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Prince
Michel Restaurant
In the spring of 2000, a young chef from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains traveled to Mexico City for induction into an organization of the world’s top French chefs. Alain Lecomte, the chef-manager of the Prince Michel Restaurant, was one of six inductees into Les Maitres Cuisiners de France, whose 350 members include the chefs of the Michelin starred restaurants in France, and about 50 members in the U. S. "Ah, A-lon, ze very good young chef," praised Jean Yves Piquet, chef at the University Club in Manhattan, and president of the U. S. branch of the society. But you don’t have to take Piquet’s word about Lecomte’s talents. All you have to do is be willing to drive to the Prince Michel Restaurant, midway between Culpeper and Madison, and be prepared to drop a bundle. The restaurant is part of a winery-restaurant-lodge complex owned by a French businessman, Jean Leducq, who since he bought the winery in 1982 has added a wine museum, restaurant and four luxurious suites. This is an expensive place, with entrees ranging from $25 to $38, topped by a four-course dinner for $80 per person. The suites cost $400 a night on Friday and Saturday, and $350 on Thursdays. Because my meal and overnight stay was a retirement gift from my former colleagues at The Washington Post, I never saw a bill, but my estimate is that my wife and I blew about $650 of our friends’ money on dinner and one night’s lodging. With tabs like that, Prince Michel inevitably invites comparison with its better-known neighbor about 35 miles away, the world renowned Inn at Little Washington. Nancy Lewis, a Post editor and extraordinary cook, picked Prince Michel for my going-away present after eating there several times recently. "I was blown away by the food—better than the Inn at Little Washington," said Lewis, whose opinions on food I highly respect. Nonetheless, in my view, the eight-year-old Prince Michel Restaurant has a long way to go to match chef Patrick O’Connell’s Little Washington inn in ambience and style, but in the kitchen, the 36-year-old Lecomte is ready to take on all comers. Dinner at Prince Michel is served in a newly constructed, airy, high-ceilinged room with tapestries, photographs and sketches on the walls and red draped windows that match the carpet. Tables are set with gold-rimmed china, blue napkins, candles and fresh flowers. The otherwise romantic setting was jarred by lighting that was a little bright and music that was a bit loud. Until early this year, meals were served in a bistro-like cellar on the ground level, which made up for the absence of windows with a series of wonderful murals, painted by local artist Marie Taylor, including one depicting Leducq playing an accordion in his hometown of Brinon, France. That room now is used for private parties. Thanks to my former co-workers, we chose the all-inclusive $80 menu, which got off to a great start with "amuse bouches," or "mouth amusements," of smoked salmon with horseradish mayonnaise and sweetbreads in a puff pastry with a port sauce. Other nights, the canapés might include a Virginia ham quiche or sea bass carpaccio. For appetizers, we chose seared duck foie gras with calvados sauce, accompanied by green lentils, $22 a la carte, and an asparagus and langoustine flan in a puffy pastry with a crawfish butter sauce, $20.
Other appetizers included veal sweetbreads in a puff pastry, $15; tuna tartar with a horseradish sauce, $16; squab ragout with pearl pasta ragout, $19; poached eggs Florentine with crabmeat, $13, and a green bean salad with roasted almonds and basil, $10. After our palates were cleared with a lemon sorbet, we savored our delicate entrees. I chose the lamb combination, comprised of a chop on the bone and a half-inch thick filet mignon, perfectly sautéed in lamb stock and a semi-dry wine and spiced with rosemary, thyme and tarragon. Accompaniments were olive oil mashed potatoes and ratatouille. My wife, Nancy, chose filet of sole stuffed with a medallion of lobster, sautéed in a lobster, white wine and cream sauce, seasoned with tomato, shallots, paprika and saffron, and presented on a bed of spinach. It was so good—as much lobster as sole--that I tried, unsuccessfully, to get her to swap dishes. Each of our entrees was $38 a la carte. Other main course were filet of Black Angus beef in a port sauce, $38; roasted duck breast with a cherry sauce, $29; stuffed quail with foie gras mousse, $25, and Chilean sea bass, $29. For dessert, I had a lightly crusted crème brulee, which had just the right consistency and flavor, and Nancy chose the hot turban of orange with a caramel sauce. The later were slices of oranges marinated in a semi-dry Riesling and baked into a caramelized pastry mold, topped with Italian meringue, whipped cream and red raspberries, served piping hot. Delicious. Other dessert possibilities were pears
Bavarian mousse with raspberries; warm apple tart with vanilla ice cream
and cinnamon sauce, chocolate cake with a crème anglaise sauce, a
rich-looking chocolate tarte with hazelnuts, and an assortment of
sorbets with a berry sauce. All desserts are $12.50. The wine list, obviously, is formidable, albeit stacked in favor of the host winery. We chose the Prince Michel Chardonnay Barrel Select ($30), which won a silver medal in the 1999 Virginia wine competition.
