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Hello, everyone.

Cheryl was thinking about when we should decorate a live Christmas tree inside the restaurant and came up with a brilliant idea. We'll have a tree-trimming party at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 21. We invite all our guests to come and trim our Christmas tree, and we want each guest to bring something they made to hang on the tree - paper or cranberry chains, origami birds, cardboard ornaments, whatever. Everyone who brings an ornament, no matter how exotic or homely, will be rewarded with a free glass of sparkling wine or a glass of Paul's famous mulled red wine in front of the fireplace.

We'll have Cole Broderick start playing jazzy carols at 6 p.m. You can stay for dinner or bar snacks if you want, or just hang out for the music and free bubbles and be on your way. We thought it might be a nice break for people as they finish their last-minute holiday shopping and preparations.

We know many people put up Christmas trees right after Thanksgiving, but the Parker family has always waited until Christmas Eve to erect the family tree. We string the lights ahead of time, then crack open a big batch of raw oysters and pop some Champagne. We trim the tree while hanging out together and it's still nice and fresh and aromatic on Christmas morning. We usually keep our tree up straight through New Year's Eve to January 6, known in some traditions as 12th night.

This year, we'll be removing our Christmas tree for a single afternoon between Christmas and New Year's to make space for an afternoon bat mitzvah for a lovely young woman we've been feeding since she was a little bitty thing. We are extremely excited about this private party, which will include some really fun foods and a klezmer band. Relocating the tree is both a matter of clearing space for the guests and making the symbolism in keeping with the event.

Planning the logistics of how you move a fully-decorated Christmas tree prompted some discussion by the staff of exactly how Christian a Christmas tree is. Luckily, Cheryl has already thought this through.

The use of evergreens as decorations dates back long before the advent of Christianity. Ancient peoples hung pine and spruce boughs over doors and windows, and in many countries it was believed that this would ward off witches, evil spirits and illness. In Northern Europe, the celtic Druids priests decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

In the 16th century, Germans began bringing trees into their homes or building wooden pyramids they decorated with evergreen boughs and candles. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th- century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree.

But as late as the 19th century in America, a decorated holiday tree indoors was extremely rare. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania German settlements had outdoor community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s, Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims's second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out "pagan mockery" of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against "the heathen traditions" of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated "that sacred event." In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

In 1846, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree. Unlike the previous royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at court immediately became fashionable—not only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The Christmas tree had arrived.

The tree will be ablaze on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and we will be offering a fabulously festive five-course prix-fixe menu. The first course will be your choice of raw oysters mignonette; or escargots en surprise with fennel and cream; or pear and foie gras tart; or cara cara orange and braised fennel salad. The second course will be exotic mushroom consommé with Christmas colors. Course 3 will be your choice of goose à la Bigarade (goose à l'orange with Seville oranges); or fresh baked ham from Flying Pigs Farm with Tahitian flavors (vanilla, papaya, carambola, pineapple, star fruit and whatever); or whole branzini with blood orange and herbs; or forest mushroom and truffled salsify tart with barley risotto and brussel sprouts.
The fourth course will be a bejewelled pomegranate salad and the last course will be your choice of mincemeat pie, apple pie with English cheddar, walnut tart or chocolate mocha Yule log.

We will be taking reservations for this fabulous five-course feast from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on December 24 and 25. (No à la carte menu will be offered.) The price will be $75 per person for food, plus beverages, tax and gratuity. Children under 12 eat for $25.

Hotel rooms at The Saratoga will be available to Chez Sophie customers at a steep discount. ($79 per night.)

To that end, Paul has come up with two extraordinarily elegant menus for New Year's Eve, one a five-courser for early birds and the other an 9-course extravaganza for those who want to hang out until the wee hours. Our early seating, with tables available at 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 p.m., will feature a five-course menu (with a glass of Champagne
included) for $80 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
The New Year's Eve all-night party starts at 8 p.m., with seatings available at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 p.m. The 9-course menu will cost $130 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
To see the full menu for each seating, visit http:// www.chezsophie.com/events.htm

An optional prix fixe wine menu selected to pair with the dishes being offered will be available, as well as our full wine list and bar.
The Saratoga has agreed to make double and king hotel rooms available to Chez Sophie customers for $219 per night. Book early, because the hotel is always sold out on New Year's Eve.
Reservations required with credit card confirmation, call 518.583.3538.

Chef Paul and Souschef Mark Graham and Chef cuisinier Dan Felder and garde manger Nicole Hamilton have been having so much fun experimenting with special dishes for menus for holiday parties and special events that it's spilling into our daily dinner menus.

The most obvious example is the foie gras and pear tart. This is something that Nicole started test-making because we wanted to include it as an appetizer option for the Christmas and Christmas Eve menu. It is, in a word, sublime. It includes layers of caramelized apple, poached seckle pears and a slice of lightly seared foie gras on a hand made tart shell. It melts in your mouth. As Mark Graham
says: "If you're not feeling it from the neck down, something is wrong with you."

