Tuesday 26 January
Exactly twenty-five years ago,
under glittering chandeliers and absurd, colorful Chagall murals, we had a
champagne and duck dinner that neither of us remembers very clearly at the
Grand Tier Restaurant of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. But the dessert - a tiered wedding cake with
cannoli cream from Veniero's - still lingers in our memories, as does the closeness of beloved families and friends, and the performance of Die Zauberflöte that followed.
How do you follow that act,
especially when you're celebrating your silver anniversary in Cincinnati? Well, begin with more opera: Holt put on a CD
of Der Rosenkavalier, and presented Barbara with a silver rose on a pillow (which Dora also appreciated, as
you can see). Then Barbara presented
Holt with a new silver food processor, though not on a pillow. And then we got down to the food and drink.
We filled our wedding flutes with
Jaume Serra Cristallino, and had a first course of potato galettes topped with yogurt
and red caviar.
For our second course, Holt had
gone to Bender's meats at Findlay Market, where they hand-cut a couple of 1 1/2"
thick tournedos from a whole beef
tenderloin. He carefully pan-fried them, then served them with roasted asparagus and classic sauce béarnaise.
To accompany such a dish, we
decanted two half bottles of our precious 1989 Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - it threw a hell of a sediment, but is still
remarkable after 27 years.
We finished up with slices of Liz's homemade
Mallorcan almond cake and Graeter's chocolate hazelnut truffle gelato, a dessert worthy
of such a celebration.
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