by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com
Webster House's genial owner, hustling waiter, wine pourer, table clearer, service expediter and friend to everyone, popular Chris Liazos, conceived "A Taste of Italy," a dinner that I approached with trepidation: "spicy Italian food, the evil bulb, and obscure wines."
I groaned: "Surely a bummer is in the offing!" But gastronomically courageous that I am, fearing no food except the evil bulb, I steeled myself and resolutely trudged to the restaurant, dragging my reluctant self through the door.
Hallelujah! This dinner was no bummer! I had finished the antipasto misto: cannelloni bean puree with sage and olive oil, mozzarella cheese, green and red peppers, egg plant, giant shrimp, mushrooms galore, baby tomato, green and black olives and two breadsticks. I was now into the second course, fettuccini carbonara with shallots, black pepper, egg, Romano cheese, lean turkey bacon. So where were the garlic and the gut-searing spices?
So wonder of wonders, Schultz extolled Italian food...Italian food without garlic!
I had always found pleasure in Italian wines, but never did I sip them with what I feared was pungent, odiferous Italian cuisine... Ah, yes, once I almost had to when I was in Italy at the Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, by Lake Como, Italy, where we had a sumptuous eight course wine dinner for a group of Sweet Life supermarket owners and their wives.
I had planned that the courses be paired with Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Spanish wines...that is, until I confronted the Master Chef, Fabrizio Fabrenta.
Our waiter warned us that Fabrenta, when planning banquets, erupts like Mt. Vesuvius to suggestions how his dishes might be prepared and about the wines that should be paired with them.
I had given our waiter a copy of our customary statement we give to chefs, not generally well received by them, whose food we were tasting for the first time: "Dear Chef, Please prepare our fish moist and meat medium rare. Sauce should be light and lightly seasoned. Above all...no garlic in anything! Thank you for your kind attention to our request. Lillian and Julian Schultz.
Our meeting with Fabrenta was less than cordial: "You no tella master chef howa food is prepared! You some kinda chef, too? My kitchen mosta famous over whole world!"
Lillian hastily apologized, saying that strong spices and, especially, pungent garlic made me ill. She smiled disarmingly and coquettishly patted Fabrenta's hand. Mollified, by glaring unforgiving at me, he nodded to Lillian: "Nota to worry, deara pretty lady."
When I listed the red Bordeaux, Burgundy, Spanish, and two New Zealand white wines that would accompany the courses, Fabrenta banged on the table and leaped to his feet. His fierce black bushy eyebrows quivered with anger, his lips and nose were set in snarl at the suggestion that we pour any wines that were not Italian. He chewed on his handlebar mustache, trying to prevent himself from insulting a guest who had brought a substantial income-generating group to this very expensive hotel.
His insistence was peremptory: "Only wine froma Italy will I include... froma Piedmont to Sicily. I promise you, in my food...you no smell, no taste, no noble garlic; you say 'pungent,' 'malodorous'; maybe I spoila wholea dinner when I agree no garlic, when my food losea its - how you say, 'zipporoo?' "
His food had plenty of zipporoo; very tasty, not gut searing. The white wines Arneis and Greco di Tufo proved they are world-class. Among the reds Bricco Rocche Prapo Barolo and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano were heroic with the food, and one of the world's greatest dessert wines, the rare and lusciously sweet Ciqueteere Passito, capped an extraordinary Lucullan dining event. Italian wines are forever crowned with the glowing remembrance of dinner at the Villa d' Este.
Our waiter later told me that Fabrenta prides himself -- and is renowned - for his delicately prepared food and accents of herbs, spices, and garlic so subtle as to be undetected by the most discerning palate.
Twice these past few months, however, I have been exposed to the Italian connection - great wine and (new for me) unusual and pleasing ethnic Italian foods.
So humbly, sadly, I admit: I didn't get to know the dining fun I was missing with Italian food until I got to know it with Italian wine.
Owner Chris Liazos had earlier assured me that nary a whiff or nary a nuance of the evil bulb would assail my suspiciously sniffing nostrils or curdle my sensitive taste bulbs. And Dr. Bob Ouellette, who had participated in the trial dinner, also reassured me.
