Two for the Price of One

I want to tell you about a couple of great places to dine. Well, actually, it's one great place to dine, but two different options.

As is increasingly the case, two people are sharing one kitchen. Steve Berutti is owner of Berruti's in Buffalo Grove (771 S. Buffalo Grove Rd., at Dundee). He's a jovial guy who loves good food and makes just about everything from scratch, including sauces, sausage, and soups. He even hand cuts the cabbage for the coleslaw. It's good, solid, deli fare at lunch, and slightly more ambitious, primarily Italian food at dinner, as well as for monthly wine tasting events.

Sharing the kitchen with him is Patrick Chabert. Chabert was for 16 years the sous-chef/second-in-command of the legendary Le Francais back in the days when the even more legendary Jean Banchet was at the helm. Chabert and Banchet are still friends, and Banchet often drops in to lend Chabert a hand with his dinners and catering. And while catering is the main thing Chabert is doing these days, he also offers French dinners twice a month at Berutti's. This is gorgeous fare -- high-end French food that you'd expect to pay a fortune for. Except you don't have to. Chabert's French dinners are $65 for five courses -- including wine, tax, and tip!

So if you miss the cuisine of the "real" Le Francais, or if you missed the glory days of this estimable restaurant, you can now experience the skill and care of Banchet's trusted sidekick -- and often that of Banchet himself -- for a reasonable price. Believe me, Chabert's food is more than worth whatever effort you need to make to get to one of his dinners

Berutti's is worth visiting for good, solid, deli-style food and top-notch Italian specialties, but is also worth locating for the times Chabert is in charge.

Chabert's next few French dinners are Friday, Sept. 2 and 23 and Oct. 7 and 21.

The phone number for reserving a place for one of Chabert's French dinners is 847-215-1931.

Berutti's doesn't require reservations, except for the monthly wine dinners.

My brother, brother-in-law and I had a Weber Grilling Class with Chef Patrick at Berutti's in Buffalo Grove last night. In one word, it was fatastic.

The class was suppost to start at 6PM, and due to traffic and some late arrivals, we began at about 6:20. I thought that this class was going to last about 1.5-2 hours. Needless to say, I was back in my car driving home to the Western Suburbs at 11:15. A five hour, hands on grilling class for $90, this can't be beat.

We started off by being shown a couple of differnt spice rubs to put on a beer can chicken. This was then followed by a filet of salmon cooked on a cedar plank. We then were shown and practiced de-boning a cornish hen. After the cornish hen, we worked on a marinated pork tenderloin (and how to take the nerve and fat off of it), lamp chops (and how to french the chops), and some marinated duck breasts. Next was some sea scallops, grilled vegetables and grilled pineapple.

There were seven people in the class and we each had a cornish hen, and split, one roasted chicken, two pork tenderloins, 4 duck breasts, a scallop, a piece of salmon, some grilled vegetables, 3 lamp chops.

As posted earlier, Chef Partick has worked at Le Francais, was a judge for the Bocuse D'Or and has worked in the White House.

I believe that you can book the grilling classes through Weber and would recommend his class to anyone.

While we were at the class, the Chef mentioned that he was doing a wedding in Grayslake this weekend in a tent with beef tenderloins and was only charging $32 a person, which was a great deal....

KevinT

And just as an FYI, grilling isn't the only option, though it may be the only option that is convenient for some people. Due to limited space, and due to his catering gigs on the weekend, Patrick can only handle a couple of students at a time and only on weekdays, but you can study pretty much anything you want to with him.

For a one-day class ($90), you can study knife skills, sauces, appetisers, seafood, or pretty much any other relatively simple topic you can imagine.

