Feast Blog

Everyone has their favorite holiday food tradition; roast goose, home-made caramels, fruitcake, prime rib… Mine is cassoulet. For me, it started almost a dozen years ago with a kit sold by D’Artagnan. It was ironic though. I spent what I thought was an exorbitant amount of money for a one-pot meal that would serve six to eight people. And then I promptly caught the flu, gave away my endeavors, and never even tasted it. In the following years, I jumped from recipe to recipe – Julia Child’s, Saveur’s, old copies of Gourmet Magazine’s… Then one year I stumbled on Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwest France. and her recipe "Cassoulet in the Style of Toulouse." 
 

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A final evening in Miami Beach was spent at Talula, a delightful restaurant just a short walk from the major hotels in South Beach. Dining alone, I had the unmitigated pleasure of having access to the kitchen bar; three separate seats set to give complete action and access to the fun-loving kitchen staff. As I arrived early, I was made to feel very welcome with a glass of Perrier Jouet Champagne while I perused the menu. Very shortly, a basket of freshly baked bread was offered with a delightful spread made with puréed beans, carrots, and a little bite of spice. Putting my hands in the hands of the chef, I opted for a tasting menu with wine accompaniments and over the next two-and-a-half hours, traveled through the following:

• Wappo ceviche garnished with thinly sliced avocado, wasabi tobiko, and a bit of cilantro. There was a side of dressed greens and crisps. The wappo was fresh but I was shocked at the element of spice on the fish. It was not necessarily bad, but to begin a tasting menu with something that shocks the taste-buds so much is debatable. It made me wonder if my entire meal was going to be a series of conflicting flavors and unbalanced dishes.
• A glass of 2006 Coppola’s Director’s Cut Chardonnay. I am not a huge chardonnay fan but this a lovely bouquet with a hint of floral. It was served with a seared scallop dish composed on a bed of lentils du puy, a griddle cake, creme fraiche, and micro greens. There was a drizzle of reduced port wine and that sweetness played well against the savory of the griddle cake. The scallop was perfectly seared with a crisp, golden exterior – a great combination.
• A sweet wine glass was placed in front of me and I knew some foie gras was on its way! The wine poured was a 2002 Francis Tannahill Passito, Washington Gewurztraminer. The foie tasting was actually two. The first, a cold torchon was served on a golden triangle of toasted brioche and adorned with pickled watermelon rind and baby greens. As a torchon goes, it was on the chunky side; meaning, in its preparation, the lobe was probably just de-veined and then the smaller chunks re-assembled before poaching but just barely to hold the pieces together. It is only a slight distraction against those torchons which are perfectly smooth and creamy – not necessarily a complaint, just a different style. The other foie offering was a seared piece, served on a blue corn griddle cake with caramelized fig, a small dollop of creme fraiche, and a grizzle made from a New Mexican chili. This was a perfectly delightful concoction! The savory blue corn was a perfect base to complement the creamy foie and sweet fig. The chili sauce was hardly spicy but provided the perfect bite to contrast the sweetness in the fig. Stunning.
• In being served a Bibo Super Tuscan, I was anticipating a hefty, savory meat dish next. I was wrong, but it was oh, so right. A hot fish course, Black Grouper was served with roasted tomatoes, wilted greens, and gnocchi. The gnocchi themselves were fairly heavy and laden, but the fish itself, with its Italian-esque preparation, stood up extremely well to the well-balanced fruit-laden, earthy wine. One of those great times when a red wine and fish really do complement each other.
• While seemingly a step-back wine wise form the Bibo, a 2005 Gloria Ferrer Pinot Noir was poured for the first meat course. Seared sweetbreads were served atop an Italian version of Israeli couscous (sorry, can’t remember the indigenous name), wilted greens, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a contrasting drizzle of pumpkin seed oil and a root beer reduction. Here I take slight umbrage to the root beer glaze; I can understand the need for a slightly sweet component to contrast the earthy flavors and lovely texture components of the other ingredients, I just thought it a wrong choice for this dish. The sweetbreads were perfect and the crunchy pumpkin seed component a very interesting dichotomy to the creamy interior of the sweetbreads. I just ate around that particular glaze.
• My last savory dish of the evening was served with a 2003 Heller Estate Cachagua Cabernet Sauvignon. The dish was pinot noir-braised shortribs served with baby turnips, wild mushrooms, wilted greens, and topped with a crumble of goat cheese. I need to add that this was dish was also served with a parsnip ravioli which I asked the chef about. Tasting it’s interior, I would have sworn it was mascarpone as it was so intensely sweet and creamy when in fact it was simply a purée of parsnip. While interesting well prepared, it was slight overkill and not necessary for the rest of the dish which was rich and well composed. The turnips especially were fresh and crisp, providing a nice brightness next to the earthiness of the mushrooms with a slight, welcome bite coming from the goat cheese.
• A 20 Year Tawny Sandeman Port was poured in anticipation of the dessert course which was served by sous chef Kyle as this was one of his own creations. Telling me that when he goes to the movies, he buys a box of Raisinettes and pours them in his popcorn, he created a haute cuisine version of this dessert. Starting from the bottom, he has prepared a perfectly smooth popcorn flavor-infused crème brûlée. This was topped with freshly air popped popcorn which had been tossed with raisins and a touch of melted chocolate. Also on the crème brûlée was a scoop of house-made chocolate sorbet and a paper thin popcorn-studded chocolate tuille. This dessert was a revelation in originality. Too often, I order run-of-the-mill desserts which warrant only a bite or two. The last time I can recall having eaten a dessert in its entirety, was Michel Richard’s crème brûlée offering at Bin 8945. This was so innovative and well-executed.

