back in october, it was brought to my attention that there was going to be a discussion with Anthony Bourdain, Jose Andres, and Michel Richard, talking about how they learned to cook:

Smithsonian Resident Associate Program
Location: US Dept. of Interior, 1849 C Street, NW (Main Entrance)

$25, general admission; $15, members; call 202-357-3030
Every chef has to learn how to cook -- whether in grandma's kitchen, at a professional culinary institute, or perhaps both. This evening, chefs Anthony Bourdain (Brasserie Les Halles in New York), Jose Andres (Jaleo, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel), and Michel Richard (Citronelle) recount their first experiences in the kitchen, the miraculous moments that made them want to cook forever, and the unexpected epiphanies that occurred just when they thought they knew it all. Book signing follows.

well, last night was the night, and i have to say, my entire night was pretty great.

cavin and i decided that it wasn't worth going home after work and going back out, so we agreed on going out for happy hour for food & drinks before, and then walking down to the department of interior (doi), which is near the mall. but since the talk began at 6:30pm and the doi is still a 6-7 block walk from the nearest metro, we needed to find a place that would cater to our early happy hour needs. so we ended up going back to taberna del alabardero for their quite awesome happy hour.

we first went to taberna back in january 2006 for our first dc restaurant week. i distinctly remember that it was just general, despite the fact that it was touted as "the best spanish restaurant outside of spain" by the spanish government, named by Washingtonian magazine's "100 very best restaurants" and was one of the "50 best restaurants in the country" by conde nast traveler, among a slew of rewards. i didn't quite agree that first time around. here is my review of the restaurant:

Taberna del Alabardero

I was a little nervous going into DC's (semiannual) Restaurant week (Jan 9-15 2006). I've been living here for almost 6 months but yet I don't feel like I've gotten a representative sense of what DCers are really like. Do DCers really know about food or do they only know about politics? If there is one thing I hate, it’s people who say food is first-rate because of the price tag, or because that's what everyone else says. I was hoping these and other questions would be answered after one week of going to DCs supposedly finest restaurants.

The first day of Restaurant Week, CB and I had reservations for the extravagantly priced Taberna del Alabardero. I thought to myself, "We should be getting a deal out of this: $30.06 per person for three courses, when usually one entree is on average around $30!" When we were seated promptly for our 5:30 reservation, the restaurant seemed moderately empty, although there were a few scattered tables throughout with other "early birders". My first impression was that TDA’s ambiance felt warm - red hued walls with white molding, candles on each table, and a red pomegranate on each of the crisp, white tablecloths. We were seated in a round corner table, with our seats being cushioned benches along the wall with pillows propped up all around us. It had been a long day, so we started off dinner with a glass of white wine to relax and get us in the mood of the supposed “best Spanish restaurant outside of Spain.” Not before long, we were given the house appetizer: aceitunas and pan con ali-oli (olives and bread with an aioli sauce). While we munched on this, we perused the menu and unfortunately noticed that the restaurant week menu dishes were not on TDA’s normal dinner menu. This was my first tip-off that perhaps we weren’t getting as good a deal as I had originally thought.

CB and I ordered everything on the restaurant week menu, to make sure that we were able to taste as many dishes we could for the price we were paying. CB ordered the Crema de Lentejas con Pato y Zanahoria (warm lentil soup with duck and carrot brounoise), while I ordered the Pastel de Puerros, Gambas y Bacon con Manojillo de la Huerta (leek, shrimp and bacon tart with field green salad). CB much enjoyed the soup – it was a bit creamy with pieces of duck throughout, while I thought the description of ‘tart’ was a little misleading. I was expecting more of a traditional tart, but instead was surprised with a pate-like dish. Even though it wasn’t what I expected, the dish was pleasant to eat – I enjoyed the jelly-like texture and the subtle flavors of leeks and shrimp, though, I didn’t seem to taste any trace of bacon in the dish. Regrettably, these dishes were the highlight of our dinner, with everything else proving to be just mediocre.

There were two choices for the second course (entrée): Salmon con Escalibada de Verduras y Vinagreta de Aceitunas (salmon with roasted vegetables and olive vinaigrette) and Lomo de Cerdo Relleno de Pimientos y Queso (Pork loin chop stuffed with cheese and peppers). Because CB doesn’t care too much for cheese, I ordered the pork, while he went with the salmon. My pork was a little bit overdone – most of the pork was a little bit dry. Although the cheese was oozing out of the pork, the cheese was mild enough to not overpower the dish, though, I do wish that there were more peppers stuffed inside. It was served with mashed potatoes and grilled yellow and green squash, which I thought had an excellent grill/smoked flavor. CB’s salmon was just ok – the olive vinaigrette was really overwhelming, and made the salmon almost taste like it had been marinating a little too long in the vinaigrette, almost reducing the salmon to a canned-tuna consistency.

Dessert was the worst, in terms of originality. The two desserts were Natillas (traditional cream custard) and Mousse de Chocolate con Crema Castanas (chocolate mousse with chestnut cream). The cream custard was served as room temperature soup, which had good flavor, but lacked anything spectacular. The mousse had so much potential, but ultimately, failed. Technically, the mousse was prepared perfectly. The chestnut cream, while having an excellent chestnut essence to it, sat at the bottom of the mousse and was devoid of any flavor if eaten with the chocolate in one bite – the chocolate mousse seemed it would have overpowered anything it was paired with.

