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Lageder Mixes Up First Cabin Menu with Seasonal Fare

Last week, I took you through the journey of the upcoming three-day Food and Wine Festival at Newport Beach’s Balboa Bay Club & Resort, which is offering Orange County’s most prestigious yearly lineup of wines, foods and seminars (hope you’ve bought your tickets).

Now, I’d like to chat with you about the new, seasonal menu that chef Josef Lageder has introduced in Balboa Bay Club’s public dining room, First Cabin Restaurant.

Since this resort destination opened three years ago, Josef and Dieter Hissin, the food and beverage director as well as executive assistant manager, have given us insight into the blend of artistically presented food and sophisticated, layered tastes.

Before the addition of the hotel to this property, Balboa Bay Club was a facility for members only.

Now for all of us there’s dining in the First Cabin restaurant, the relaxing charms of Duke’s Place Lounge and some of OC’s most attractive ballroom space,all with bay views.

I previously have noted in a couple of columns that the food and service at Balboa Bay Club banquets is as good as at some of our best restaurants.

Dieter is a native of Germany. He has a graduate degree from the highly acclaimed School of Hotel Administration in Heidelberg, Germany.

He worked as the chef for a Michelin-starred restaurant and was chef saucier for another Michelin-starred place, both in Germany.

Before coming to the U.S., Dieter ran his family’s hotel and restaurant in his hometown. I first met him when he was employed by the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. He also went to Hong Kong to oversee the opening of the Ritz-Carlton there before joining the Balboa Bay Club team.

I’ve had so much eye-opening food from Josef during the years. Meals from his kitchen continue to satisfy and enlighten me.

Josef is from Austria. After professional training and working in top name kitchens in Europe, he arrived in America and quickly began making his culinary mark as an executive chef at the Ritz-Carlton Co., which included the celebrated corporate hotel in Atlanta-Buckhead.

He’s noted for his inspired blending of French and California cuisines, with just the right amount of touches from other international places to add even more panache to his culinary canvas. His artistic presentations always draw raves.


Little Surprises

I recently had the chance to try the new dishes.

It was pretty impressive having an amuse-gueule (a complimentary amusement for the palate to get diners in an anticipatory mood) of rich and creamy,and dreamy,lobster bisque to begin the evening meal. Served in a little espresso-sized cup, it was just the right amount of sips to engage the palate.

It’s so nice when restaurants add these little surprises,it’s a statement of wanting to make the dining experience extra special.

I moved on to traditional steak tartare made of beef tenderloin. It comes mounded in the center of the plate with an assortment of micro greens and sprouts and an aioli sauce that includes capers drizzled about.

I could have double-ordered this. It was so agreeable in texture, taste and presentation. The tartare definitely will be on my list of dishes to repeat.

One evening the silken-textured vichyssoise caused me to wonder why restaurants don’t ordinarily serve this splendid potage. Josef manages the best balance of flavors from the leeks and onions sweated until tender and then combined with potatoes in a chicken-based broth.

The chef combines sesame seeds and cilantro to crust his seared ahi tuna. The flavors play ever so nicely against the taste of fleshy tuna slices. A ginger-inspired butter sauce ribboned across the tuna understands its place in the m & #233;nage of Asian tinged flavors from the sesame seeds and cilantro. Fragrant jasmine rice cuddles on one side of the tuna alongside California greens in soy dressing.

North Atlantic cod is so briny fresh and genteel in flavor. Here, it is simply and perfectly saut & #233;ed, fully preserving its moist texture. Served atop spoon leaf spinach with colorful red and yellow mini tomatoes tossed in a spritzy vinaigrette, it turns out to be a palate-invigorating entree that sits light on the tummy.


Some Schnitzel

Since Josef is Austrian, it’s nice to run into some schnitzel on the menu. I expect that you will be as pleased as I am with the Kalbsrahm Schnitzel. This is seared veal medallion in a creamy morel mushroom sauce. Making it completely authentic, it gets airy light spaetzle (tiny pasta) on the side, just lightly buttered.

The dish took me back to my own travels in Austria and Germany, where parallel tastes had impressed me before.

Traditional wiener schnitzel with parley potatoes also is available.

As warm weather approaches, the classic chilled gazpacho makes an appearance. It’s a great vegetarian choice.

Chefs have discovered that shrimp and coconut love each other. Josef uses his coconut-crusted prawns with young spinach, arugula, pears and walnuts in a terrific new salad.

Cold poached salmon also is a good seasonal dish, especially as part of a salad that also includes micro greens, veggies and Kalamata olives.

Other dishes I love include pan-seared rainbow trout and seared sea bass dusted with porcini mushrooms, fresh Dover sole with a classic lemon- and caviar-scented beurre blanc. Also the steaks, lobster, lamb and chicken dishes,the year-around cornerstones of the menu,remain.

I hardly know where to begin with new desserts on the menu.

Let’s go right for the Salzburger Nockerl. Make sure you give the restaurant your nockerl order at least 24 hours in advance of your meal. It’s a very special treat and not on the long list of possibilities on the dessert card.

