Michel Richard Citronelle - Dave McIntyre`s WineLine

FOOD
DRINK
REVIEW
Sommelier extraordinare Mark Slater pours wines at the exclusive
chef’s table in the kitchen of Michel Richard Citronelle, left. Above,
Richard’s famed faux caviar surprises and delights diners.
BY DAVE MCINTYRE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLAY MCLACHLAN
SHOWTIME Citronelle’s chef’s table puts diners center stage at one of the country’s most exciting culinary spectacles
Washington’s political seat of power may be in the Oval Office, but for
food it’s at the chef’s table at Michel Richard Citronelle. Menus replace
policy briefs and civilization’s future may not be at stake, but for a few
exciting hours you can be at the center of the action as an elite squad of
chefs prepares a parade of dishes before your eyes, an acclaimed sommelier
pours some of the world’s most enticing wines, and a renowned culinary
master flirts, jokes and cajoles his way around the dining room.
“Weren’t you here last week with a blonde?” Richard asked me when I
introduced him to my wife. That could be a dangerous joke in
Washington, but the jovial chef carries it off (several times a night, most
likely) with a twinkle in his eye and a quick “How’s the food?” Schmoozing
with Richard is an essential part of the charm of dinner at Citronelle, as is
an insider’s anecdote from maitre d’ Jean-Jacques Retourné or Mark Slater,
the sommelier. They patrol the dining room, too, but the chef’s table
provides greater access. And in this town, access is power.
Reserving the chef’s table also gives the most thorough exposure to
Richard’s culinary wizardry. Here a ten-course feast showcases the
menu’s current offerings and the chef’s latest experiments. The chef’s
table is at the edge of the restaurant’s exhibition kitchen, set apart from
the main dining room almost enough to create the illusion the kitchen
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exists just for your pleasure. Yet there is the satisfying feeling that
everyone is watching—from the dining room, from the upstairs lounge,
even from the windows on 30th Street above—as you are escorted to
center stage. For a few hours you are more than diners, you are
audience volunteers in Michel Richard’s culinary magic show.
Many of Richard’s dishes reflect his sense of humor and his
background as a pastry chef. He has a knack for making food look like
something it isn’t. “Virtual” fettuccine is actually steamed slivers of onion,
dressed lightly with cream, mushrooms and Chinese eggplant. What
appears to be hard-cooked egg on the tuna napoleon niçoise is in reality
a wedge of mozzarella cheese with yellow tomato gelée as the yolk.
Richard’s artistry—his sense of humor, his knack for flavor and his
instinct for pairing unique presentations and interesting textures—achieve
their greatest expression with his “begula” dish. Pearl-shaped pasta are
blackened with squid ink and offered in a caviar tin. Below the faux caviar lay
a poached egg with hollandaise sauce and chunks of tender lobster. The
flavors meld seamlessly, as if they were put on Earth for this very purpose.
The visual puns on the plate are often so elaborate that the
waitstaff takes pains to explain everything as it arrives at the table, lest
false impressions set diners up for a fall. Slater chortles over a blogger
who posted a rant about the poor quality of the “caviar,” not realizing
it was pasta. And that disguised mozzarella? “We have to explain it to
people,” Richard says, “or else they gulp it down and think, ‘Gee, that’s
a weird egg.’”
Squab breast becomes a minute steak that might convince you the bird
is a tiny cow with wings, if you can pull your fork away from the “fried rice”
that is actually minutely chopped potato garnished with raw vegetables and
seasoned with Chinese spices. Desserts can also show Richard’s impish
sense of humor, including his haute take on a Kit Kat bar or “breakfast at
Citronelle,” a platter of desserts mimicking a traditional American breakfast.
Not every dish relies on an inventive disguise. Escargots get star
treatment in a garlicky flan with a crunchy topping of pistachios and
macadamias. Swirls of eel top a crisp tart crust, their mild flavor electrified
by a ginger sauce. Halibut, the most bland of fish in unskilled hands, is
napped in a vibrant verbena-lime sauce and topped with slivers of kohlrabi
and a crunchy julienne of carrot. Last summer’s popular creation was
eggplant gazpacho, a creamy puree enriched with buttermilk and the
subtle bite of cumin served cold with cubes of crisp vegetables; it was an
elegant treatment of a familiar Middle Eastern standby.
