So, the French Laundry—I have finally entered the sanctum and it was lovely .  Irene, Bob and I left at 10:15 to meet Cathy, Tucker and Dale.  We drove through Sonoma and Napa to the small town ofYountville arriving at the restaurant just after 11:30.  Larry, the maitre’d and long time friend of Cathy, Tucker and Dale was waiting for us.  Jokes and kisses were passed all around about how he had given our table away because we were five minutes late.

We walked through the small paved and beautifully designed and manicured garden before entering the restaurant through “the blue door”—it seems to be mentioned in almost every review/article I’ve seen so of course I have to mention it here .  It is a small building (originally a saloon then a brothel then a French Laundry—early 1900s—thus the name) with both an upstairs and a downstairs for dining.  I honestly don’t recall that much detail inside except that it was warm and rich with wooden banisters leading to the upstairs, windows letting in light, an alcove with walls of stone and a skylight.  We were seated in the middle of the dining room at a round table for 6, other diners seated at tables radiating out from ours .  The center of the universe–that was us.  There were white linen napkins on white linen tablecloths and each napkin had a French Laundry clothespin which we were to take away—Tucker and Cathy gave me theirs.  “They’re great for closing chip bags,” Cathy suggested.  Of course—how unpretentious of me to offer chips to my guests held shut with a French Laundry clothespin.  (It works quite nicely actually).

On the way up I was given the papers describing the wines Tucker brought for lunch.  He has an expansive and extravagant wine cellar and always provides several bottles for lunch.   So, these were the wines I was to choose from—1 white and 2 reds (1 red he had already uncorked and let breathe).

2006 Bouchard Pere & Fils Corton Charlemagne

2005 Domaine Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne

2006 Sine Qua Non The Hoo Doo Man Proprietary White—this was the white I chose because I liked the name

2004 Aalto PS—this was the red already uncorked—I was informed that we were drinking this because Sharon (Dale’s wife who couldn’t be there and whose place I was so lucky to take) didn’t care for this wine and everyone else wanted to enjoy it without imposing it on her.

2005 Colgin IX Proprietary Red Estate—this is the one Tucker chose over the Harlan which is the one I tentatively wanted to try but this one was, of course, delicious (they all were)

2003 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine

2007 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir Lindsay Estate Cuvee Agustina

2006 Kistler Pinot Noir Bodega Headlands Cuvee Elizabeth—this is the one I really wanted to try but I could tell Tucker wanted to open the Brunello so we did that instead—which was delicious!

1997 Sira Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino

2001 Rieusse—a Sauternes—we all decided we didn’t need the dessert wine (though of course I would have loved to taste it—I would have loved to taste them all

We had a bottle of Salon champagne to begin the meal—I have never had that and it was delicious—the tiniest bubbles busily bubbling up from what appeared to be both sides of the bottom of the flute, meeting and spiraling together to the top.  No acidity at all, just a delicate, refreshing ‘champagney’ melt-in-your mouth ‘feel’ as I sipped.

Oh and Tucker explained that it was unusual but he likes having all the wine opened and poured at the beginning of the meal so we each had 5 glasses of varying sizes set before us on the table.  Curious and somewhat envious glances from several diners at tables around us.

First a tiny bite was placed on our bread plate.  Gougeres—incredibly delicate and delicious (reminded me of the first time I had gougeres when my friend Brenda made it ) then another tradition at FL—a round platter with tiny ‘cones’ of sesame pastry (or something) filled with red onion infused cream cheese/sour cream topped with smoked salmon ‘ice cream’—oh my goodness.  Okay, here it’s going to get more difficult.  You are served a 9 course meal (outside of these little amuses) and we got more than 9 courses.  As I remember back and list them it just seems to grow and grow but here is the list more or less in order of recall:  a fabulous (okay, let’s face it, pretty much everything was fabulous!) mushroom soup—more like a cloud of mushroom essence—over a custard of some incredible flavor depth with celery from the garden and a compressed beet chip—again most everything was surprising and delicious in its essence more than in the food itself—if that makes any sense.  A tiny egg, cut precisely ¾ the way up and filled with an exquisite dark concoction—a truffle custard with a veal glace with a tiny sliver of a kind of crispy French fry that was flat and super thin with a vertical line (a chive) down the middle.  It is also evidently another of the “signature” appetizers that appears frequently at FL and then the WONDERFUL oysters and pearls: a “Sabayon” of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar—oh my my .  Then a tiny cod with dried and hydrated and re-done whatever bacon that was placed on top and looked like a baked parmesan cheese wafer and a delicate mustard sauce (I’m going to leave off the breathy exclamations of deliciousness—just include them as you read along , a ‘salad’ with 2 exquisite baby turnips, little heart-shaped leaves (a nod to Valentine’s Day?) and a re-constructed (lots of that going on) dried and paper thin vegetable (pepper perhaps?), re-constructed frogs legs in a tiny fried ball with something something, gnocchi with tons of freshly shaved truffle on top (they shave it at the table and I kept going ‘more more’ thus the reference to ‘tons’ , a chicken paillard (in pastry but the pastry was discarded before serving) that was super yummy with cabbage (all of these are very tiny portions of course), a square veal meat—browned on the outside and then “soubise”—vacuum-packed and submerged in hot water until it was the perfect degree of done-ness—pale pink and super tender.  Goat cheese with honey (breads along with the main part of the meal of course), then a grapefruit sorbet that was very refreshing then, what Irene calls the one negative note in the whole meal—a raspberry sherbet in a cup, then the main dessert which I didn’t care for but Irene says she loved and then chocolates (couldn’t eat any of those but they were beautiful—like marbles) and super yummy donuts with “coffee”—a cup of coffee flavored type of mousse with whipped cream that was also delish!  All really good and I couldn’t finish this part of the meal.

Thomas Keller came to speak with us at the end of the meal which made it extra special.  Each of the ladies was given a small metal box full of short bread cookies to go and I gave mine to Dale (wish I hadn’t!) to give his wife since she missed the meal and I felt I should offer her something for the opportunity to take her place.  Of course she goes every month so really!  But I did feel I should make some sort of gesture .

So, all fabulous.  We didn’t get home until 6:45, didn’t leave FL until 5:30 (we arrived at 11:35) so…it was quite a meal. The staff was incredible and that was especially noticeable in terms of how unobtrusive and yet perfect the service was, how both personable and totally non-invasive each person was and it certainly made the meal extra special—something I had read about that Thomas Keller is a fanatic about.  I consider myself extremely lucky to have gone.  Voila.  Finis.

1 can of pumpkin
2 eggs beaten
¾ C white sugar
¼ C brown sugar
½ C milk or cream (I use 1 %)
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 tsp rum
Grate a little nutmeg (either mix it in with the rest or just grate it on top before cooking)

Pour into pie shell (I always purchase that). Cook 10 minutes at 425 then reduce to 350 and cook 50 minutes. Serve with whipped cream.

Happy Thanksgiving .