The Best Meal of My Life

Next weekend is Memorial Day Weekend; many of the local wineries offer tours, tastings, and events for all three days. The Willamette Valley makes some awfully nice (and expensive) wines and the winery open house events draw some impressive crowds.

We've got friends who own and operate a boutique winery in the hills west of town. A couple of times I ended up helping out with their Memorial Day Weekend Open House in the role of "snacks girl"; it was my job to replenish the trays of artisan cheeses and pate and the baskets of bread and strawberries and generally keep things tidied up. I enjoyed it very much.

One year (probably about 2002 or 2003) our friends got together with the owners of two small wineries and planned a joint post-Open House celebration for themselves and their employees, volunteers and friends. They rented out what was then a little French bistro only a few blocks from our house (it's now a barbecue joint, Salem not having appreciated French food) and commissioned the owner/chef to prepare a fantastic meal. On the grace of my three or four hours of labor with the snacks, Mike and I were lucky enough to be invited.

The result was the kind of meal that I'd only read about. Bernard planned and executed a menu that took full advantage of spring delicacies and local products, and his cooking was as superb as it always was. For me, the real charm of the dinner lay partly in the element of surprise ("What will he bring out to the table next?"), in the chance to taste foods known to me only from Peter Mayle books about France, and the chance to sit at a long table full of Wine People. Wine People, we learned, know how to party.

The winemakers and their hangers-on came to the table laden with bottles: some of their own wines, of course, but also treasured specimens picked up while traveling. Throughout the meal, in addition to the very good wines supplied by the restaurant, we would hear cries of, "Oh, we must open this next! I picked it up in ________ last year and I've been waiting for the right crowd!" And another cork would be pulled with a resounding pop, and another fantastic wine would be poured into myriad glasses for us all to sample.

There were many courses and there were many glasses on the table, but the dinner had little if any formality. Conversation was loud and jovial. Total strangers sipped out of each others' glasses to get a quick taste. The guests passed around the food themselves as much of the meal was served family-style. Bernard himself came out of the kitchen between courses and plopped down onto a chair to eat and drink with us and tell a quick story or two.

Mike and I sat with our hosts and with the other friends who had served as volunteers at their winery that weekend. I was on the end of our delegation and so was next to some young women from one of the other two wineries. They weren't really Wine People themselves, just friendly faces who'd been drafted to help out just like I'd been drafted. They found some of the food alarming, especially the first courses, so I found myself on the happy receiving end of extra foie gras and extra pan-fried sweetbreads. Oh, darn.

I remember that even with all the hungry mouths and with all of the wine going 'round the table, there was still way too much food. Bernard and his one assistant packed it up into takeout containers and it presumably went home with the owners of the three wineries.

After we got home, I wrote down everything we had eaten, and I've kept it ever since. Here at last, for those friends who've been hearing me tell the story for years, is the complete menu.

Plate of charcuterie (Bayonne ham, country pork pate, rilletes de porc), cornichons, and olives
Cream of carrot soup
Fried sweetbreads and slices of warm foie gras
Puff pastry baskets filled with shrimp, crab and monkfish in a cream sauce
Main course: braised game hens with wild mushrooms, mashed potatoes with garlic and olive oil, tomatoes Provencale
Steamed asparagus
Salade vert with vinaigrette, accompanied by toasted baguette slices with chevre
Lemon tart, assorted imported cheeses
Coffee and cappuccino
   

I ate that dinner as if in a dream. I know I'll never eat another meal quite like it... the restaurant is gone, and economic times are more difficult, even for Wine People. That was not an inexpensive party. And I haven't had the opportunity to be "snacks girl" for the last few years.

Sometimes, if there is perfection, once is enough.