Poor pigeonholed Champagne. Always an apéritif, never a main course. And so it was decided that Chef Warren Geraghty and his team of South Granville’s West restaurant would take the opportunity to defend the bubbly wine’s reputation by flaunting its flexibility at the November 18th exclusive Visa Infinite Dinner soirée.
Delightfully led by Geneviève Boisvert, Chef de Marques for the Champagnes & Wines of Moët Hennessy portfolio in Canada, this all-Veuve Clicquot dinner saw West transform its dining room into one elongated table of 50 special guests. The main objective? To halt the stigma surrounding France’s most popular (and expensive) effervescent beverage as being served strictly for celebratory purposes.
For those unfamiliar with the story of the house of Veuve (which translated from the French means widow), when Francois Clicquot passed away in 1805, he left complete control of the company to his wife of seven years, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, whose entrepreneurial savoir-faire helped position the Champagne brand as one of the best in its class.
Guests breezed through the flight, sampling Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin’s Yellow Label Brut, their colourful Rosé, the 2002 vintage, as well as their Demi-Sec Champagne, all escorted by a dramatic showcase of dishes lifted straight from the pages of Chef Warren Geraghty’s recently penned West: The Cookbook, the courses elegantly rolled out one after the other with panache, the only way the team at West knows how.
We began with an amuse bouche, which was a clever take on a savoury cannoli, with thinly sliced beets forming a shell around a creamy whipped goat cheese filling. Another highlight of the tasting menu included a smoky tomato gazpacho with tender saffron-scented couscous surrounding a buttery Dungeness crab presented in all its tower-shaped glory, and the quail tortellini atop a delicate puree of white onion, with succulent quail breast and a tangy celeriac rémoulade with hazelnut vinaigrette accompanied the light, fruity nose and fine mousse of the Rosé.
The execution and elegance of the evening added to the excitement of getting to sip exotic bubbles all night long, without ever having to switch your flute for humdrum reds or flat whites. And to everyone’s amazement, the Champagnes went beautifully with dinner… although, how could they not? It is Veuve Clicquot we’re talking about, after all!