Our total bill, including tax and gratuity, came out to be around $100 (for two people). My first thought is that I don’t think I would go to Taberna del Alabardero again. Although the service was quite good, we paid about $50 for mediocre food and I would be very angry if I had paid the normal menu prices and had a similar food experience. It is really too bad because I don’t feel like the 2006 January Restaurant week menu was characteristic of the type of cuisine normally found here. This is partly the reason why I am willing to give TDA a second chance, but this second chance probably won’t occur for some time, as I am more willing to spend money on restaurants that not only tout they are outstanding, but also deliver.

i believe my review was spot on, but i also believe that in some aspects restaurant week (RW) is amateur hour, in the sense that most people that don't normally go out to restaurants all come out from under their rocks, and so the restaurant has to cater to all these non-epicureans, perhaps not performing to its standards (but this is not always the case). also, i believe that restaurants are sometimes limited in what they serve on their RW menu, so the diner doesn't necessarily get a representative sample of what she might normally get if she visited any other time of the year (which probably was the case with my first experience with taberna).

so it was about 6 months later that we finally decided to give taberna another try, be it only for the happy hour special. and i think it was the service, the spectacular sangria, the authentic (half price!) tapas and the dignified atmosphere that keep us coming back for more. unlike most happy hour places, taberna isn't filled with college-aged kids trying to get their "pre-game" booze on before they move on to bigger and better things. it is really a refined establishment, and every time i go, be it for dinner or happy hour (i've gone 4 times now), i really do feel like i've been transported out of dc and am sitting in another country. the past two times we've gone, we've sat next to non-english speaking tables and i actually feel more at home in an atmosphere like this, rather than one where i can overhear the rowdy table of young professionals bragging about how they hooked up with so and so, and how the party this weekend is going to be so "kick ass".

but, this is not a review of taberna. i just wanted to make it known that despite my first visit to taberna, each successive time i've gone has been more fantastic, last night being no exception. (oh, and did i mention that their happy hour is from 3-7pm? you gotta love the spaniards!)

after we got our fill of salmon marinado con esparragos (marinated salmon with white asparagus), tostada de escalibada y bonito (country toast bread, roasted vegetables and bonita tuna), and falda con patatas alabardero (certified angus beef flank steak with house potatoes), and of course the $12 pitcher of sangria, we headed down to the doi.

it took us a little bit longer than expected to walk down there because it had been storming all day and the leaves were quite slick, thus causing me to walk a bit more slowly. so we didn't arrive until 10 minutes before the event started. as soon as we walked in though, the auditorium was at least 80% filled to capacity. we were able to locate two seats on the left side, pretty far back, maybe 30 rows back from the stage. (i'd say that the auditorium holds about 500 people?)

colman andrews was the moderator, and started by introducing the chefs, one by one, as they came out on the stage. i knew it was going to be a great discussion because as soon as jose andres came out, he was carrying a plate of food, as well as a bottle of wine that the three chefs were to drink throughout the 1.5 hour discussion.

c.andrews started off the discussion asking the chefs how they first started getting into cooking. m.richard noted that he had many siblings and would be the cook for the family when his mother would be out working. when he was merely a teen in france, his mother would give him 2 dollars for him to buy food for the family, and he would make horse steaks and make fries in the horse fat. a.bourdain, of course, started off as a dishwasher, living the party lifestyle of a chef, until he realized that he loved what he was doing and wanted to move ahead.

i had pulled out some paper to write notes to cavin during the discussion instead of talking and making noise (it was already hard to hear j.andres and his spanish accent). there must have been some sort of telepathy because immediately after cavin wrote, "i want someone to ask if they like rachel ray," a.bourdain starts going on a rant about rachel ray (and sandra lee, later on). it's pretty clear that a.bourdain, and j.andres (not so sure about m.richard, though) despise rachel ray. my favorite quote of the night came from a.bourdain regarding rachel ray's $40 a day show, and how she is able to eat 3 meals a day on such a low budget. "try tipping, bitch!" was his emphatic reponse, and the crowd erupted in cheers! it was great to be in a room full of rachel ray haters.

colman andrews prepared some great questions. here are some of them and the chef's responses:

which ingredient have you never used in your cooking?
MR: "cilantro"
AB: "i won't use white truffle oil again" (?)
JA: "anything not from spain"

what 3 ingredients would you take with you if you were on a deserted island?
MR: "prosciutto, bread, butter"
AB: "pig, toro, butter, salt" (yes, this is four)
JA: "spanish cheese, crackers, wine"

colman also asked the chefs what other career (non-food) would they be in if they weren't a chef. a.bourdain's answer was best, "the bass player of parliament funkadelic!"

one last highlight was when colman asked a series of either/or questions. "martha stewart or nigella lawson?" (duh!) all three chefs agreed nigella lawson, and showed their love for the voluptuous woman! apparently everyone loves nigella, as a.bourdain recounted a story about how he and a bunch of other male chefs were trying to gross her out by telling her weird things they've eaten. they fell in love with her more when nigella said that she had eaten an aborted pig fetus.

after the discussion and the audience questions, the chefs sat down in the front of the auditorium, ready to sign the books of the many people standing in line, which wrapped around the side of the room. i checked out the books, but i wasn't in the market for a new food book (i just bought molly steven's the art of braising.) so cavin and i left and caught a cab home. (oh, and apparently cavin informed me when we got home that the cab driver violated some law where he/she cannot ask the prospective riders their destination before getting into the cab. cavin got the cab driver's id number and reported him.)

it was a great evening, and i only regret not going up to the mic and asking the chefs if they thought it was necessary that one get a culinary degree to make it in the business (i was thinking of myself, naturally).

Labels: event, wine