Monday, October 27, 7:00 pm
Members $100, guests $125

One suspects there are some people who haven’t eaten since Lespinasse closed its doors for good in April of this year. Delouvrier’s cooking in the opulent dining room of the St. Regis hotel was that good. Just ask then New York Times critic Ruth Reichl, who said in her four-star review that his food had a “newly transformed quality” when he took over the Lespinasse stoves. “He has never before worked so expressively.” But the break has given Delouvrier time to finish his memoir/cookbook, Mastering Simplicity: A Life in the Kitchen, coauthored with Jennifer Leuzzi, due out from Wiley in October. And it gave him time to drum up not one, but two ideas for new restaurants, Terre and Delouvrier, both readying to open this fall.

Located in the Meat Packing District, Terre is the more casual of the two, with an emphasis of satisfying, earthy fare (terre means ”earth” in French). “It’s my roots, Gascony,” he told New York magazine’s Rob Patronite, “the corn fields, the ducks, the geese, and the cows, and don’t forget the beautiful chickens.” The more formal, more uptown Delouvrier will follow shortly thereafter.

With more than 40 years of experience working in some else’s formal French kitchens (Cafe de la Paix and L’Achestrate in Paris, Maurice and Lespinasse in New York), we can only imagine what will issue forth when Delouvrier lets loose in his own place. And we can think of nothing better to help celebrate this joyful freedom than a glass (or four) of fine Champagne. Enter Fabrice Rosset, a native of Epernay in the heart of Champagne and president of Deutz/Delas, a subsidiary of Roederer.

Rosset worked for Maison Louis Roederer for more than 20 years, honing the skills that would ready him for the top spot at Champagne Duetz. Not averse to still wine, Rosset also oversees the operations of Delas Frères, a fixture in the firmament of fine Côte du Rhône producers.