Fine Dining Porn: Langdon Hall -- UPDATED WITH CURED ALBACORE TUNA PORN

Foodies,

Fellow board member Jay Shampur and I and our oft-mentioned friend Michael Wright (not Grammer as I initially posted) finally ventured out to Langdon Hall this past Saturday after a delay from the initial plan from August.

We arrived at 7 PM and after champagne and cocktails, we sat down to the most incredible 5 hour ten item tasting course menu I have ever had in my life. Wait a minute, I’ve never had a 5 hour ten item tasting course menu in my life before other than the one I made myself. This was a truly incredible experience put on by executive chef Jason Bangerter who really went out of his way for us. I’m going to take you through each and every single item individually.

The Mise en Bouche was a bite-size dollop of chicken liver mousse topped with an heirloom vegetable chip. No pic unfortunately. Once this was out of the way, it was time to really dig in.


CAVIAR – Fresh beluga caviar sitting on top of a fresh buttermilk panna cotta flavored with fennel and lime. I would never have thought to pair the flavors of buttermilk and caviar but they work perfectly together.

TERROIR SALAD – Made entirely of foraged leaves from the Langdon Hall grounds themselves all sitting on a cold pressed Canola sorbet that you can’t see in the pic. See that orange dot? Emulsified homemade infused wine vinegar. Mix the sorbet, greens and emulsified vinegar together and you have your salad. The plate shows a picture of a farmer’s hands holding the food he has grown with. The back of the plate has the back of his hands.

SLOW COOKED SCALLOP – a slow roasted scallop sitting on Jerusalem Artichoke and Leek puree served with a tea and herb smoked honey.

Now because Jay does not eat red meat or foie gras, the chef had fun with the next three courses, all of which were individually tailored to each of us:

CURED FOIE GRAS – I had a cured foie gras with quince butter and cranberry and a side of roasted marinated pork belly.

POACHED FOIE GRAS – Michael had a poached foie gras with more vegetable chips, autum candied cashews, butternut squash puree and cranberry gelee

ROASTED HALIBUT – Jay had a finely roasted halibut with broccoli, preserved peppers, garlic crisps and a shellfish reduction sauce. One of the finest halibut dishes I have ever had. Unfortunately, Jay keeps neglecting to tell these chefs that he doesn’t care for halibut. Resulting, Michael and I got to finish off most of it. (Pardon the incorrect photo title, this is in fact Halibut. Albacore is coming later)

WILD MUSHROOM CAPPUCINO – If you have ever seen Canadian chef Bob Blumer’s show on the Food Network in the US or Canada, then you know his specialty is humourous fine food where he cooks both comfort and upscale quality food but then has fun disguising it as a completely different food item. This was the first of two such items and has a special story behind it to boot.

This item came about when a pair of customers who met Jason when he was cooking in England challenged him not only to make something off of the menu, but one that would tell them a story about himself.

This inspired him and he recalled a time where he made what he thought was a simple and standard mushroom truffle risotto at Buckingham Palace. The person who ordered and ate it, however, ended up turning out to be the Queen herself! She raved about it the table, thus causing a small furor and he was hired back at another event… this time, all 200 guests ordering the Risotto that the Queen had raved about at the previous function.

Based on this fond memory, he created a soup that had all the exact same flavors and then had fun disguising it as a “Cappucino” coffee. Needless to say, I would have loved to try his risotto.

This was a wild mushroom and truffle soup which was then topped with chanterelle infused milk foam, “fairy ring dust” (freeze-dried powdered wild mushrooms), and dried caribou moss. The Parmesan flavor came in the form of a Parmesan shortbread where he simply substituted all the sugar in a standard shortbread cookie for finely grated aged Parmesan instead.

HERB & FLOWER SMOKED PIGEON – This extremely complex dish requires chef Jason to smoke the entire pigeon bird despite only serving the breast and leg. The meat of one leg is actually removed from the bone, minced and seasoned, wrapped around the thigh meat of the other leg, and then rolled back up into one leg bone and skin to form a sausage with the bone still in it. The breast slice is served on its own beside the leg. Fermented blackberries, Swiss Chard, and smoked pigeon bone jus are served on the side.

PAN SEARED CHICKEN IN MADERA JUS – Jays’ main was perfectly pan seared chicken sitting in some tasty Madera wine jus. It was cooked so well it actually tasted like tender duck, I had to check that it was in fact chicken.

BEEF CHEEK – The main for Michael and myself was some braised beef cheek along with roasted kale, leek puree, beetroot, and bone marrow.

LOCAL MILK MASCARPONE – Now came our desserts and the first was the second disguised dish. At first, it looks like just a large macaron. What’s so special about that?

Nothing… except that it’s actually a Pavlova dessert made of two minature dacquoise shells facing each other and sandwiching some fresh whipped marscapone cheese made by a local dairy farmer and red wine gelee. Very clever and due to a lack of buttercream and ground almonds, much lighter than a macaron actually would be. I would never had thought of a macaron as a “heavy” dessert before, but I certainly do now after this.

ELDERFLOWER GELÉE – This very cute dessert was chef Jason having fun with molecular gastronomy. He uses it to create Elderflower jellies that are still liquid inside, held together by only the thinnest shell of jelly on the outside. These are his version of the old Fruit Gushers snack and they’re sitting in a bowl of chammomile infused milk. We actually found the milk unnecessary, the dessert was so fun, and found ourselves wishing he had made more “gushers” with other fruit juices for fun.