Overall, my evening at Talula was exceptional. The staff were attentive to being a single diner, even offering me some reading material despite my exceptional view of the kitchen from my kitchen bar seat. Despite the minor complaints I had in the meal, overall it was incredibly memorable. One minor problem lies only in the lack of adequate glassware for their wines. While the Champagne and sweet wine were poured into appropriate stemware, there was no differentiation between whites wines or the pinot noir or the cabernet sauvignon. It is a pity that a restaurant with that much going for it can’t see its way to providing appropriate glasses for the appropriate wines.

I had fully intended on writing each day’s impressions during this trip. That is plain and simply impossible as there is just too much to digest. Going through the hundreds and hundreds of photos I have been taking, I am devising a new plan where I will continue writing about everything I’ve seen over the next few weeks. In attending six different exhibit spaces yesterday afternoon (Pulse, Aqua Wynwood, Art Miami, Gesai, and Zones) and all that Design Miami had to offer last evening, I can better represent the various impressions thematically. In going through the pictures, that which has struck me the most is that Video may very well have Killed the Radio Star and technological art is becoming increasingly apparent.

Several large exhibits at Art Basel struck me including Sam Taylor-Wood’s That White Rush, a DVD production shown on a large, flat screen television. Running for just over two minutes, it depicts a Leda And The Swan-like image; a woman seemingly copulating with a bird. At first glance (as readily shown by those who just walked by), one seems to be viewing a mere photograph or finely-executed painting. The movements of the woman’s feet are miniscule and barely discernible. It is at first appalling – is she really having sex with the bird? Then it becomes erotic and sensual…

Another piece was a chamber presented by Francesca Kaufmann, Milano (although based on the signage, I am unsure if this was the actual artist or the gallery representative). Within the chamber are two vintage videos of The Carpenters in short, looped segments. Combating each other, one is a loop of Karen singing "Me, Me, Me" while the opposite video has strains of her classic voice crooning "You, You, You." 

I was thrilled to catch a photo of a man in yellow experiencing the two auditory experiences simultaneously. I was oddly drawn to this display and returned several times during the exhibit. A similarly-arranged exhibit was also made with a blue chamber and two Annie Lennox videos, but as her words were indistinguishable by me, the Carpenter’s dichotomy of the Me/You became more poignant.

Within Design Miami, video is incorporated in the selling of Max Lamb’s cast bronze chairs. Heavy and solid bronze, a background video which runs at an accelerated speed and shows the artist deconstructing the chair from a giant block of styrofoam.

On a twist from the produced videos being displayed, artists Jennifer and Kevin McCoy took the innovation a step further with a full installation piece. In High Seas, 2007, this mixed media sculpture of the Titanic is mounted with a motor and camera which runs around a track, producing a live video output of what appears to be the rocking motion of sea travel. The sensation of sea-sickness was palpable!

It is also gratifying that much of the video art being produced is not limited to the high-end , expensive productions. In a smaller gallery off one of the side-roads, I stumbled on this charming series of sculptures by Troy Abbott showing bird cages in which sits small video screens depicting what would otherwise be a live, caged bird. Don’t want the hassle of having to clean a bird cage or listen to loud chirping in the middle of the night? No noise and no mess with this caged bird!

