Haute Cuisine

Last week, a visitor at ISI convinced several of us to join him for dinner at a restaurant called Melisse in Santa Monica. This guy is a serious foodie, and he informed us that Melisse is one of only three restaurants in Los Angeles to garner a two-star Michelin rating (which means nothing to me, but apparently indicates that Melisse is a world-class elite restaurant). And by virtue of his infectious enthusiasm, he also convinced us to do it in style. Our table agreed to do a 13-course Tasting Menu of the chef's personal selections. Yes, that's thirteen courses! Each course was very small (hence the name tasting menu), but suffice it to say that it was helluva lot of damn good food.

This truly was a once-in-a-lifetime dining experience, or close to it. The word "experience" is the operative word. Some of the food items were exquisitely delicious, and a few were (in all honesty) foods that I hope to never eat again. But mostly the food was a true culinary experience, with unusual combinations of tastes and flavors that exercised taste buds I didn't even know I had. And each plate was a work of art, prompting me to sheepishly ask my colleagues if they would be embarrassed if I photographed my food. To my relief, two others at the table quickly said "Hey, that's a good idea!" and whipped out their cameras as well. So we all acted like culinary tourists and photographed our plates (undoubtedly to the chagrin of the high-society LA socialites dining nearby who winced every time our flashes went off :). The main entree courses included a playful take on Fish and Chips, a California Squab Breast, and a Sonoma Veal plate. Some of the individual courses were themselves a mini-tasting menu, as illustrated by the veal sampler which included bites of veal prepared in 4 different ways.

The grand finale was a Chocolate Dessert course, which arrived with a chocolate-filled syringe in the middle of the plate. A waiter then circled our table and, for each of us, injected the liquid chocolate into our chocolate souffle. (And unfortunately took the syringes away, so I wasn't able to get a picture of mine.) When the meal ended, the waiter gave each of us a copy of the menu to take home as a souvenir.

I'm not sure that I appreciate fine food enough to justify doing this again, but it was a lot of fun and I'm glad that I did it once!