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It's easy to dismiss Mother's Day as a "Hallmark Holiday," an event created by florists, restaurateurs, chocolatiers and greeting card companies to sell more products. But the roots are far deeper than modern American commercialism.
The ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians all had holidays celebrating goddesses of fertility, and by extension, motherhood. The British and Irish celebrate Mothering Sunday, which started out as a day when people returned to their "mother church" for a service to be held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Because employers released young apprentices and women in servitude to "go a-mothering" for this service, it was often the only time whole families could be reunited. Over centuries the holiday became secularized, and the mother one visited became a woman rather than a church.
The U.S. holiday is loosely based the British version, but was heavily influenced by the efforts of three social activists. Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, became so distraught by what she saw during the American Civil War that she wrote a Mother's Day Proclamation calling for peace and disarmament. ("We women of one country Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs," went one small segment.)
Howe was partly inspired by Ann Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker and Sunday School teacher who tried to improve health conditions in 1858 through what she called Mother's Work Days. Jarvis organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides and in 1868 held a "Mother's Friendship Day" to reunite families and neighbors that had been divided between the Union and Confederate sides during the war.
Howe tried unsuccessfully in 1870 to get formal recognition of her Mother's Day for Peace. When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter Anna took up a crusade to found a memorial day for women in remembrance of her mother and in honor of peace. The first one was celebrated in West Virginia in 1908. Four years later, 45 states had adopted the notion and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother's Day a national holiday.
A scant nine years later, the holiday had become so commercialized that Anna Jarvis turned wholeheartedly against it and spent the rest of her life trying to disassociate her family from it. After Christmas, Mother's Day is the biggest gift-giving day of the year. More people use long-distance and buy carnations on Mother's Day than on any other day. And restaurants do a tremendous trade because many of the Moms who normally cook family meals are given "the day off." Chez Sophie is a restaurant that will benefit greatly from these traditions. We're heavily booked for brunch, and we plan to do a healthy dinner trade as well.
During all this Sunday, the mother who owns half of Chez Sophie will be thanking her two small children for the chance to be a mother and thanking Howe and two generations of Jarvis women for what they meant for the holiday to be: a celebration of maternal love, caring and peace.
Chez Sophie's Mother's Day Feast
Mother's Day is Sunday, and we are ready to serve a large but comfortably paced influx of families at our "chef's station" buffet.
Paul is planning a carving station with veal breast stuffed with Manchego, Serrano ham and arugula; fried game hen with citrus five-spice glaze and baked Virginia ham with fresh cherry sauce.
Another station will feature roasted root vegetables, basmati rice, cold fingerling potato salad with herbs and vinaigrette, chilled asparagus, celeriac salad, wild rice pilaf, mushrooms à la Grecque, haricots verts and green salad.
There will also be a made-to-order omelette station, a waffle station, a seafood/raw bar and a dessert table piled with cakes and tarts and other sweets.
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 take our last table at 3 p.m.
As of this writing, we had three tables left, available at 2:30 or 3 p.m. We are keeping a waiting list in case we have last minute cancellations.
We're also serving breakfast Sunday from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and dinner beginning at 5:30 p.m. with our normal à la carte menu.
Chef Paul is in a confit kind of mood this week. He's made a rabbit confit that he describes as "ecstatic" with rabbit from Wannabea Farm, and he's making tuna confit as an appetizer. (Confit is a method of preserving food and enhancing its flavor by immersing it in a substance. With meats, the substance is usually rendered fat and salt.)
Paul's also doing a salt-cured foie gras torchon that is being frozen and shaved onto hot puff pastry. By the time it hits the plate it will be warm and fabulous. He hopes to have it on the menu either sometime late in the weekend or early next week.
We'll also be searing fresh tuna and serving it with a rhubarb salad as an entree.
We have in American Wagyu beef short ribs which Paul is braising at a low temperature for 24 hours in red wine, deep frying and serving with sea salt and a reduction of the braising liquid. The braise-then-fry method gives the beef an amazing texture, highlighting the contrast between the inside and the outside of the meat.
Sometime next week, we'll be getting Wagyu beef tri-tips. Wagyu is the breed that is used to make the famous and unbelievably expensive Kobe beef. The extensively marbled beef is raised according to strict Japanese traditions that include daily massages and a diet including sake and beer. A lot of restaurants and retailers refer to American Wagyu as Kobe, but technically, it can't be Kobe beef unless it's from Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The American Kobe-style beef is taken from domestically-raised Wagyu crossbred with Angus cattle. Farms in America and Britain have attempted to replicate the Kobe traditions, providing their Wagyu herds beer and massages.
We've made a couple of outstanding ice creams this week. One is made with Divinitea organic pomegranate cherry tea and lavender tea. We're serving it with candied cherries. The other is an espresso ice cream served with toffee peanuts.
The Pink Plate Special this week will be grilled hangar steak marinated in red wine served with potatoes in parsley butter and braised leeks in vinaigrette.
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.