How much more frustrating can it be, than to walk around for hours on end, looking at thousands of pieces of amazing art (unfortunately in painful shoes), taking HUNDREDS of photos, only to have a technical glitch somehow delete all said photos?

First, you have to understand that a good four hours-plus of yesterday’s endeavors was spent getting the necessary press accreditation just to be able to take said desired photographs within the various events. Note of minor annoyance: The security guards check bags and pockets to assure that no unauthorized folks get to bring cameras into the event, however everyone-and-their-brother with cell phone cameras are happily snapping away with no retribution. Which makes it doubly more annoying that I took the effort to be able to take the shots, only to somehow lose them later. I’ll stop griping now.

Despite a fairly rainy morning, I met some great people over a home-style Cuban lunch and managed to snare a ride over to the Design District. There I saw some truly innovative furnishings and home decorations. I may head back over to re-document those items which I was really drawn to… A second day was spent walking the convention center before heading over to see all of the containers. After a change of clothes (and shoes!), I headed to Aqua Art Miami. This was set up in the same fashion as one I saw at The Jupiter Hotel at the Portland TBA festival. There — as in here — a young, urban hotel is emptied of guests and each room replaced with an exhibit by various visiting galleries. In this instance, the Aqua event was very exciting and cutting edge, showing artists of great promise as well as those of questionable talent. The few pictures I can offer here are from the Aqua exhibit and tend to be a bit outside the realm of that which is found at the convention center in that there is more mixed media and "craft-based" media; clay, paper, etc…

That in itself brings up an interesting dialogue I had with a number of people today: That the concept of "craft" is still a four-letter word in this level of the art world. The convention center exhibits, while displaying a number of video and sculptural arts, contain little (if any) glass, clay, or textiles.
I won’t even go into the fact that I have not seen a single piece of art jewelry on the Society Dames wandering these hallowed halls…

That’s it – I AM going to back and re-take so many of the pictures I wanted to share. There was too much of interest that I wanted to discuss. Thanks for your patience!

There were a handful of parties held during the evening of the first night — I headed to the Miami Art Museum for a raucous event in honor of the installation The Killing Machine and Other Stories by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller. This was a series of rather disturbing multimedia installations. Okay, only the Killing Machine itself was disturbing. It was incredibly reminiscent of a Star Trek TNG episode Schisms where the victims are subjected to tests through mechanized arms on an examination table. In this case, it is mechanized also and surrounded with audio equipment to provide an emotional intrusive soundtrack, obviously meant to evoke a response of fear and impending danger. Elsewhere in the exhibit, I enjoyed an enclosed cabin through which various turn-tables could be seen, each designed to play a crescendo of operatic arias.

Leaving, MAM, I shared a cab with Ryan Biziorek, an Acoustic Consultant from Arup. His company was a consultant for a Ambisonic sound exhibit by Forsyth & Jane Pollard entitled Silent Sound represented by Kate MacGarry. Her piece is part of the ArtPositions display of the festival and are works by emerging artists wholly and entirely contained within, well, storage containers. Ms. MacGarry’s piece was an intensely moving piece of auditory art where one walks into a very dark, enclosed space to simply listen. A CD was available (and purchased!) which is binaural. As the explanatory card says:

The complex sensitivity of human hearing allows us to perceive the three-dimensional nature of our surroundings, deciphering the direction from which sounds originate and well as physically feeling sounds through vibrations. This recording, made using technology developed by Arup Acoustics, captures the full dimensions of the sound, enabling you to sense the live performance in its experiential and spatial entirety. The soundtrack replayed inside the listening chamber is a special ambisonic recording of a live performance, featuring an original score composed for the project by J. Spaceman (Spiritualized).  Embedded within the recording is a subliminal message, known only to the artists. Silent Sound by Iaian Forsyth and Jane Pollard began life as a live performance at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool, England, and was commissioned by A Foundation for Greenland Street 2006. The project was inspired by The Davenport Brothers, Victorian Spiritualist performers who presented a public séance on the same stage in 1865.

I experienced a full Stendhal Syndrome with the sounds of the piece bringing tears to my eyes. I was fortunate to share a great pizza and wonderful company with Ryan as well as Fabio Altamura and Kaavous Clayton. Fabio is Kate’s representative at the container and Kaavous is the "production engineer" who physically constructed the space within the container. Illuminating, enlightening, and engaging company and a wonderful evening!