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Hello everyone!

Chef Paul has been coming up with what he scientifically refers to as "really cool food"
all week. He's taken the all-natural ribeye steaks we have been serving grilled and
trimmed them out so now he has two very different pieces to work with. The "eye," the
long muscle that runs down the center of the ribeye, is being roasted, and the piece that
curls around the eye has been separated and is being braised quickly with a combination
of beef stock, onions and a little red wine and fresh marjoram. The sauce for the two
pieces is made by reducing the braising stock. The result is a combination of great
textures and tastes that he really likes.

He's doing braised pheasant served with roasted quince and caramelized onions. The new
Zealand lamb is being served "Hot, sour, salty sweet."
 For Paul, this means he creates a glaze made from brown sugar, oyster sauce, hoisin,
amontillado sherry, garlic, ginger, scallions and rice wine vinegar. It basically hits
every part of the palate in the classic Chinese conception.
 "It's a very ripe, round lamby flavor, with an extraordinary balance of sweetness and
umami, which is the fifth flavor," Chef Paul said.

Woodsy Papardelle
"Bacon vegetarians" and fans of Paul's pasta with sherry and cream will love his
papardelle pasta with exotic mushrooms, amontillado sherry and smoked bacon. The
mushrooms he's tossing in the mix include a variety of exotics including, but not limited
to, brown and white maitakes and trumpet royales.
Maitakes, colloquially known in the U.S. as hen of the wood mushrooms, have a rich,
woodsy flavor and a firm, meaty texture that make them standout from any other ingredient
in a dish. Maitakes are on their way to becoming one of the staples of the Asian diet
(along with soy, fish and tea) and are believed to confer good health and longevity.

Japanese doctors have been using maitakes to lower blood pressure and blood lipids, two
key factors in cardiovascular disease. An extract from the maitake is said to boost the
immune system and limit or reverse tumor growth. It is also said to enhance the benefits
of chemotherapy and lessen some side effects of anti-cancer drugs such as hair loss, pain
and nausea. There is no Western scientific evidence to support these claims in humans,
but a few studies have been started.

Trumpet royales are also very meaty and tasty, leading to a rather substantial pasta dish.

We've been getting stunning Pacific halibut and roasting it with absolutely huge shrimp
and serving it with a sauce made with a stock made from the halibut skin and trimming and
the shrimp shells, a little tomato purée, cayenne, Spanish pimenton and herbs.

Softshell Season Continues
Spring softshell crabs continues. Once the harvest starts, it moves up the coast each
week as the weather turns warmer until the molting season is over. We will ask for at
least two dozen each day, but we don't always get them. It seems no matter how slow it
is, we sell out each day. If you're really jonesing for softshells, reserve them when you
make your reservation.

Stupid Chef Tricks Redux
We are happy to report that the "stupid chef trick" experiments conducted last week in
the kitchen with liquid nitrogen and sodium alginate resulted in no explosions and no
loss of life or limb.
"All we did was verification," Paul said. "That being said, I thought that the spherified
bleu cheese and the spherified fig purée were extraordinary. But making them come out
that way was tough. There was a lot of technique involved, but do I think we're ready to
put those things on the menu? No."
With great bravado, Paul said that the experimental outcomes that he liked best were
"better than the same kind of production that I had at WD-50" but he still thinks the end
results are too experimental to try on a regular basis on the line on a consistent basis.
 "The experimenting was tremendously fun, though."

Pink Plate Special
The Pink Plate Special this week will be semi-boneless poussin (baby chicken) merguez.
Merguez is a traditional North African-style sausage Paul made with mutton from Elihu
Farm, mint, coriander, cumin, harrissa and garlic. The chicken and sausage will be
braised together in the oven in white wine and stock.

The Pink Plate Special is a weekly prix fixe special we offer on Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday. The Pink Plate Special is a $32 per person three-course special,
including 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.

Weekend Jazz Brunch
The brunch menu this Saturday and Sunday will feature Thai-style mussels with lemongrass
and coconut ($15);  honey-cured grilled pork chop with sweet potato fries and broccoli
slaw ($16);  fusilli with grilled shrimp and roasted tomatoes in a lemon butter sauce
($16) and sautéed mustard-rubbed chicken breast with tostones and spring vegetables
($16). Appetizer specials include escargots de Bourgogne ($11); a salad of mixed baby
greens tossed in a red wine vinaigrette ($7); crabcake with lemon caper mayonnaise ($16)
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).

