March 2014 Farm and Vine Dinner at the Ocean House
It was an elegant and outrageously fun evening at the March 2014 Farm and Vine Dinner held at the grand Victorian Ocean House in Watch Hill, RI. The word grand certainly describes the magnificent furnishings and decor of the Ocean House. When you enter it’s as though you existed in a different era of time…it’s quite a wonderful feeling. At the Farm and Vine Dinner the teamwork was impeccable from the food servers, the staff at The Ocean House, Chef Jean-Francois Bruel and John Williams, the wine maker. All with a warm and sincere welcome throughout the whole evening!
It began with Frogs Leap, Chardonnay, Napa Valley 2012 and hors d’oeuvres consisting of rabbit porchetta, wild mushroom pomponette, and Plymouth Rock Oysters with sea urchin custard…what a way to start the evening! Considering I love uni and oysters so much you can guess which was my favorite. We then sat for the next three courses and John Williams the wine maker from Stags Leap introduced each pairing to us at every course. He was entertaining, engaging and informative about wine and the history behind it.
The next pairing John took us through was a Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley 2012. This went with the first course which was a sea scallop ceviche made with celery, blood orange, and pickled Buddha hand lemon. And on to the Four Story Farm Avian Poularde cooked sous-vide style giving the bird a moist and creamy texture that just melted in your mouth.
The Mast Brothers Smoked Chocolate desserts, chocolate cremeux, chocolate sable with a salted pecan-crown maple syrup ice cream was the perfect way to end this gourmet evening. And my favorite wines of the evening were the reds a 1999 Merlot, Napa Valley and a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley both Frogs Leap, and as he said they were perfectly ready!
For the grand finally, Janice McEachen, the Ocean house food forager and director of culinary education who was also lovely to meet, introduced Chef Jean-Francois Bruel, his sous and dessert chefs to all of us. Then it was a meet and greet with them and also John the wine maker where everyone mingled and talked some more eventually moseying on over to the bar area for Irish coffees! I highly recommend trying to catch the next Farm and Vine in May. See the links below for events and dates. If after reading my restaurant review you like the idea of a ceviche then try my sea scallop ceviche.
Farm + Vine Dinner
with
CHEF JEAN-FRANÇOIS BRUEL
Passed Hors D’ Oeuvres
Four Story Hill Farm Rabbit Porchetta with Orleans Mustard
Plymouth Rock Oysters with Sea Urchin Custard, Caviar Lime
First
Nantucket Bay Scallops
ceviche with blood orange
Second
Four Story Hill Farm Avian Poularde
swiss chard, young turnips, cilantro, wild rice fricassee, lemon thyme jus
Third
Mast Brothers Smoked Chocolate
cocoa sablé, coffee maple crown crémeux, salted pecan ice cream
The next Farm and Vine Dinner is May 7, 2014. If you want to find out more about this dinner and some of there other things they have going on there go to
http://oceanhouseevents.com/farm-vine-ocean-house
I am so excited about the events at Ocean House that I want you to meet and see the wonderful people that bring these events together so here is a link to see some of Janice’s activities in the scrapbook at the Ocean House
http://oceanhouseri.com/scrapbook/food-forager-janice-mceachen/
To see The Ocean House “March 2014 Farm and Vine Dinner” check out their scrapbook which they so graciously provide for us at the following link here
http://oceanhouseri.com/scrapbook/march-farm-vine-dinner/
