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Hello, everyone.

"What do you guys want me to say for you for the newsletter?" Cheryl asked Thursday
evening.

"Tell them what my face looks like right now," grimaced Chef Paul's kitchen slave, Dan
Felder, as he clipped and pulled at a huge pile of lobsters at the beginning of dinner
service. "Tell them Paul suddenly decided to make me debone eight two-pound live lobsters
on the fly. Suddenly he wants to do lobster l'Americaine."

Paul smiled evilly and said: "The real reason is, Dan is really anxious to debone
lobsters as frequently as possible, and if I come up with these ideas, he gets to do it
more often."

Strangely enough, the recipe for lobster l'Americaine was created for just such a moment.
Legend has it that it was created by an unnamed French chef (either Parisian or Breton)
who had spent time in the United States. At the last moment, he had special guests
arrive. Taking what he had on hand, live lobsters, he devised a dish that combined
lobster, fresh tomato, onions, garlic, Cognac and herbs to create a simple one-off that
became a standard of the culinary arts.

Souschef Mark D. Graham is also planning a shellfish special this weekend, but he's being
very tight-lipped about. "It will be a Brazilian-inspired dish with humongi shrimp.
That's all you're going to get out of me. It's a teaser."

We're expecting a shipment of whole French heirlooom ducks from Bella Bella Farms Friday.
"No, I don't know which breed they are sending me, probably magret or Muscovy," Paul
said. "We ordered them partly because they had them, partly because we've been talking
about whole ducks because it sounds fun, and no, we don't know what we are going to do
with them yet."
 Bella Bella Gourmet Foods represents a group of farms in Sullivan County that grows
heirloom breeds.  Both of the breeds that may arrive will be distinctly different from
the Pekin duck we use for his fantastic duck breast with coconut and tamarind dish. He
expects it to be darker and much more game-flavored.

The local stone-fruits are ripening on the trees and garde manger Brian Netzel has come
up with some brilliant ways to use them. This weekend he'll be serving a chilled roasted
plum and peach soup with vanilla yogurt. He's also smoked trout and is serving it with a
plum salad with Sunset Hill Farm greens, a peach vinaigrette and Coach Farm goat cheese
crostini brûlée.

For dessert, he's made banana sorbet and is serving it kind of like a banana split, with
warm dark chocolate ganache and toasted peanuts.

You can now order a Chez Sophie picnic box lunch to pick up in the morning and take with
you wherever you plan to spend the day. There are three options: chilled filet mignon
with a variety of condiments; roasted Cornish hen and a vegetarian 'grand plateau des
sans visages' which will be an array of salads with a balance of proteins, vegetables and
starches. Each of the dishes will be served with two sides, something with fresh,
seasonal vegetables and something like fingerling potatoes dressed in olive oil and sea
salt. You can order the boxes by telephone the night before by calling 518.583.3538 and
pick them up any time after 8 a.m. The prices will range from $17 to $21 per entree.

We are open early enough (5 p.m.) to serve dinner to people planning to attend the
Philadelphia Orchestra performances and late enough to serve people coming from the shows
at SPAC. Our normal dinner seating stops at 10 p.m. and our bar menu continues until 11
p.m., but if you need a reservation that is a little later than that, call ahead and
we'll do our best to accommodate. Tonight (Friday) conductor Charles Dutoit and guest
conductor Krzysztof Penderecki present André Watts on the piano with selections from
Beethoven and original compositions by Penderecki at 8 p.m. On Saturday there is a FREE 2
p.m. concert by the School of Orchestral Studies, with Russell Stanger conducting and
Jonathan Blumenfeld on oboe. Dutoit returns to the stage at 8 p.m. to conduct Stravinsky,
Berlioz and Chopin with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. THIS IS THE FINAL EVENING
PERFORMANCE of the Philadelphia Orchestra's 2007 summer season in Saratoga, and we will
definitely be serving late Saturday night after the concert. We already have a group of
artists coming in at 10:15 or so after the show. Please call ahead if you would like us
to save you a table as well.

There's a terrific 2:15 matinée on Sunday in the SPA Little Theatre called "Russian
Romance and Polish Passion" with headliners Kirill Gerstein and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, on
pianos; Rachel Ku, viola and Chantal Juillet, violin, doing Rachmaninov and original
music by conductor/composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

If you'd like to have brunch with us before the show, we will be serving from 7 a.m. to 2
p.m., and Jazz Pianist Cole Broderick will be playing the baby grand in our bar from
10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Our brunch specials this week will be chicken roulade with torchio pasta ($15);  smoked
salmon Benedict ($15);   sesame-encrusted tuna with stir-fried noodles ($16); and toasted
coconut waffle with poached apricot and your choice of bacon or sausage ($14). Appetizer
specials include moules marinières ($13); a salad of Sunset Hill Farm greens tossed in a
red wine vinaigrette ($7); crabcake with 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).

