Melisse Ups the Ante with New Cocktails by Steve Livigni and Pablo Moix

Melisse has always been one of the top restaurants in the city, but it lacked a good cocktail program - until now. Chef Josiah Citrin and the team at Melisse recently hired the team behind La Descarga and other great LA bars, Steve Livigni, Pablo Moix, and Lindsay Nader, to come up with a bar program to meet the level of their food.

The result? A fun and sophisticated list of cocktails. There's no physical bar at Melisse, but with a kitchen of this caliber, they can do a lot of fun and ambitious things "table side" that you cannot do at a busy bar, like this deconstructed Zombie.

Watching the setup and action is certainly part of the draw for this drink.

Steve Livigni pouring in frozen nitrogen

The deconstructed zombie consisted of rum jello made with three different rums (Flor de Cana 4 year, Appleton VX, and Smith and Cross Navy Strength), Passion fruit "dippin dots", mint gelee, and passionfruit juice. It's beautiful with the style of a Melisse dessert.

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April Bloomfield Dinner at Melisse

Although this year there has been no news on the 5x5 Dinner series, Angelenos can still indulge in guest chef dinners at Melisse. This summer, Chef Josiah Citrin welcomes Chef Christopher Kostow of Restaurant at Meadowood, Chef April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig and The Breslin in NYC, and Chef David Kinch of Manresa.

I was able to go to the Bloomfield dinner and enjoyed a six (more like seven) course meal prepared by Chef Bloomfield, Chef Citrin and Takayama of Melisse, and Chef Ray Garcia of FIG. Chef April Bloomfield opened The Spotted Pig, New York's first gastropub, in 2004. It was a huge hit and the restaurant with its seasonal British-pub/Italian has maintained its one Michelin star since then.

This dinner is a collaboration hosted by Melisse, so naturally the amuse bouche and bread come from Melisse.

The meal started with Foie gras with yuzu and Melon, mint, pistachio.

Bread service: Basil brioche, bacon focaccia

Since it's Monday and I didn't want to spend even more money, I opted for a glass of wine instead of doing the wine pairing (an extra $75). I ordered the 2008 Chateauneuf du Pape, Domaine de La Solitude which was meant to be paired with the Boudin Blanc course. Despite being a fairly young wine, I found it pretty smooth.

Wild Japanese Kanpachi
Sorrel, cucumber, passionfruit-espellete // Josiah Citrin and Ken Takayama
The richness from the sorrel nicely highlighted the kanpachi.

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho
Crisp olives // April Bloomfield
This gazpacho turns out to be a good introduction to the food of Chef April Bloomfield: bold flavors and strong on the spice. The crisp olives were a nice textural touch and were something I could munch on all day.

Squid Basquaise
Nduja, forbidden rice, piment d'anglet, prosciutto // Ray Garcia
Part of the squid was stuffed with nduja, a spicy pork sausage which originated from Calabria, and forbidden rice (a type of black rice). The dish was finished with chorizo romesco sauce. This dish is a good followup to Bloomfield's gazpacho with its equally strong flavors. The squid had a great texture although there were a little too much nduja in the pieces that were stuffed.

Boudin Blanc
Sauteed market potatoes, basil & pickled mustard seed // April Bloomfield
This boudin blanc was made with pork and veal. The potatoes were flavorful and moist although I preferred eating them separately from the sausage.
Interestingly, I didn't think the Chateauneuf du Pape actually paired that well with this dish. The boudin blanc brought out the tartness and acidity in what was before a rich and smooth wine and unfortunately this tartness overwhelmed the food.

Arctic Char
Spiced lentils, anchovy-pine nut bread crumb //April Bloomfield
The fish was cooked perfectly and had a nice skin but the lentil and anchovy-pine nut crumb were a little too salty and strong in flavors. Fortunately the tomatoes really helped cut this saltiness. I enjoyed the flavors but the salt could be toned down - or add more tomatoes.

Snake River Farms Wagyu Beef
Chanterelle mushrooms, Brentwood corn, summer truffles, "jus de boeuf acidule"
// Josiah Citrin and Ken Takayama
In the back were braised short ribs and potato galette. Even without reading the menu, upon looking at and tasting this dish you should know that this was not April Bloomfield. The dish had more subtle and balanced flavors. Yes, this was very much a Melisse dish. My only complaint was that the wagyu was tougher than I would've liked.

Strawberry, Basil, and Pistachio //Josiah Citrin and Ken Takayama
Berry sabayon, brown butter ice cream over pistachio vacherin, finished with basil emulsion. A solid and refreshing dessert from Melisse (although my heart still lies with their Passionfruit Parfait with lemongrass soup).

Persian mulberries, apricot, creme fraiche, canele, and a housemade raspberry chocolate truffle
The Persian mulberries were the juiciest and sweetest mulberries we've ever had while the delightful truffles melted in our mouths.

