Rover’s at Home Challenges and Rewards
this Value Wine Enthusiast
Five Course Tasting Menu

by Karen Tripson

I was thrilled to be invited recently to be part of a small group of good cooks on a Saturday night making a five-course menu from Rover’s: Recipes from Seattle’s Chef in the Hat. Everybody brings a dish and a bottle of wine to share. That is such an easy and fun way to have a fabulous dinner party. I had no problem with making two dishes because I am a family of two with only one enthusiastic cook. I’ve been to the restaurant and knew it would be a challenge, but I like that. Being experienced with restaurant cookbooks I planned two days to prepare my two recipes. The hostess, who loves the place enough to go often, organized the menu from the new cookbook, which I don’t own and sent me my recipes scanned directly from the book as jpeg attachments by e-mail. Entertaining has really embraced electronics.

Rover's New Cookbook

Rover’s, as you probably know, is a Seattle institution that is famous for high style, eight course tasting menus for about $125 per person, without wine. Reading my recipes, somewhat surprised that there were five recipes to make two dishes, I quickly saw that the sky’s the limit if you go along with the recommended wines. My prawn martini dish, which is a signature dish, with an ounce of white sturgeon caviar garnish called for Vintage champagne. My Bainbridge Island lamb loin called for a vintage, small single vineyard syrah. How much could these cost? I had no experience. I was stunned to learn while researching online the recommended wines were unavailable. I realized I was in way over my head.

Being the value wine shopper I am, I have no cellar or use for one.  I avidly study wines and source wines that are for tonight, this weekend and this month. Clearly, to come to this party in good faith I would have to bend my budget wine policy and squeeze Rover’s suggestions to bare bones to arrive at something similar and somewhat affordable. I started panicing, not having fun. I called my wine expert at the West Seattle Thriftway. Being an expert, she handled me expertly and said no problem.

I read my recipes 10 or 20 times and relaxed into several days of prep for the big event. If they are representative of the recently published cookbook, it does a good job of presenting complexity simply. Restaurant cookbooks have so many ways to fail a home chef. Estimating quantities to prepare four servings, instead of 40, can’t be done by simple division. Predicting cooking times for a home range, compared to a commercial range, is not a science. In the five recipes I studied, only one omitted necessary steps: the prawns and other ingredients needed to be chilled after preparation and served chilled. I didn't notice any of the typical errors in quantities that plague restaurant books. The cooking times were not too off.  I appreciate the time that Chef Thierry Rautureau and Editor, Cynthia Nims put into creating this book from scratch because I doubt there were any written recipes to edit.

A perfectionist will persevere on through the ancillary recipes such as veal stock, vegetable stock and carrot oil needed for the lamb recipe. Others may feel there’s no crime in ignoring them and buy something in a container that’s similar though inferior. After all there’s still plenty of time and technique needed to achieve this level of cuisine, which is all about the layering of flavors and textures. Focus on preparing the Yukon potato and chanterelle risotto; perfectly cooking and slicing the lamb; preparing the garlic shoot fava bean mixture and the last step, the Lemon Thyme Sauce. Then assemble the components decoratively and garnish with thyme blossoms. That’s one recipe, but I promise you it seemed like four more. The risotto is so amazing anything would be good on top of it and it could be served alone.

If you are a slave to the recipes and suggested wines, what you might take away from this extravaganza of cooking and sharing, is that it might be cheaper to go Rover’s than to do it yourself. However, the pleasure in the evening--and the eating of every bite--guarantees that we will do it again. Enjoying the contributions of the others, I appreciated that, they too had executed quite a few recipes per dish. The wines chosen for me were raved about -- and I thought they were extraordinary. My friends hadn't noticed the wine recomendations following the head notes for each recipe and poured some vin ordinaire that was just fine with our fabulous food.

Rover’s at Home

Pol Roger Brut Champagne
Martini of Spot Prawns with Cucumber and Caviar
Red Wine
Butternut Squash Soup with Apple and Hazelnut Baked in Phyllo Crouton
Diver Sea Scallops with Beets, Foie Gras and Aged Balsamic vinegar
Januik Syrah 2003
Bainbridge Island  Lamb Loin with Chanterelle and Potato Risotto, Fava Beans and Lemon Thyme Sauce
Black and White Chocolate Mousse with Illy Epresso Sauce

Rover's: Recipes from Seattle's Chef in the Hat by Rautureau, Thierry, Nims, Cynthia $40.00 Published: Ten Speed Press, 2005

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