Once inside the Webster House, I found myself in Gino's, that quaint Italian restaurant in the village of Mincio, by Lake Garda in Lombardy, Italy. It was remembrance of things past as I stepped from the silent graying dusk into the lively, brightly lighted restaurant at 1 Webster Sq., in Worcester.
That was a few years ago when I visited Italy. I luxuriated over dinner in the clean, comfortable, impeccably table-set, homey dining room. The food was simple, but exquisitely prepared with provocative flavors (garlic-less for me). The wines were varietally honest, fruit rich, and generously poured.
So I relived the memorable Gino's experience at the Webster House recently at our monthly wine dinner. (Next month, October 20, it is a Greek wine dinner with Greek wines.) Forty-seven salivating adventurous wine and food aficionados reveled in the same tantalizing aromas and flavors of herbs, spices, oils, and ethnically prepared food, the same carefully selected, reasonably priced, Italian wines and the same intimate ambience that I enjoyed at Gino's.
Despite Chris' and Dr. Bob's assurances of no garlic, my repeated suspicious sniffing disclosed no dreaded, pungent odors and tastes in the food. When I requested of Chris to eliminate any hint of garlic, even permitting him to substitute any courses if that were necessary, Chris said, "We don't cook much with garlic although they may be a little in some dishes or if a patron specifically asks for it." It's not that I doubted him, but nonetheless determinedly I came to the dinner with a positive mindset: Almost self-hypnotized, I believed that any garlic I smelled would be coming up roses.
On a garlic-free scale of 10, my dinner was a 10...or in my hypnotized state, did everything come up roses?
So why do I forswear garlic so vehemently? (Local readers know the answer, but the repetition below is for the Internet readers nationally and worldwide on WWW. Oxford Wine Room.Com):
Garlic caused the end of my romance with a devastating beauty at college; she destroyed my libido stone dead for four months, always smelling of garlic preliminary to our impassioned embraces...because I got dumped by another dazzler after I, innocently, unknowingly, repeatedly, dined on garlicky kosher style pickles before our dates, making love's sweet kisses distasteful to her...because I got kicked off my high school basketball team when the overpowering garlic breath of the player I was guarding had me reeling; he scored 28 points the first half. The trauma persists.
I attribute much of my high scores for the food and wine here at the Webster House to the lovely Wonderful Winona Winemore, also known as Karen Robert Davis, who sat to my right. She enhanced the dinner by at least 10 points. When evaluating wine, I always seek an enchanting woman wine enthusiast as a tasting companion. Enjoying the right wine with the right woman does more to improve the wine than all the wine equipment, oenologists' genius, and Mother Nature's favors combined. Cherchez la Femme!
As a testament to her charm, I gallantly raise my wine glass and my scores to Wonderful Winona Winemore, wife of Droll Dicky Drinkwater Davis (aka Jeff Davis).
Upon my entering the dining room, Chris motioned to me to sit at a half empty table; he came over with a first-time couple: Sergé Tanglefoot, Russian soccer star, and Lola Lies-supine, American female wrestler.
Lola and I noted Sergé was disgruntled: "Want Wodka dinner; no want wine dinner." Lola told him to cool it! That Italian food with Italian wines will be a delicious dining adventure.
"Want kapusta, pachá, miltz, itar, meat pieorogi, borscht ..........an' wit' Wodka!
Lola, exasperated: "Look, you are becoming an embarrassment. Italian food and wine will make your feet livelier. Look at me; see how lively, full of energy I am because of table wine and healthy food."
Sergé scoffed: "When see you in rassling ring, you always flat on back, not lively; in bed, you always flat on back and werry werry lively, ha-ha-ha-ha."
Lola, waspishly: "Then think of me in bed and let's get on with this dinner. I will guide you through the menu. Any resistance -- remember my flying drop kick on you a few months ago, when I put you flat on your ass, and you were not very lively then?"