We will be having a very special treat during brunch on Saturday, May 10. A quartet from the Racing City Chorus called JumPP will perform a short set at noon in our dining room to promote the annual a capella show of the Racing City Chorus, Saturday, May 17, at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Saratoga Springs High School Auditorium. The two concerts will feature 50 male voices and 50 female voices including members of the Capitaland Chorus. The Racing City Chorus got its start 52 years ago and last month became the 2008 Mountain Division Champions.
Chez Sophie is a sponsor of the event partly because we think barbershop is loads of fun, and partly because one of our regulars, Seth Rosner, is performing with the group. For more information on the concerts and to order tickets online, visit http://www.racingcitychorus.org
Softshell Season
Late Thursday, Paul got a live shipment of two dozen softshell crabs (12 entree portions). We'll be serving them until they sell out. Our next chance for a shipment is next Thursday, so if you want softshells, ask us to set aside a couple for you when you make your reservations. The spring softshell harvest started on the lower Atlantic coast in early April and has moved up the coast very rapidly as the weather this spring has been quite warm. Fisherman catch the crabs just after they shed their shells and they must be shipped live and eaten before the shell hardens again. Once the crab is trimmed for cooking, the entire thing is edible.
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/.
We can also mail-order the CD's for an additional $4 shipping and handling. (Cole is available to play special events on piano or electric keyboard both at Chez Sophie and other venues, if you like his style.
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 3:00 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.
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
offered Monday, May 12, Tuesday, May 13, Wednesday, May 14, and Thursday, May 15
$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:
grilled hangar steak marinated in red wine served with potatoes in parsley butter and braised leeks in vinaigrette
Our Nanny has been sick this week, which has led Cheryl to serious musings on the strains and joys of Motherhood. The joys have been extra time with the kids, when after coming in to the restaurant to check to make sure things are moving along, she has been able to escape with them to the park for what Nico calls "bonus days." We've picnicked, netted minnows in a stream, played in various playgrounds and spent time each day practicing batting with a fat plastic bat and wiffle balls. (By the way, has anyone ever heard of a child who writes and eats with his right hand consistently batting lefty? Nico's developed such a natural left-handed stance that Cheryl, who is spatially dyslexic, didn't even notice until some other children joined the game and they seemed to her to ALL be batting lefty. Maybe he's just copying what his mother looks like when she stands in front of him to demonstrate a batting stance, not realizing that the image should be reversed. Cheryl's curious to see if he has more power batting righty, but doesn't want to do anything to interfere with his natural selection of handedness.)
The strains have been trying to figure out how to keep the children in check without consistent supervision during those scant moments that Cheryl is trying to steer her portion of the restaurant duties with one finger on the wheel. Nico, at five, is fairly good at entertaining himself, except for the new habit of singing made-up rhyming songs to himself during all his conscious hours. These are so unbearably charming that Mom has been driven to the video camera several times, but they are a little inconvenient when she's trying to hide the children in a corner of the dining room while dealing with customers. The children have their own room behind the restaurant kitchen, but with Nanny out sick, we can't leave them in there if we need to be in the kitchen or out front with customers.)
Léo is a true challenge, constantly battling for attention and quite two-years-old in her whims. Wednesday, Paul was trying to give Cheryl 10 minutes to make phone calls without the hallelujah chorus at her ankles, so he took the kids into the nursery, and handed them some crayons and papers. Léo protested that she wanted markers instead. Since she had gotten hold of some allegedly washable markers on Sunday on his watch and decorated herself from eyebrows to toenails, Paul declined. She started to whine insistently, and Paul said: "Look. We don't have any markers here. You've got a crayon right in your hand."
Léo looked at the crayon, tossed it across the room and said; "No, I don't."
When we were home together, she begged to go "home," meaning the restaurant. So we got in the car and came to the restaurant, but she emphatically did not want to go in. The fill-in babysitter, the children's former Nanny, came over Thursday at 3 p.m. to watch the kids so Cheryl could cook at a charity event in Albany for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and kept them at the park and then the library until 8 p.m. Once Léo got back to the restaurant, she immediately became frantic to leave. So we started to round up the kids to go home, and Léo begged to play in the courtyard.
Nico, meanwhile, found a rock in the courtyard and declared: "This is a dinosaur rock. This rock makes all the dinosaurs come back to life in this age."
Paul asked him how the dinosaurs get out of the rock.
"It's an egg," Nico explained. "Seventy-two species of dinosaurs come out of it. You won't believe it."
Léo immediately went and sat on the rock.
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 is owned today by Sophie and Joseph's son, Paul Parker, and his wife, Cheryl Clark. It moved to The Saratoga at 534 Broadway in Saratoga Springs in June 2006.
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Each month, Nico draws a name at random from our database of customers and we send them a $50 gift certificate to Chez Sophie. If you would like to be added to this promotions database, which is owned and used exclusively 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 email for a free glass of bubbles or dessert on their birthdays or anniversaries. (You only need to enter once to be eligible every month.) If you think you are on the list but have not received gift certificates on your special holidays, please contact us with an updated email address. We find that many of the email addresses we have collected over the past few years are no longer valid.
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