For $450, you can take one of the three-day "leveled" French cooking classes -- I've done Levels I and II, though Patrick says you could spend several years at level II, depending on how much you want to learn. The nice thing about going for three days is that you get to do things where you need to build up to a final recipe -- start with roasting the bones and making the stock and working your way up to the final dish. Patrick is highly energetic, and you will be amazed at the number of dishes you can make in three days. Most recent class, we did mushroom terrine, quennelles, duck confit, seared duck breast in green peppercorn sauce, poached cod in beurre blanc sauce, braised fennel, bordelaise sauce, rack of lamb with a red wine reduction, mussels, clams, veal in chantarelle cream sauce, chicken liver pate, floating islands, chocolate mousse, and several other things that I'm forgetting at the moment. Lunch is always sensational, and you get to take lots of stuff home.

And all you need is a friend, a check book, and an idea of what you want to learn. It's great fun -- plus he has vastly more equipment than I do, and someone else does the dishes -- best of all possible worlds, I think.

Just tell him I sent you -- so he'll know I kept my promise to let my friends know.

Friday Night French Dinners

For quite some time my friend Cynthia has been extolling on the Friday Night French dinners prepared by Patrick Chabert, Chef de Cuisine.



In her invitation post on the Events board, Cynthia advised:

If you love French food and don't care a whole lot about ambience, you might be interested in the French dinners that take place in Buffalo Grove once a month. Patrick Chabert, who was for 16 years the sous-chef/lieutenant under Jean Banchet at Le Francais, mostly does catering these days, but once a month, he whips up a great fixed-price French dinner that gets served in the pleasant but not elegant dining area of a deli called Berutti's. Jean Banchet steps in on occasion and helps Patrick with the dinner -- so you're getting Le Francais quality at much lower prices ($65 all inclusive -- wine included, too).

Everything Cynthia advised is all quite true, except I had read it long ago and forgot almost all this information. Friday evening when we arrived to the strip mall shopping center where the dinner was held. My friend Helen proclaimed Berutti's Deli could not possibly be our destination for our French dinner. While my instructions simply stated Berutti's, without the Deli, I said it is the correct name and address so this must be the place. We could see from our parking place a few bewildered people standing at the threshold with white tablecloth tables just beyond them.

When we walked in the door, it really was quite a juxtaposition of formally set white tablecloth tables in the front with nicely dressed diners waiting for events to commence. While in the rear were families finishing up meals from the deli at informal hard topped tables. In fact several times during the evening, deli customers walked through the front area to dine at the deli. Neither the French haute cuisine crowd nor the deli seeking patrons felt out of place because they simply were in different culinary orbits.

Our party of seven was an interesting mix of LTHforum and Chicago Mensa members with Cynthia the bridge between both groups. While the conversation was generally food centric, there were quite a few foreign travel tangents in this well travelled group.


Our first course was Terrine of Vegetable and Foie Gras with an Herb and Truffle Dressing:



The Terrine was enveloped in carrot slices with vegetable layers including eggplant and ratatouille with a thick layer of foie gras. When some of the buttery and sweet foie gras slipped out, we spread it on toasted bagette slices. The sweep of truffle dressing at the bottom of the photo was an intense earthy flavor where a few dabs would do.

The second course was the Monk Fish Chorizo:



Monk Fish, also known as the poor man's lobster, has a delicate sweet taste. I thought the chorizo might overwhelm it, however it was very thinly sliced and fried crisp mixed with fresh and dried tomatoes, sweet peppers and mushrooms.

The main course was a Combination of Stuffed Lamb Loine en Croute and Rack of Lamb a la Provencale, Ratatouille Nicoise and Gratin Dauphinois:



This was an interesting contrast of refined and basic preparations of lamb. On the left is the more refined preparation of a lamb loin encased in a spinach-tinted crust over a very dreamy gratin Dauphinois. Contrasted by the simply prepared grilled rack of lamb over ratatouille. In both preparations the lamb was cooked rare, otherwise they were very different styles separated by a thin crisped beet chip.

The salad course was Tender Green Salad with Crumbled Blue Cheese:



A green salad dressed in a vinaigrette with poached pears and blue cheese was a pleasant transition.

