AfterTaste (by Sherry)

My apologies for having disappeared for over a week. There’s just too much to report.

The Roth Hall I’ll be mentioning a million times

I recently returned from an all too brief trip to the beautiful Hudson Valley with Matt for our one year anniversary (as my boyfriend, remember, not husband). This is my excuse for having not updated my blog in so long. It was a fantastic trip that perfectly melded my passion and his. We ate at the famous Culinary Institute of America three times and toured its beautiful campus (my passion, obviously). In between meals, we went to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Museum twice and toured FDR’s house (Matt’s passion). We also did a wine tasting at the lovely Rivendell Winery near New Paltz, NY (our passion).

It’ll take me forever to detail the trip in full, so I decided to cut all the food related parts down into concise bullet point style descriptions (and even then, it’s taken me three days to write this).

Day 1:

• Wine Tasting at Rivendell Winery: $10 bought you a tasting of 5 different wines on their extensive list. Not all the wines offered were Rivendell wines, but they were all wines made in NY state. We ended up buying 4 bottles, two bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon for Matt, a bottle of Rivendell Riesling for me, and a bottle of Pinot Noir for our dinner at the Buttermilk Falls Inn. Since we spent more than $50, we got $10 back. Sweet. Total = $75
• Dinner at A. Escoffier at the Culinary Institute of America: Entering Roth Hall where the restaurant is located was a little disorienting at first. There I was, dressed in a beautiful black wrap dress walking into what looked exactly like my college’s campus center (not necessarily a terrible thing considering Princeton has a great campus center, but still). At the end of a hallway to the left is the French restaurant where students do the waiting, hosting, and cooking. When or if you go, make sure to go with an open mind and a relaxed, magnanimous attitude. Our waiter repeatedly referred to us as “guys” in a soft, meek whisper, as in “Heeeyyy, guysss…would you like to start off with a cocktail?”. I wore a bemused smile on my face for most of the meal as the waiters awkwardly attempted to unveil our dishes simultaneously (accompanied by a completely unnecessary, yet endearing “voila!” from both gentlemen). We watched, sighing sympathetically, as the waitress at the table next to ours messed up the order of bananas foster made table side and had to retreat sheepishly into the kitchen for some new bananas. I had a delicious and light crab salad dotted with candied walnuts and garnished with celeriac and a cylinder of apple jelly for my appetizer and a sirloin steak with sauteed mushrooms for a main course. The crab tasted just a teeny bit fishy, but there certainly was a lot of it and the pairing of the crab with the apple and sweet walnuts was brilliant. The steak, sitting in a puddle of red wine sauce, was delicious, although cooked more medium-well than the medium-rare I had asked for. Also, if you go, make sure to ask for a table in the room with a large arched window overlooking the kitchen. At first, we felt it strangely eerie, like a human aquarium of sorts with toques instead of fins, bright shiny copper pots instead of coral reefs. But after awhile, also much like an aquarium, we found it a relaxing place to rest our eyes in between conversations. For dessert, the flourless chocolate cake was more like a small dome of flourless chocolate cake covered in chocolate mousse, enrobed in chocolate, and then ringed with tiny pebbles of dark chocolate (which became lodged in my throat for the remainder of the evening, no matter). The flourless portion provided density and depth and the mousse provided the balancing lightness to create pure chocolate perfection. To go with it all, we had a wonderfully fruity Pinot Noir from the Finger Lakes region. Total (excluding tax and tip) = $153

Side Note: I just read the above review to Matt who said, “not exactly a ringing endorsement” to which I replied, “it’s not meant to be.” And it’s not; however, if you are a food/cooking/chef/eating/dining/restaurant-obsessed fool such as myself, it is undoubtedly worth the experience of visiting at least one of the CIA’s fancier establishments (A. Escoffier, Caterina di Medici, or American Bounty) and seeing how they operate for yourself.

