Review of The French Laundry in Yountville CA
by Andy Hayler
Food Rating: 8/10
Last visited: April 2005
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Actually in the Napa Valley rather than San Francisco, just over a one hour drive from the city in the small town of Yountville. Thomas Keller’s restaurant is generally reckoned the best restaurant in America, and based on my three visits here I would concur. The rustic establishment has a little garden where you can have a drink before entering the main room. The dining room is simple with bare walls and no distracting music, with a corresponding room upstairs, each with about eight tables. An amuse guele of cornet of salmon mousse with crème fraîche was superb, as was a vegetarian version the following night (9/10). A further nibble of pike mousse in a little tart had lovely texture (8/10). Tuna tartare was of a high standard, on a bed of radish and cucumber drizzled with aged Tamari soy sauce (7/10). Next up for me was a Maine scallop, topped with a mousse of foie gras, with a ring of superb mash, all sitting within a classic demi-glace reduction (9/10). Stella’s warm asparagus and tomato salad, drizzled with 100 year old Balsamic vinegar, was of a very high standard (8/10). For main course I tried excellent squab with a sliver of warm foie gras and a red wine reduction (7/10) while Stella had tortellini stuffed with white beans, with a creamy herb sauce, fresh tomatoes and sprigs of chervil with shavings of Parmesan (9/10).
Cheese was not quite to the same standard, with my Longues and Stella’s Brie both around 5/10, but it is very difficult to get good cheese in the USA due to the ludicrous insistence on pasteurisation for most cheeses (perhaps the US government would like to check the relative life expectancy of their population with that of France before jumping to conclusions about cheese import restrictions). A passion fruit ciboulet with matching ice cream with a biscuit was good (6/10) but again not the league of the initial courses. Coffee was superb (9/10).
Service is impeccable, with a visit the following evening notable for them having prepared a separate menu so that no dishes would overlap with what we had, and with a waiter quoting what dishes Stella had ordered the previous night; impressive enough until you realise that it was not the same waiter! The wine list is very fine, and mark-ups are less fierce than in London. The tasting menu which we had the following evening had many components and was even better than the meal described above. A lovely restaurant that stands head and shoulders above just about anywhere else in the USA.
My most recent visit brought an extensive sixteen course tasting menu, which goes some way to showing the range of the kitchen, as follows. It is worth noting that the male and female diners had different dishes for every course, 32 courses in all, as if to emphasise just how broad the kitchen’s capabilities really are.
Purée of fennel bulb soup, pickled Medjool dates and Jacobsen’s farm green almonds
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Granité of green apple with Russian Sevruga caviar
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Connecticut river shad roe with Persian lime salt and shaved, aged bonito
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Monterey Bay Dungeness crab, green asparagus and sauce béarnaise
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Poached Araucana hen eggs, truffled English muffins, truffled Hollandaise and grated Périgord truffles
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Salad of French Laundry garden spring onions, picked pearl onions, broccolini and red onion “gastrique”
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Carnaroli risotto “biologico” with shaved Périgord truffles and truffle emulsion
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Herb roasted Dutch turbotine, spring fava beans, morel mushrooms and whole grain mustard sauce
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Main lobster tail with slow-cooked heirloom beets, black trumpet mushrooms and Mizuna coulis
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Heirloom beets with garden broccolini and Périgord truffle crème fraîche
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Creamed ramp top “pierogis” with French Laundry garden shallots, Cipollini onion, glazed ramp bulbs with sauce soubise and chive-infused olive oil
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Fricassée of roasted marble potatoes, California grey morel mushrooms, split English peas and pea puree
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Ricotta gnocchi made with shaved Roquefort, 50- year old sherry vinegar and virgin walnut oil
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Texas ruby grapefruit sorbet with black liquorice “génoise”, yoghurt panna cotta and grapefruit “supremes”
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Cinnamon sugared doughnuts with cappuccino semifreddo
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Valrhona bitter chocolate soufflé, plumped Michigan cherry relish and brown sugar ice cream
Every course had a small glass of matching wine, which proved a lot to get through. The meal started at 19:00 and finished at 1:30 i.e. over six hours. Throughout the ingredients were excellent and the culinary technique very good; there were no technical slips. It was perhaps a little overwhelming in the end but clearly demonstrated why Thomas Keller (who was present in the kitchen) is regarded as the top American Chef.