Also this issue: Room for More The food’s still good, but a refurbished Living Room is not quite the full Monte. -Maxine Keyser

April 3- 9, 2003

food

Book and Cook Hits and Misses

by Maxine Keyser

After my first delicious appetizer at Chez Colette -- a dynamite salt-cured wild salmon with a heart of palm salad, napped with a horseradish crème fraîche and a stone crab claw for garnish -- I felt that I was finished for the week. But a truffle broth, frothed like cappuccino, cradling baby conch slivers and baby clams appeared, and somehow I was able to eat that as well. The chef, Dominique Macquet, has an eponymous restaurant in New Orleans, but since he was born on the island of Mauritius (in the Indian Ocean off the African coast) and then schooled in France, he has a slightly exotic approach to French cooking. He and the executive chef, Sylvain Harribey, worked out a menu to showcase some tropical ingredients, and integrated four wines to go with each ($55 for dinner, $35 for the wines). Chez Colette is a little jewel among the town’s French restaurants.

By the following evening I was set to go to Rouge 2003 for Matthew Kenney's fine cooking. He's a charming guy, and I love his slightly North African cuisine, but the restaurant itself was a madhouse, and I felt that it could not do him justice. It was the only restaurant that didn't incorporate wines with the meal, so we had to find a wine ourselves that would complement the dishes. At $65 plus wine, this was not the bargain that the first had been.

March 17 found me down on food again, but Edouard Loubet was at Brasserie Perrier, and his two-star restaurant, Le Moulin, is one of the best in Provence. M. Perrier was a splendid host who made sure that Loubet met and spoke with everyone.

At Vetri the following evening, we did not do as well. Joseph Bastianich, a wine expert, devised a rustic menu to suit his wines. This was not in Marc Vetri's style, and though the meal was excellent, we felt that $125 was too much to charge for such simple fare.

By the time we arrived at ¡Pasion! for Norman Van Aken's dinner, my appetite was beginning to desert me. The meal was lovely, with the Nicaraguan and Brazilian touches that we expected, and at $100 including wine, they gave a great deal for the money.

The Book and The Cook was more successful than I had predicted, even though some of the books were on their second and a third go-around. I still think the event is getting tired, but you would never know from the enthusiastic diners at all the places I visited. Except at Rouge 2003, there was symbiosis between the visiting chef and the chef de cuisine, and some of the food was most imaginative.