The Fleur de Lys

The team dinner this time was in an upscale French restaurant. The Fleur de Lys is said to be one of the best restaurants for fine dining in San Francisco. This 45 year old restaurant has won many awards, as has its celebrity chef, Hubert Keller, who also owns this restaurant. Keller has been a guest chef to the Clinton White House, and the author of more than one cookbook.

We started with a tasting platter of Alsation Choucroute consisting of Choucroute soup, toasted spatzle, paprika oil Choucroute fondant with Osetra caviar and Choucroute strudel with sauteed foie gras.

This was followed by saddle and chops of rabbit with bean salad, carmelized cumin seed, honey and mint vinaigrette. Then came the symphony of smoked salmon tartar, chilled cream of salsify, Tartine of foie gras, duck breast and salad Lyonnaise.

For my entree I chose the boneless Quail stuffed with ris de veau presented with roasted parsnips, young leeks and foie gras, lightly smoked Tarragon jus. Dessert was equally grand with peanut and chocolate pot de cream, chocolate mousse cake flavored with lemon herbal tea, chocolate and strawberry feuilletine, Vanilla bean ice-cream and orange terrine. Whew! I bet it will take you a dictionary or heavy use of Google to figure out what I ate unless you are French.

For those who are wondering what Fleur de Lys means, it is a stylised, decorative flower symbol associated with the French monarchy and is still used in many logos and banners.

And finally, here's a picture of yours truely with the celebrity chef himself!

UPDATE: You can read about a more recent visit to Fleur de Lys here.