Salt Lake City Bailliage Prepares for Thanksgiving

By Sue Geary, Vice Chargée de Presse, FWS, IWS, SWS

Wine trivia question for the season:

Which wine is released for shipment every year at 12:01 am of the third Thursday of November?

Answer:

Beaujolais Nouveau

There could not be a more perfect wine to feature for our November gathering than this young wine which is a perfect match for Thanksgiving Dinner. Our Vice Echanson Kasey Dubler could not have done a finer job of taking us on an educational journey through the Beaujolais Region of France.  Kasey’s spotlight on Beaujolais Nouveau was delightfully informative. It was also bittersweet given that one of our many losses of 2020 was Georges Duboeuf, the wine merchant turned winemaker who started a global ritual around the nouveau wine thereby elevating the Beaujolais Region as a whole.  Duboeuf died of a stroke on January 4 at the age of 86, but his nouveau wines with the bright floral labels graced the wine store shelves again this year.

Kasey also took us north to the explore the ten crus of Beaujolais.  These are the more elegant, complex, and age-worthy wines of the region.  Beaujolais is unique in that its wines are almost exclusively made from the Gamay grape.  The differences in the wines’ characteristics are largely attributed to differences in the soils of the northern and southern parts of the region.

For the second part of our pre-Thanksgiving event, Kasey described some wines that pair especially well with the many foods of a traditional Thanksgiving feast.  Chaîne Board members submitted their favorite Thanksgiving wines and Kasey completed the line-up with a few wines that aren’t always associated with this holiday meal.  A new section of our Chaîne Salt Lake City website titled Education includes all of the slides that Kasey prepared for this event.

Once again, it was so nice to see some of our members (from the waist up, at least) thanks to Zoom. We were delighted that Ashby Decker, who served an incredible 23 years as our Bailli, and his wife, Anne Cullimore Decker, were able to join us for this event. We appreciate everyone’s continued support during these most challenging times.  

Salt Lake City Bailliage First Online Member Event a Great Success

By Sue Geary, Vice Charge’ de Presse

Not to be dissuaded by a just a little global pandemic, the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Baillage de Salt Lake City held it first member event of the season on Saturday, August 29.  The dinner was well-attended and, although we gathered by way of Zoom out of necessity, it was so nice to see everyone.

The Dinner

A beautiful four-course dinner was provided by Royal Street Café of Deer Valley.  Chef Chris Gibson went the extra distance by helping to assemble each dinner-to-go from our new distribution center, which doubles as Vice Conseiller Gastronomique Sammie Doyle’s garage.  Chef Gibson even provided instruction on the plating of each course for every person who picked up their food and wine. Then he joined us for the dinner to describe each exquisite course of mostly locally-sourced ingredients. 

Vice Echanson Kasey Dubler selected three single-variety white wines for this dinner.  The first course of Castelvetrano olives and charcuterie was accompanied by Astobiza 2019, an Ondarrabi Zuri from the Arabako Txakolina DO of Spain’s Basque country.  The second course, a summer burrata salad, was paired with Tasca d’Almerita Regaleali Rose 2019 made from the Nerello Mascalese grape of Sicilia.  The pairing that was voted as the evening’s favorite was the marriage of the Olivier Leffaive Bourgogne Les Setilles 2018 with the Maine Lobster Tower.

Thank you to Chris Gibson for providing such a lovely meal under challenging circumstances! Royal Street Café remains open and offers outdoor dining so its guests can enjoy stunning mountain scenery throughout the Fall season.  Chef Gibson and his staff have more menu items well worth sampling.

Upcoming Charity Events

Bailli Sheral Schowe announced that our board voted in support of her recommendation for our balliage to sponsor some activities dedicated exclusively to giving.  Vice Conseiller Culinaire Jodie Rogers is working on an event to benefit the Utah Food Bank to be held around Thanksgiving.  Vice Charge’ de Missions Cessily Johnson and Tarja Pater are planning for our baillage to sponsor a tree for the annual Festival of Trees, which supports Primary Children’s Hospital.  Tarja explained that they will be collecting wine corks for use as ornaments.  So, if you find that for some reason you have a surplus of corks, please plan to donate what you can for this project.  Richard Pater, our Vice Chancelier-Argentier, generously offered an alternative for anyone who does not have extra corks.  You can give a few nice bottles of wine directly to Richard who will then extract the corks over a few weeks’ time and donate them on your behalf!