The meal concluded with a Dessert Assortment:



At the conclusion of the meal, we were very pleased to see Jean Banchet stroll out of the kitchen. It was thrilling to be present for the Le Francais kitchen reunion of an era long past for merely $65. inclusive.



Not allowing a good opportunity to pass, we all reserved for Bastille Day whose reservations closed with our party.

An enchanting evening of good food, wine and great conversation, which is all one can ever ask.

***

If we can gather at least 20 people, then Patrick Chabert will prepare a meal for us on June 9th. More information can be obtained here.

Regards,

A French Meal Just for Us!

Patrick Chabert did not originally plan to conduct his monthly French Dinner in June. He was engaged to take a group on a tasting tour of France, which didn't allow him time to organize a meal. When Cynthia offered to round up at least twenty people, then Patrick agreed to make a French meal just for us. This ended up being a joint meal of LTHforum and MENSA friends plus a small group of Patrick's friends for a total of 39 people.

The meal commenced with Foie Gras Ravioli with Black Trumpet Mushroom and Pea Sauces



Under the sheer ravioli skin, the foie gras rested on a mushroom cap with pea sauce arranged in small dollops. Asparagus tips and sauteed whole black trumpet mushrooms, a member of the chanterelle family, were on top of the ravioli, which rested in a pool of flavorful mushroom sauce.

The second course was a Combination of Crab Cake and Scallops with a Ginger and Soy Butter Sauce



A crab cake made with lump crab with few additional ingredients topped by a pan seared scallop with crisp wisps of scallion and dill on top. The ginger and butter soy sauce was subtle and complimeted the seafood very nicely.

The third course was a Duo of Slowly Roasted Beef Tenderloin and Braised Short Ribs with a Red Wine Sauce and Mashed Potatoes



This only my second meal offered by Chef Chabert , it is abundantly clear he likes to introduce contrasts techniques in his main courses. In April, it was Combination of Stuffed Lamb Loine en Croute and Rack of Lamb a la Provencale. Presentations which evoke a sophisticated approach as well as a simple direct preparation. In his latest dinner, how much more contrasting than a slowly roasted beef tenderloin joining forces with braised short ribs. An expensive meat which cooks quickly and a relatively cheaper meat which needs hours of slow cooking to reach full blossom. I joked it was town-gown course separated merely by a beet crisp.

The fourth course was Tender Green Salad with Roquefort Cheese:



Almost a cheese course with salad really.

The fifth course was Apricot Tarte with Chocolate Ice Cream:



This was an apricot tarte really filled with apricots with no creme anglaise present. It was also a reminder of how Europeans prefer their desserts less sweet than Americans. There was sugar enough to enhance the sweetness of the apricots though not masking their natural tartness. Finishing with the dark chocolate ice cream brought a sweet end to this meal.

To wrap this evening up in the special box of memories, our meal was prepared by both Patrick Chabert and his friend Jean Banchet pictured here with Helen.



Thanks again Cynthia for sharing this unique opportunity with the LTHforum community.

Regards,

My pleasure, Cathy.

It was a fun evening. Everything was exquisite, but that foie gras ravioli was something else, wasn't it?

Once Patrick starts up the regular dinners again in the fall, I'll post the dates. (Maybe after we get our reservations in, eh Cathy?).

I figured I'd post this updae here, as this is where the photos and menu descriptions reside.

The next two dinners planned by Patrick Chabert are February 17 and March 17.

The dinners have moved to Saturday night, no doubt because it's hard for people to drive anywhere on a Friday night.

The cost is $70 per person, which includes a 5-course dinner, wine, tax, and tip. Cash or check only.

Call Patrick if you're interested in one of the dinners: 847-215-1931.

The next big event on the Chabert calendar is a tour to Provence, June 16-24. If you're interested in touring with a French chef, you can reach him at the number above for additional information.

If neither of these dates work for you, there is a great likelihood that we will, at some point in the future, be planning an LTH-only party with Patrick, so there will be other opportunities.