Whiskey, Whiskey and More Whiskey (And some great food too)

That's a lot of whiskey!!

Wine pairing dinners are the norm in many restaurants in and around the Bay Area.  A sommelier will work with a chef and create a multi-course meal, matching specific wines with each course.  For example, a light, sweet riesling might be paired with a salad or small appetizer, a hearty cab with a meaty dish, a port with dessert and so on.  But after receiving an invitation, I was intrigued by the opportunity to attend a whiskey-pairing dinner.

Chefs hard at work

Dominique Crenn, chef at Luce in San Francisco is well known for her French-American cuisine, receiving numerous honors and accolades and appearing on both “The Next Iron Chef” and “Iron Chef America.”  Luce was honored with a Michelin star in 2010 and Crenn has been named one of the up and coming and rising stars in the industry.  Besides heading the restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel, she has now started a series of lunches and dinners, pairing different alcohol with each meal.  Her Un Danse Alchemique meal offered five course along with the whiskey pairings from Amy Murray, manager of Cask.    The event was held in Lafitte on the Embarcadero, a perfect setting for an intriguing evening.

I will admit, while I do enjoy whiskey, I am not a connoisseur.  But I was startled by the complexity and differences in each whiskey we were served.  We started with an Ad Rattry Mortlach Cask Strength 19 Year.  And it honestly hit like a ton of bricks. The fact that it was cask strength really made it stronger than most whiskeys I am used to.  The suggestion was to pour a little water in it so as to lighten the alcohol content.  This was paired with a light appetizer which included lobster, porcini, farro and coco nibs.  Really refreshing, a nice mix between the lobster, which was very tender and well prepared, combined with the grainy farro and subtlety of the porcini.  A really nice starting point.   

Lobster appetizer

The second dish was actually prepared by the chef of Lafitte, Russell Jackson.  The scallop dish was paired with an Auchentoshan 18 Year whiskey.  This second whiskey was much smoother.  The scallop, which was embedded in a well-prepared piece of roasted pig, and served with a light sauce and cantaloupes was excellent as well.

At this point, the whiskey was taking over for everyone.  While we weren’t being served a lot, the alcoholic content was such that each sip hit pretty hard.  But on to another dish, a mix of sweet bread, abalone, pickled onion and oxtail.  This was paired with an Ad Rattray Bowmore Cask Strength 18 Year.  The whiskey was really the first that had that true smoky smell and taste to it.  When sipping this particular brand, it warmed my whole body, as normally happens when I drink whiskey.  The dish was really well done and a great combination of different items.  I would have never thought to combine abalone with sweet bread, pickled onion and oxtail.   But it really worked well together with each mixing perfectly with the oxtail-based sauce.

Sweet bread dish

A break and an intriguing drink, something Dominique calls tomato water.  A small cherry tomato laid at the bottom of a shot glass with a muddled liquid, which I never found out what it was.  I do know that cucumber was muddled in it and it was a nice refreshing compliment.

Our next course arrived, poussin with black olive and almond soil and cherry 3 ways.  The poussin was terrific but the real winner inn this dish was the black olive and almond soil.  Basically, it was a combination of crushed almond and black olive, almost like a topping for an ice cream sundae.  But it mixed perfectly with the dish.  This was paired with a Springback Fino Sherry Single Cask 12 Year whiskey.  I think it was difficult to comprehend some of the pairings throughout the might because of the complexity of flavors involved in both the dishes and the whiskey.  But this was the perfect match, a little lighter and sweeter whiskey mixed with the cherries in the dish.  

Finally, dessert, which at  our community table was a hit or miss.  It was foie gras with corn soubise, pop corn (yes, actual pop corn!), corn sorbet and white chocolate, with truffle snow sprinkled on top.  I can definitely see why this dish had arguments on both sides of the fence.  Foie gras is an acquired taste.  But it was well prepared and mixed well with the corn sorbet.  Not too sweet.  It was probably not my favorite dish, but something that I would try again.  This was paired with a Murray Macdavid Highland Park Chateau Lafite 14 Year.  Another strong whiskey to end the evening.

Dessert

I love the idea of chefs branching out from the norm and trying new things.  Although having never been to Luce, I have heard such great things about Chef Crenn and her cuisine; this dinner proved it and makes it a place for me to visit sooner rather than later.   But stepping out and creating an entirely different menu, carefully pairing each dish with a certain whiskey takes a lot of creativity and she did a superb job.  Plus, an invite dinner like this allows diners to meet new, interesting people they might not have met before, people interested in food, people with completely different backgrounds and plenty of industry folks who can give regular diners an idea of the comings and goings of a restaurant, what the chef was thinking in the specific pairings.  Overall, a really terrific night of fine dining and great whiskey.