We've started ordering raw Beau Soleil oysters and the kitchen geniuses have come up with something to add to the our traditional shallot mignonette. They are making a reduction of yuzu juice, that has the bite of a balsamic reduction or a pomegranate molasses, but with a citrusy, yet piney character. It would seem like that would be too strong for the delicate taste of oysters, but for some reason it brings out out the salty sea flavor without killing it.

This coming week, they will start smoking fish, partly because there will be a lot of smoked fish on the bat mitzvah menu, so they want to practice. One of the many great things about doing this bat mitzvah is that we keep learning great Yiddish words. There are two we jotted down, but we're not sure how to spell them. We tried to find the words based on how they sounded phonetically, with no luck. One sounded like "scrogitt" and was used to refer to the end pieces of a loaf of bread. The closest we came at first to finding something with the same meaning was shpits, then we persevered and found the word okraytshik, which might sound kind of like scrogitt if you have untrained shiksa ears. The other word sounded like nuschpice, referring to a dry cracker at the end of the meal used to clear the palate. Tell us if you've heard the word or can spell it.

A "shout out" to the vegetarians: Chef Graham says he is always looking to "wow you with the earth, so come in with your eggplant, mushroom and tomato aversions and I'll still blow you out of the water."

We'll be doing Denver leg of Axis Venison from Broken Arrow Ranch with a Quelque Chose cherry beer reduction. Quelque Chose is a top- fermented cherry beer from Unibroue in Canada. Quelque Chose was launched in January 1996 specifically as a winter beer because, when warmed to 70ºC (160ºF), it can be taken as a hot drink. On the other hand, on the rocks, it is a wonderful aperitif. The cherries are soaked for months in slightly bitter ale before being blended into the beer. Quelque Chose is made with dark roasted malts, and the end result is something commonly known as an authentic nectar. The most original of the Unibroue line, it is highly appreciated by winter- sports enthusiasts.

Several species of antelope were introduced to the Texas hill country more than 50 years ago for the enjoyment of game hunters. The animals, from Japan, India and other Asian countries, thrived so well on the land that selective harvesting is now used to keep a balance between the native species and the exotic imports. The exotics require less water and care than domestic cattle and feed on the herbs and brush that grow under the sheltering cliffs and river valleys of this 750-acre preserve.

The Pink Plate Special this week will be braised poussin with a chestnut tagliatelle and a delicata squash sauce. The word poussin has caused a problem for our barely-French-speaking clientele for decades because it sounds so much like the French word for fish. (That's poisson.) Poussin are small baby hens from four to six weeks old, with an extremely delicate texture and a mild flavor. (They are not Rock Cornish hens, which are a specific North American cross-breed.)

The Pink Plate is a weekly prix fixe special we offer on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For $32 per person, you get your choice of soup or salad, the featured entree, two selections from our cheese board or one of a couple of featured desserts and coffee, tea or espresso.

We offer a fun and elegant à la carte brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
Our artist-in-residence, jazz pianist Cole Broderick, plays the baby grand piano from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday

The brunch menu this Saturday and Sunday will feature roast duck and andouille sausage gumbo over basmati rice ($15); veal scallops with
exotic mushroom Dijon and tarragon sauce ($16); ginger-glazed
salmon with coconut jasmine rice ($16) and grilled N.Y. strip steak with a Valdéon bleu cheese and red wine glaze with oven-roasted potatoes ($16). Appetizer specials include a crabcake with lemon caper mayonnaise ($16); a salad of mixed baby greens tossed in a red wine vinaigrette ($7); Rhode Island Littleneck clams steam in white wine with herbs ($13) and soup of the day ($8).

The brunch specials run from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The complete menu,
offered from 7 to 2 p.m., includes a Continental assortment of
muffins, pastries, fruit, yogurt, frittata etcetera for $9;
omelettes ($10 to $12); pancakes du jour ($10); the All in One, which includes 2 eggs any style, homefries, toast and sausage or bacon ($10); waffles with sweet cream butter and local maple syrup ($10); and Irish steel- cut oatmeal ($8).

Holiday Gift ideas from Chez Sophie:

"Chez Sophie Jazz" the seventh CD release from pianist-composer Cole Broderick. This CD is a departure for Cole, who won a Billboard Critic's Choice Award for his 4-CD set of jazz compositions: "Seasons in Saratoga," because it's the first time he's recorded with a vocalist. (The singer is Cheryl Clark, co-owner of Chez Sophie, wife of Chef Paul, mother of the adorable Nico and Léo, and author of this weekly missive.) Some of the cuts of the CD are available at http://www.chezsophie.com/.
Copies are for sale for $16 at Chez Sophie and through Cole's secure PayPal-friendly website at https://s.p2.hostingprod.com/ @colebroderick.com/ssl/order-cole-broderick-cds.html. We can also mail-order the CD's for an additional $4 shipping and handling.

