Salt Lake magazine‘s food shoots with photographer Adam Finkle are always fun and at this time of year we have many of them. Yesterday, Eric Debonis of The Paris Bistro and Sea Salt was in the studio. On set was a dish he dubbed “Black on Black:” pan-seared Muscovy duck breast with wild Oregon Black Trumpet mushroom persillade (that means parsley sauce), duck confit gelee, Perigord black winter truffles (he brought a couple whole ones as props.) On the side: sunchoke, potato and fennel gratin, some fresh watercress and—for the last bite of duck, sans mushrooms, a spoonful of Weeks Berries Utah black currant with duck reduction.
Yes, we all got a taste.
And to make it the Most Memorable Monday, Debonis cracked a bottle of Domain du Chateau de Vosne-Romanee, Vosne-Romanee, Cote du Nuits, Burgundy, France from the year 1978. Tilt the glass and the edge of the wine was brown, deepening to the color of a Brown Turkey fig—the wine itself was nearly opaque. Debonis used wine vocab to describe the taste—”wildflowers, tea leaf, pencil lead and dried cherries, with aromas of fresh currants and black truffles.” I’ll just say that the wine had a resonance that could have been ruminated on for hours. And made me wish I could afford expensive wine all the time.
Thank the world for generous friends and a great job.
Debonis is nearing completion—he promises—of two new projects, the long-awaited Oddfellows Food Hall next to Undercurrent and a Mexican restaurant next to Liberty Heights Fresh.
And Adam Finkle’s food photography, diptychs of chefs and food, is on display at Les Madeleines and the show will move to Tin Angel in May.