“People call me a genius, but all I did was take baba ghanoush and
add tomato water,” Richard says. Well, not quite: There’s the richness
and tang of the buttermilk, the snap of vegetables.
This isn’t science class, where chefs make fare that seems to defy the
laws of physics. But Richard does like to play with his food. He’s fond of
plastic wrap, using it to mold various ingredients into logs, burgers or,
ultimately, very thin disks. You’ll see a lot of circles at Citronelle.
All this sleight of hand would be meaningless, of course, if the food
didn’t taste so good. Richard deftly pairs flavors with texture in an
elaborate, often thrilling, choreography. “I want to create a tango in your
mouth, with all the flavors dancing—crunchy, crispy, creamy and fresh,”
Richard says. “Food that doesn’t taste good is like rap music,” all violence
and no passion. He punctuates his disdain with a Gallic pouf of dismissal.
The restaurant’s drama unfolds around the chef’s table. Diners sit only
a few feet from the granite counter where executive chef David Deshaies
and his team plate dishes for the main dining room and the casual upstairs
Apples are made elegant for dessert.
lounge. (“I hope that’s for us,” we thought more than once watching the
chefs put finishing touches on plates of succulent chateaubriand, or latesummer soft-shell crabs, fried crisp and arranged so their legs looked like
fingers waving at us.) Once or twice during our dinner, Richard sauntered
up to the counter. There was no Gordon Ramsay outburst, but a tilt of his
head and a slump of the shoulders sent a jolt of adrenaline through the
kitchen. Quiet professionalism transformed instantly to rigid attention as
toques leaned over the suspect dish, discussing its nearly imperceptible
flaw and making whatever adjustment Richard required.
Out in the main dining room, patrons may be offered a glimpse of
the exhibition kitchen (over the heads of those at the chef’s table) or
the glassed-in wine cellar, which offers the impression of dining in a
chateau’s aging cave. Two menu choices are offered here, a three-course
a la carte menu or an eight-course fixed menu, with or without wine
pairings. For those lacking the time for a full dinner, the upstairs lounge
menu includes some of Richard’s most popular creations, including a
lobster burger that looks large enough to satisfy a shark.
Inside that wine cellar, Slater and assistant sommeliers Derek
Brown and Brian Zipin preside over an impressive selection of the best
wines from France, Italy and California. Other lesser-known but
cutting-edge regions, such as Austria, are also represented, and several
of the wines are imported exclusively for the restaurant. Emphasis is on
high-end selections and well-aged wines—including during my visits a
1995 Bordeaux offered by the glass. Yet Slater has peppered the list
with an impressive number of small production wines below $70.
Richard may be cooking at the top of his game, but you won’t get
him to admit it. The accolades keep pouring in though: Gourmet magazine
recently ranked Michel Richard Citronelle at number 12 in its list of the
50 best U.S. restaurants. The James Beard Foundation nominated him this
year as one of the country’s outstanding chefs. His second cookbook,
Happy in the Kitchen, has just been published by Artisan to rave reviews.
He’ll gladly sell you a copy and autograph it for you between courses.
Richard has come a long way from poor beginnings in Brittany,
in western France. A Paris apprenticeship with the great pastry chef
Gaston Lenôtre led to restaurant positions in New York, Santa Fe and
Deshaies, center, is always in motion. Halibut hits a high note.
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These days, age is a prominent subject in Richard’s conversation. “I
used to have more energy,” he says, pushing his glasses onto his
forehead and rubbing his eyes, “but now that I’m 58, a 12-hour workday
makes me tired.” He wants to travel less, he says, and spend more time
at home with his family in Potomac and at his restaurants. And he says
he has no intention of retiring. That’s good news for gourmands.
“I have the right to get older, but I want my food to stay young,”
Richard says. “I don’t want my food to get wrinkles. My brain needs to
stay active and keep creating the food of tomorrow.”
