013 and that meant good times for the audience of 150 eager food-and-wine lovers. Not only would they have a superb meal at the hand of Aria\u2019s Executive Chef, Eron Novalski, they would also taste the wines chosen for each course by Canada\u2019s three Master Sommeliers and then vote on which of the three deserved the title of Iron Sommelier.<\/p>\n

I was to share the MC duties with the excellent and always amusing Nick Keukenmeester from Lifford wine agencies which had provided the portfolio of dozens of spectacular wines from which the competitors could choose their matches. By some deft and ruthless manoeuvring I was able to shuffle off the lion\u2019s share of the work onto Nick\u2019s shoulders, leaving myself with a single duty \u2013 to describe the dishes themselves.<\/p>\n

And so we began, milling about in the restaurant, sipping 2002 Feuillatte Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs Champagne and nibbling on Chef Novalski\u2019s awesome canap\u00e9s: confited duck tongue with duck egg aioli\u2026 Green olives stuffed with duck meat, veal and sausage then breaded and fried\u2026 Wicked little duck breast spiedini with orange sea salt (\u201cspeedies\u201d are all the rage in Western New York State’s more fashion-forward\u00a0bars these days, and are certainly coming soon to a restaurant near you.)\u2026 Duck prosciutto crostini with apricot chutney and shaved foie gras\u2026 Have you spotted the theme? Yes indeedy. Every course was to feature duck and of the potential wines available to the sommeliers, the vast majority were Pinot Noir. The white Pekin ducks, incidentally, were generously sponsored by King Cole of Aurora, Ontario, a hugely successful, righteous farm that lets the birds lead clean, happy, outdoor, organic lives.<\/p>\n

Nick introduced Canada\u2019s three MSs, and I was delighted to see that he was perfectly prepared to take the mickey out of them, as they were out of each other. So it was a merry contest from the outset and I was left free to torment Nick whenever I could think of something. John Szabo MS (uber-consultant, whose latest project is STOCK restaurant in the Trump tower)\u00a0 looked splendidly virile in the black, embroidered dolman and pelisse of a Hungarian hussar, though he had left his shako, boots and sabre at home. Jennifer Huether MS (o.i.c. MLSE\u2019s wine program next door at E11even, the ACC, and everywhere else) was all charm and good-magical-energy but with a rapier for a palate and cool acuity where the public\u2019s preferences are concerned. Bruce Wallner MS (lately of Paese) was the joker of the pack tonight, though he is a man on a serious mission to turn Ontario on to excellent wine.<\/p>\n

Course number 1<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Ma foie...! (image marcpolidorophotography.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chef used duck foie gras to create a slightly Italianized version of a classic French foie gras mousse, served in a most original way. That Italian component comes in right at the beginning when he marinates the whole foie gras not in Cognac or Armagnac or Calvados \u2013 but in a grappa that has been aged in port casks. After an hour or so he strains the grappa off into a pan, pours in some chicken stock, adds bayleaves and peppercorns and brings it to the boil. The cool pink foies are lowered into this hot bath to relax for a while. Then they are separated again and allowed to cool down to room temperature before the foie is put back into the liquid and they go into the fridge. It all sounds like some elaborate day at the spa. Then the foie and its fat is buzzed in a food processor together with a great deal of butter \u2013 to be finished in a pacojet. By now it\u2019s a mousse \u2013 you would be too if you had endured such treatment. Eron spreads it out across the whole plate like hummus and then adds crazy extra flavours \u2013 orange peel that has been dehydrated and then ground to powder; crispy sage leaves for earthiness and baby shiso leaf for mentholated tang; crispy duck skin, deep fried then crumbled over the top; and dehydrated cherry, like the weightless, chalky \u201cberries\u201d you get in a packet of cereal, partially powdered, partially crumbled over the top.<\/p>\n

I was able to pass on instructions about how to eat it. Eron had baked some foccacia and turned it into crostini. He suggested we all just broke a piece off and wiped it right through the plate so it picked up a little of everything. Pop it in one\u2019s gob \u2013 and while the flavours are still ringing and resonating around the palate try one of the wines and pay close attention to what happens.<\/p>\n

All three MSs chose a Pinot Noir \u2013 each wine a star in its own right. Jennifer went for Barnett Savoy 2010 from California\u2019s Anderson Valley. It was far more sophisticated than I expected with complex swirls going on under and around the vibrant cherries. It was such a good match it seemed to disappear in the welcoming embrace of the foie. John\u2019s Pinot was a magnificent old Burgundy \u2013 Louis Jadot Corton Pougets Grand Cru 2002 \u2013 the most delicate red Corton of all. He urged us to think about texture and he was right \u2013 silk on silk \u2013 heavenly but, again, so perfect a dancing partner for the mousse that I lost sight of the wine behind the foie\u2019s broad back. Bruce\u2019s wine came from Niagara \u2013 Malivoire Mottiar Vineyard 2009. Cherries all over the place, but there was a distinctive Niagara vibrancy to it \u2013 an acidity that was different and alive \u2013 as if this wine was playing an electric guitar while the other two were playing in the strings section. It was a great match but it also let the wine stand out in its own right. It got my vote.<\/p>\n