This Austrian nockerl consists of a rich, souffl & #233; like mixture that is put into a baking pan in three large scoops and baked in a very hot oven for just a few minutes. It arrives cloudlike and fluffy and makes you rethink having an after-meal souffl & #233; elsewhere. There’s no comparison.

Other desserts also are dazzling.

There’s a Bavarian style rice pudding that is light, airy and offset with wonderful sour cherries.

A hot chocolate tort has become a common item, though this one goes exotic with the accompanying mango sorbet.

An exotic addition of coconut foam, mango and splendid caramelized pineapple pieces punch up the white chocolate mousse (delicious on its own).

Tiramisu may be Italian by birth, but here it gets a fine Bavarian twist and is another that enchants us.

Hazelnut crunch tort, a feathery cinnamon bread pudding, apricot compote with cr & #269;me br & #369;l & #233;e and a pesto sauce made sweet to go with an Italianesque cassata also are stellar presentations.

The wine list boasts more than 500 labels and 35 wines by the glass. The Balboa Bay Club gets extra doses of appreciation for keeping wine prices reasonable.


Dieter’s Choice

Some of the wines we had with our recent meals were selected as matches for us by Dieter. With the tartare we had the 2004 Yalumba “Y Series” Viognier.

Viogniers are fresh and fruit driven and typically go very well with Pacific Rim food. Dieter thought it would go nicely with the richness and spices of the tartare since voigniers don’t show too much of citrus as some other white grape varietals.

The winery is run by the Hill Smith family, who has made wine in Australia for the past 150 years,the oldest winemaking family in Australia.

With that vichyssoise, we had Turnbull 2004 Napa Sauvignon Blanc, which is 89% sauvignon blanc, 6% viognier and 5% semillon.

The addition of the viognier and semillon to the sauvignon blanc softens the fresh and sometimes citrus taste that you typically expect from a sauvignon blanc, making it richer and more elegant.

The wine spends only a very short time in oak and some of it is fermented in stainless steel, making it a great pairing with the delicate taste of the vichyssoise, yet it holds up to the bacon bits that should be sprinkled on the soup.

Our tuna was matched with 2003 Rene Barth Muscat (Alsace, France). It was nice with the multi-flavors of the dish and both Dieter and the chef like it because of the way it goes with the ginger and soy component, yet it does not overpower the delicate flavor of the Ahi.

The Alsatian muscats are dry and very different from the sweet muscats from the south of France. Dieter said he hasn’t come across many of the dry muscat’s from the Alsace here in the U.S., which is unfortunate since they are very food-friendly as well as quite enjoyable by themselves.

Selecting more European wine from their global list, a 2004 Mommessin Pouilly-Fuiss & #233; from Burgundy, France, accompanied that North Atlantic cod we ordered.

This 100% chardonnay wine is stainless steel fermented, then allowed to go through natural malolactic fermentation.

I’m not a fan of chardonnays from California, as many of you know. And this wine is the reason why I like them from elsewhere.

The Mommessin Pouilly-Fuiss & #233; is a truly elegant chardonnay that is smoother than silk on the palate with no jarring notes. I had two glasses because everything from its apple and pear flavors, rich mouth feel, creamy texture and genteel, long finish does what I think a chardonnay should.

The schnitzel dish and the 2002 Montes Alpha Syrah from Chile’s Colchagua Valley make a pairing that I’ve put on our future “do it again” list.

The Montes Alpha Syrah is 90% syrah and 10% cabernet, with 12 months of aging in French oak. It is fragrant with floral and residual tobacco and leathery notes and is full-bodied with soft tannins. I sipped a lot of this wine on its own too.


Dessert Wining

One night, with others at our table, we did a lot of the desserts. Selecting one wine wasn’t necessarily the easy part but, again, Deiter came through and gave his thoughts on the 2003 Kracher Cuvee Auslese from the Burgenland region of Austria.

He told us it is 80% chardonnay, 20% welschriesling (an Austrian white wine grape) that’s aged for only six months in stainless steel. The result: a very pleasant, well balanced dessert wine showing nice fruit and some licorice notes.

We all found it educational to our palates and such a well-rounded wine that it stood up well to the wide array of chocolate, coconut, mango, apricot, cherry and cinnamon flavors dancing about.

The wine was perfect for that marvelous sweet pesto puree from the Italian cassata dessert.

I urge you to take advantage of the lovely European wines that make up about one third of the wine list. They’ll give you a whole new perspective and so many of the wines they’ve found are true gems to be savored while the opportunity lasts.


AT A GLANCE

First Cabin Restaurant

Address:

Balboa Bay Club & Resort

1221 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach

Phone:

(949) 645-5000

Cost:

Breakfast entrees $8.50 to $19; lunch appetizers $7.50 to $14.50, sandwiches and entrees $12.50 to $22.50; Sunday a la carte brunch (appetizer included) $25 to $33; dinner appetizers $7.50 to $15.50, entrees $18.50 to $33

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