Cole in the House
Cole plays the baby grand piano from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday during brunch and on
Tuesday and Friday night (barring special events that preclude live music.) He also comes
in on nights he is not normally scheduled, such as Thursdays and Saturday nights, if he
feels like it. Cole, who won a Billboard Critic's Choice Award for his 4-CD set of jazz
compositions: "Seasons in Saratoga," recently released his seventh CD "Chez Sophie Jazz."
This is 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.) Some
of the cuts of the CD can be heard at http://www.chezsophie.com/.
Copies are for sale for $16 at Chez Sophie and through Cole's secure PayPal-friendly
website at http://www.colebroderick.com/sound-7.htm
 We can also mail-order the CD's for an additional $4 shipping and handling.

Mother's Day Brunch
On Sunday May 11, we will offer a Mother's Day brunch buffet-style brunch with a
made-to-order omelette station, as well as a raw bar, a waffle station, a salad and
vegetable station, desserts, and a carving station (for Easter we did Elihu Farm leg of
lamb, baked cured ham and stuffed veal loin roulade. Specifics of May's extravaganza to
be announced.)
We will be requiring a credit card to confirm the reservations, with a 24-hour no-penalty
cancellation grace period. (After that, it's a $10 per head penalty.)

Admission is $35 for adults and $18 for children under 12, exclusive of beverage, tax and
gratuity. A service charge of 20 percent will be applied to parties of 6 or more. We will
begin seating at 10:30 a.m. and accept reservations each half hour until 3 p.m. Breakfast
will be served from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and dinner seatings will begin at 5:30 p.m. with our
normal à la carte dinner menu.

Skidmore/Albany Law Graduation
Skidmore graduation weekend is booking heavily. We'll be offering an elegant,
four-course, $70 per person prix fixe menu,  and will be serving dinner the Friday (May
16) of Skidmore Graduation weekend from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. by reservation. On Saturday,
May 17, we will extend brunch to 3:30 pm. and start serving the prix fixe dinner at 5:30.
We've also taken lunch reservations until 2:15 p.m. on Friday, May 16, to accommodate
people driving up from graduation ceremonies at the Albany Law School Graduation and
several other local schools.

Artist in residence Joseph C. Parker
Joseph has installed his new exhibit of sculpture, which he's calling "Give and Take."
The sculptures explore the tensions that pull us together and push us apart. "Politics"
is a drop metal sculpture of two well-muscled men mightily pushing a large round wooden
block from opposite sides. "A Couple on the Rock" are pulled together by passion, and
"Family" is a mother, father and baby that can be posed in various ways. "Tree of Life is
a cylinder of steel cut through to make silhouettes of a family, which Joseph observes:
"always requires a lot of give and take." Finally, Joseph has brought in a
larger-than-life sculpture called "Today's Woman" that is a slightly harried looking
mother with a small, round-eyed child pulling forcefully at her leg (just in time for
Mother's Day.) Photos of the new exhibit were taken Thursday night and will be up on the
website sometime later on Friday. http://www.chezsophie.com/sculptures.htm

The pieces are for sale, and range in price from $2,000 to $35,000.

Tasting menus
The Chef's Choice seven-course tasting menu is 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 or more 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, April 21, Tuesday, April 22, Wednesday, April 23, and Thursday, April 24

$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:
 poussin (baby chicken) merguez

Notes on Nico and Léo:

On her day off, Cheryl had a few repairs to arrange. The computer on the Volvo was acting
funny, the washing machine was broken and the cable was acting up. Cheryl sent the kids
into the spring sunshine so she could sit on the porch and call the various and sundry
repairmen and make appointments. Nico decided to stake out a very inconvenient spot on a
slope in the direct path of where the lawn tractor is stored and the rest of the yard to
create a "garden." His methodology was to take a mini-shovel and dig great pits in what
used to be lawn, take the forbidden garden hose and make rivers of mud, and then plant
rocks in the hopes that they would grow to boulders. Mom, who was furiously working the
phone on the porch, occasionally called out admonitions while she was on hold with
customer service: "Hey! I said no garden hose. Fill your beach pail from the tap and
carry the water over, but don't run the hose where I'm trying to start grass. And hey, I
told you not to dig there. You're going to make the lawn tractor tip over in the ruts."
Nico, having stripped himself to his bare foreskin, blithely ignored his mother, knowing
she was safely attached to her pad of paper at the porch. Occasionally the two children
ran up while Cheryl was trying to describe the intricacies of certain repair problems and
shouted out their interpretations of whatever games they were playing.

"I'm on the telephone. Please don't interrupt me. That's rude," Mom said a dozen times.
Two-year-old Léo, who had been rolling in the Nico-made rivers of mud, finally walked up
to her mother and began pulling on her pants leg, unwilling to speak aloud and be "rude."
"Excuse me," Cheryl said to the cable guy, who was collecting a telephonic dossier.
"What's the problem, my love?"
"I have mud in my butt," Leo announced clearly and concisely.

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