The three dishes by Chef Bloomfield gave a pretty good idea of her style. Each dish was excellent with strong and bold flavors which no doubt would work wonderfully at a casual gastro-pub but in my opinion as part of a tasting menu where progression of the meal itself is important, their flavors are too strong. They lack the restraint that Chef Josiah Citrin showcases in his dishes.

Next up: Chef David Kinch of Manresa on Monday, August 23rd!

Melisse Anniversary: 10 Years, 10 Dishes

Melisse's 10-year anniversary special features ten classic dishes - favorites of the last ten years. I was very curious what these ten classics are, and how good they are. The ten course meal goes for $150 per person. But that's not all. Corkage is a mere $10/bottle up to two bottles per table, AND each person takes home a $50 gift card.

This was too good to pass up, and the deal only runs through July. Running out of time with my 3 week long Los Alamos stint coming up, I braved two dinners last weekend. The second being, naturally, Melisse (I tried eating lightly at the first).

My first visit to Melisse, 2 years ago, wasn't mind blowing (ordered a la carte) and I didn't return for a while. My second visit with a tasting menu was much a much better, more well-rounded experience. I felt like I finally got to experience the real Melisse.

And now with these ten courses ... the full-on Melisse experience.

Amuse bouche #1
tomato with goat cheese, pistachio
My previous visits to Melisse have started out with similar amuse bouche but with grapes. As it was peak season for tomatoes, the substitution was only fitting.

Amuse bouche #2
cucumber mousse, tomato gazpacho


Egg caviar
lemon creme fraiche, American caviar
Naturally a 10-course meal consisting of what's considered to be Melisse "classics" would include the egg caviar. Here American sturgeon caviar is used. Get all the layers in one bite - half-boiled egg, creme fraiche, and caviar. It's a delectable combination.

Tuna tartare
Pickled cucumber, avocado mousseline, Yuzu vinaigrette
A very refined dish. The avocado mousseline was amazingly smooth. Tuna tartar with avocado just did not excite me at first but this one was above and beyond others. It brought me back from all the excitement of "adventurous" dishes to perfection of a classic dish.

Mandarin Tomato Soup
Tomato tartare and sorbet
The juxtaposition of the warm tomato soup with the cold sorbet was quite interesting (though I think it sent my mouth into mild heat/cold shocks :P ). What was intriguing to us was how the sorbet does not melt during the time we were eating.

Seared Rougie Foie Gras
Black Mission Figs, Pain d'epice, Banyuls Reduction
Perhaps because it was preluded by such refined and wonderful dishes, in a rare but I guess not impossible occasion, I found the seared foie gras the weakest dish of the night. While the pain d'epice was great, I found the foie gras itself a bit 'stringy' and not particularly flavorful.

Lobster Bolognese
Fresh Cappelini, Truffle Froth
Even though Melisse is known as a French restaurant, their food is not purely French and Italian influences can be found in dishes like this one or the gnocchi that I had on a previous visit.
With that said, the lobster bolognese was my favorite dish of the night. The thin pasta strands were so delicate, and do I need to tell you my love affair with truffle?

Dover Sole "Goujonettes"
Sweet white corn, Chanterelle mushrooms, toasted almonds, Scallions
Moist fish with crispy skin and delicate sauce. Though I'm not sure about the transition from the boldly flavored bolognese to this delicate dish where the boldest flavor comes from the Chanterelles- the dish in itself was excellent.

Cote de Boeuf Roti
Potato Leek Torte, Summer Pole Beans, Wild Mushrooms, Herb Jus
Of course the heaviest dish had to come last when I was most full ... the two bites that I did have was excellent though. The beef was juicy and flavorful, pretty tender and actually a bit "gamey". I loved the creamy potato leek torte with crispy crust. Though we couldn't finish it I can tell you I had a most delicious lunch the next day that everyone envied.

ReBlochon Tart
Honey Pepper Gastrique
Because of the word "tart" I expected a dessert dish similar to a cheesecake, but instead this was a nice creative twist on the cheese course. Apparently ReBlochon is best between May and September - perfect timing. Instead of a cheese board with condiments, here you have the rich creamy and smooth ReBlochon cheese with pastry crust, and your sweet/spicy gastrique.

Vanilla Yogurt
Strawberry Sorbet
So simple but done so well. A wonderfully tart and refreshing first dessert works very well as a palate cleanser. And yes we cleaned the plate.

Chocolate Souffle
Banana Mousse
I love chocolate souffle. And I love Melisse's chocolate souffle. Airy and fluffy souffle, the way it should be, filled with rich chocolate ganache. Heavenly.

