Saturday, April 2, 7:00 pm
Members $90, Guests $115

Francophiles, oenophiles, architecture purists: prepare to suspend disbelief as you read about the enterprising Donald and Nancy Panoz and their fully realized vision of a vineyard complete with European varietals and a 16th-century French royal château—in the heart of Braselton, Georgia. Over 20 years ago, in an attempt to answer the question of whether noble European grapes could thrive on their red clay soil, the couple laid the groundwork for what is now the celebrated Château Élan Winery & Resort. Here, vinifera edges out muscadine, golf trumps cotton farming, and chef Joseph Truex combines the best of “haute Southern cuisine” and classic French fare in eight on-premise restaurants.

Truex, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, worked as part of Daniel Boulud’s brigade at Le Cirque before traveling to work at hotels and resorts in Switzerland, New Orleans, and Las Vegas. Growing up in Mansura, Louisiana, as the only son in a family of six children, Truex quickly realized that if he volunteered to cook dinner, his sisters would be the ones stuck washing the dishes. His first paying gig was in the home of an aunt who gave him $5 a meal for dishes like omelets and French toast. As he got older, Truex set his sights on medical school, but had a change of heart during the semester he took off from Louisiana State University to work in a restaurant. Once introduced to the fast-paced camaraderie of the professional kitchen, Truex traded in his microbiology texts for a knife roll and never looked back.

Truex credits his Japanese-born wife, Mihoko, also a chef, with introducing an Asian element to his Mediterranean- and Creole-influenced cooking style. His eclectic approach has been garnering as much attention as Château Élan’s wines (which have earned favorable mention in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Wine Spectator). In November 2003, Nancy Oakley of Sky magazine singled out the resort as “The Best Break,” noting that you can have “any type of cuisine beautifully prepared…from a crab-cake sandwich at Café Élan to an eight-course prix-fixe dinner at the intimate Le Clos.”