Day 2:

• Breakfast at Our Inn, Buttermilk Falls: We had a terrific breakfast in the solarium of our inn. With only two choices on the menu, one sweet, one savory, making the decision was easy. Matt had the baked oatmeal with a strawberry yogurt sauce and I had an omelette with impossibly ripe cherry tomatoes (no idea where they found those in the dead of winter), avocado, and parmigiano cheese. Both were served with thick cut, maple glazed bacon. Excellent way to start the day.
• Lunch at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe: We ended up going to this bakery twice in all because it was so fantastic and reasonably priced. So much more than a bakery, it has a wide selection of delectable cold sandwiches, panini, pizzas, salads, and gelato in addition to its breads, pastries, and desserts, all served in a beautifully bricked, warm setting rife with apple-themed decor. My reuben panini was the best reuben I’ve ever had, the fact that it wasn’t an authentic reuben forgiven. First off, it was served on lightly oiled and pressed sourdough, not greasy rye toast. The Russian dressing was served on the side with only mustard on the sandwich. The ratio of lean, lean corned beef to sauerkraut and Swiss cheese was impeccably balanced. Matt was justifiably envious. Not that he had anything to complain about, he had a refreshing turkey and gruyere cheese sandwich topped with cucumbers, avocado, and a chipotle mayo. I did catch him eying my reuben though. I offered to switch sandwich halves, but the stubborn boy he is, he refused. Total (excluding tax) = $18.75
• Tour of the Culinary Institute of America: Our tour began in Roth Hall, the same building A. Escoffier (and American Bounty and the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe) is located in. Our friendly and knowledgeable, yet nervous, tour guide, Beryl, was a student who had enrolled in June of 2006. Being the off season, there were only three of us on the tour, which gave me the opportunity to riddle the poor boy with tons of questions, all of which he answered thoroughly. As he hopped from foot to foot and attempted to shrug off a coat he wasn’t wearing, awkward Beryl told us about the block system for scheduling and classes, and  gave us a history of the school itself. He showed us a produce class in session studying pears and elaborated on the steps each student has to go through in order to graduate. Beryl also told us how much butter they use per week in the entire institute (including at the restaurants). I’ll spare you the suspense: over 4,000 lbs. He led us past the kitchen windows of the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe and the “Mass Quantities” kitchen, as well as a slew of baking kitchens. One was working on braided breads that afternoon, another on individualized mini desserts. As we paused at one of the kitchen windows, the chef instructor spotted us and popped out of the room. “Allo! Ah you ‘ungryy?” he asked us, in a strong French accent. We all answered in the affirmative and he told us to wait right there. Ten minutes later, two students came out bearing four large slices of apple tart with dollops of creme anglaise. It was the best apple tart I’ve ever had. Total (excluding free dessert) = $5/person
• Dinner at Buttermilk Falls: The dinner at our inn was included in our package. After our fab breakfast, I had high expectations. These expectations were met…in a way. The quality of the food was top-notch, but the quantity left something to be desired. Now I understand that in America today portions are out of control, but three ravioli as a main course? Come now. The innkeepers had emailed the menu to me ahead of time and told me to respond with our choices. I had a house salad, scallop ravioli, and the apple crisp. Matt had the smoked potato soup, lamb chops with cabbage, and was supposed to have the creme brulee, but something had gone wrong with the oven so they gave him the apple crisp too. To start the meal, the innkeeper gave us a plate of toasted bread with a spicy tomato relish whose sweet tang went perfectly with a smear of butter and a sprinkle of salt. My house salad was good, but not extraordinary in any way, just some mesclun greens, bell peppers, and a honey vinaigrette (honey from their own hives). The potato soup (with potatoes from their own garden) was hearty with a nice texture, but contained perhaps a smidgen too much salt. As for my paltry ravioli, I really do wish there had been more of them. They were delicious, served in a Riesling butter sauce. The scallop appeared to have been seared before being placed whole in the ravioli. The flavors of the scallop and Riesling made the dish incomparably delicate, but the pasta managed to lend it some much needed heft. Matt had two little lamb chops with a pile of braised red cabbage and leeks. The cabbage was well seasoned and was a great side dish for the tender lamb chops, but, again, he wished there had been two (or three) more lamb chops. Crunchy from the crumb topping, tender from the cooked apples, sweet, and tart, it was one of the more well balanced apple crisps I’ve encountered. Maybe because it was slung in a mug with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Day 3:

