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.
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Chef Mavro 2009 Beau­jo­lais Nou­veau din­ners
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“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.

I was in France for the last days of sum­mer. Sep­tem­ber is the best time to visit Provence. Half of the tourists are gone, the tem­per­a­ture aver­age 75. I found myself relax­ing on the beach in Saint Tropez before hav­ing lunch at the Club 55. This is nearly impos­si­ble between June 1st and August 31st if you are not Johnny Depp or make a reser­va­tion 2 months in advance.
The taste of the last figs and white peaches is still lin­ger­ing in my mouth. I had the last grilled sar­dines of the sea­son. But you know what I like the best about the end of summer…the begin­ning of fall.
We were in the mid­dle of lunch on a ter­race in Col­lo­bri­eres in the “Mas­sif des Mores” when we got caught by the rain. My wife asked me if it was the end of this beau­ti­ful weather? I said no this is the begin­ning of the cèpe mush­room sea­son. I was right. Two days after every restau­rant in the region had cèpes in the menu. Just sauté with extra vir­gin olive oil and a touch of gar­lic (I am going to cry…).
Fall is also the sea­son of shell­fish, oys­ters, sea urchin, mus­sels, clams and… “vio­lets.” I am not aware of any trans­la­tion for “vio­lets” that you can find only in Provence and Greece. It is a small shell­fish looks like a dark stone but is soft. Spilt with a knife and you find inside the bright yel­low to saf­fron color “vio­let” which taste like noth­ing else in the word. Eat­ing “vio­lets” is like eating…let me see…eating in one bite all the con­tent of the seas and the oceans of the planet at once. If you visit Provence in autumn don’t miss this oppor­tu­nity, go to the port of Cas­sis try “vio­lets” with a glass of white wine and you can say “O temps sus­pend ton vol et vous heures prop­ices sus­pendez votre cours …” trans­la­tion, “oh time please stop…,” by Lamar­tine. I drive my wife crazy, she con­sid­ers fall as the most roman­tic sea­son of the year and all I can dream about is mush­rooms, game and shell­fish.
So happy to be back home in Hon­olulu after a fam­ily vaca­tion in Provence. Time to start the fall menu, of course we are in Hawaii and not in Provence but with Kevin Chong our Chef de Cui­sine we find a way through local ingre­di­ents to have you enjoy the fla­vors of the Mediter­ranean with the beau­ti­ful fla­vors of Hawaii.
No “vio­lets”? Let’s use Big Island abalone, mar­i­nate in escabeche and serve with manchego cheese cro­quette and Ser­rano ham. The com­bi­na­tion of ingre­di­ents attracts a Ger­man Ries­ling from Voll­rads cho­sen by our wine com­mit­tee. The white peach over­tone of the wine matches per­fectly these Mediter­ranean fla­vors.
What about Maitake mush­rooms instead of cèpes? This time the dish has a very strong Viet­namese influ­ence from our sous-chef Andrew Le. The maitake are sautéed with green papaya shav­ings, mush­room broth fla­vored with galan­gal and kaf­fir lime, served with Sum­ida water­cress. No won­der we call this recipe “Indo­chine,” we can­not deny the French tech­nique of the exe­cu­tion. The spicy Ital­ian Pinot Gri­gio from Jer­mann was the best pair­ing.
But let me talk to you about our best Lob­ster recipe ever (not again…yes). Kevin Chong who worked in Mex­ico came back home with some strong His­panic inspi­ra­tions. Kevin pro­poses this out­stand­ing Lob­ster Paella. The lob­ster as always is cooked “à la coque” (in the shell). The essence of lob­ster fla­vored with Chorizo and the gar­nish made of roasted red bell pep­pers, green olives and Eng­lish peas is quite tra­di­tional. The rice fla­vored with saf­fron is not any rice but puff rice flakes served table side and float­ing lightly above the dish…wow (sorry to get so excited). The wine is…red,I guess because the inten­sity of the dish and the pres­ence of the chorizo. Every­body voted for this Aus­tralian Pinot Noir, Saint Clair, 2006 Vicar’s Choice from Marlborough.

(if you would like to receive the entire let­ter high­light­ing addi­tional recipes, please send us an email with “Request Fall Menu let­ter” in the sub­ject line).