Sumptuous Brunch with an Accent on French Fare
EXECUTIVE DINING by Fifi Chao
I don’t go to Sunday brunches all the time, but there are a few that get my attention, simply because they do it so well.
We just spent a leisurely midday trying the excellent presentation of food at Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach. This brunch is made all the more enticing by the enjoyable old standards played for you by pianist extraordinaire Gerard Barbut as you sit in the lovely gardenesque Accents restaurant that overlooks a reflecting pool sided by a row of graceful fountains.
To start with, the layout of this brunch is so sensible. Up a couple of steps from the seating area are distinct food stations that keep your mind from craving too much at one time. The breakfast pastries, breads and fluffy croissants have their own stage, and this being a hotel that has always been dedicated to food of the highest caliber, they deliver remarkable flavor and texture, rather than being a fill-in item just because it’s a brunch.
On my first plate, I took one of the croissants and then did the incongruous thing by ignoring all else for the moment, except for the seafood table. So beside my buttery crescent I put two oysters on the half-shell that sat shimmering and fresh. They had some smoked salmon and cured salmon (gravlax style) too. So I took a morsel of each of those. Seafood p & #226;t & #233; came in just the right size little square.
Alas, I walked around the rest of this four-sided food station and came upon a heap of crab legs. Well, one of those couldn’t hurt. And perhaps a couple of steamed shrimp, too.
One of my great loves in life is sushi, and here was a good variety staring me down. Oh, well, a couple of those might as well finish off this first round. I should remind you that this only represented a portion of the items on this fresh seafood bar.
Fresh orange juice was already being poured for us for the second time and by now we had decided on which champagne we wanted to enhance our stroll through foodland. Two choices are offered at the brunch. There’s always a good house champagne and an extra premium offered as well, which changes monthly. We selected the latter since Taittinger is one of the world’s really sleek sparklers.
One station featured crisp greens and raw vegetables in almost all their guises and several hot vegetable possibilities. Poached asparagus spears, all brilliant green, screamed for that dollop of hollandaise perched on them.
Of course, one must eat slowly at times like this and savor much. Sutton Place Hotel does the hot buffet line with panache. A chef stands ready to make any egg or omelet preparation you can think up. Breakfast meats are perched attractively on platters so that you will seriously consider them as your eggs are being cooked.
Then there’s the line of silver chafing dishes that holds both more breakfast-type items and delicious entr & #233;e selections. There are thick, crispy waffles. I am of the opinion, though, that I can have waffles in many places.
Great eggs Benedict, on the other hand, are not widely available. Do not miss these! The English muffin base retains its texture, the Canadian bacon is so tasty, the eggs on top are soft and perfect and the hollandaise sauce is absolutely classic.
They have never been shy about offering fine meat choices. We perused presentations of pistachio-crusted swordfish, duck breast, leg of lamb and prime rib hand-carved as thin or thick as you’d like it. I tasted everything!
The duck had a terrific reduction sauce that highlighted as a sauce should do, but did not glide away in a buggy of additional flavors as sometimes happens. It was so good, I had seconds. The lamb slices were layered in natural juices and the prime rib was rich and tender.
There are always really good side dishes at this brunch: things such as fluffy rice pilaf and potatoes of some sort,scalloped, dauphinoise, lyonnaise.
Patrick, watchful husband that he is, told me at the outset to stay away from the corner of the room that had the dessert buffet. He’d done a quick look-see even before we were seated and feared, rightfully so, that it would taint my whole brunch if I were sidetracked early on by that array of sweets. I saved it till last and then lamented that I had so little appetite left.
We did share a few tastes. Tiny little tarts filled with chocolate silk, lemon cr & #269;me and fresh fruits. A layered mousse cake, a tiny pot of cr & #269;me br & #369;l & #233;e, a cr & #269;me caramel in a moat of liquid caramelized sugar. We left behind at least that many more desserts that will have to be tasted another day, such as the ice cream bar, where you make your own confections as decadent as desired.
We had our son Geoff, our daughter-in-law Heather and the joy of our life at the moment, our 18-month-old granddaughter Ava, with us. It was as much fun introducing Ava, who will already eat almost everything you offer, to more of life’s food possibilities as it was having my kids and Patrick tease me about how much I was eating in the middle of the day. Ava is definitely going to be a gourmet. She devoured an eclectic array of things we were having, perhaps being most attracted to the lamb and the duck.
Sutton Place Hotel has never lost its leaning towards a French sensibility in food. That means they are always at the top of the ladder in fine dining in Orange County, whether it be lunches or dinners, special dining adventures such as the Calypso Lobster Cookout or their Sunday Brunches.
Incidentally, that poolside lobster cookout continues through the summer on Saturday evenings: a 2 lb. Maine lobster, Caesar salad, baked potato and dessert buffet for $51.
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Editor’s note: The headline in last week’s executive dining column should have read “Dinner and Grappa at Antonello.”
AT A GLANCE: ACCENTS SUNDAY BRUNCH
Address: Sutton Place Hotel, 4500 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach
Phone: (949) 476-2001
Open: 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
Prices: $35 with house champagne; $50 with premium champagne of the month
