Chef Naomi Pomeroy was born and raised in Oregon and has been featured in Gourmet and Elle Magazine.  Bon Appetit named her one of the top six new generation female chefs in September 2008 and Food & Wine Magazine recognized her as one of the 10 Best New Chefs in America for 2009.  She was a finalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef Pacific Northwest in 2010, 2012, and 2013 before winning the prestigious award in 2014.

Meals are served around two communal tables with a view of the kitchen that shares the room.

Our meal began with an amuse bouche of kennebec potato chip with uni, yuzu aioili, hard boiled quail egg, and chive.  It was a well balanced combination of flavors and textures.

Spring Tartine with black olive focaccia, sliced Japanese turnip, snap peas, roasted golden beets, topped with whipped Briar Rose chevre and a fennel pollen vinaigrette.

Dashi infused egg custard with fava beans, smoked trout roe, chervil blossoms, and meyer lemon oil.  This was an amazing riff on Japanese chawan mushi and really good!

Potato Gnocchi with morels, celtuce leaves, green garlic confit, caciocavallo cheese, and parsley oil with a sauce made from potato skins, dried mushrooms, butter, and creme fraiche.  The morels were the best I have ever tasted.

Lan-Roc Farms pork ribeye cap, brown butter endive, roasted spring onion, rhubarb and pickled mustard seed confiture, and demi glace with balsamic and rhubarb extract.  The slight tartness of the rhubarb was the perfect counterpoint to the richness of the pork.

Jerseykaas Cheese, country ham biscuit, pickled green strawberries, pea puree, Side Yard Farms pea shoots.

Toasted white chocolate and vanilla bean pave, honeoye strawberries, matcha-sorrel sorbet, honey-black pepper tuile.  These strawberries were simply otherworldly, intensely flavored and sweet.  The matcha-sorrel sorbet sounds strange, but it worked beautifully.  The herbaceous sorrel blended well with the matcha.

Lastly, a rum raisin macaron.  A tasty end to an exceptional meal.

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Our meal was served “2 by 2” meaning the guys were served one dish and the gals another.  We shared our dishes thereby doubling the number of dishes we could taste.  I cannot imagine a more perfect dining experience!

The Food

Fluke Tartar Coronet

“Ritz Crackers”

Chilled Green Tomato Soup with Brokaw Avocado Mousse.

Chilled Brandywine Tomato Soup with Mint Infused Yogurt

“Oysters and Pearls”, “Sabayon” of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar

Royal Kaluga Caviar, Maine Lobster, Young Ginger “Bavarois” and Summer Melons

Wild Sea Trout “Terrine”, Horseradish Creme Fraiche, Fines Herbs

San Francisco Bay Whiting, Sarson’s Malt Vinegar and Onion Blossoms

Hen Egg Custard with Ragout of Perigord Truffles

Soft Scrambled Rhode Island Red Hen Egg, Toasted Brioche Soldiers, and Preserved Australian Black Winter Truffle

Sauteed Hudson Valley Moulard Duck Foie Gras, K&J Orchards Plums, Slow Roasted Garden Beets, and Amaranth.

Hudson Valley Moulard Duck Foie Gras “Terrine”, K&J Orchard Nectarines, Toasted Pearson Farms Pecans and Kendall Farms Creme Fraiche (missing photo for this dish)

“Rouelle” of Dover Sole, French Green Lentil “Ragout”, Caramelized Onions, Watercress Leaves, and Georgia Candy Roasted Squash “Veloute”

Big Island Abalone “Poelee”, Glazed Nantes Carrots, Young Coconut Puree, and Pea Shoots

“Bread and Butter”,  Geechie Boy Mill Cornbread and Diane St. Clair’s Animal Farm Butter

“Bread and Butter”, Bitter Cocoa Laminated Brioche and Diane St. Clair’s Animal Farm Butter

