Be the first to taste the 2009 Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau (already hailed as the best in 50 years!) with a spe­cial 3-course menu (see post below for full menu). Novem­ber 19-December 5, 2009

excerpt from today’s Hon­olulu Adver­tiser Island Life story by Wanda Adams:

“Chef George Mavrotha­las­si­tis of Chef Mavro restau­rant said it’s easy for him to think about Thanks­giv­ing with­out turkey because he grew up in the south of France where, of course, they don’t cel­e­brate this Amer­i­can hol­i­day. They do serve turkey, how­ever, once a year at Christ­mas, often paired with a stuff­ing made from cepes (aka porcini mush­rooms), which are in sea­son dur­ing the holidays.

For a Thanks­giv­ing turkey sub­sti­tute, Mavro, as he’s uni­ver­sally known, rec­om­mends a menu that he is plan­ning to offer as a spe­cial fixed-price pro­mo­tion in his restau­rant start­ing this week and con­tin­u­ing through the first week of Decem­ber: roast suck­ling pig.

He points out that you can stuff a suck­ling pig as you can a turkey, but his plan is to bone the pork, roast it, crisp the skin and serve it with white sweet pota­toes from Moloka’i and a gar­nish of pick­led mus­tard cabbage.

He chose this option because roast pork pairs beau­ti­fully with Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau, the young and fresh red wine made from gamay grapes and released on the third Thurs­day of Novem­ber each year. This year’s vin­tage is said to be the best in a half cen­tury, and Mavro wanted to cel­e­brate the wine with some­thing complementary.

In the course of describ­ing how he will pre­pare this menu, he offered some inter­est­ing culi­nary advice. Be sure, when roast­ing meats, that the meat is dry (wipe it well with a paper towel) because excess mois­ture will affect the tex­ture; the meat steams instead of roast­ing. And he laid down a rule: “Bake every red meat at low tem­per­a­ture and every white meat at high tem­per­a­ture.”
And his opin­ion of stuff­ing? “A culi­nary mis­take — what­ever you put inside the cav­ity, you are going to totally lose the tex­ture.”
Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com

Chef Mavro’s Suck­ling Pig in a fes­tive 3-course menu (photo Hon­olulu Advertiser)

For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, Chef Mavro restau­rant is the only inde­pen­dent restau­rant in Hawaii, and one of only a hand­ful nation­ally, to earn the Amer­i­can Auto­mo­bile Asso­ci­a­tion (AAA) Five Dia­mond award. Other notable inde­pen­dent restau­rant win­ners nation­ally are The French Laun­dry and Gary Danko in Cal­i­for­nia; Aure­ole, Daniel, and Jean Georges Restau­rant in New York.

The con­sis­tently out­stand­ing food, ser­vice and décor of Chef Mavro restau­rant was con­firmed by the anony­mous vis­its of highly trained AAA inspec­tors. The Five Dia­mond award is “reserved for those out­stand­ing restau­rants that exem­plify the high­est level of excel­lence in every facet of operation.”

George Mavrotha­las­si­tis, chef/owner com­ments: “To get Five Dia­monds is dif­fi­cult but the chal­lenge is to keep it! Bravo to our kitchen and din­ing room staff.”

Chef Mavro received another cov­eted award recently as the only Hawaii restau­rant to earn the Gayot restau­rant critic rat­ing of 18/20 (three toques). Mavrotha­las­si­tis is a found­ing mem­ber of Hawaii Regional Cui­sine and won the James Beard Award, a one-time life­time achieve­ment award and the top culi­nary honor in the U.S. 

The menu at this restau­rant is rein­vented each sea­son as the culi­nary team works hand-in-hand with local farm­ers to bring new prod­ucts to the table, and to develop inno­v­a­tive tech­niques that enhance the nat­ural fla­vors of fresh local prod­ucts. Chef Mavro is rec­og­nized as an all-around inno­va­tor includ­ing his intro­duc­tion of food & wine pair­ings in 1998 when the restau­rant opened.

