The season is just now starting according to the foremost authority: Tom Chino!
I love them every way: sautéed, steamed, raw in salads or just picked on the farm!
My all-time favorite is the way grandma Gabrielle prepared them: just lightly sautéed in duck fat with escarole, baby carrots and pearl onions, Oh My!!

Peas will be omnipresent on our spring menus here at Mille Fleurs , we have even created a sweet pea martini, served straight up! Pity the season will only last a couple of month!

Night + Day

Mille Fleurs in Rancho Santa Fe will serve both an a la carte brunch and a dinner on Easter Sunday.

View Article

Merlot gave way in the turn (the Sideways movie pushed it in the grave), Cabernet is galloping, Sauvignon Blanc is gaining ground, Chardonnay is puttering down the stretch but Pinot Noir is winning by several lengths!
Why the craze?

Pinot Noir is reputed to be the most romantic of wines but also the most temperamental of grape. Andre Tchelistcheff declared that “God made Cabernet but the devil made Pinot Noir!”

The wine tends to have a light garnet color with aromas of black or red cherry, cassis and raspberry. Whereas Pinot Noir wines from Burgundy will break the bank, we are able to find very affordable and delicious labels from California and Oregon, trust your favorite wine store! At Mille Fleurs we like to pair Pinot Noir with our Duck Confit, chef martin incomparable Wiener-Schnitzel, all veal dishes and our Wild Salmon recipes.

I wish to explain why I am so upset and angered by the ban: as some of you may know, I was born in rural Southwest France, in a remote and not easily accessible corner of the Lot department, on a small farm which produce and livestock provided our family all the meals plus income via the sale of our farm products on the market place every other Saturday in Figeac, a small town 10 kilometers away.

Besides a vegetable garden by the river, alfalfa and corn fields, we raised cows and goats for milking and cheese making (we sold 90% of these), then pigs, pigeons, chickens, a couple of geese and ducks both for consuming and selling.

So, back to our ducks, which were our biggest source of income: we fed 60 ducks every year, 20 roaming freely, fed on corn and other grain and 40 that were kept for force feeding (gavage), ALL these birds eventually ended up on a butcher block at the hand of my dad by the end of the year and which do you think had the better lives?

From mid October to mid February, typically, my grandmother and my dad at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day would force feed our 40 ducks (hard work!) to fattened both the bird and its liver, a practice that goes back to antiquity (the Egyptians depicted the practice on several bas-relief, as did the Romans).

The minute the door of the pen opened there would be a battle to be first duck in line!
Their excitement was amazing, the birds couldn’t wait to get fed!
The process for each animal is grabbing the duck, inserting a funnel in its throat (the bird can ingest its food like say, a whole fish via its special esophagus) and in a 2 to 3 minutes procedure push down corn (grass sometimes) in an amount that increases every month until the fattening process is completed.

The ducks are kept in the dark and the reason they loved to be fed in that way was that it kept them in a state of inebriation thru the whole process, just happy, happy fellows til the day of their demise…

Much better than those other 20 ducks that were out all day in the cold or rain, one of them would be butchered twice a month for our Sunday’s roast duckling…

All the fattened birds would be butchered at once, the livers sold to market for big money and the rest of the duck would be “confit”, kept in the cellar and eaten once a week every Thursdays, voila!

The whole process -a far cry from the depictions of the sick and tortured animals presented to the legislation, which by the way, never bothered to visit any of the farms where these birds are force fed- was just an age old custom that provide both income and nourishment for families thru French history.

Now, as of July 1, the farms in California will be forced to close, more employees will go on the unemployment line and these small businesses will shutter.
A sad story indeed… but for now we will celebrate that amazing product and both Mille Fleurs and Mister A’s will offer special “foie gras” menus featuring the different preparations of this incredible delicacy…

Come join us, savor, enjoy and then mourn with us the passing of “foie gras” in California!

Riviera

“I have a special way of wearing my pocket square,” declares Bertrand Hug, holding the silk hankie like a parachute. “It’s called a flower,” he says, expertly tucking it into his lapel pocket…
Download Image

The sultry sounds of a saxophone will soon be returning to the amorous atmosphere of our courtyard patio.  Beginning July 17, guests will have the pleasure of listening to tunes performed by Jason Weber, an award-winning saxophonist from Chicago, and Mark Lessman, a master of contemporary jazz, Tuesday thru Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m.

In other bar news, our chef, Martin Woesle, is introducing the “Happiest of Hours” with a daily blackboard of selected items ranging from $7 to $10 available from 3 to 5:30 p.m.

It is through a pleasant drive from Paris thru beautiful rolling hills of vineyard after vineyard that you access the villages where the Grandes Marques of Champagne are located, they go on and on and just know that every acre of vineyard is worth a little more than $1 million bucks, pretty much like R S Fe property! On these vineyards grow Pinot Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, the Pinot Noir can be used to make regular Champagne (by removing the skins after a couple of days or hours of pressing) or Rosé by adding a certain quantity of Pinot noir to the assemblage.

It is a treat to visit the beautiful old houses that harbor the famous brands of Champagne, all dating back to the 18^th century, most of these houses bear the name of a Dutch or English prior owner (a few French) who were at the time, the main consumers of the stuff. The Russians tsars could not get enough nor could the English court aswell as the Dutch royalty.

These estates are built on top of deep chalky soil with miles and miles of caves dug up thru the centuries; chock full of millions of bottles resting in perfect temperature and humidity before being dispatched to every corner of the world. It is mind boggling that, just in the small village of Ay, to name just one, they have created over 100 miles of large tunnels, built on top of each other, 3 deep.

Not to bore you on how Champagne is made (you can easily Google it), note that you can spend minor of very big money on the different levels and bottling of the sparkling nectar: the scale of  Champagne starts with the Non-Vintage one (the most common) which is a product of mixing several vintages of still wine, some as old as 15 years to the latest harvest (typically 2 years old) to reproduce the special taste and profile which is the hallmark of each brand vintage after vintage: not an easy task! Then of course will be the vintage bottling of Brut, Blanc de Blanc, Rosé or Cremant ( the recent great vintages  now available are 1996 and 2002) and at the top of the pyramid the special vintage bottlings, ie:  Salon “Clos du Mesnil”, Dom Perignon “Oenotheque”, Pol Roger “Sir Winston Churchill”, Cristal and many, many others.

Enough of the technicalities, the Champagne producers are proud to say (almost a litany) that you never get a hangover from Champagne and  one can enjoy his bubbly with everything from fish to venison, caviar to chocolate in fact, it is hard to find a dish that will clash with this lovely liquid. I love the richness and roundness of the Chardonnay, the yeastiness of the Pinot Meunier and the elegance and depth of the Pinot Noir, all these grapes are blended in different quantities by the different houses or may compose 100% of each bottling. Only with much tasting can you decide which Champagne will be your favorite, or you may like them all, as do I!

So you get the idea, for the holidays, raise a flute: Champagne is great for special occasions but it is also wonderful for any and all occasions (I will collect my vig from the association of Champagne growers later!), and remember, NO hangover, what a plus!

The Coast News

The leading wine/food trade publication, Wine Spectator, just released its 2011 awards for their excellent wine programs.

Download Article PDF

Wine lists and wine directors our U-T panelists are sweet on

A bottle of 1990 Tignanello started my Italy kick a few months ago. When I start drinking Italian wine, it’s all I want…

Read More…

GoodLife Magazine

Born in Southern Germany, Chef Martin Woesle began cooking at the age of 16. He started with a 3-year apprenticeship/trade school at beautiful….

Download Article PDF