We all recognize how very fortunate we are to be able to gather to enjoy elegant meals and fine wine while others in our community struggle with too little.  We realize, too, how the culinary industry has been impacted by the coronavirus. 

October Event

A Tour of Italy by Caputo’s Market and Deli is scheduled for Saturday, October 26, 6:30-9:00 pm

Salt Lake City Bailliage Really Has a “Handle” on Virtual Events

By Sue Geary, Vice Chargée de Presse

Never to be deterred in our quest to gather as a bailliage to enjoy beautiful food paired with the perfect wines, we are getting more comfortable with pandemic-forced virtual meetings.  Our participating chefs are getting ever more inventive at assuring that each course-to-go looks and tastes as it might at their restaurants.  Vice Conseiller Culinaire Jodie Rogers arranged for our October member dinner to be provided by Handle Restaurant of Park City, with meals distributed from HSL (Handle Salt Lake).  Chef Briar Handly provided written instructions for the final preparation of the exquisite four-course dinner.

Handle Restaurant became a part of Park City’s dining options in 2014, and won Salt Lake Magazine’s Dining Award just one year later.  Its creative chefs focus on American cuisine of locally-sourced and organic foods.  Their menu is rich with small plates of seasonal specialties as well as familiar favorites. Executive Chef and owner, Briar Handy, is joined by chefs Melissa Gray and Meagan Nash and a “rockstar” staff.

For our first course of Salmon Gravlox Mousse, Vice Echanson Kasey Dubler presented Domaine Des Baumard Savenniers as its companion wine.  This Chenin Blanc from France’s Loire Region was the perfect pairing for the salmon and pepper jelly.  Kasey selected Clos a Coutale Cahors, in the Southwest Region of France, for our second course of Beef Heart Tartare.  Cahors is the only appellation to widely replant Malbec after the devastating freeze of 1956.  To add to our bank of wine trivia, Kasey told us that the owner of Clos a Coutale invented the double-hinged waiter’s corkscrew!  Kasey chose Chateau Mont-Redon Chateuneuf-du-Pape as the pairing for the Lamb Shoulder Roulade entrée.  Our diners who requested vegan and gluten-free alternatives were most appreciative of Chef Handly’s excellent choices for each course.

The dessert of Thai Iced Tea was attended not by a wine, but by a lively discussion about cocktails initiated by Vice Conseiller Gastronomique Hon. Rita Paxton.  The conversation generated many ideas for Mondiale events in the near future.

Most Dedicated Award:  With her participation in this event, Vice Conseiller Gastronomique Sammie Doyle clearly deserves the award for Most Dedicated Chaîne Board Member.  She and her husband, Sean, joined us for dinner from a hotel room, where they were celebrating their anniversary!

Our Bailli’s New Skill:  We did have some technical difficulties for the first time since we have met via Zoom.  Bailli Sheral Schowe’s audio became distorted early into the event, which really hampered her participation.  When she spoke, her words sounded like the notes played on the keys of Linus’ piano.  Nothing we tried corrected the problem.  So, with all respect due to those who claim to speak in tongues, we have witnessed our Bailli speak in tunes!

Written by Vice Chargée de Presse Sue Geary PhD FWS IWS SWS

Who said we can’t travel during a pandemic?  Our member event for September of 2020 was a tasting Tour of Italy provided by Adrianna Pachelli of Caputo’s Market and Deli.  We were delighted that Balli Provencal Phil Kress and Ira Falk of Chaîne USA were both able to join us for this event.  There are some benefits to our virtual gatherings.

The carefully-selected cheeses, salumi, olives, and chocolate were delivered to the homes of everyone who registered for this event (even those in California).  Once again, we collected our wines from the home of Vice Conseiller Gastronomique Sammie Doyle.  Sammie reports that, whenever someone comes to her home now, her three-year-old son asks, “Are you here for wine?”  Clearly, we have a future Chaîne member! 

Our virtual tasting tour began with Vice Conseiller Culinaire Jodie Rogers’ introduction of Adri Pachelli.  Adri then began our journey with olives from both Liguria and Sicilia. Balli Sheral Schowe presented our first wine, Donnafugata Anthilia Sicilia DOC 2019. The first cheeses took us to Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna.  Vice Charge’ de Presse Sue Geary introduced Scaia Rosato Veneto IGT 2019 to accompany our second cheese samplers, from Veneto and Sardinia, as well as a lovely prosciutto from Friuli.  We traveled next to Toscana and Calabria for a tasting of salumi paired with Podere Conca Agapanto Bolgheri DOC 2017.  Sheral Schowe instructed us to pop the cork of our Marenco Pineto Brachetto d’Aqui DOCG for our last stops in Piemonte and Tuscana for two exquisite chocolates.

