Table 10 “Essential Emeril” Dinner
Sweet Roll with Salted Butter
Praline Candied Bacon
Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
New Orleans BBQ Shrimp
Vietnamese Pork and Shrimp Spring Rolls
Bahamian-style Redfish Ceviche
Salt Roasted Beet Salad with Pistachio Butter and Cypress Grove Goat Cheese
Slow Roasted Wild Salmon with Roasted Creamy Cauliflower
Barolo Braised Short Rib with Mascarpone Polenta, Baby Carrots and
Shaved Black Truffle
Chocolate Sheba Cake with White Chocolate Anglaise
Graciously invited by One7 Media to meet one of the very few Celebrity Chefs I hold near and dear to my heart it was on a rare Sunday night out that I joined three friends for some true “Event Dining,” the launch of ‘Essential Emeril’ coinciding with the introduction of new Table 10 Chef du cuisine James Richards during an intimate 60ish person private dinner on The Palazzzo’s second floor.
Greeted by several members of the Lagasse’s Las Vegas team, Corporate Executive Chef Sean Roe telling us of the newly innovated Snack Bar just moments after we arrived, it was with Champagne or Punch that the evening began and with several of the Chef’s classics featured as butler-served hors d’oeuvres whetting the palatr, a meet-and-greet with Emeril himself transitioned all to the dining room where things got kicked up a notch.
Describing his new book as “the closest thing I’ll ever do to an autobiography” while presenting each dish with anecdotes showing both humility and his own grinning gusto, it was with greeting from several friendly faces from Delmonico, The New Orleans Fish House, and even Lagasse’s Stadium that the meal marched forth and reflecting on his earliest years the Roasted Beet Salad was cool, creamy, and aromatic – a heartiness in tune with cooler weather, and a sign of flavors to come.
Telling a tale of Charlie Trotter, the man to whom he dedicated the book, before presenting slow roasted salmon that transcended typical through controlled cooking temperatures that yielded a perfectly flaky filet it must be noted that, although rare to imbibe, each wine was on par to the plate with which it was paired, a 2013 Merlot blend from Ornellaia showing a good deal of oak and acidity to compliment truffled shortribs braised fork-tender in Barolo.
Mopping up the rest of the beef’s juices and any remaining polenta with a buttery sweet roll it was with a lone dessert that the two-hour meal concluded, and citing an unlikely reference in French legend Pierre Gagnaire the Chocolate Sheba Cake walked a fine line between ganache and mousse-like with shaved nuts adding just a touch of texture alongside creamy pool of Anglaise.
Thanked repeatedly by Chefs and Staff for our attendance, the gratitude flowing equally from our side of the plate, it was with a signed copy of the new book that each of us departed after again shaking hands with a true legend, a return visit to check out Chef Richards’ menu update already being planned.
http://www.emerilsrestaurants.com/table-10