Came pourers Dom Mercurio, Jim Vasiliados, and Chris followed by servers Patty Thomas and Sean Maynard to begin the dinner.
The menu: Welcoming wine, Fantasia di Fiori Pinot Grigio, 2003, $9.59, after O'Hara's 20-percent discount on all wines poured at the dinner. Nice easy-to-drink white wine; citrus, sweet-edged spice, proper acid balance, smooth, firm, crisp.
Appetizer: Antipasto Misto. (See paragraph #3 in document for description.) Accompanying wine: Matte Trebbiano d' Abruzzo 2003, $9.59, drier fruited than the Pinot Grigio, crisp, zesty lemonade, excellent with the eight-variety antipasto.
Pasta. (See paragraph #3 in document for description.) Accompanying wine: Rocco Secco Montepulciano d' Abruzzo 2003, $9.59, pear aroma, rich fruited flavor, medium body, dry crisp mouthfeel, perfect balance, lush finish, long aftertaste. Super bargain price.
Lola noted that Sergé had completely eaten his first two courses and drained all his wine. "Well, Sergé," she said, "I see you are enjoying the dinner. Didn't I tell you?"
"Maybe still want Wodka dinner...but dis dinner, maybe five-goal dinner. Will see afta chicken and beef dish an' wine." His eyes lighted up when Sean Maynard and Patty Thomas arrived with the chicken. He eagerly proffered his wine glass for Chris to pour.
First Main Course. Chicken breast prepared with shiitake mushrooms, shallots, sage, and Marsala wine, served on orzo primavera, was paired with Gran Sasso Sauvignon Blanc 2003, $9.59. Excellent Sauvignon Blanc true to its varietal grape: lightly green olives, grass, vanilla, oak, spicy black currants, bell peppers; another outstanding price.
Second Main Course. Charbroiled butter-tender, outstandingly delicious tenderloin steak marinated with balsamic vinaigrette and rosemary, served with sliced roasted potatoes and bean medley. Stupendous preparation! Never in all my advanced octogenarian years have I tasted a superior tenderloin steak!
Two red wines matched the meat: Excellent Ciferette (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Montepulciano) 2001, $12.79, worth twice the price, and Sapera di sole Cabernet Sauvignon 2001, $12.79...and thereby hangs a tale.
Both wines showed attributes of the varietals: berries, olives, mint, black pepper, cedar, tobacco, leather, beef, spice, wood. As the wines continued to breathe in the glass, varying aromas and flavors emerged. Two super wines big bargain priced.
The tale: Our table and those within earshot raved about the Ciferette and many placed orders. When we were poured and tasted the cab, many of us gasped with excitement and pleasure - wow! - and reduced the quantities of our order for the Ciferette and added more bottles of the cab!
Sergé turned to Lola, "Maybe, maybe Wodka dinner better, maybe - hey, buy some dis wine for me! Chris say next dinner - Greek dinner - next month. I want go!"
Lola, laughing, "What about your 'Wodka' dinners?"
Sergé: "What Wodka, what Wodka dinners?"
Webster House's famed Neapolitan dessert, made with fresh fruits, almonds, dark chocolate, whipped cream on phyllo flat, ended one of the Webster House's most successfully enjoyable dinners.
Special kudos to Rudi's Domenic Mercurio and O'Hara's Jim Vasiliadis for selecting the wines to match the food preparations of chef John Hammerstrom, assisted by Helena Liazos and Cindy Garvin.
Wine Pick: Hogue Cellars Cabernet/Merlot 2002, under $11, with Cabernet Franc added for flavor and structure. Aromas of blackberry, tobacco, licorice; a chocolaty accent lingers behind the berry fruit and spice; medium-rich mouthfeel and toasty vanilla swallow. Big bargain price value.
Wine Pick: Ménage a Trois 2003, around $12, is another big bargain price value. A blend of Moscato, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, the wine's bouquet and flavor explode with honeydew, strawberry, banana, lemon grass, wild exotic spices; firm structure, sturdy backbone. Delicious, unusual, easy to drink and enjoy.
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julian@oxfordwineroom.com