Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005

The perfect bite

By Eric Degerman

Two Northwest chefs pair their creations with Thurston Wolfe 2003 Zephyr Ridge Petite Sirah

The Salish Lodge & Spa, Snoqualmie, Wash.

A romantic weekend get-away for Seattle-area couples turned into a great place to stay for Roy Breiman.

And the pampered guests at The Salish Lodge & Spa who come to see Snoqualmie Falls and smell the cedar burning in the fireplace also get to experience a star still rising in the dining room.

There they find Breiman, 43, an executive chef proud of his California heritage, which is spiced with New York City and infused with classic French training. He applies his experiences with an engaging elegance.

So why Snoqualmie, Wash.?

"We were on the East Coast working at Martha's Vineyard and had opened a 48-room luxury resort," Breiman said. "My wife is from the Pacific Northwest, so we were looking to come back to the area. I had noticed that the Salish was looking for somebody, so we set our sights on the Lodge."

Since its creation in 1916, the Salish Lodge has developed a reputation as the Northwest's version of Niagara Falls, using the 268-foot cascade of Snoqualmie Falls near North Bend as a tourist draw and intimate backdrop at the same time.

"Living in the country, working at a very established place like the Lodge, and being able to work my craft at a very high level with appreciative guests - it's the best of both worlds for me," Breiman said.

And this Santa Barbara native has discovered much during his career, which he launched in the Bay Area after graduating from Le Cordon Rouge in Sausalito. That took him to Ernie's, the famed Mobil five-star restaurant in San Francisco.

"Then I moved to New York City to chase fame and fortune," he said.

One of his major influences there was Christian Delouvier, former chef at Lespinasse and Alain Ducasse at The Essex House.

"For a young person from the West Coast to work in New York, you are very impressionable," Breiman said. "It is a very exciting city with a lot of pressure, so you learn a lot of different angles about food."

Later, he spent three years in Michelin-star kitchens of France, such as Le Hotel Negresco in Nice and Le Chateau Eza in Eze Village.

"It was a rare occurrence but a treasured time in my life," he said.

Then it was back to California and Meadowood Resort in St. Helena. It gave him the opportunity to orchestrate the Napa Valley Wine Auction - the largest charity wine auction in the U.S. - for four years.

Consulting work in the Northwest for the resort company led him to Portland, where he met his wife, Pam Lerwick. Industry followers there will remember his acclaimed

1 1⁄2 years as executive chef at Avalon before the Breimans started life together on Cape Cod.

"It's been a great adventure," Breiman said with a smile.

And when he's out of the kitchen, he's likely to be enjoying the great outdoors.

"You might find a kayak on top of my car. You might find me out at the stables riding horses. You might find me just having a nice day in Seattle, walking around and going out for a nice dinner," Breiman said. "There's lot to do in this area. It's a magical area, and we live very close by."

His globetrotting shows in the dining room. He starts nearby, featuring boutique farms in the Snoqualmie Valley and branches throughout the Northwest, but he also reaches internationally for cheeses, chocolates, sugars and, of course, coffee.

As far as what gets stored and poured from the Salish wine cellar, Breiman savors the regional aspect of sommelier Mark Kieras' list, a collection that's received many awards from Wine Press Northwest.

"It's a great wine-growing region, and Walla Walla is becoming more famous all the time," Breiman said. "Coupled with what is happening in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest is a region that's here to stay. ... I'm a big red Burgundy fan, and Pinots coming out of Oregon are fantastic, and the Syrahs coming out of Washington are incredible."

It's fitting that Breiman is big on Doug McCrea, one of Washington's top Syrah producers, because McCrea Cellars long has been featured at the Salish.

For this Match Maker, we presented Breiman with a descendant of Syrah - a Petite Sirah from the 2003 vintage by Thurston Wolfe in Prosser, Wash. Breiman developed Seared Grass-Fed Country Natural Beef Tenderloin on Parsnip-Potato Purée, served with Young Baby Vegetables, Beaujolais Bleu Cheese and Cascade Huckleberries.

"There's a medium-bodied, full mouth feel in that Petite Sirah with a nice earthy, mushroomy flavor with a lot of berry overtones," Breiman said. "I chose the huckleberry to kind of soften the wine a bit. Richness of the grass-fed organic beef gives it nice depth. The wine also has a nice cassis and slight plum flavor, so I thought the fruits of the season would marry well with the tenderloin of beef. It was finished with the soft, soothing flavor of the blue cheese."

