Top Chef Foodie Experience - Wine Dinner at Jennifer Carroll's 10 Arts

When my friend The Scarlett, from Blogging Project Runway, invited me to attend the Torbreck Wine Dinner at 10 Arts by Eric Ripert, I jumped at the chance. For one thing, I hadn't seen Scar in about a year, and for another, Jennifer Carroll from Top Chef Las Vegas is still the restaurant's chef de cuisine. After watching her nearly win the competition, of course I was curious to taste her culinary wares.

Our first course, served with a Torbreck (Australia) semillion:  apricot honey jus, spheres of pineapple caviar, micro cilantro, and thin slices of jalapeno.

For our second course we were served Chatham cod with carrot, maiitake mushrooms, smoked steelhead caviar, and a black peppercorn bourbon sauce.

The third course was foie gras in a little pool of dashi, with some fennel and wine-soaked dried cherries.

The final savory course was a pork belly ravioli with scallion, morels, and a fragrant wine emulsion.

Finally, we had a dessert called passion fruit "parfait"  with white chocolate, caramelized pistachios, and white chocolate orange sorbet.

But wait, there's more - we were also served a plate of tiny mignardises including a puffy bit of pastry, a tiny brownie, and a square of gelée that may have been fig. Ok, now we're done.

I was very happy to have had the chance to finally experience Chef Carroll's culinary expertise, and it was very interesting to see her thought processes as far as pairing food to wine (and not vice versa). Personally, I think it would be a challenge, but I'm not a huge wine person.

For a more critical look at the meal, check out my post at MinxEats.com.