Chef Paul is planning to make stollen, a holiday yeast bread dense with dried fruit and nuts, powdered with confectioner's sugar and wrapped with cellophane and pretty ribbons, for the holidays. The breads keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks and work well as a sweet breakfast bread or as a snack item to keep on the sideboard throughout a holiday gathering. To place an order for stollen, call Cheryl at 518.583.3538. You can specify anytime throughout the holidays to pick up your stollen, but you must order it at least seven days before you expect to pick it up. A 1.5 pound loaf is $25, and an enormous 4 pound loaf is $50.
Shipping is available at an additional charge.

We are also selling Chez Sophie holiday gift certificates in any denomination, printed on gift cards and mailed to either the recipient or the sender (if you'd prefer to stuff the stocking yourself.)

If a gift certificate for a specific dollar amount isn't quite right for your needs, you can also have us make up a gift certificate for a specific type of meal, so the value is not quite so blatant. For example, you could have us make up a certificate for "Two Pink Plate Specials," which would entitle your guests to the three-course prix fixe we offer Monday through Thursday, except during track season.
That would be $64, or $80 if you include tax and tip.

You could treat your friends to "Two seven-course chef's choice tasting menus" prepared especially to suit their dietary desires or restrictions, for $160, or $200 if you include tax and gratuity.
You can boost the gift to include wine pairings with a budget set by you. A gift certificate for "Two seven course chef's choice tasting menus with three wines, tax and tip" could be purchased for $280 (or more if you want to offer a larger budget for wine.)

The tasting menus are pretty neat, because unlike some restaurants, we don't come up with a one-size-fits-all menu and offer that and only that. We question our guests when they make their reservations about whether there are any foods they are allergic to or prefer to avoid, and if there are any foods that they are particularly fond of.

We'll personalize their menus with their names and the date, print them on pretty paper, roll them like scrolls and tie them with ribbons. The guests can either follow along so they know what is coming, or enjoy the surprises and wait until the end of the meal to unroll the scroll and see our descriptions of the foods and wines they enjoyed.
We will be happy to design tasting menus throughout the holidays for parties of one to 75.

To get a gift certificate, just call 518.583.3538 to order by phone, or stop into the restaurant to pick one up in person.

Live Piano Jazz
Jazz pianist Cole Broderick plays the baby grand Tuesday and Friday night, and during Sunday brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
(barring special events that preclude live music.)
Cost: No cover charge

Tasting menus
Chef's Choice seven-course tasting menu available each night. The
menus are designed based on the best and most creative dishes Chef Paul K. Parker is serving each evening. We will pair wines for you at an additional charge or you can order from our extensive wine list.
Cost: $80 to $200 per person for seven courses, plus tax and tip.
Everyone at the table must partake in the tasting menu.
If you're feeling less impromptu, you can call ahead to arrange a
special tasting menu with the number of courses and wine pairings
designed to suit your capacity, dietary restrictions and budget.
Tasting menus arranged in advance will be printed on commemorative vellum scrolls personalized with the name of the host or the reason for the event.
Cost: Depends on the number of courses and the wines selected; available for two to 75 guests. Call Cheryl to make arrangements at
518.583.3538

The Pink Plate Special
offered Monday, December 17, Tuesday, December 18, Wednesday, December 19 and Thursday, December 20

$32 per person
includes your choice of soup or salad, a special entree, selected desserts or a cheese course and coffee, tea or espresso.

This week's special entree:
braised poussin with a chestnut tagliatelle and a delicata squash sauce

Notes on Nico and Léo:
"Did Daddy plant another seed in your stomach?"
"Excuse me?" Mommy asked her earnest 4-year-old in alarm.
"You know how you told me Daddy planted a seed and I grew in your tummy and he planted another and Léo grew? Did he only plant two?"
Cheryl looked at her son in panic, trying to figure out how to get out of this one. Excessive explanation is the root of this problem, so she kept it simple: "Yes."
"Can he plant some more?" he asked.
"Two is kind of the perfect number," Cheryl said tersely.
"Why?"
"I have two arms, one for Léo and one for you," Mommy said.
"How about 10?" Nico suggested. "You have 10 fingers."

The Parker family
at Chez Sophie
518.583.3538

Chez Sophie was founded in 1969 by sculptor Joseph Parker and his French-born wife, the late Sophie. The business moved to a vintage stainless steel diner in Malta Ridge, New York, in 1995. It is owned today by Sophie and Joseph's son, Paul Parker, and his wife, Cheryl Clark. In June of 2006, they moved the restaurant into their current location in The Saratoga Hotel on Broadway..

If at any time you would like to be removed from our weekly email list (or receive less frequent postings about wine dinners or special events) please let us know by return email. We hope you enjoy our news.

P.S. Each month we draw a name at random from our database of customers and send them a $50 gift certificate to Chez Sophie. If you would like to be added to this promotions database, which is owned by Chez Sophie, please send us an email with your name, address, telephone number, birthday and anniversary. People on the list will also receive a gift certificate by mail or email for a free glass of champagne or dessert on their birthdays or anniversaries. (You only need to enter once to be eligible every month.)

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