After this meal I couldn't help but think my first mediocre visit to Melisse was an off-meal. The quality of the dishes put out tonight were excellent, service was spot on - they deserve their 2 Michelin stars even if Michelin won't bother coming back to LA next year. This ten course meal is a worthy experience - and hey we came home with $100 gift card and a most excellent leftover for lunch! Two weeks left, so don't miss out.

Melisse
1104 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 395-0881
www.melisse.com

Fishing with Cimarusti and Citrin, plus Battle Scorpionfish by Choisauce!

I found out $100 can get me on a boat and fishing with Chefs Michael Cimarusti (Providence) and Josiah Citrin (Melisse) (thanks to Diglounge's twitter update). Did I take it up? Hell yeah!
This fishing trip is organized by the quarterly magazine Edible LA.

The weekend after my big exam I took my new fedora hat and drove down to San Pedro, rented my fishing pole and got on the Monte Carlo boat.

Since it took about 40 minutes to go out to our fishing spot, naturally lunch is in order. Potluck style lunch by the chefs and Edible LA people included lots of cheese and crackers, some Valrhona choco chip cookies made by chef Cimarusti:

These awesome jalapeno cheddar scones from La Mill (and it's lah-mill, not L.A. Mill):

Also equally awesome, cupcakes from Lark's in Silverlake:
I loved the chocolate coconut cupcake in particular. These aren't too sweet or rich and are just perfect for me ... since now I can have two! :P
And then the fishing began! The first fish was actually caught by Citrin's son, pictured below with Cimarusti (and a sand dab)
I never realized how much work fishing is until I got my first catch. I mean, throwing it and waiting for the fish to bite is easy enough. But man reeling that fish up from the bottom of the sea is hard work!!

After my 3rd/4th fish my arm was really feeling it ...

But there it was, the reward!!! There it comes ....
What the ... I had no clue what it was. And man was it ugly! Apparently it was a scorpion fish - the scales are poisonous but they clipped all the scales for us before putting the fish in the bags.

Well, ugly or not, those babies are all I caught that day. All seven of them. Other people got sand dabs, groupers, eels .... but I guess the scorpion fish like me.

On the way back we lined up to get our fishies cleaned and filleted (or not). I got mine half and half since I can't decide what to do with them yet ...

So there I was with a bunch of scorpion fish, filleted and whole, in my canvas bag. I had no clue what to do with them, besides deep frying (cos deep fried anything is like, yum). Chef Josiah Citrin suggested deep frying them whole. OK, can do. Chef Michael Cimarusti said they were great for bouillabaise.
Yeah .... I wasn't about to make bouillabaise.

I wasn't about to eat 7 deep fried scorpion fish on my own either.

So I called the chef Choisauce to prepare these fish whichever way she liked :) Well, okay, so my first message just asked if she wanted fish for dinner ... but I think she understood that she would need to cook them haha. And thus Iron Chef Choisauce: Battle Scorpionfish began.

My kitchen being a pathetic kitchen with no seasoning, Choisauce's original Korean fish soup turned into a Cajun-seasoned fish soup, but she's such a good cook that it was delicious anyway!

Just take a look at the start of our feast:
The scorpion fish is a meaty fish, and here it's nicely accented with the garlic/lime broth.

Next up was the deep fried whole fish, served with Choisauce's special impromptu sauce.
(I helped fry the fish! See I cook after all ... not :P) Can't go wrong with deep fried fish, for sure.

Lastly, the fillets that we had were baked with lemon and tomato sauce and cheese.
Turns out scorpionfish is pretty good filleted and baked.
It's hard to say which one was our favorite since everything was so good. The baked fillets were easiest to eat so we cleaned that up. We also cleaned up the fried fish and the soup leftovers made a delicious lunch for me the next day.

Thank you Choisauce for the delicious, delicious meal!

2009 5x5 Dinners Announced!

Five of Los Angeles top chefs gather together each year and hold five dinners at five restaurants, each of them, along with a guest chef, would prepare their own dish. This 5x5 Chefs Collaborative not only give us foodies a wonderful dining opportunity, it also promotes camaraderie among chefs and also benefit the Southern California Chapter of Special Olympics.

Come on, what more do you want?

This year's participating chefs are: Michael Cimarusti (Providence), Josiah Citrin (Melisse), David Lefevre (Water Grill), Gino Angelini (Angelini Osteria), and Neal Fraser (Grace) -- Fraser a new addition this year, replacing Walter Manzke.

This year's 5x5 dates have also been announced! And it will start with a dinner at Providence featuring Alex Stratta (from Alex, at the Wynn in Las Vegas). Here's the full lineup:

Tuesday, April 28, 2009: PROVIDENCE with Alessandro Stratta of Alex
Sunday, May 17, 2009: MELISSE with Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern
Monday, June 15, 2009: GRACE with Sean McClain of Spring
Sunday, August 23, 2009: WATER GRILL with Curtis Duffy of The Avenues
Monday, September 21, 2009: ANGELINI OSTERIA Guest Chef to be Announced

Prices for the dinners remain the same from last year at $150/year or $215 with wine pairing.