To fully appreciate this pairing, take time to arrange on your fork a morsel of as many components on the plate as possible. Then, make sure to measure out a dab of the blue cheese with each bite of the beef. The cheese provides a creamy transition for the young tannins, yet still allows the berries to squeeze through.

The red wine vinegar of the reduction sauce plays out as a sweet spice in the finished product, and interestingly, the onion brings out a pomegranate complexity to the wine.

But the main attraction on the plate was the exceptionally tender cut of tenderloin. Breiman raves about products from Country Natural Beef, a co-op of ranch families in the Northwest using sustainable practices while raising their own livestock from birth. It began in Oregon 20 years ago with 14 families. Now, there are 70.

Their products, coveted by restaurants, are available in thoughtful markets such as Whole Foods Markets. It's just one of many reasons why "Chef Roy" - as he is known around the lodge - might be here a while.

"We're West Coast people," Breiman said. "It's nice to be back."

The Salish Lodge & Spa, 6501 Railroad Ave. S.E., Snoqualmie, Wash., 800-2-SALISH, www.salishlodge.com.

Recipe

Seared Grass-Fed Country Natural Beef Tenderloin on Parsnip-Potato Purée, served with Young Baby Vegetables, Beaujolais Bleu Cheese and Cascade Huckleberry Sauce

Serves 4

For Parsnip-Potato Purée:

2 white potatoes, peeled and cut into uniform pieces

8 ounces parsnips, peeled and cut into thin slices

2 cups cream

1⁄4 pound unsalted butter

4 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped

Salt, to taste

For Young Baby Vegetables:

8 ounces baby carrots, peeled

8 young turnips, peeled

8 red pearl onions, peeled

8 Brussels sprouts, peeled

1 pinch of sugar

1 pinch of salt

4 tablespoons butter

For Cascade Huckleberry Sauce:

1⁄2 cup sugar

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup veal stock

4 ounces huckleberries, fresh or frozen

1 tablespoon butter

Salt, to taste

For Tenderloin:

4 7-ounce cuts of all natural beef tenderloin

Salt and pepper, to taste

4 tablespoons olive oil

8 cherry tomatoes, cut in halves

4 ounces Persille du Beaujolais Blue Cheese or similar quality local blue cheese, cut into 1 ounce wedges

Chervil sprigs, for garnish

To prepare Potato-Parsnip Puree:

1. Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until soft.

2. Drain and process through a food mill.

3. Cook parsnips in 11⁄2 cups cream until tender.

4. Drain and process through a food mill.

5. Combine potatoes and parsnips.

6. Finish with butter, remaining cream and chives.

7. Season with salt. Set aside for final presentation.

To prepare Young Baby Vegetables:

1. Blanch carrots, turnips, onions and Brussels sprouts in salted boiling water.

2. In 1 cup water, combine sugar, salt and butter in sauce pot and bring to a boil.

3. Add young vegetables to cooking liquid.

4. Reheat vegetables.

5. Remove vegetables from cooking liquid.

6. Set aside and keep warm for final presentation.

To prepare the Cascade Huckleberry Sauce:

1. In a small saucepot, dissolve sugar in red wine vinegar.

2. Reduce over medium heat by 3⁄4.

3. Add veal stock and reduce to syrup consistency (about 90 percent reduced).

4. Add huckleberries and bring to a boil.

5. Finish sauce with butter and season with salt.

6. Set aside for final presentation.

For final presentation:

1. Season beef with salt and pepper.

2. Sear country beef in olive oil over high heat until all sides are golden brown.

3. Place beef into a 450°F oven for approximately 4-6 minutes or until desired cooking temperature has been reached.

4. Remove from oven and pat dry. Remember that meat should rest at least 5 minutes before taking first bite.

5. In the center of a large 12-inch serving plate, place 2-3 ounces of potato-parsnip puree.

6. Spoon desired amounts of huckleberry sauce around puree.

7. Arrange young vegetables and cherry tomatoes on top of sauce.

8. Place cooked beef on top of purée.

9. Finish with a wedge of blue cheese placed on top of beef.

10. Garnish with chervil and serve immediately.

Carafe Bistro, Portland

It was love at first sight for Pascal Sauton.

And then he began to discover all of her charms.

The allure of the Rose City, the natural bounty found throughout the Northwest and the widely respected talents of a Parisian-born chef have created the ultimate French connection in Portland.

