Most Memorable Meal

I was asked this question on an interview and am interested in your responses. I found my response was more tuned in to the ambiance than the food??? What's up with that???

Later in the day as I thought about it I started keying in to truly memorable food experiences. How about it, do you all have some good tales to tell?

By George (George) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 11:31 am: Edit

This was posted in the Locker Room but I moved it over.

G

By Chefrev (Chefrev) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 03:31 pm: Edit

A great meal for me has a lot to do with different elements: great food, unhurried, professional service, ambience, and the company you're with to share all of it. Price is important, but if the other things are in line, I'll pay a more without too much problem.

My most memorable meal was at a place near Philly called Lukens Inn. I was with my wife, but then we were just dating and I really wanted to impress her so I splurged on this place.

The food was amazing and the waitress was cordial and funny. The restaurant was in an old victorian house so the decor was VERY geared toward that period. I ordered my first and last Manhattan (ugh!) to seem sophisticated, but other than that it was a perfect night.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 07:17 pm: Edit

My most memorable meal;.......World trade Center,
Windows On The World. We cooked this meal for some big wigs. 7-8 coarses, wines with each, 2 desserts, different sorbets in between each meal.
Chef Henry Boubee', man he rocked with food!

By Steve9389 (Steve9389) on Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 01:17 am: Edit

Great question. I've got a couple.

In terms of just getting everything right, it'd have to be the Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia. Attentive, knowledgable and unobtrusive service, amazing wine, veal ravioli consumme, sauteed scallop with pea puree, and a sauteed lamb chop with veal and sweetbreads ragu. That was a year ago, and I still remember every bite.

The second would be the first time I ate at Brasserie Jo in Chicago, Jean Joho's reasonably-priced French provincial place. I had onion tart and steak fritte with roquefort butter, and that meal really focused me in on what I wanted ultimately to cook -- simple, unpretentious, properly prepared food.

- Steve

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 08:49 pm: Edit

To be honest the best meals I've had were uneventful per se. There was one at a place in Ft. Lauderdale called Old Bryan's Home. I went with a girfriend at the time, had a beautiful meal, can't remember it all but it was a baked Brie of some sort, Osso Bucco, and a great bottle of Stag's Leap Cab. Sauv. (1982) it was $22.00 bucks at that time (circa 1984-85). That bottle of wine was so memorable I went to get it another time I was trying to impress some girl (circa 1999) and the bottle of wine was selling for about $180 dollars, as it turned out 1982 was an awesome year for Cabs. and I ordered it by chance that night! Basically because it was economical (euphomism for cheap) at that time.
I will never forget that meal.
The other memorable meals have been a seafood risotto at a place in Orlando called Positano's.....it was awesome!
There's a kid there who waits on us who goes to Hospitality Mgmt. school (Michael) the kid is great, he'll do good in this business. He loves what he does!
The pizza dough is great also.
There was a place in South Beach, can't remember the name, it closed down (mobster owned) Nemo's I think, they had the best Osso Bucco Jardinere over risotto!!!! I love a good Osso Bucco in case you had not noticed!
The best dessert had to be at the Coral Reef restaurant in Epcot in Orlando.It was a warm flourless chocolate cake with a soft white and dark chocolate filling, that was good! I saw it later that year in some foodie magazine as one of the best desserts around.
Good meals are hard to come by and, usually come from or at the most unexpected times!!!!!!

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 11:20 am: Edit

It's funny that for me the memorable meals come segmented, as usually the outstanding food is not served well or there is outstanding service with crummy food....

Anyway one memorable meal was in Sebastopol, Ca. It was an outstanding wild mushroom risotto baked in a small pumpkin served with a hot pepper sauce. The risotto and pumpkin were a bit bland and the sauce so hot it scorched your innerds, but together ... it was heaven!

Another was an Indian meal in San Francisco. There were no beverages served in the restaurant and you had to walk up to order the food, but when it came - it was incredible. The lamb was succulent (and I don't really like lamb) and the garam masala perfect! I sometimes find it overdone, but not in this case. Not a dish was less than magnificent.

Then there was the classic French place in the L.A. area. One man was owner, maitre d', server, sommelier, and chef. Everything was superb. Classicly French, a bit heavy, but perfectly done and I couldn't believe that he did everything himself.

Just a few ... I could go on and on...

By Thecook (Thecook) on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 04:06 pm: Edit

12 course banquet for the Gourmet Society of Wisconsin. 1970.

Waiters w/Tux, Phesant soup, Strawberry fritters, escargot Bon Mama, fruit, cheeses, meat, fish, fowl, three wine courses, cigars.... OOOH LaLa! Oh for the "good old days".

By Rpd144000 (Rpd144000) on Sunday, June 20, 2004 - 03:47 am: Edit

one would be quail lodge in carmel valley and the other would be potage at selayas in nevada city ca.

By Dpconsu (Dpconsu) on Sunday, June 20, 2004 - 10:29 am: Edit

Thirty years ago while I was living in the South of France, I was riding a motorbike through the tiny back roads that are scattered throughout the Alpes Maratime. Somewhere behind "Le Turbe" I stopped at a pension that was run by the only bar/cafe in the village as the weather turned to s**t.

When I can down from my room to have dinner in the small dining room, I was treated like a lost family member by the two owners, (a rariety in France, & believe me I know after living there for 12 yrs.) Anyway, this place was very old, about 400 yrs, but kept in imaculate condition and was cozy and warm. I was handed a hand written menu that offered a fixed price (FF120.00) and four choises and five courses.

One of the appetizers was "petit oesauxe?"(small birds. I saw that vertualy every other guest was having this, so I ordered it too along with the rest of my dinner. The house wine was a white Burgandy that was so cold that it like drinking crisp vodka shots, only with a better taste. A simple vegetable potage and home made bread was followed by these "small birds" I was a bit put off when they a (2) arrived on a plate nesting on a bed of mesclun, the birds still had thier feet and heads on! but I sucked it up and dug in. People, I have to tell you, my mouth had an orgasim! these tiny suculant birds were and have been to date the most mememorable part of a meal that I have every prepaired or hed served to me since. And I have traveled to 84 countries, worked in 17 over the last thirty five years. I ordered another portion and blew off the cheese plate. They served this dish once a year on the last day of the migatory bird netting season, the French are allowed to catch some types of song birds that migrate from Europe to Africa every fall and the chef of this simple pension did these up so simply yet seasoned and cooked to perfection. The rest of the courses and even thier coffee was divine.