Here are some reviews from last year's 5x5 from around the blogosphere:

my review on the 5x5 at the Water Grill.

From Only Eat What Feeds Your Soul: Providence, Water Grill
From KevinEats: Providence, Water Grill
From Food Destination: La Terza

Amazing 5x5 at the Water Grill

After reading tangbro1's review of the 5x5 Collaborative dinner at Melisse, I decided I had to try at least one of the upcoming ones, so I made a reservation for the Water Grill dinner on August 31. The guest chef for this dinner was Giuseppe Tentori of Boka (Chicago). Portion of the proceeds goes to the SoCal chapter of the Special Olympics.

We started with some amuse bouche by David Lefevre (of Water Grill). No, these aren't all mine. There were three of us, so one of each :)From the right was daikon radish, then crab cakes, and ... foie gras!

My favorite part of this amuse bouche, was of course, the foie gras!
The foie gras was amazingly smooth and rich! It was soooo good! It was served with an apple gelee, and the sweetness complements the foie gras perfectly! It was a bite of heaven!
A nice dish. All the accompaniments cut the richness of the uni and complement itvery well. You really have to eat them all together to get that unique combination of flavors!

Big Eye Tuna with Petite Mache, jicama, watermelon, pineapple. Served with quail egg and black quinoa, shellfish emulsion
Giuseppe Tentori, Boka
This was a nice and refreshing dish, with the watermelon etc on top of the fish. The tuna slices were nice and thick and the fish was fresh.

It seemed to me that the big eye tuna dish would've worked better as an amuse bouche and then followed by the richer foie gras and uni dishes ... not that I would've traded the fact that Chef Lefevre wanted to give us foie gras and uni for anything in the world O:)

Pan Roasted Sea Scallops with American Caviar and Yukon Gold Potato
Michael Cimarusti, Providence
The sauce was myer lemon-based but it was not tart as I was expecting. The diced potatoes gave it a bit of crunchiness - it reminds me of eating kettle chips :)
Scallop was nice, big and juicy. I think the saltiness of the caviar really took the dish to the next level.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn Risotto with Asparagus
Gino Angelini, Osteria Angelini
I love Angelini's style - just simple yet excellent. The prawn was amazingly fresh and tender. The risotto was al dente and flavorful without overpowering the prawn. When I get hungry one night, out of all of tonight's food, this would probably be the one that I crave for.

Roasted John Dory, Mushroom Tart, Chorizo-Torpedo Onion Marmalade, Red Wine Mushroom Jus
Josiah Citrin, Melisse
This dish was good and nicely presented. The John Dory was tender and flaky. Overall it would've been very good, but then ... it was a little on the cold side, like it's been sitting out for a while :( Such a bummer ... Also, the toast was no longer crispy/flaky - it had gotten soggy due to sitting under the mushrooms.

Hawaiian Mero with Kobe Oxtail and Red Wine Sauce
Walter Manzke
Mero is a type of bass. It was nice and tender but it was cooked in duck fat on top of being a bass, so it's a very rich piece of fish.

Also, from the left we have the kobe oxtail on top of potato, followed by bone marrow on top of a slice of carrot, then spinach on top of celery root (and then the mero itself).
As you can see, this was a very rich dish. I started eating it, and while it was very tasty I felt that it needed something to cut the richness, so I decided to order the wine that was supposed to be paired with this:
Demetria, Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley, California 2005
The wine had been previously decanted and the result is an outstanding, smooth red wine! In the end the glass came out to $15, but it truly did go very well with the dish and cut the richness for me.

Yogurt Parfait with White Nectarine Sorbet and Clementine Sauce
John Park, Water Grill
This was also served with pistachio cake and pitted bing cherries. The white nectarine sorbet was superb. The yogurt parfait was nice and tangy - it has the consistency of flan, except not as smooth (since it's yogurt). Goes well with the pistachio crumbs and the clementine sauce.

Next came a big platter of the petit fours, including churros, pistachio and chocolate macaroons, lychee and pear jelly, peanut butter and jelly in white chocolate, and chocolate ganache.
The churros were extra sweet since the ratio of sugar coating/dough is particularly large in this case.
My favorites were the chocolate macaroons and the chocolate ganache.

Although we were stuffed, there's still one more little thing to devour. A small malt ice cream dipped in chocolate with rice crackers.

Overall it was an amazing meal! Having these chefs cooking for you themselves instead of the chef de cuisines really made a big difference, I think!
All the dishes were very well prepared and well thought of. If you guys can make it to the next one at La Terza, I would recommend it :)

Also, I managed to take photos with the chefs after the meal, fun fun :P