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Holiday Event at The Pyramid Club
The Evening Reviewed
by Beth Sheligo & Deb Denis |
Chef Donald Sanders designed a truly memorable menu and each dish was beautifully prepared and presented. The club is located on the 52nd floor in the heart of Philadelphia and has sparkling, magical vistas of Philadelphia and from each room. Our group, Cencibel (a wine and food matching group) enjoyed the following menu:
Welcome Wine: 1997 Geisenheimer Monchfpad Riesling Sekt, Schuman-Nagler. A creamy mousse, lovely fruit, (apples & peaches) with a slight residual sugar. Perfect to sip alone, divine with the smoked salmon with loads of black pearl caviar on cucumber slices served as our appetizer, courtesy of Chef Donald Sanders and The Pyramid Club. The sweetness and smoothness of the wine contrasted perfectly with the salty/tangy elements in the food.
1st course: A velvety vision: Pumpkin, Apple and Ginger Bisque Infused with Curry and Cumin. Wine: Schuman-Nagler Black Label sekt trocken. Another all Riesling offering; the welcome wine's younger brother. Less creamy, earthier, with a shorter finish, this wine was an excellent match for the soup, superior to the premiere sekt, as both were available to compare. The soup seemed to "clean up" the wine, and enhanced the fruit. The sweetness of the soup also dried the wine out a bit, isolating its sharp, high acidity. The pignolas floating in the soup added a nutty quality that also resonated with the earthier qualities of the sekt. A highly sucessful match.
2nd course: Sauteed Diver Sea Scallop and Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Black Truffle Glace Wine: 1997 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf de Pape Blanc. A complicated dish that worked beautifully. The scallop was seared in the pan used to prepare the foie gras, creating a highly flavored and decadent crust on the scallop, which was served over mashed potatoes and topped with perfectly-prepared foie gras, enveloped in a truffle glace. The wine is 80% Rousssane, 15% Grenache Blanc, and 5% miscellaneous white grapes. Nice nose, a tad earthy, with a honeyed center offset by lemon citrus and a light spicy undertone (nutmeg?). This young wine could use some age, but unfolded nicely over the half hour we sat with it. This was an excellent marriage of food and wine; to me, the truffle glace, strong enough to be noticeable but not overpowering the dish, accented the honeyed quality of the wine, and the two unlikely matched flavors blended in a most harmonious manner. One guest was quoted as saying, "Isn't decadence grand?!" in response to this course. Yes, it is!
3rd course: Roast Saddle of Venison served with Roasted Peppered Pear and Cranberry Orange Compote. Wine: 1998 Chapoutier La Bernadine Chateauneuf de Pape. The wine had a ripe, raspberry nose, good mouth feel and nice body. Full, spicy, Cherry fruit in the mouth with a mild black pepper finish. Each dish just gets better. This one provided a delightful array of combinations, each of which worked beautifully with the wine. The Grenache echoed the cranberry in the compote which was a divine combination with the venison. The roasted peppered pear was a small, bosch pear coated in large black peppercorns, cooked until creamy in the mouth. The flavor of the pear fruit was subsumed by the wine, but the pepper lingered and accented a very mild pepper in the wine's finish. The additional side dish was a creamy yam mousse that provided a smooth, even flavor that complimented the wine. Truly a delightful experience.
4th course: Fig, Carmelized Onion and Blue Cheese Strudel, served warm with a Bouquet of Microgreens tossed with Walnut Oil. Wine: 1993 Tommassi Amarone. For my money, the wine and food match of the evening. The wine had a rich nose of walnut, ripe fruit, a little bannana oil on the palate, with toasty, almond/oak, figs and plums. An absolutely superb match for the figs in the dish; even better with the blue cheese. The extremely long finish of this wine and the lingering impression of blue cheese on the palate ran a long distance race that ended in a tie. Gorgeous combination. Chef Sanders was kind enough to provide the recipe for this much-lauded course.
5th course: Profiterole of Ginger Snap Ice Cream with Maple English Cream. Wine: Emilio Lustau Sherry, Pedro Ximenez "San Emilio". The wine had a nose of almond elixer, and heavy viscosity, with lots of prunes, figs and walnuts. Great concentration, excellent balance and good body, the "value wine" winner of the night. The dessert featured flavors of ginger and maple, with luscious, spicy nutmeg. The wine was an excellent match, both texturally and in overall sweetness level. This was also the only appropriate follow-up to the Amarone served with the preceeding course.
After a last gaze at the beautiful lights of Philadelphia and beyond, our group retired for the evening with fond thoughts of a truly memorable event, thanks to Chef Sanders and The Pyramid Club.
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Updated Tue Dec 19, 2000 2:17pm EST