Slow Food Madera delivers Haute Cuisine in Style!

Under a mid-August Central Californian starry night, Slowfood Madera took advantage of this year’s fig bounty and Fresno's yearly Fig Festival celebration to serve a fabulous fig inspired dinner experience that could satisfy the finickiest of New York’s food critics.

The guests knew they were in for a treat as they were immediately ravished by the sumptuously decorated never ending table, the classical music softly lulling them to their setting, the beautiful arches of delicate and numerous vines overhead and the overly attentive waiting staff, dressed for a dining experience to remember.  Although timing was essential for the success of the evening, the staff never rushed the guests, but rather, gently coaxed everyone to their seat as the feast was to begin and unfold with a Swiss-like, gentle yet effective rhythm. The five-course dinner was beautifully paired with local wines, each enhancing a particular aspect of the fruits and other flavors that created a call and response to effectively titillate our palate. Each dish was precise in its focus on a particular aspect of the fig: its sweetness, tanginess, acidity and smokiness; the Chefs also successfully celebrated the wonderfully complex changes of texture from the delicately moist center to the more resistant outer skin of the celebrated fruit.

Chefs James Overbaugh and Karsten Hart of Erna's Elderberry House creations were awe inspiring; just read the menu:

• Calimyrna Fig Carpaccio with Aged Sherry-Orange Vinaigrette, Mission Fig-Ginger-Lime Compote, Pistachio-Mince Meat filled Kadota, Turkey Fig-Grains of Paradise Sorbet and Dried Fig Emulsion
• Chilled Roasted Mission Fig-Ficklin Tinta Port Soup Picon Cabrales Blue Cheese, Port Fig Aspic, and Black Pepper Brioche Croutons
• Grilled Calimyrna Figs in a Three-Day Basil Marinade wrapped in Imported Serrano Ham, Ice Box Watermelon-Pedro Ximenez Vinaigrette and Toasted Pumpkin Seed Oil
• Guinea Hen Roulade filled with Fig Paste and Sweet Potato-Parsley Mousseline, Dried Fig-King Oyster Mushroon-Lamb's Quarter Ragout, Fig Glazed Gnocchi and Guinea Hen-Fig Sauce
• Fig Tiramisu in Caramel Fig Broth

As each plate was removed from before me and swiftly replaced with a new dish, I was enchanted into the next flavors, knowing that the Chefs were about to reveal unsuspected variations on tastes and textures. Particularly stunning, was the Guinea Hen Roulade main course, which completely surprised me as it expanded my culinary vocabulary with a new combination of sensations, the experience of which I will try to describe. As the evening progressed, the sunset light irreversibly vanished, to be modestly replaced by the flicker of our candle lit table slowly suppressing our sense of vision, rendering the next dish even more mysterious. My senses heightened by the increasing deprivation of sight enhanced the roulade’s texture that made me wonder what I was eating and where to slice the next bite out of the lugubrious plate before me. Imagine eating something you can barely see. I don’t know if that was planned, but it was remarkably effective in that I was paying even more attention to what I was enjoying. A dark local vintner’s deep earthy red wine helped seal these new flavors into a memory of gustative pleasures. A truly remarkable experience this writer will remember for a long time, and will attempt to repeat in all the Augusts of the coming years…

Frederic Martin
Madera, CA