Adri showed her knowledge of the diverse and unique artisanal foods of Italy.  She also revealed her love of the country and respect for its many culinary customs.  The tastings reinforced the critical role of terroir, not only for wines, but also for traditional foods.  Adri gave us insight into the effort that Caputo’s makes to assure that the foods it imports from Italy and other southern European countries taste as they should.  This attention to authenticity and quality was the motivation for Caputo’s to add a cheese cave years ago.  

We are fortunate to have this local specialty market.  Since its founding by Tony Caputo in 1997, Caputo’s has grown to three locations.  Matt Caputo has taken the reins for a second generation of this local treasure.  Matt continues Caputo’s tradition by showing leadership among Salt Lake City’s local businesses in promoting responsible environmental practices and taking action on issues of importance to our community’s under-represented populations.  Thank you to Caputo’s and to Adri for providing an informative and enjoyable Tour of Italy!

Authored by Sue Geary, Vice Chargée de Presse

In early celebration of Bastille Day, the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Bailliage de Salt Lake City, Utah held its Induction Ceremony on Sunday, July 12.  The ceremony installed a new Board of Directors with prominent wine educator, Sheral Schowe, elevated to the position of Bailli.  Bailli Provincial, Phil Kress, officiated from his home in Irvine, California for the Far West Region’s first induction via video conferencing.

Sheral Schowe, FWS, SWS, Bailli

This was our inaugural dinner event as talking heads and we can thank Vice Charge’ de Missions, Cessily Johnson, for handling the details of production.  Cole Johnson, Vice Charge’ de Media Sociaux--who has been at work establishing our website--took photos during the event.  In the process, we discovered our…

Top 5 Reasons to Love Gathering by Video Conferencing: 

Reason #5:  You don’t have to secure a designated driver for a ride home after the event

All of our driving was in advance of the event for the purpose of collecting our dinner.  Our elegant meal was provided by The Blind Dog Restaurant and Raw Bar in Park City, whose printed menu carries the motto, It is imperative that you maintain a sense of humor.  That advice was quite fitting to the challenges of the day.  The process of getting our meals served from a restaurant 32 miles away from Salt Lake City and to the homes of our eight new board inductees might be best described as a relay. 

Vice Conseiller Culinaire, Jodie Rogers, picked up the individually-packaged meals from the restaurant in Park City.  Sammie Doyle, Vice Conseiller Gastronomique, grabbed the baton to take the food to her home in Salt Lake City then set up her garage as distribution central.  Bailli Sheral Schowe selected and purchased the two beautiful French wines. Finally, each member collected their meal, wines, ribbon, and scroll.

Reason #4:  Your pets can attend the event without having to certify as support animals

Speaking of pets, The Blind Dog was established in 1998 by Executive Chef, Penn Kinsey and her husband, Derrick, and named as an homage to their black lab, Rizza, who was blinded in an accident.  Photographs of dogs are a prominent part of the restaurant’s décor. The award-winning restaurant--featuring fresh seafood, sushi, raw bar, and premium steak—is one of Park City’s premier venues for fine dining.  Given the complexities of the logistics for our event, Chef Kinsey wisely chose a cold menu. 

Reason #3:  You need only comb or style the front of your hair

The neatly-combed Kasey Dubler, Vice Echanson, introduced each of the wines and shared some of the winemaker’s history. The Piper-Heidsieck NV Champagne provided the perfect toast for each of our inductions and paired beautifully with the gazpacho and the salad.  The Stephane Aviron Julienas 2017 carried us in style into the main course of ahi tuna. 

Reason #2:  You can change your clothes during the event

We may not have thought of this had not Vice Chancelier-Argentier, Richard Pater, discarded his suit and tie to enjoy dessert in a Hawaiian print shirt.  We do advise that this maneuver be done off-camera.

Reason #1:  You need dress only from the waist up!

It surely would have been our preference to have gathered--fully-dressed and in-person--to enjoy the unique ambience of The Blind Dog.  Yet, we respect the need to adapt to the challenges imposed by a growing pandemic, and as a new board we are eager to design events that will keep our Bailliage active and engaged by remote means for as long as necessary.  We admire and salute the ingenuity and perseverance of the culinary industry and the many winemakers whose contributions, in good times and bad, are the raison d’etre of the Chaîne des Rotisseurs.