SPAC is still entertaining after the Philadelphia leaves.  O.A.R. (...Of A Revolution)
will be performing Sunday night; Velvet Revolver and Alice In Chains on Thursday night;
and Next Fest 2007 on Friday, starring Aly & AJ, Corbin Bleu and Drake Bell. Visit
http://www.spac.org/spac-calendar/ for details.

Our late night menu is available until 11 p.m. each night, featuring sandwiches and
salads, and more unusual "bar foods" such as escargots, pâté and excellent Chez Sophie
desserts.

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: $75 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 is on summer vacation.

Notes on Nico and Léo: Neither Nico nor Léo has ever latched onto a security blanket or a
favorite toy or a pacifier. We don't know why some kids do and some kids don't, and we
don't read any deep psychological significance into it, but we've always been grateful
for the convenience of not having to keep up with or keep clean a "sacred" item.
Psychologists have long started from the premise that these objects have something to do
with mother. Scientists estimate that 60 percent of American children have security
objects and a similar percentage of children in the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden.
Korean children have substantially fewer attachments to blankets (18%) than do American
children, but Korean-born children living in the United States display an intermediate
percentage (34%). Only 5% of rural Italian children have transitional objects, compared
to 31% of urban Romans and 62% of foreign children living in Rome. However, just 16% of
Londoners' children have a special security object.

The accepted wisdom for decades has been that mothers who had a security blanket are more
likely to produce children with security blankets. Cheryl doesn't remember having a
security blanket, but her children have a large number of cool blankets they received as
gifts that they could have latched onto if they so desired. In the 1940s, studies found
that kids who were forced to sleep away from their mother were more likely to have a
security object. By the 1950s, a studies surmised that the blankets were desirable if
children were to develop normal emotional attachments. Through the 1970s, however,
blankies were popularly deemed to be a symptom of emotional weakness and parents often
confiscated them. More recent studies have determined that blanket-attached children are
neither more or less emotionally secure than children who don't have a favorite object.

Last year, Psychology Today published a study that found no direct link between the
strength of the mother-child relationship and a child's passion for a security object,
but surmised that children who are both strongly attached to their mothers and their
blankies are calmer in anxiety-producing situations, such as being left with a baby
sitter, when they have their security object with them. That doesn't seem particularly
relevant to Nico and Léo, since neither get freaked out when Mommy goes away and neither
of them have a replacement object. Our kids don't seem overly attached to Mom, Dad or a
security object, and a psychologist who has been studying this for thirty years still
doesn't know if this means that kids who don't choose a security object are emotionally
detached or healthily independent. Like the parents of our fetishless children, they
don't know what to read into it.

Léo has, however, in the last month, started dragging around her brother's shirts and
getting hysterical if we try to take them away. It started with an electric blue and hot
pink striped turtleneck which we thought she chose from his shelf because of the colors.
For a couple of days, it went with her from the house to the car, to the restaurant and
back home again, sometimes wrapped around her head like a turban, sometimes held like a
baby doll and sometimes worn as a dress, if she could get someone to put it on for her.
When it finally fell into something wet and disgusting, we put it into the washer, and
moments later she had a green striped shirt of his that he'd been wearing all day long.
We began to surmise that this was a show of adoration for her big brother. The next
morning, she selected a huge tank top and shorts of his and insisted "On!" and "Wear!"
until we dressed her in his clothes, which were so big she could hardly walk. But our
theories were stymied when the next morning she grabbed one of her own footed pajama
suits from a pile of outgrown clothes and started wrapping it around herself. Maybe it's
less about the sanctity of the item than about wanting to choose her own clothes and
dress herself. That theory is also faulty, however, since like her brother, she much
prefers to be naked than clad. Maybe she just likes to hold the clothes.

Nico continues to work on the art of prevarication, although he doesn't show any
particular talent at it. The neighbor children were playing at our house Monday and
decided to get out a bunch of pots of finger paints. Nico, who at four is a little
younger than the neighbors, was timid about pushing his way into their project, and asked
his Mom to open a pot of paint just for him. Cheryl pulled the plastic lid off the pot of
red and admonished her son to sit down on the porch and not spill it. She went inside to
grab some more poster paper and when she came back out she found him standing over a big
splotch of red that he'd spilled onto the carpet on the porch, saying with anguish, "I'm
sorry, Mommy! I didn't mean to!"
"Never mind that," Mom said drily. "Look at your sister's head." Every one of her curls
was saturated with red paint, and it was running into the back of her dress. Léo had put
her hands in it with interest and was happily rubbing it onto everything on the porch.
Nico, still clutching the pot of red paint, said adamantly: "I didn't do it!"

The Parker family
at Chez Sophie
518.583.3538

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..

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