So I am from California, and over the holidays, I did the faithful trek back home to the land where family is. But honestly if you asked me where to eat in California or even where I grew up, I would just look at you blankly and give you trite answers of places that I’ve only read about. While I went to school in driving distance of Napa Valley (CIA test kitchen, French Laundry, and just amazing food) and San Francisco (the city that has more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the US), I didn’t really venture out of my little collegiate town.
Why? Mostly because my food awaking didn’t happen until college. My idea of good Italian food was Olive Garden. I had very limited exposure to foods that weren’t Korean or American diner food. And in a college town, I ate more Indian, Japanese, Nepalese, Mediterranean, and Czech food in 4 years then I did in my whole life before combined. It was amazing enough for me. And when I traveled for speech and debate conferences, my friends would introduce me to more amazing food.
I remember when I was a sophomore, we traveled to Philadelphia for a conference. And we did the normal things of eating at Pat’s and Gino’s. But they convinced me to part with my hard earned cash to go to Le Bec-Fin in the fall of 2002. I also remember that the pre fixed meal was $210 a person - the same amount I would make in 2 weeks working at the school cafeteria at that time. So it was scary to think about the life of ramen I was committing myself to.
So why am I taking this stroll down memory lane – mostly because I read recently that the once beacon of fine French cooking fell on hard times and will be closing this spring. This was my first taste of fine dining. Le Bec-Fin was where I really learned about what a charger was, what silver service entailed, and just the sheer elegance that a dinner could be. And most importantly – what cheese should taste like. I don’t really remember much about the food outside of being really confused on what to do with the rabbit bones in my mouth (I actually just ate the bones until someone noticed that there were no bones on my plate and to this day I am ribbed about it).
But I do remember the cheese cart. In high school, I knew that I loved cheese. When getting together with friends for lunch, we would go to our local supermarket and grab grapes, roasted chicken, a loaf of French bread, and some cheese from the deli. And I thought that was the be all and end all of amazing food. But Le Bec-Fin introduced me to camembert, humboldt fog, what parmesan that doesn’t come out of a green paper can tastes like, and just soo much more. Okay, I am now just drooling thinking about that cheese cart. And the servers there were soo nice about letting this table of young’uns try everything and explaining what we were eating.
I also remember the dessert cart as well. The amazing 3 level dessert cart of heaven. When we walked in, we passed by the dessert cart that was being served to those that were there for the earlier seating. And when we were seated in the upstairs small loft area – we were all a bit dejected thinking that we were not going to be able to see the dessert cart. But of course with service this people provide, they somehow timed for all 3 tables in the loft to get to the dessert at the same time. And they lugged the tray up. It was seriously the most amazing things I’ve seen in my life. And I remember asking if we were allowed try more than one item in a soft hushed tone, and the waiter telling us that we were allowed to ask for anything we wanted on the cart. Then he proceeded in fixing all of us our own plate of amazing sugary goodness.
Tonight I’m going to Citronelle. And I’m hoping that the food and expereince will be equally amazing and elegant as Le Bec-Fin was. My only regret about going to Le Bec-Fin was that my palate was not refined enough to really enjoy what I was eating. So let’s see how tonight goes.
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