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The Twelve Days of Christmas are especially festive when good friends are in the kitchen. Familiarity and conviviality go a long way in making the experience a fun one for everyone. And if there are two chefs this year who could bring a party atmosphere to the kitchen of The Restaurant at Meadowood, it would be the duo Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra. Young and fun, they have two restaurants next door to each other on the Lower East Side of New York: contra and Wildair.
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I think of Stone and von Hauske (who primarily works as a pastry chef) as having a loose and broad-strokes approach to cooking. Dovetailing well with California’s ingredient-focused style of cooking (this dinner was entitled “Orchard Street meets Main Street;” contra and Wildair are both on Orchard Street, and Main Street is the center of commerce for the tiny town of St. Helena in Napa, where The Restaurant at Meadowood is located), their food is simple, natural, and focused on flavor – like a warm dish of squid and matsutake with mushroom broth, or even the cold salad of lamb poached in olive oil that they served as the main meat course at this dinner.
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Occasionally, they’ll pull out a super-classic cooking reference that seems strangely out-of-step with their otherwise borderless approach to cooking. For example, I recently had a potato darphin (a hash brown cake, like rösti) at Wildair, topped with sea urchin. And on this night, they opened the dinner with a cold salad Macedoine (or Macedonia) – this one with peas, potatoes, sea urchin, and abalone bound in a light oyster cream. But I like these faded, textbook throwbacks – a reminder that behind their fun and casual approach to cooking, Stone and von Hauske are mindful of classic techniques.
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Reaching towards Orchard Street, Kostow and his team served pickled herring from Russ & Daughters, the famous Jewish appetizing on East Houston Street, just around the corner from contra and Wildair. And later in the dinner, Kostow used Russ & Daughters trout roe in a creamy tendon suc served with veal.
Adding to the trans-continental conviviality of this dinner, Anthony Mangieri [who is closing his pizzeria Una Pizzeria Napoletana in San Francisco and moving it back to New York, where he began] dropped off some of his focaccia, which was warmed, painted with olive oil, and served at the start of service.
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There was a particularly outstanding wine pairing at this dinner for me: the bell pepperiness of 1979 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon (decanted from an imperial) paired exceptionally with the habenero Kostow used to dress a cheese course of mimolette.
I love von Hauske’s desserts because of their simplicity and flavor. I also particularly like that they’re often fruit-focused (one of my favorite desserts I’ve had at contra was with Tri-Star strawberries with lavender ice cream), as they both were at this dinner. The first combined citrus and almonds in a fluffy creamsicle-like dessert, and the second used the sweetness of the ripe persimmons of California to mellow out the tartness of passionfruit in a cold semifreddo.
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Below, you’ll find the menu from the third night of the Twelve Days of Christmas with Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra. To see all of the photos from this dinner, CLICK HERE.
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Canapés
Fried Beef Shin
Sancho and beef garum.
(Stone and von Hauske)
Russ & Daughters Herring
Rye bread.
Smoked Cod Fritter
Dill, dried onion, sesame.
(The Restaurant at Meadowood)
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Foccocia
(Anthony Mangieri
Una Pizzeria Napoletana)
First Course
Macedoine
Abalone, peas, uni, oyster cream, potatoes.
(Stone and von Hauske)
Second Course
Spicy Spiny Lobster Tartare
Kohlrabi, herbs.
(Stone and von Hauske)
Third Course
Squid.
Matsutake, mushroom broth.
(Stone and von Hauske)
Fourth Course
Cold Lamb Salad
Pistachio, green olive, lettuces, onions.
(Stone and von Hauske)
Fifth Course
Veal Rack
Tendon suc, Russ & Daughters trout roe.
(The Restaurant at Meadowood)
Sixth Course
Mimolette
Pepper and quince.
(The Restaurant at Meadowood)
Seventh Course
Mandarin/Bitter Almonds
(von Hauske)
Eighth Course
Passionfruit Semifreddo
Persimmons and honey.
(von Hauske)
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F.E. Trimbach
Cuvée Frédéric Emile
Riesling, Alsace, 2009
Philippe Pacalet
Chassagne-Montrachet, 2015
Ravenswood
Zinfandel
Alexander Valley, 1991
Robert Mondavi
Cabernet Sauvignon
1979
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Below are links to my posts and photos from all of the Twelve Days of Christmas dinners I have attended over the past four years at the Restaurant at Meadowood. Each chef is listed with the restaurant with which they were cooking at the time they participated in the event (some have moved on to other projects and restaurants).
