Monday, March 1, 2010

sobe wine & food fest - grand marnier diner en rouge

the food network south beach wine and food festival is a mecca of an event and i was determined to crash at least one extravaganza this year. so you can imagine how loud my little girl scream was when i found out i was going to be able to attend grand marnier's very exclusive diner en rouge at the temple house in miami beach on thursday, february 25th.




think red- lot's of red. although i didn't get the memo to be dressed en rouge, it was still a fantastic evening with wonderful accompaniments. as soon as you walked into the venue (the house was built in 1933, converted into a synagogue in the 1940s and eventually bought and renovated  by new ownership in 2003) servers greeted you with a grand marnier mixed drink and then guests entered in the red and pink infused room.



dj ross one played a great mix of hits- ranging from jay z, cyndi lauper and m.i.a. dancers dressed in red feathers entertained the crowd with a french musical and everyone eventually ended up on the dance floor- no matter how old.

but let's get to the important part- the food! cuisine was artfully assembled by chef claude troisgros (from blue door at the delano) and it was quite an extensive selection. servers, dressed in all white and red converses- which i was crazy about- handed out appetizers such as brazilian chicken skewers, crabavocat (guacamole, crispy shrimp, blue crab with spiced tomato couls), shitake and duck confit with ginger and cilantro and my favorite was the steak tartare- beef along with anchony, boiled egg and capers topped with truffle oil on a baguette crostini. one of the bars served a vegetarian ensemble of caviar over sweet potato chips and i found myself wanting to pop those babies into my mouth one after the other.



the entree stations were immediate crowd pleasers. i had the chilean sea bass, served with hearts of palm and soy glazed cashew nuts, lime and fresh herbs. this combination was phenomenal. lamb morel and steak a la bordelaise was also offered and finished pretty quickly.







dessert was passed around in mini-tastings with choices such as molten chocolate cake, raspberry napoleon (filo dough with raspberries and cream) and the one that won my heart, the white chocolate creme brulee. desserts like this are really too good to be true!



what an evening. least to say, i was overwhelmed with content and after quite a few grand marnier concoctions... a big fan of everything in the name of rouge.