Looking around him as if seeing the Citronelle of the future, the
post-renovation restaurant that exists now only in his mind, Richard
says, “Tomorrow will be better than today. And a year from now will
be better still.”
From our vantage point at the chef’s table, sated with food and
wine, I couldn’t imagine Richard’s cooking getting better. But as he
bounded back into the dining room to autograph another cookbook
and joke with another patron, I was certain this playful magician still
had some culinary tricks up his sleeve.
Those at the chef’s table get the best access to Richard and Retourné.
finally Los Angeles, where Richard achieved fame in the late 1980s as
chef-owner of Citrus. He amassed a restaurant empire with outposts in
LA, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
Eight years ago, frustrated by the difficulties of managing so
many eateries, Richard decided one restaurant was enough and settled
in DC to focus his creative energy on Citronelle. Yet soon he will open
another restaurant, Central, on Pennsylvania Avenue (opening is
scheduled for December) to offer his take on American food. “What
is the ultimate American food?” he says. “Burgers!” Central will offer
MICHEL RICHARD CITRONELLE THE LATHAM HOTEL, 3000 M ST., NW, 202.625.2150. HOURS: DINNER
MON.–SUN. 6–10PM. WHO GOES: EXPENSE ACCOUNT DINERS, CHEFS AND LOVERS OF FINE CUISINE
FROM AROUND THE WORLD. WHERE TO SIT: THE CHEF’S TABLE OFFERS AN INTIMATE VIEW OF THE
EXHIBITION KITCHEN; THE DINING ROOM GIVES EITHER A GLIMPSE OF THE KITCHEN OR A VIEW OF THE
IMPRESSIVE WINE CELLAR. THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE IS FOR CASUAL DINING WHEN TIME IS SHORT. WHAT
TO DRINK: THE WINE LIST IS EXTENSIVE AND IMPRESSIVE; THE BEST WAY TO EXPERIENCE IT IS TO
CHOOSE THE WINE PAIRINGS WITH THE TASTING MENU OR LET THE SOMMELIERS CHOOSE WINES TO PAIR
WITH THE BANQUET AT THE CHEF’S TABLE. WHAT IT COSTS: LOUNGE MENU, $14 – $38. DINING ROOM,
THREE COURSES $95; EIGHT COURSES $155, OR $255 WITH WINES; CHEF’S TABLE, FOR SIX TO EIGHT
PEOPLE, $275 PER PERSON FOR TEN COURSES, INCLUDING WINES. RATING:
What the stars mean: 1 = fair, some noteworthy qualities; 2 = good, above average; 3 = very good, well above
norm; 4 = excellent, among the area’s best; 5 = world-class, extraordinary in every detail. Reviews are based on
multiple visits. Ratings reflect the reviewer’s overall reaction to food, ambience and service.
“I HAVE THE RIGHT TO GET OLDER, BUT I WANT MY FOOD TO STAY YOUNG,” RICHARD SAYS. “I DON’T WANT MY FOOD
TO GET WRINKLES. MY BRAIN NEEDS TO STAY ACTIVE AND KEEP CREATING THE FOOD OF TOMORROW.”
his signature lobster burger and much more, with
roast chicken, steak, a tapas bar and an aging room
for housemade charcuterie.
How will Richard avoid spreading himself too thin
this time as he branches out with a new restaurant?
“Before, I was all over the place and it was impossible to
run all of them, they were too far apart,” he says. “Here
I will be ten minutes away. And I have some good
employees who are ready for promotion—I’d rather
they work for me than for someone else.”
And Citronelle itself is about to receive a
makeover: With new owners at the Latham Hotel,
Richard has a $5 million budget to spruce up his
kitchen, expand his dining room and create new event
and private dining space. The wine cellar will also be
enlarged, and may include an additional chef’s table,
certain to become a magnet for bacchanalian feasts.
(Richard expects the restaurant to close for several
weeks for the renovation, probably next summer.)
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A group of wine enthusiast enjoy dinner at the house’s top table.