2012
Scott Anderson (Elements; Princeton, New Jersey)
John & Karen Shields (Formerly of Townhouse; Chilhowie, Virginia)
Phillip Foss (EL Ideas; Chicago, Illinois)
Stuart Brioza & Nicole Krasinski (State Bird Provisions; San Francisco, California)
Jason Franey (Canlis Restaurant; Seattle, Washinton)
Matthias Merges (Yusho; Chicago, Illinois)
Mori Onodera (Formerly of Mori Sushi; Los Angeles, California)
James Syhabout (Commis; Oakland, California)
Nick Anderer (Maialino; New York, New York)
David Toutain (Agapé Substance; Paris, France)
Josh Habiger & Erik Anderson (The Catbird Seat; Nashville Tennessee)
Christopher Kostow (The Restaurant at Meadowood; St. Helena, California)
2013
Andy Ricker (Pok Pok, Portland, Oregon & New York, New York)
Rodolfo Guzman (Boragó; Santiago, Chile)
Carlo Mirarchi (Blanca and Roberta’s; Brooklyn, New York)
Tim Cushman (O Ya; Boston, Massachusetts)
Ashley Christensen (Poole’s Diner; Raleigh, North Carolina)
David Chang (Momofuku; New York, New York)
Matthew Accarrino (SPQR; San Francisco, California)
Mark Ladner & Brooks Headley (Del Posto; New York, New York)
Rasmus Kofoed (Geranium; Copenhagen, Denmark)
Nicolaus Balla & Cortney Burns (Bar Tartine; San Francisco, California)
David Kinch (Manresa; Los Gatos, California)
Christopher Kostow (The Restaurant at Meadowood; St. Helena, California)
2014
Matthew Orlando (Amass; Copenhagen, Denmark)
Frank Castranovo & Frank Falcinelli (Frankies 457, Prime Meats; New York, New York)
Kobe Desramaults (In de Wulf; Dranouter, Belgium)
Alexandre Gauthier (La Grenouillère; La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil, France)
Blaine Wetzel (Willows Inn; Lummi Island, Washington)
Joshua McFadden (Ava Gene’s; Portland, Oregon)
Virgilio Martinez (Central; Lima, Peru)
Grant Achatz (Alinea; Chicago, Illinois)
Corey Lee (Benu; San Francisco, California)
Esben Holmboe Bang (Maaemo; Oslo, Norway)
Ignacio Mattos (Estela; New York, New York)
Christopher Kostow (The Restaurant at Meadowood; St. Helena, California)
2015
Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park, NoMad; New York, New York)
Nenad Mlinarevic (Focus; Vitznau, Switzerland)
Christian Puglisi (relæ; Copenhagen, Denmark)
Jorge Vallejo (Quintonil; Mexico City, Mexico)
Joshua Skenes (Saison; San Francisco, California)
Matthew Wilkinson (Pope Joan; Melbourne, Australia)
Kim Floresca and Daniel Ryan ([One]; Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
Isaac McHale (The Clove Club; London, The United Kingdom)
Kyle Connaughton (Single Thread; Healdsburg, California)
Atsushi Tanaka (A.T. Restaurant; Paris, France)
Justin Yu (Oxheart; Houston, Texas)
Christopher Kostow (The Restaurant at Meadowood; St. Helena, California)
2017
Mark Lundgaard Nielsen (Kong Hans Kælder; Copenhagen, Denmark)
Manish Mehrotra (Indian Accents; New Dehli, India; New York, New York; London, U.K.)
Jeremiah Stone & Fabián von Hauske Valtierra (Contra & Wildair; New York, New York)
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Photos: Stone, von Hauske, and Kostow at the Culinary Farm; Stone butchering lamb; charring kale on the Josper; a basket of vegetables from the Culinary Farm; poaching giant spiny lobsters; veal in tendon suc and Russ & Daughters trout roe; shaving mimolette over a cheese course of mimolette with peppers and quince; an imperial of 1979 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon; von Hauske’s dessert of citrus and almond ice cream; Stone, Kostow, Mangieri, and von Hauske.
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