The meal ended with a generous tray of petit fours. Unfortunately, I only got two of them because chef Jason appeared to take us on a tour of his kitchen which very much surprised his staff. The Hall has a three floor kitchen – you read that correctly – and over 40 kitchen staff. Basement floor is their in-house bakery, ground floor is the kitchen and prep, top floor is the pastry and dessert making kitchen.

Overall a truly amazing life experience. I want to move into Langdon Hall now and stage in the kitchen. We will be back in the Spring.

You meant to say Michael Wright

I was unable to accompany the boys on this trip, but the food does look fantastic. I hope to join you in the spring when you go back. I’m presuming the service was of a similarly high quality?

bravo,

Mike

Service was excellent. The only other upscale place I’ve ever been to in my life that had equal service is Moishe’s in Old Montreal. Extremely attentive, not a thing out of place or an error to complain about. Sommelier definitely knew his stuff as well. Both the chef and the somm gave us all a great compliment when they told us they thought that we were in the business (technically I was as a teenager) based on the way we were conversing with them and were surprised when we told them we were not. Even then we were still given the complimentary kitchen tour above based upon my conversation with the chef.

Oh yes, the wines.

So we ordered a Domaine Tempier 2010 Bandol Blanc and an 07 Nicolas Joly. The Joly was sold out so we let the Sommelier pick a white for us. More on that later

Domaine Tempier 2010 Bandol Blanc – The Bandol was a white wine blend comprised of 60% Clairette with a combination of Ugni blanc, Bourboulenc and a little Marsanne per their website. This was oddly intriguing as I associate Clairette with the sweet Clairette de Die, Ugni Blanc with Cognac, Marsanne with rich white Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc and I’ve never heard of Bourboulenc before.

The wine caused an interesting discussion in that I was strongly associating it with Alsacian Pinot Gris and Jay was associating it with Sauvignon Blanc minus the cat pee i.e. a very good Sancerre.

This was actually quite complex with strong flavors, a touch of smoke, melong flavors, gentle herbaciousness and a touch of creamy mouthfeel. I started to see Jay’s point of view while drinking and that’s when I realized how complex the wine truly was.

Personally, I don’t think this is something I’d buy but I appreciate the complexity of the very interesting blend. I was certainly happy to partake of it.

François Villard 2008 Condrieu, Les Terrasses du Palat – This 100% Viognier based wine is fermented for 6 months with a stirring once every week and then rested 11 months on its lees in 20% new barrels and 80% 3-5 year old barrels.

The end result is a complete winner. A creamy mouthfeel reminiscent of a Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc, a toasty but not overpowering lees flavor accents very fragrant aromas and flavors of white peaches and violet flowers. Just a touch flinty as well. It’s like a much better version of a Chardonnay wine.

This said, I could see how this would not sit well with true Chard fanatics as it is extremely light in comparison to well-made flinty Montrachets and Chablis wines. And as someone who likes Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc, this came off as a lighter more one-dimensional version of one. Now as it turns out, I love botrytis-affected Viognier so it’s interesting seeing the roots of that type of wine’s flavors. This is the second Condrieu from the same maker that I’ve had with Jay and I have enjoyed both very much.

BTW, if you look at Mr. Villard’s website, Condrieu is one of his specialties. It definitely shows. WOTN for me. Intriguingly, Jay and Michael seemed to enjoy the Bandol much more whereas I stopped drinking it the moment I tasted the Condrieu. Interesting contrast of palates there. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

BTW, we were also given a complimentary small splash of a Marsanne/Rousanne blended wine to start before all food arrived tow het our appetites. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a pic of the bottle which was opened and removed immediately from the table. No issue there, we didn’t order it and it was a gift so we weren’t expecting them to leave the bottle. We believe it may have been the Eric Texier 2001 Roussanne Brezeme but aren’t entirely sure as the website says it is 100% Roussanne and the sommelier distinctly told us it was a Marsanne/Rousanne blend we were having. Whatever it was, it was very reminiscent of the Clos St. Jean 2011 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc I raved about earlier this year.

Sorry about that lack of info but someone coughJaycough and their crappy new Empire of Evil Apple iPhone 6 forgot to snap a pic. However, he did snap all the pics above so I’ll have to let it go.

Whoa kids, I forgot one dish: Jay also had a a citrus lemongrass herb cured albacore tuna topped with radish slices and baby greens. This was a cool and delicious play on a Scandinavian Gravalax. The tuna was cured with 2/3 sugar and 1/3 salt (which is contrary to the 50-50 mix that is standard for Gravlax as the chef informed us). The aromatics used instead of the standard fresh dill weed were lemongrass stalks, coriander, citrus zest (lemon, lime and orange but not grapefruit), star anise, a whackload of herbs (dill, chervil, basil, mint, and cilantro) and peppercorns.

Also unlike standard Gravalax, the fish was cured for a mere hour so as to let the fresh albacore tuna flavors take the main stage. Jay had this while Michael and I had the Beef Cheek.

Good post Tran. Love Langdon. Our group has done a few dinners there. Well thought out dishes. Immaculate plating. Everything is at least good but usually fantastic. Decent wine program and they do corkage. What’s not to like?

Haven’t had the blanc from Tempier, that would be an interesting experience for sure.

Happy you liked the Villard. My bottle of the 2008 is up to bat for WineFest IV in a couple years as part of the all-Viognier table, thanks for checking in on it.

Mike