Course number 2<\/p>\n

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Duck consomme (image: marcpolidorophotography.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our next dish was a (possibly unintentional) homage to the Marx Brothers and their immortal movie, Duck Soup. A great consomm\u00e8 always begins with the bones, of course \u2013 in this case, roasted and then boiled into a brown duck stock with a mirepoix of carrot, celery, onions, cinnamon, allspice, rosemary and thyme, all simmered over eight hours. Chef let it cool, then strained it, then boiled it up again, this time adding a little gelatin, orange zest (one of the ubiquitous secondary flavours of the evening) and some pat chun sauce (like a tangy, citric hoisin). To clarify it, he froze the soup, wrapped it in cheesecloth and let it slowly thaw at room temperature, drip-drip-dripping through a perforated pan. The result was a beautiful consomm\u00e9, clear and the colour of dark honey \u2013 like the chunks of topaz shoeless children try to make you buy in the Atlas mountains \u2013 and with layers of flavour that go on for ever.<\/p>\n

Three tortellini bobbed about in the soup, filled with a smooth mixture of confited duck, grated parmigiano reggiano and a pailful of porcini mushrooms that had been cooked down with roasted garlic and pur\u00e9ed. He finished the dish with some chopped chives and just a droplet of truffle oil that created an invisible, intangible ambience of truffle hovering in the air about a foot above the bowl.<\/p>\n

Soup is a notoriously tough match for wine (cold and hot liquids rarely work well together) but the MSs were unfazed. John began by pointing out that the consomm\u00e9 was basically an umame bomb but that the tortellini might be the key bridge. \u201cThere is also umame in wine,\u201d he opined, \u201cwhen grapes are perfectly ripe or even over-ripe\u2026\u201d His choice was a white Alsatian show-stopper, rich and heavy, sweet and complex, the Zinck Rangen Grand Cru Tokay Pinot Gris 2007. A gorgeous wine, but I found it too big and sweet for the surprisingly delicate soup and the subtlety of the tortellini. Bruce took a totally different route, using a very rare and prestigious sparkling ros\u00e9 from Franciacorta, the Ca del Bosco Anna Clemente Rose 2004 (a wine that retails at $219.95 a bottle). It showed magnificently and was brilliantly refreshing with the dish, and perfectly capable of singing its own song clear and true against the complicated orchestration of the dish. But did it actually add anything to the moment? Was there a sublime epiphany? Not so much. Jennifer took yet another route into the soup, picking up on the savoury, umame, mushroom, truffle components in the consomm\u00e9 with a classic match \u2013 a mature Burgundy with its own delicate, earthy, mushroomy notes, the Louis Jadot 1er Cru Beaune Theurons 2006. Bingo! A great balance of texture and intensity. The Beaune got my vote.<\/p>\n

Course number 3<\/p>\n

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Pasta - basta! (image marcpolidorophotography.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pasta interlude. The pasta in question was hand-made cavatelli, one inch long, sturdy and filling. The sauce…? Well of course it was all about the sauce. Chef Eron made a marvellous duck ragu, first roasting whole ducks until they were brown then braising them slowly for six or seven hours in a mixture of red wine, veal jus, tomato paste and a mirepoix of vegetables. When they were done, he took of the duck\u2019s skins and forked off all the meat from the bones, He strained the braising liquid and added it to the meat, then passed the vegetables through a mouli and added them, too. Then he started a new sauce with onion and garlic and fresh tomatoes, folded in the ragu and just before serving added a couple of spoonfuls of mascarpone to add extra richness and silkiness of texture. As a final flourish he roasted chestnuts, froze them, then grated them over each dish as it went out.<\/p>\n

John declared this rich ragu to be the toughest match of the evening, though not the most complex. He chose a Carrick Central Otago Pinot Noir 2009 from New Zealand \u2013 a smooth, perfectly balanced Pinot Noir that seemed to slide gracefully over the surface of the food without ever making much contact with it. Bruce also went to Otago for his Pinot, the Felton Road Cornish Point Central Otago Pinot Noir 2010, a wine that still showed the clumsiness of youth, needing time in the bottle to achieve perfect integration. That clumsiness, which revealed itself as a separation of the wine\u2019s components \u2013 glorious cherry and berry fruit up front, acids and tannins swirling in a little late to the party \u2013 was exacerbated by the dish but I thought the match was actually more interesting with the tannins and acids managing to penetrate the textures of the dish, letting the fruit reach out to the sweet duck and spices. Jennifer found a Pinot Noir from Sonoma, the Freestone Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2008. This wine is another beautifully knit smoothie with a great balance between the tangy, ripe red fruit, vibrant acidity and minerality. That vibrancy managed to handle the richness of the ragu \u2013 in my opinion, the best match of the three.<\/p>\n

