What a life it would be/If you could come to mine for tea/I'll pick you up at half past three/We'll have lasagne

She said: 

The first time I laid eyes on Food Network with chef Michael Chiarello of the show “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello”, I was smitten.  His dark eyes, warm smile, and Italian charm would make any female fan melt.  I DVR his show just so that when I come home from a long day of work, plop on the couch, turn on the tv, he is there welcoming me in to his Napa kitchen.   This weekend I did not have to resort to Michael Chiarello DVR couch surfing, instead G and I dined at his restraunt, Bottega, in Napa Valley.  

Unfortunately, we did not have reservations, but I spotted a couple at the bar signing their bill and knew this was not the time to be shy or casual.  I walked right up, made small talk with the wife, asked her to give me a signal when they were going to get out of their seats, so we could swoop in.  “Great idea”, she said, but why not just take them now?  G and I were bellied up to the bar in 5 minutes flat.   Upon sitting, both G and I had instant restaurant ADD.  Our eyes darted back and forth while bar tenders poured $45 a glass tequila, waiters and waitresses hustled about with steaming platters of culinary eye candy, and the thought that was on both of our minds: Is Chiarello in our midst?  G ordered us a bottle of wine and like ritalin it mellowed us food geeks out some.  The menu deliberation begins.  G and I have a very simple unspoken rule about ordering as a couple: Never order the same thing.  This way you get to taste two very different dishes from the menu and really feel like you had a well rounded dining experience.  My pick was the house made rigatoni, tomato braised Sonoma rabbit sugo, caramelized mushrooms, with house- made ricotta.    The rigatoni was perfectly al denti and held up next to the rich sauce.  The ricotta cheese on top was not overpowering, and when mixed in gave the sweet caramelized mushrooms a nice softness.  This was my first experience with rabbit and I was pleasantly surprised at the tenderness. The consistency reminded me a lot of duck.   

Meanwhile, the Chiarello adventure loomed big in my mind. I left my meal a couple of times to “use the restroom” which really meant poke around and see where Chiarello may be.  There he was with his back to me on the food line,  plating.  I stopped in my tracks, and as if in slow motion, saw him wipe the rim of a plate and lick his fingers.  Some may say this was a rabbit rigatoni induced mirage, but here’s hoping he did the same exact thing before my plate was served.  By the end of the night it looked like he was not going to come out to the bar area and socialize.  When all my hope was about gone, I spotted him out of the corner of my eye talking with the hostess.  I flew out of my seat.  We made eye contact, and my desperateness was quite evident, “One minute, sweetheart, and I will be right with you.”  I stuttered out something like, “I adore you.  Will you come take a picture with me?”  I lead him through the bar, and he got bombarded.  I lost him to two woman and an iphone. Eventually he made his way over, and the three of us posed.  Somehow my camera was on timer, so we stood smiling while the camera just flashed.  After multiple takes, Michael was good natured, and I was mortified.  In retrospect it, just meant I a longer time in his culinary presence.  Next, he signed a Bottega bar napkin and was on his way.  The night was magical.  Award winning food, great conversation with fellow bar eaters, a night with G, my own personal Italian stud, and an audience with my favorite celebrity chef .

G Said:

I'm quite comfortable with the fact that I've lost my girlfriend forever.  Don't believe me?  Take a look for yourself.  

My exact words to him were, "Chef Chiarello, you're a God.  This is really an honor."  You know how you have those moments when you're totally incapable of intelligent thought/speech?  Yeah, that was one of those...but in retrospect, I probably would have said it again!  Even managed to throw in a, "By the way, big fan of your label."  


For those interested, Chiarello's grapes come from his own land and the wine is made by Thomas Rivers Brown (Schrader, Outpost, Maybach, Rivers-Marie, etc).  Brown is a legend in his own right, and if you get some time, I highly recommend taking a listen to an interview he gave in 2009--he has every right to have a massive ego, and is instead of the most down-to-earth in the business and incredibly soft-spoken.


Chiarello is, in his own way, partly responsible for my position in the wine industry today.  When I was in college and thinking about med school, I had this half-serious plan-B for when my plans didn't work out and, invariably, I would need a new direction for my life.  In my apartment kitchen one night, I decided, should my hopes be crushed, that I would open my own restaurant.  I partnered up with my buddy Jared and we do dinner for our wing of the building and whoever else decided to come by...usually on Tuesdays or something.  I had a decent share of failures, but I was learning and I was happy.  So later on when school started, I was cutting class watching PBS (because that's what the cool kids do when they skip class--don't judge) and Chiarello was on talking about wine.  At the time, the only thing I knew about wine was that I could legally buy it and in my narrow world, Kroger had a good selection (I now know this to be factually incorrect!)  If I was going to pursue my culinary destiny, I thought it would be good to know something about wine.  I bought old outdated copies of Wine Spectator from the Kroger shelves (which they NEVER replenish) and just read.  Just sat and read and absorbed.  Most of the time, I had no idea what the hell I was looking at....one of the first issues I bought was all about Germany.  And when you're clueless with regards to wine, German geography, and have no grasp on the language, you're not going to get very far (I still have difficulty with the labels, but the numerical codes are helpful).  But whatever....I didn't care.  I was too caught up, and couldn't get enough material to read.  You can talk to some of my college friends--I'd bring my magazines to dinner, and to class, and to track meets.  Yeah, that's right.  In between races while my friends took naps, I was nose-deep in an article on why 2002 was a shitty growing season in Italy.  Can you see an obsession growing?


It did.


I never went to med school.  


So if She wants to run away with Chef Chiarello, I really have no issue.  When she first bit into her rabbit, I think I saw her eyes roll back.  I went for the pan-seared gnocchi with English pea fonduta--equally impressive!  Not over-filled (which can be a problem with restaurant gnocchi--more is not always more) and just the right amount of sear.  You know...a touch...a kiss....perfect.  And dessert?  Panna cotta with pineapple gelatini.  I believe She's words were, "I'm not usually a dessert person, but tonight, I'm glad I was."  See?  Believer = made.  


And a lesson of the night...something to experiment with in your own lab on your own time:  you can get almost anyone to open up just by asking their name.