Fabulous Fried Chicken

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We waited three years for this. And it was worth the wait.

Finally!

It took us all of three years, but on a recent Monday night, we did it. We made it up to Yountville for Ad Hoc’s fabled fried chicken night.

Since opening its doors in 2006, Ad Hoc’s simple, family-style, four-course, $49 per person set-menu has drawn raves, particularly for a few specific dishes. Sure, there’s the sous vide-cooked short ribs that are otherworldly tender. There’s the first-course salad, made with greens grown across the street at the French Laundry garden, that’s blessed with a sweet-from-the-earth flavor you’ll never forget. Then, there is the fried chicken.

When fried chicken is done by Chef Thomas Keller, you expect it to be something special. The tricky part is that it’s not always available. Indeed, the fried chicken is on the nightly menu only every other Monday. In other words, your chances of trying it are only twice a month. And when it’s available, people turn out in droves for it.

Rightly so.

I admit that I try not to give into fried chicken for the same reasons most diet-conscious women do. But when you’re married to Meat Boy, who never met anything fried he didn’t want to inhale, well, so much for counting calories. He’d been waiting a long time to try this particular chicken. He’d even taken a day off of work to do it. He’d skipped one of his night classes, too. But I’m sure his instructor will cut him some slack. It’s fried chicken, after all.

Hearts of romaine with avocado and green goddess dressing.

Dinner began with one of those amazing salads — whole hearts of romaine, strewn with shaved red onions, pickled radishes, spiced pecans and avocado wedges. It was dressed with creamy green goddess dressing.

Next, came the chicken — six pieces for just the two of us, piled high on a platter. The skin was battered with a rippling, mahogany crust. It audibly crunched as you took a bite. The flesh was so moist, juicy and tender, you barely had to chew. The chicken is brined overnight in salt, lemon, herbs, and honey. The next day, it’s dipped in buttermilk, then dredged in flour, and fried to perfection. Food & Wine magazine once featured the recipe for those who want to try recreating it at home.

We’re talking some pretty dang good chicken.

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Duck, Duck, Chefs

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The Fifth Annual Duckathlon

Over the years as a food writer, I’ve had the pleasure of judging many a food competition.

I’ve critiqued a gingerbread house contest, untold cookie exchanges, an apple pie baking battle (twice), a nursing home food cook-off, the short-lived TV series “Food Fight,” and even the $1 million Pillsbury Bake-Off.

But nothing quite prepared me for the Duckathlon.

Say what??!

My thoughts exactly.

Like me, you probably haven’t heard of it because it’s super secret. Indeed, this only-in-New York rencounter is by invitation-only. As a food writer in town for the James Beard awards gala, I was invited to be a part of it. I was told I couldn’t tell anyone ahead of time that I was involved with it. I was just supposed to report to HQ (“headquarters” to you non-James Bond-ians) at mid-day May 3. It was all so hush-hush.

HQ turned out to be Chelsea Market. And if you haven’t guessed by now, the Duckathlon is a culinary competition — if Monty Python or Ben Stiller came up with it.

Team Le Cercle Rouge, last year's grand champions get into the spirit.

This rather bawdy, zany, tongue-in-cheek event was created by Ariane Daguine of D’Artagnan, the foie gras and specialty meat purveyor. Teams of chefs from some of New York’s most celebrated restaurants don wacky costumes to pit their culinary skills against one another in all manner of crazy contests staged throughout the Meatpacking District. Trust me, you’ve never seen the likes of this.

Le Cirque team member participating in "flock around the clock'' obstacle course while balancing plastic duck on a spoon.

This was the fifth year of the Duckathlon. The first one was held on a lark in 2005 as a way to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary, and to foster relationships with restaurants. It proved such a hit with chefs that it’s been held ever since. Because after all, chefs are the ultimate competitors. They are warriors in whites. They are a force to be reckoned with. And if beer is at all involved, you can count on them being there.

So did these teams prepare for hours and hours in the kitchen beforehand?

Not exactly.

“I didn’t train at all,” says Chris “The Wedge” Lim, chef de cuisine of BLT Steak. “We’re all still drunk from the night before.”

“I did push-ups and sit-ups,” says Lauren Hirschberg, chef de cuisine of Craft Bar. “And 30 minutes of cardio.”

“I was speaking to ducks a lot,” quipped (or quacked) Thea Williamson, head of work in education for Team Gracie.

Don't try this at home.

One of the most memorable challenges was “So Long, Saucisson.” Above, Celso Moreira, operations manager, of China Grill, wears a bra and hoop skirt, while trying to dunk a sausage suspended from a string into a metal can below that he can’t see. He was a natural at it.

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Bravo to Bardessono

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Roasted striped bass with swiss chard, grapefruit, and balsamic.

Bardessono may be the newest hotel to open its doors in bucolic Yountville.

But it’s quite unlike any other.

This luxurious eco-resort, which opened in February, sits on five acres of gardens and vineyards. The 62-room hotel features a “green spa” that is heated and cooled by an underground geothermal system. Doors, tables, and other furnishings are made of sustainable, hand-milled and reclaimed woods. The hotel hopes to garner a LEED platinum-rating for environmental responsibility.

