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Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Fest: Culinary Masters
Making my way down the great stairs and through the ground level of the hotel felt like a Scorsese tracking shot, as I weaved through what I can only assume were oil and gas or insurance conventioneers and partiers before arriving at the east end of the hotel. While the setting may have lacked the Gatsby-esque elegance of the lawn, the always exceptional staff at the hotel and the flavors they delivered in the foyer reassured that the night was not to lose any of its glamor.
Despite the inclement weather, the reception area outside of the ballroom filled up early with guests snacking on appetizers and sipping La Marca Prosecco. Unfortunately, the delivered appetizers, creations of Trio’s Todd Duplechan, were actually the first of the six courses of the meal. This meant that, most likely, not everybody was able to sample each of the three dishes. While I only heard the deviled tuna was amazing, I actually tasted the torched salmon belly served on river crackers. If this dish was any indication, pork belly’s 15 minutes of being the most famous animal belly may be close to expiring. The smoky, fatty salmon was full of robust flavor, and I expect (or at least hope) to see the dish offered more at Austin’s finer restaurants.
The ballroom in which dinner was served was rather generic (excepting the grand chandelier), but the staff did a nice job with the lighting, specifically on the walls, providing the simple elegance of an outdoor tent to the room that otherwise could have been located in Hotel Anywhere USA.
Fest director Chad Auler introduced the portly and affable Michael Martini, whose family’s vineyards provided the evening’s wines. Martini briefly regaled the crowd of 200 or so with a story about a cruise he had recently taken to Monte Carlo before discussing the simple French style of the Louis M. Martini Napa Valley Chardonnay 2006. Martini’s gregarious attitude lent a casual air to the evening and set the tone for what would become a night that felt like a dinner party amongst friends, an atmosphere that was enhanced by the wonderful and chatty company at my table.
Trio executive chef Elmar Prambs introduced his wonderful beef carpaccio, which he said comes from the back of the ribeye. The Trio happy hour staple was served with a farm egg, shaved manchego and truffled arugula.
Kent Rathbun of Jaspers Restaurant breathlessly introduced his pan-seared diver scallops, which for me was probably the best dish of the night. While the roasted cauliflower and grilled leek risotto was a bit gooey and rich, the supple scallop, which could have eased apart just by staring longingly at it, was sublime. And I would happily dip just about anything in the Meyer lemon-butter sauce that came with the dish.
Some of the biggest food related chatter at our table surrounded the forthcoming David Bull restaurants Congress and Second at Congress, which will be the culinary bedrocks of the Austonian. While Bull has been at the Stoneleigh in Dallas for the past few years, he made it clear to those who hissed at the mention of the Metroplex that he actually never left Central Texas and has been commuting from his home in Manor, God bless him. For those not familiar with the restaurant concepts, PR pro David Shaw told me that Congress will offer “sophisticated service and a cutting-edge, chef-driven cuisine featuring ultra-premium seasonal ingredient” while the more casual Second at Congress will offer “a comfortable and inviting food and drink experience serving American regional cuisine.” Bull shared with the crowd that his team just Wednesday received the permit to start construction on the two restaurants that will open this fall. As for his work in the kitchen on this evening, Bull impressed with a homemade goat’s milk ricotta that came served along side crisp black bass.
Martini popped back up to describe the two cabernets, his vineyard’s specialty, we were enjoying with the rest of our meal: a delicious Napa Valley Cabernet 2006 and the bold, slap-you-in-the-face Lot 1 Cabernet 2005. He was followed by Houstonian Bryan Caswell — the energetic and confident chef behind Reef (seafood), Little Bigs (burgers) and the recently opened Stella Sola (Tuscan-Texan cuisine, he calls it) in the Bayou City — who served a braised short rib that tore apart with not so much as a peep and came served with a sweet but subtle beet reduction.
For dessert, the charming Rebecca Rather of Fredericksburg explained that the weather slightly altered her initial plan for dessert, but she hit it out of the park, ending the meal on a decadent note with a rich, flourless chocolate cake served with a scoop of pistachio gelato, both of which were bathed in a viscous chocolate lava.
Early in the meal it seemed the courses were coming to the table somewhat slowly, but by evening’s end, with diners floating about the room in a state of food- and wine-induced bliss, it was obvious that the wonderful evening had been perfectly paced, an unmitigated success despite the lousy weather.
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