Interesting to see how the dishes are supposed to be plated vs. what I managed at home with my wife. As you can see, our plating improved throughout the night. I won’t repeat @PorkyBelly’s excellent summary, so here are some things to keep in mind for the “chef at home” option.
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Time. We needed about 3 hours to complete the meal between unpacking, preparing the wine, assembling and heating the dishes, and eating. And in that time, it didn’t feel like a particularly leisurely meal between the excitement of eating and preparing, but in that regard, I found it one of the most unique take-home meals we’ve ever had. Especially because you do feel a bit closer to the food than you would be if you just ate it.
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Tools needed to prepare. Covered this in my post above. We washed the same few saucepans from course to course to avoid a sink full of dishes at the end of the night. The skill needed isn’t very high, you are after all reheating rather than actually cooking, but it does help to know your way around the kitchen in terms of timing and getting everything on the plate at the right temperature. Make sure you have a rubber spatula so nothing goes to waste between transferring from the takeout containers, to the cookware, and then onto the plate.
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Wine pairing. So many ways to go, there is no right answer. We drank a Walter Scott Seven Springs Chardonnay from Oregon up through and including the duck course. The duck dish is dominated by Thai flavors and the soup, so I don’t think you need to go to a red. A white or rose that is food friendly (i.e. high acid) and low/no oak will do fine for the vast majority of this meal. The beef course is a bit more tricky. You have vanilla in the potato puree and root beer and prune in the sauces. So there’s a fair amount of sweetness. I ended up choosing a California syrah with lots of blueberry-like fruit in it. Something less austere worked here for me, could also do a more smooth Cote Rotie like Xavier Gerard. I do think you need tannin and acid, because that beef is incredibly rich.
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Verdict. Loved this meal, everything was great. There is a nice progression of dishes, especially in the transition from savory to dessert were both flavors are blended. My highlights were the duck dish (a shot of heat, great flavors) and the dessert (not too heavy, fun). We were absolutely stuffed by the end of the meal, probably due to the gaps between each course to stop and prepare.