Granted, not everyone will be able to afford to check into one of the posh suites that start at about $500 a night that feature outdoor rain showers, and bathrooms as large as the main bedroom areas. More folks, however, might be able to splurge on dinner at the resort’s restaurant, overseen by Executive Chef  Sean O’Toole, formerly group operations chef for Michael Mina’s 14 restaurants.

A perfect Tomales Bay oyster on the half shell.

Yours truly was invited recently to try the serene restaurant, done up in soft earth tones, and towering windows that slide open to the main courtyard. On a Sunday night, there were only a handful of diners at the 93-seat restaurant. And that’s a shame because O’Toole’s food was just flawless.

In keeping with the resort’s philosophy, ingredients are sourced locally. There’s even a garden on site, where O’Toole can have his pick from a bevy of herbs, produce, and fruit trees.

Lobster-like spot prawn in a sea of green almond gazpacho.

The chef’s tasting menu, five courses with a couple of amuse bouches to start, is $85 per person. There’s a lightness to O’Toole’s cooking, which marries well with the setting.

Flavors pop and linger on the palate. The skin on the striped bass was crisp as a potato chip, and the flesh meltingly tender. The spot prawn floating in the gazpacho was tender, and meaty like lobster. Its accompanying tiny green almonds (immature nuts that have yet to develop a hard shell) looked like translucent pumpkin seeds, and had a delicate flavor and an almost soft, grape-like texture inside. And the gnocchi, which O’Toole makes in small batches with potatoes put through a ricer, were the most ethereal I’d ever had.

Gnocchi so light it does nearly melt in your mouth.

O’Toole’s wife, Cynthia, the assistant food and beverage director, pairs her husband’s dishes with spot-on wines.

Here’s what I enjoyed:

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Apricots — In the Evening (Part 2)

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Do mix fruit with your poultry. Just do it.

I know a woman who turns up her nose at vegetables in baked goods. Sweet potato pie and pumpkin cheesecake would never touch her lips.

No doubt, she’d push her plate away at fruit tucked into savory dishes, too.

If only she knew what she was missing.

Apples with Cornish game hens. Pears with pork. Duck with cherries.

And of course, apricots with chicken.

There’s just something magical about the slightly sweet, softly rounded flavors of fruit in a main dish.

“Sara’s Persian Chicken” perfumes chicken thighs with cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, saffron, and dried apricots. It’s akin to a classic chicken tagine, but this recipe from “Braises and Stews” (Chronicle Books) by Tori Ritchie takes a little less effort and time.

I love to serve it with couscous. Just follow the directions on the box of your favorite brand of quick-cooking couscous. I like to cook it with chicken broth instead of water. Sometimes I’ll throw in a pinch of saffron, or not. After it’s cooked, and has steamed to a fluffy texture, I’ll add half of a chopped preserved lemon, some minced chives, and a handful of toasted pine nuts. For a more substantial side dish, stir in some canned, rinsed and drained chickpeas, too, if you like.

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Apricots — In the Morning (Part 1)

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Memories of dried apricots.

Whenever I bite down on a baked good bursting with orange flecks of sweet-tart, chewy dried apricots, I can’t help but think of family road trips.

It makes me think of a time, ensconced in the back seat of my parents’ car, when I’d get all giddy as we pulled into the parking lot of the original Nut Tree in Vacaville. It was the perfect spot to take a break on trips to Sacramento to visit family friends or to Lake Tahoe, where my family used to rent a cabin in the summer. You could fill up on lunch, beverages, or even take a mini train ride. What it meant most to me, though, was getting my hands on a loaf of apricot nut bread.

You’d find the tea cake loaves stacked on a counter, wrapped in paper and plastic, and tied with a fuzzy string of orange yarn the same color as the apricots. There was a date nut bread, and a blueberry one, too. But my family’s favorite was always the apricot.

We’d buy a loaf — or two — and carry it home, where we’d enjoy a slice for breakfast, dessert, or an anytime snack. It was tender, moist, crunchy with nuts, and bursting with tanginess here and there from the pieces of stone fruit. It’s remains my first — and fondest — memory of dried apricots.

Back then, a car trip was something special, as plane tickets for a working-class family of five were a stretch. I guess that’s why dried apricots inexplicably make me think not only of family, but of adventures and travel, sort of like my own edible Eurail pass.

The Nut Tree closed long ago. Although there’s now a Nut Tree Theme Park, I’ve never stopped at it. And I doubt the nut bread is still part of the repertoire.

Flaky, buttery apricot scones.

You could say that “Apricot Flaky Scones” from Flo Braker’s “Baking for All Occasions” (Chronicle Books) cookbook are not at all like a Nut Tree nut bread. They aren’t, except for the fact that they do have jewels of dried apricot pieces throughout a crispy exterior and a fluffy, buttery interior. They also have nuts — in this case, pistachios. Like my nut bread of yore, the scones also are not overly sweet, making them a nice way to start the day without an over-bearing load of sugar.

Braker gives precise directions for folding the dough into thirds like a business letter, so that the scones end up slightly puffed and layered inside. And they do. She says to cut them into thin, small wedges to create 14 scones. I like my scones a little wider, so I cut the dough into a dozen instead.

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