Le Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau est arrivé!
Chef Mavro cooks up 3-course menu ($59) per­fectly paired for
2009 Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau “the best in 50 years”

HONOLULU – Be the first to taste the 2009 Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau wine, ranked “the best in 50 years” by pre­mium pro­ducer Georges Duboeuf, and the per­fect pair­ings of Chef Mavro’s three-course menu at $59. The entrée will be served table­side adding to the fes­tive tone of these spe­cial Chef Mavro dinners.

Seat­ing will be lim­ited and avail­able by reser­va­tion only, Novem­ber 19-December 5, 2009, 6–9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Call 944‑4714 or email chef@chefmavro.com. Dur­ing this time Chef Mavro’s reg­u­lar Fall Menu (4 and 6 courses, or the Grand Tast­ing menu) will also be avail­able, as they remain the favorites for spe­cial occasions.

The French-Hawaii accents of the appe­tizer and main course were cre­ated by Mavro and Chef de Cui­sine Kevin Chong to pair per­fectly with Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau. Appe­tizer: Sautéed Maitake mush­rooms, green papaya, Sum­ida water­cress, galan­gal and kaf­fir lime, and the main course: Crispy suck­ling pig, Molokai sweet potato puree, pick­led mus­tard cab­bage, white pineap­ple pork jus. The dessert will be Big Island Meyer lemon curd, Japan­ese cheese cake, cit­rus salad, gin­ger ice cream, pome­gran­ate syrup. The $59 price includes appe­tizer, entrée, dessert and three addi­tional com­pli­men­tary courses: pre-appetizer, pre-dessert and hand crafted can­dies. Wine pair­ings includ­ing Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau are optional as always.

“Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau is fizzy and fun! It’s easy to drink, low in alco­hol, and when it’s released every­one has to say their opin­ion: it’s good, it’s not good, it’s bet­ter than last year, it’s too light and so on. The Beau­jo­lais is here! (Le Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau est arrivé!) has become inter­na­tional. It’s a good excuse to cel­e­brate with friends,” sug­gests George Mavrotha­las­si­tis, chef/owner, Chef Mavro restaurant.

Back­ground: Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau is a young red wine made from hand­picked Gamay grapes in the Beau­jo­lais region of France. While most red wines improve with age, this wine is all about fresh­ness and should be enjoyed right away.

Fol­low­ing the long­time French tra­di­tion of releas­ing Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau on the third Thurs­day of Novem­ber, the 2009 vin­tage will be released Novem­ber 19 around the world. In addi­tion to Chef Mavro’s Hon­olulu din­ners, spe­cial Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau din­ners called “Le Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau est Arrivé!” (The new Beau­jo­lais is here!) will take place in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and many other places.
(more)

Chef Mavro 2009 Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau din­ners
Page 2

“August 2009 offered some of the best hot and sunny weather in the last 60 years. The favor­able weather has helped the grapes mature nicely. The berries are thick, and the seeds are a gor­geous amber color…Their bright­ness, inten­sity, and above all, their per­fect health are some­thing to behold. We have not seen any­thing like this for a long time,” exclaimed Duboeuf (web­site www.duboeufnouveau.com)
George Mavrotha­las­si­tis, a found­ing mem­ber of Hawaii Regional Cui­sine, won the James Beard Award, a life­time achieve­ment award and the top culi­nary honor in the U.S. The restau­rant holds the AAA Five Dia­mond award, the high­est Gayot rat­ing in Hawaii 18/20, and numer­ous other acco­lades from crit­ics and pop­u­lar votes. Mavro con­tin­ues to work with aspir­ing young chefs through his “Restau­rant Real­ity” pro­gram and to pro­vide ongo­ing advanced train­ing for Hawaii culi­nary stu­dents in part­ner­ship with the non-profit Hale ‘Aina ‘Ohana. His many non-profit activ­i­ties include sup­port of Hawaii Pub­lic Radio and the arts.