Course number 4<\/p>\n

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The breast (image marcpolidorophotography.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main event. Someone asked me, \u201cWhy ducks on the menu tonight?\u201d I tried to explain by asking her to imagine the shoreline of a great continent, the place where the land of food meets the ocean of wine. Armies of foodies ceaselessly roam the land; great navies of wine aficionados bob about on the seven seas. But in between lie vast tidal flats – lonely\u00a0 and unvisited places, silent and wet under the infinite sky. But look\u00a0there…! Far away across the miles of shining mud \u2013 distant figures are at work. It\u2019s the sommeliers. They make their living where food meets wine, filling their string pouches with the glistening treasures they discover, collecting unique knowledge and original ideas. It can be a solitary place and they find companionship where they can \u2013 especially with the shore birds \u2013 the eiders and harlequins, the velvet scoters, the oldsquaws and goldeneyes \u2013 all the marine ducks \u2013 like the sommeliers, as comfortable on the water as on the land. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s why we had a duck menu.<\/p>\n

And why, for our next course, Chef Eron worked with the breast, rubbing it with a dry marinade of liquorice, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, thyme and bayleaf and then sealing it in a vacuum for a couple of days to contemplate the error of its ways. When the meat was truly contrite, he cleaned it and then rubbed it with a second, fresh marinade of the same spices, but this time they had been toasted to mellow their pungency. Then the breast was quickly seared and sliced and the meat was arrayed over a velvet cushion of pur\u00e9ed celeriac and Gala apple, enriched with cream, thyme, bay and peppercorns.<\/p>\n

There was also a tiny perfect brick of polenta that was mixed with butter and Parmigiano when it was still in its stirrable infancy. Eron spread it out onto baking pans and put it in the fridge to solidify. Then he cut it into rectangles and pan-seared them to reactivate the cheesiness.<\/p>\n

As the evening\u2019s token vegetable we had fennel poached in milk, then laid gently onto the polenta cake, only to be smothered in breadrumbs and cheese and gratineed under the merciless flames of the salamander. The sauce was a Veal jus with cocoa in it that was rich enough pass for a mole. There was a dusting of pink peppercorn powder around the plate and a final crumble of raw cocoa nibs \u2013 primal chocolate as a dark, savoury spice.<\/p>\n

Such a complex, profound, tricky dish, with so much going on! The MSs did not let us down, working with three very serious Pinot Noirs. Jennifer chose an Australian star, the Kooyong Mornington Peninsula Estate Pinot Noir 2010, a very smooth and well-integrated wine that relied on fruit to make its statement. Bruce chose a huge Pinot, the Sequana Pinot Noir Dutton Ranch 2008 \u2013 a great wine in which he detected even caramelized notes. To me, the food exaggerated those hints, making the wine oddly sweet. This time John aced the round with a wine he described as \u201cthe most old-world of the new world Pinot Noirs,\u201d Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2009 from Oregon. This time the food gave the wine a leg-up and then they continued to climb towards the sun in a slowly turning gyre.<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Huether, Iron Sommelier, 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So who had won? My vote was just one of 150. While the numbers were tallied we feasted on. Debbie Levy of Dairy Farmers of Canada introduced a cheese course of aged Lankaaster (Ontario), Le Mont Jacob (Quebec), Avonlea clothbound cheddar (P.E.I.) and Bleu d\u2019Elizabeth. I had lots to say about dessert \u2013 a layered verrine called Ciocolatto e Caramello created by Aria\u2019s pastry chef, Melanie Harris. She loves salty things almost as much as sweet and this delectable little item reflected that. Layered from the bottom up was salted caramel-white chocolate mousse; pure salted caramel; a 77%-cocoa dark chocolate mousse then a very dark (99%) ganache. On top was a chapeau of espresso-flavoured whipped cream and on top of that a magic white powder, soft as talc, made from pure olive oil. Only a total dessert nerd would attempt to consume this layer by layer. Most people just dug in, enjoying it with a dazzlingly well-chosen drink \u2013 Bowmore 12-year-old single malt whisky, Islay\u2019s most elegant malt.<\/p>\n

Ah, but by now the results had been tabulated. No 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> was announced \u2013 just the name of the winner: Jennifer Huether. It was a most satisfactory conclusion to a fascinating evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday night, the disconsolate blue-and-white crowd that streamed out of the Air Canada Centre and past the soaring glass fa\u00e7ade of Aria Ristorante were unaware that a contest was under way, behind those lofty windows, of a much more subtle and hard-fought intensity than anything the Leafs have provided of late. The Iron Sommelier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98,91,94,1,99],"tags":[426,217,601,596,594,334,595,599,598,597,600],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1864"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}