Fairmont Dallas has fancy chef’s tasting room with price they won’t reveal

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — The Fairmont Dallas hotel in downtown Dallas has been busy, with a 2008 renovation (that includes the Pyramid Room), and the hiring of new chef JW Foster, a 40-year-old native of Canada who was sous chef at Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.

Its latest project: a tasting room off the lobby. The room seats about 20 people and is by reservation only, with a menu of 8 to 12 courses, price on request. In Vogue fashion spreads, they'll put "price available on request" so they don't have to print that the dress costs $25,000. The Pyramid's high prices were cited in the Dallas Morning News review in November 2008.

On Wednesday, Foster, 30-year-old sommelier Hunter Hammett, and Food & Beverage Director Riaan Nel hosted a demonstration of the tasting room: seven courses with wine, ending with a fabulously syrupy limoncello Hammett made his first day on the job.

The event drew 10 diners -- local writers, some with dates, none of whom were asked to pay for the meal. Credit goes to Amy Culbertson from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Meda Kessler, editor of Fort Worth-based magazine 360 West who, at the end of the meal, each laid down $20 for the staff. Fort Worth represent! And there I was, busy congratulating myself for leaving a $10...

The menu:

• Ravioli with duck confit, black currant, and pecan, with five-spice pear jam; Kuentz-Bas pinot blanc, Alsace 2007. The pasta pocket was rolled thin and held a good chunk of shredded duck -- nice proportion of pasta to filling. The pear jam was more like compote, with the pear chopped into tiny cubes and tasting strongly of clove. Hammett effused that the wine -- a crisp, almost spicy white from northeast France reminiscent of a Gewürztraminer -- was new to the Dallas market with a limited number of bottles available.

• Jail Island salmon carpaccio with shaved fennel and huckleberry-stone mustard vinaigrette; Falchini, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, 2007. Shaved salmon was topped with a puck of mascarpone cheese from Mozzarella Co. and a giant house-made triangular cracker. Has anyone noticed they're selling a lot of artisan crackers at Central Market these days? The vernaccia, said Hammett, was a special white from Tuscany.

• Foie gras, fingerling-thyme rosti, Riesling poached pear, candied-beet cinnamon glaze; Chateau Guiraud premier cru Sauternes 2003. Adorable little pear! The seared foie had a browned, glistening exterior, while the rosti was like potato hash. Hammett chose the 2003 Sauternes because it was a "stellar vintage".

• Texas quail, carrot squash cider broth, Granny apple-walnut salad, parsnip frites, with Artadi, Orobio blanco, rioja, 2007. Soup, basically, with boneless quail in the center -- convenient since bones are the big bugaboo with quail. The quail was hoisted atop finely diced apple walnut salad and smaller-than-matchstick parsnip frites that eventually floated away into the soup/broth, giving it texture. Points for using parsnip, a versatile root vegetable that looks like a tan carrot and turns up at some people's houses for Christmas dinner.

• Late fall rhubarb sorbet, cinnamon stick, orange honey. Bow down to the chef who will use rhubarb, the tart red-stalk vegetable you either admire or have never heard of. Local Tom Thumb and Kroger stores did a good job last fall keeping it in stock. Foster's sorbet had a beautifully creamy texture, while the cinnamon-spice mix soothed the rhubarb's bright tartness.

• Venison chop, ragout of sweetbread, mushroom and pancetta, veal jus, spinach, and white truffle oil. Domaine Richeaume, cuvee traditions, Provence 2005 The climax of the meal, this was Foster's most sensual entry, whose food runs more towards "pristine" and "cerebral". The chop was probably 8 ounces and magenta-red in the center, with a tenderness that succumbed to the knife readily. Accompanying sweetbreads were pale tan and moderately chunky, with dabs of meat and some connective tissue. Spinach was bright green and still had some body. Loved the pop-in-your-mouth pearl onions with darkened edges, soft and mellow inside. The Domaine Richeaume, decanted before the meal began, was a red, a 50-50 combination of grenache and cabernet sauvignon -- unusual from Provence, an area better known for its rose wine.

• Creme brulee trio in three flavors: cranberry white chocolate, pumpkin, vanilla bean. Rare Wine Co., Boston bual special reserve, Madeira Fairmont has no pastry chef; supposedly Foster likes to do it all himself. That's a lot of work. Creme brulee can be fussy but it isn't hard to make; offering three flavors, each in their own ramekin, provides a lot of bang for the buck. The cranberry-white-chocolate and vanilla-bean weren't firm enough for my taste, but the pumpkin was nice and solid. In response to nagging, both Margie Jacinto from Modern Luxury and Kim Harwell from the Dallas Morning News gave me their pumpkin brulees; in her generosity, Kim knocked a glass of Madeira onto her husband Scott's shirt. Alas, by then I had lost my appetite for her brulee. My apologies to Scott.

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