Millennium
580 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.345.3900
www.millenniumrestaurant.com
Millennium, the highly acclaimed gourmet vegan restaurant, has an innovative nightly menu, but also numerous special events. My favorite is their monthly winemaker dinners. Whereas sommeliers generally pair wines to food, chef Eric Tucker takes these opportunities to develop dishes for the wines that are brought to him, generally from small California winemakers. The results are most always enjoyable and sometimes nothing short of perfection.
Tucker uses seasonal ingredients. The November and December dinners focused on mushrooms and and truffles and the November dinner featured Zepaltas wines, a wonderful find as all the wines, especially a very earthy 2006 chardonnay were stellar.
The dinners generally feature six courses and run about $95 with wines. Among the standout pairings were the warm chicories salad (above) with pear poached in chardonnay, vanilla and allspice; seared velvet pioppini mushrooms; and a roasted chestnut-polenta crouton. This was paired with that 2008 chardonnay that was quite unlike any chardonnay I'd had before. Instead of a buttery taste it was more like the earth and the ingredients of the salad were chosen to match.
Linguini with broccoli rabe, fried sage and and shaved white truffles (above) was paired with a 2008 pinot noir from the winery's Suacci Vineyard. The wine was good and the truffles were wonderful. The dish was very light, intending to showcase the truffles.
A baked collard roll (above) with farro and enoki mushroom filling and smoked black lentil ragu was excellent, especially with a bit of mustard-fig mostarda to add sweetness. This was served with a 2007 syrah.
I had no idea candied mushrooms could work so well for dessert as these did on top the pistachio-mandarin tartlette with chantrelle scented ice cream and meyer lemon-vanilla bean caramel. This was served with a 2008 late-harvest chardonnay.
The winemaker dinners at Millennium sellout quickly, and there's generally only room for about 35. To learn more about them, sign up for the restaurant's mailing list. Of course, eating in the dining room off of the nightly menu is generally a treat too.
580 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.345.3900
www.millenniumrestaurant.com
Millennium, the highly acclaimed gourmet vegan restaurant, has an innovative nightly menu, but also numerous special events. My favorite is their monthly winemaker dinners. Whereas sommeliers generally pair wines to food, chef Eric Tucker takes these opportunities to develop dishes for the wines that are brought to him, generally from small California winemakers. The results are most always enjoyable and sometimes nothing short of perfection.
Tucker uses seasonal ingredients. The November and December dinners focused on mushrooms and and truffles and the November dinner featured Zepaltas wines, a wonderful find as all the wines, especially a very earthy 2006 chardonnay were stellar.
The dinners generally feature six courses and run about $95 with wines. Among the standout pairings were the warm chicories salad (above) with pear poached in chardonnay, vanilla and allspice; seared velvet pioppini mushrooms; and a roasted chestnut-polenta crouton. This was paired with that 2008 chardonnay that was quite unlike any chardonnay I'd had before. Instead of a buttery taste it was more like the earth and the ingredients of the salad were chosen to match.
Linguini with broccoli rabe, fried sage and and shaved white truffles (above) was paired with a 2008 pinot noir from the winery's Suacci Vineyard. The wine was good and the truffles were wonderful. The dish was very light, intending to showcase the truffles.
A baked collard roll (above) with farro and enoki mushroom filling and smoked black lentil ragu was excellent, especially with a bit of mustard-fig mostarda to add sweetness. This was served with a 2007 syrah.
I had no idea candied mushrooms could work so well for dessert as these did on top the pistachio-mandarin tartlette with chantrelle scented ice cream and meyer lemon-vanilla bean caramel. This was served with a 2008 late-harvest chardonnay.The winemaker dinners at Millennium sellout quickly, and there's generally only room for about 35. To learn more about them, sign up for the restaurant's mailing list. Of course, eating in the dining room off of the nightly menu is generally a treat too.