There also is an extensive list of non-local wines, from a Napa Valley vineyard also owned by and named for Leducq; other domestic wines from vineyards in Oregon and California, including some great ’94 vintage reds (some in half-bottles), and some rare but pricey French wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone (ie: a 1996 Chateau Margaux for $731). The moment we checked in at the reception area in mid-afternoon, we were greeted by Prince Michel’s effervescent maitre d’hotel, Andrew D. Ferlazzo, who promptly ushered us into the bar and asked, "red or white." After choosing "one of each," we settled in for what turned out to be a wonderful visit. Ferlazzo, a 30-year-old local who has been taken under his wing by Leducq, which has included allowing him and his girlfriend to stay in Leducq’s Paris apartment, then showed us all the bells and whistles in our beige and blue French Provincial suite, dubbed La Concorde. (The others are called Paris, Les Champs Elysses and La Tour Eiffel.) He cracked open a bottle of champagne that was waiting in a silver ice bucket before starting the tour. Each suite contains a living room with wood-burning fireplace and lighted stars in the ceiling, a kitchenette, a king-sized bedroom with a pants-and-blouse presser, and a bathroom that features an oversized, glass-enclosed shower, double-sized Jacuzzi, heated towel racks, his and her robes, a red rose in a vase and behind louvered doors, a toilet, bidet and sink. Taylor, who painted the murals on the old restaurant wall, choreographed the décor of each suite distinctively, painting the walls and drapes and making the furniture fabrics. The two most fascinating toys to me were a neck massager in the Jacuzzi, which sprayed water wildly across the bathroom when I moved my head to reach for a glass of champagne, and a 900-channel DVD audio and video system, piped through speakers not only to every room, but to front and back porches. One disappointment was breakfast, but only because it had been oversold by the enthusiastic Ferlazzo, who announced that he would personally deliver it. When he arrived bright and cheery at 9 a.m., however, he bore only store-bought croissants. Then, with a flourish, he dropped white bread from the kitchenette into the toaster, set the table, poured the juice and departed. At $400 a night, it’s probably OK to throw in a couple more nit-picks, so: There was only one phone (when you are in such fancy digs, the urge to brag to friends is irresistible), the peephole in the door was too high for my wife to see through, the napkins were paper and there were no cereal spoons. Nonetheless, Ferlazzo is a genial and accommodating host, and we had a gorgeous view from our kitchen table across the vineyards toward the restaurant and winery. And there was little to nit-pick about the food prepared by Lecomte, who began his career at age 16, working weekends in local restaurants in his native Loire Valley. In 1987, after apprenticing in restaurants in Monaco and Paris, he became executive chef at the ELIS Group in Paris, the holding company for Leducq’s vast business interests. In addition to the wineries, Leducq’s American enterprises include more than 50 commercial laundries, operated by Omni, Inc., a subsidiary based in Culpeper, where he also maintains a home. While working for Leducq in Paris, Lecomte won a national cooking competition, which helped convince Leducq to bring Lecomte and his wife to Virginia in 1992 to start the Prince Michel Restaurant. This review originally appeared in 64 magazine. |
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Ours
were prepared and presented with perfection.
Also
available are the regular Prince Michel Chardonnay ($25 per bottle, $6
per glass) a white burgundy at $20, and three selections from the nearby
Rapidan River winery, also owned by Leducq. The reds include Prince
Michel’s Virginia Merlot-cabernet reserve, which also won a silver
medal last year.