• Breakfast at the Inn: After the delicious breakfast the first morning, I was looking forward to seeing what they had to offer us the next day. French toast and scrambled eggs with havarti were on the menu, both served with chicken sausage. Now, having just written my post about scrambled eggs, I’ll admit, I was nervous about ordering the eggs, but this woman was a wonder with her spatula and pan. The eggs were just as they should be: salty, creamy, light, fluffy, and cheesy. It even inspired me to try using havarti next time, a decidedly unexpected twist. The unbelievably delicious and complexly flavored chicken sausages, split down the middle and grilled, were garlicky, crusty from the grilling, and meaty in a mild way that left no doubt as to whether the sausage was actually made from chicken or not.
• Lunch at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe (again): We had to return to the cafe because Matt was hellbent on ordering the reuben for himself this time, but he changed his mind at the last minute. He ordered the gruyere grilled cheese and cream of tomato soup combo while I had a pizza margherita and cream of tomato soup. When our food arrived, he eagerly dove into the soup. “Well? How is it?” I asked. “It’s good! Um, it tastes like…pizza sauce.” I tried it. It indeed tasted a little like pizza sauce, but the best pizza sauce you’ve ever had. There didn’t seem to be much cream which, while unexpected, was very much appreciated after all the eating we had been doing. It was neither too tart nor too sweet, not too garlicky or too bland. I would call it one of the better tomato soups I’ve ever had with no need for any additional salt or pepper. Calling it a “cream of” soup was a bit of a stretch though. The gruyere sandwich was a pressed panini on sourdough, the same sourdough I had had the previous day in the reuben, and the same sourdough that I ultimately bought a loaf of and took home where I proceeded to make five more panini over the course of a few days (not all for me). As for the pizza, it was tasty, but nothing spectacularly special. On my way out, in addition to the loaf of sourdough, I bought my sister the “It’s not an Oreo” Oreo cookie consisting of soft, chewy, smooth chocolate cookie and impossibly thick, creamy white frosting. Total (excluding tax, bread, and cookie for sister) = $21.20

After our tour of the CIA, I popped into the gift/book shop right at the entrance to Roth Hall. In there I perused the large cookbook selection in the back, the kitchen tools they sold (everything you’d need to stock a complete kitchen from knives to pots and pans to spatulas and baking sheets), and CIA souvenirs (teddy bears dressed in chef jackets and toques). I was deciding between a CIA sweatshirt and a souvenir mug when I spotted it, what I now refer to as “the Bible,” the perfect little piece of the CIA that I could take home with me: the 8th Edition of The Professional Chef, the official CIA textbook issued to every student ($70). This tome is over 1200 pages and weighs approximately 8 lbs. Its hard cover looks like hammered copper and the pages are dotted with helpful photographs. The book details every aspect of being a professional chef from knife skills to proper equipment, from food safety to restaurant management, and includes over 600 recipes for everything from paella to the five “mother sauces” (tomato, Hollandaise, Bechamel, Veloute, and brown sauce).

The trip was a fabulous experience and I would recommend it to anyone with a spare weekend and a love of food. Although seeing the students at the CIA pursuing dreams similar to mine was painful, it only made me yearn to jump head first into the culinary industry more; not as a chef (although I almost clubbed a CIA student to steal her jacket and toque in order to pose as one), but…as something. I’ll figure it out. Until then, there’s always tours and meals at the Culinary Institute.