He shies away the term of a "concept restaurant," but there's no mistaking that Sauton's bistro - Carafe - liberally blends Northwest ingredients into authentic French cuisine.

"Carafe is what I believe in - a French bistro that does traditional bistro food with the local product, which is absolutely incredible," Sauton said. "It's the Northwest product that inspires the menu, the changes and the seasons. This is a French place, however, and we don't try to hide that by any means."

And Sauton pulls it off without pretense. An autumn weekday lunch crowd seemed to enjoy the relaxed, unbuttoned environs, which include bistro tables on a floor of black-and-white tiles. Even the chef appears casual, sporting a forest-green International Pinot Noir Celebration T-shirt with reading glasses dangling from his neck.

"We don't want this to look like a chain restaurant by any means," he declared.

Sauton, 48, and his co-owner/wife, Julie Hunter, quickly made their bistro a popular spot for lunch and dinner. A few blocks up the hill is Portland State University. Just across the street is Keller Auditorium, making Carafe a pre- and post-performance dining destination.

As brutal as food critics can be, whether in foodie chat rooms or on the pages of a respected print publication, it's virtually impossible to find bad press on the engaging Sauton. In fact, his reputation around Portland is that of leaving each restaurant he worked at better than when he arrived. It followed him to Carafe in 2003.

"That feels really good when you see that you made a difference and the business keeps growing," he said.

His career began in earnest at the age of 16 with an apprenticeship at Lasserre, the historic restaurant near the Champs-Elysées with a three-star Michelin rating. Sauton's bio on file at the famed James Beard House - where he twice has been featured - includes stints in French Guyana, in Pennsylvania at The Pear & Partridge Inn and as lead chef in New York for French caterer Tentation.

In all, Sauton has been in the United States for 18 years. His Northwest fans can thank Heathman chef Philippe Boulot for coaxing Sauton out of Colorado.

"I had known him for 15 years," Sauton said. "He invited me here about 10 years ago to come do a dinner, and I flew in and we did the dinner. Then he took me to the Willamette Valley for the wines and some fishing. I fell in love with it right away."

Sauton and Hunter made the move from Portland within a year. They met on the job in Denver where she managed The Fourth Story Restaurant.

"Potential employers (in Portland) always asked me the question, 'You are French. How do you get along with the front of the house?' And I said, 'I get along pretty well with them. I marry them!" he recalls with a hearty laugh.

He began downtown at Brasserie Montmartre, then stepped into the RiverPlace Hotel. His presence helped transform what was known as Esplanade into Lucere.

"After five years there, I had a huge urge to open my own place and do whatever I wanted to do," Sauton said with a smile.

That means he can bring in what he wants, starting in Oregon, which he calls "a candy store for chefs."

Carafe's wine list also incorporates the indigenous, favoring Pinot Noir from Oregon. He also features wines of Abeja and L'Ecole No. 41, adding, "I'm a lover of Walla Walla, and I go over there quite a bit," he said.

When it comes to pairing wine with food, he doesn't mind straying from the norm.

"I try not to go too much with tradition," he said. "A couple of years back, I realized that a good Chardonnay was better with steak than a Cabernet Sauvignon. Somebody opened my eyes to that. I didn't want to believe it, then I tried it."

We presented Sauton with the Thurston Wolfe 2003 Zephyr Ridge Petite Sirah, and he came up with traditional French favorites in Canard aux Olives, accompanied by Gratin Dauphinois.

"The match of the Petite Sirah just with the duck is not that successful, but if you try it with all the components - 'the perfect bite,' when you have a little bit on your fork of all the ingredients on the plate - then it works very well," he predicted.

The richly flavored duck and its juices soften the Petite Sirah's tannic nature. Sauton's incorporation of the "perfect bite" approach seems to key on the crispy pancetta, using its smoky, sweet and salty qualities to also deal with the tannin structure. Rosemary joins the black and green olives to accentuate the boysenberry, leather, black pepper and gamey components in the wine.

Then in a bit of irony, a whiff of lavender in the Petite Sirah, combined with the ambiance of Carafe, might take you back to sights of lavender fields that Lance Armstrong cycled through each year during the Tour de France.

Carafe Bistro, 200 SW Market St., Portland, Ore., 503-248-0004.

