Chefs ready an assembly line of dishes during Fête Rouge 2013. Photo by Josh Hall
Fête Rouge, the annual two-day event highlighting local chefs and food industry leaders, is right around the corner. The team behind the event offered 225 Dine an early peek at the hefty menu for its awards dinner Aug. 27 (we’ll get to that in a bit).
The 9th Annual Grace “Mama” Marino Lifetime Achievement Dinner at L’Auberge Casino & Hotel will honor Robert “Bobby” Yarborough, CEO of Manda Meats. Each year, a handful of local chefs design each course paired with a carefully selected fine wine.
The 2015 edition includes plenty of familiar faces from local restaurants and catering services, such as chef Jeremy Langlois, who recently joined Ruffino’s Restaurant; chefs Cody and Samantha Carroll of Sac-a-Lait, who are cooking at the James Beard House in October; and chef Matthew Reed of Reed’s Cakes & Catering, who took home Best in Show for his dessert at last year’s Fête Rouge.
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And now for that drool-worthy menu:
FIRST COURSE – PASSED APPETIZERS:
• Wild mushroom goat cheese and rosemary profiterole
• “Oyscargo” of butter-poached oysters in crimini mushroom caps, crumbled red pepper Parmesan
• Smoked salmon, fennel and tarragon crème fraiche, cucumber chip
• Crushed black pepper carpaccio, Parmesan crisps, arugula twist, olive and caper jus
Chefs David Walker and Taralyn Stephens, Bonanno’s Fine Catering
SECOND COURSE:
Sweet tea-brined breast of duck
Roasted beets, local chèvre fondue, beehive honey, blackberries, sunflower sprouts
Chef Jeremy Langlois, Ruffino’s Restaurant
THIRD COURSE:
Roasted shrimp bisque
Smoked shrimp mousse, summer succotash
Chef William Wells, Culinary Productions
FOURTH COURSE:
Romano-crusted Gulf grouper
Duck egg and Manda bacon carbonara, mustard green vermicelli
Chefs Cody and Samantha Carroll, Sac-a-Lait
FIFTH COURSE:
Hazelnut and Belle Ecorce Farms bleu cheese salad
Shaved hazelnuts, hydroponic greens, Belle Ecorce Farms Bleu, farm egg, malt vinegar emulsion
Chef Joseph Dicapo, Carriage House of Houmas House Plantation
SIXTH COURSE:
Rosemary Guinness-marinated Angus tenderloin
Truffle-scented Yukon, Manda tasso, caramelized brussels, pinot pepper reduction
Chef Dondi McNulty, The Little Village
SEVENTH COURSE:
Dark chocolate pinot noir ice cream
Honey caramel, warm red velvet crumble, local blackberries
Chef Matthew Reed, Reed’s Cakes & Catering
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Planning to attend?
Here’s what you should know:
Tickets for the Aug. 27 awards dinner, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. at L’Auberge, are $200 a person and $1,600 for a table of eight. Tickets for the Food & Wine Fête the following evening, Aug. 28, are $75 per person and tickets for the coinciding Fête du Vin are $200, which includes entry to Food & Wine Fête. All tickets are available through feterougebr.com.
Proceeds from the event, hosted by the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society, benefit the Baton Rouge Food Bank, the Sunshine Foundation, Girls on the Run of Baton Rouge, Boys & Girls Club of Baton Rouge, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Pro-Start culinary high school programs, Epicurean scholarship funding and the cultural preservation of the greater Baton Rouge area.