Recipe

Canard aux Olives (Duck with Olives)

Serves 4

2 tablespoons duck fat

4 legs of duck confit (preserved/cured)

1 cup pancetta, finely diced

1⁄2 cup sliced shallots

1 tablespoon sliced garlic

1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped

8 pitted green olives, cut in half

8 pitted black olives, cut in half

1 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large, heavy sauté pan, heat the duck fat. Add the duck legs, skin side down. Cover with an aluminum foil and place in 450°F oven until skin is crisp.

2. Remove the duck and most of the fat and add the pancetta to the pan. Cook on stovetop until the pancetta starts crisping and add shallots, garlic, rosemary and olives. Cook for 2 minutes then add the white wine. Reduce by half and whisk in the olive oil.

3. Add salt and pepper, to taste, and serve immediately.

Gratin Dauphinois

(Potato and Cream Casserole)

Serves 4

1 quart whole milk

1⁄4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

1⁄2 cup blue cheese, such as Fourme d'Ambert, crumbled

2 large potatoes such as Dutch yellow or Yukon gold

Butter

2 cups shredded aged Gruyere

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a medium size saucepan, place the milk, nutmeg, garlic and blue cheese and bring to a boil on medium heat.

2. Turn off heat. Let the ingredients infuse until the milk cools, then strain through a fine mesh strainer.

3. Peel the potatoes and rinse them. With the help of a mandoline slicer, cut the potatoes very thinly. Do not wash them once sliced. Generously butter the bottom of a baking dish. Cover the bottom of dish with the potato slices, overlapping them like shingles on a roof. Cover with the infused milk, then with shredded gruyere.

4. Repeat these three layers three times, finishing with the cheese.

5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 350°F oven for about 90 minutes or until the potatoes feel soft when pocked with a paring knife.

6. Remove the foil, set your oven on broil, and let the cheese on top melt to a golden brown color. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Thurston Wolfe 2003 Zephyr Ridge Petite Sirah, Washington, $18, 120 cases produced

There's nothing petite about the variety. And it is a direct descendant of Syrah even though it is spelled differently.

So it's misnamed and misleading. Still, Wade Wolfe wants to help raise the grape's profile in the Pacific Northwest, and the region's seemingly overnight success with Syrah makes others wonder.

"There are people starting to consider planting it and working with it," said Wolfe, owner/winemaker at Thurston Wolfe Winery in Prosser, Wash. "The question we get asked all the time is, 'What's the difference between Petite Sirah and Syrah?' "

Carole Meredith, now professor emerita at the University of California-Davis, used DNA research in 1998 to prove Petite Sirah is a cross of Syrah and the French variety Peloursin. Its birth dates to 1880 in an experimental vineyard of Francois Durif, an amateur botanist near the Rhône River. That explains why this variety is also known as Durif.

So what about its more recognizable alias? The late wine critic Roy Andries de Groot wrote that Californians chose to rename the grape, incorporating a French term for prestige and creating a less confusing way to spell Syrah.

"To me, Syrah is pretty soft with lower acidity and really low in tannins, whereas Petite Sirah is the opposite," Wolfe said. "Syrah can have spicy and smoky aromas. Petite Sirah is more of a bright berry to cherry aroma, less spicy but frequently with black pepper, more like a Zin. There's a little bit of earthiness or forest floor or barnyard. They create red wines that require food. It's not one of those you sip before dinner like a light Zin."

His 2003 vintage came from Zephyr Ridge Vineyard, a site in the Horse Heaven Hills two miles east of Columbia Crest Winery in Paterson, Wash. This marks Wolfe's second bottling of Petite Sirah. It was cropped at two to three tons per acre, and harvest came during the first week in October at about 25 brix. American oak barrel aging for 15 months led to a bottling that was unblended and unfined.

Wolfe, a UC-Davis grad and former general manager at Hogue Cellars in Prosser, has been using Washington-grown Petite Sirah since 1995 as a blender with his Howling Wolf Zinfandel. It makes up a third of his JTW Port.

Only a handful of Northwest wineries bottle Petite Sirah or Durif as a single variety.

Thurston Wolfe Winery, 2880 Lee Road, Suite C, Prosser WA 99350, 509-786-1764, www.ThurstonWolfe.com

Eric Degerman is managing editor of Wine Press Northwest. To suggest a restaurant for a future Match Maker, call him at 509-582-1564 or e-mail him at edegerman@winepressnw.com.

• Comments
• Add Comment
• Disclaimer