Wolfe Ranch White Quail “Roti a la Broche”, Toasted Barley, Matsutake Mushroom, Garden Turnips, Sunflower Sprouts, and Mushroom “Jus Gras”

Liberty Farms Pekin Duck, Yukon Gold Potato “Rosti”, Cherry Belle Radishes, Watercress Leaves, and Black Winter Truffle “Vichyssoise”

Charcoal Grilled Snake River Farms “Calotte de Boeuf”, Toasted Oat “Panade”, Compressed Sour Apples, Briased New Crop Potatoes, Arrowleaf Spinach, and Black Walnut Jus

Herb Roasted Elysian Fields Farm Lamb, Marinated Sun Gold Tomatoes, Garden Eggplant, Charred Corn Puree, Wild Arugula, and Red Wine Olive Jus

Andante Dairy “Acapella”, Toasted Piedmont Hazelnuts, Youtville Figs, Fig Leaf “Gelee”, and Aged Balsamic Vinegar

“Gougere” with Andante Dairy “Etude” and Australian Black Winter Truffle “Fondue”

Peaches and Curried Cream, Caramelized Popcorn and Sweet Corn Ice Cream

Strawberry “Tarte”, Sun Gold Tomatoes, Romanoff Cream, and Vanilla Ice Cream.

“Gateau Marjolaine” Presented Tableside

“Gateau Marjolaine”, Hazelnut “Dacquoise”, Chocolate Ganache, Praline Buttercream, Ovaltine Ice Cream

“Gateau Marjolaine”, Hazelnut “Dacquoise”, Chocolate Ganache, Praline Buttercream, Rice Ice Cream

“Coffee and Doughnuts”, Coffee Semifreddo

“Coffee and Doughnuts”, Doughnuts

Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts

Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts

Dark Chocolate Bars

Macarons

Selection of Chocolates

The Wines

Dom Perignon, Epernay 2006

Emmerich Knoll, Gruner Veltliner, “Kreutles”, Federspiel, Wachau 2015

Billaud-Simon, “Vaillons” Premier Cru, Chablis 2014

Comtes Lafon, “Santenots du Milieu”, Volnay, Premier Cru 2010

The Kitchen

We were fortunate to be given a tour of the new $10M kitchen!

The Wine Cellar

Tyson leads us on a tour of the extensive wine cellar, including the wines recovered from the infamous heist!

The Board Room

The renovation includes a new private dining room.

Chef Keller

Chef Keller with Kent and DJ.

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Once you arrive, you are seated at a table in the front of Jaleo, Jose Andres larger restaurant inside the Cosmopolitan Resort.  As you wait for the rest of the diners to arrive (é only seats 9 guests), centerpiece arrangements of black branches with flowers are placed into the middle of the table.

After the last guests arrived, you are informed that these branches are, in fact, the first bite of the evening!  The branches are a rice cracker of sorts with edible flowers!  After tasking the first dish, the 9 diners are escorted to a private room in the rear of Jaleo.

Your meal is prepared in the adjoining kitchen and plated in front of you by a staff of 6 chefs assisted by 2 additional staff who attend to beverages and plate changes.  Molecular gastronomy heavily influences their riffs on traditional Spanish and Catalan dishes.  For the next two plus hours, I was treated to no less than 22 dishes!  But, to start is a warm towel wrapped around a bouquet garni of herbs served up in a ceramic hand that is molded from Chef Jose’s own hand as a personal welcome.  The atmosphere is casual and the chefs are open to any questions throughout the meal.  We were told the menu changes quarterly.

Sangria

An edible sangria granite with liquid nitrogen frozen pearls of sour cherry, compressed watermelon, and mint.  It was both delicious and a refreshing start to the journey.

Beet Rose

A rose of beet and manchego cheese on a thin walnut raisin wafer dusted with beet powder.

Stone

A “stone” of idiazabal cheese half coated in a black glaze of jamon iberico fat and rosemary oil to resemble the black river rocks on which it is served.  They warned us not to eat the all black ones…

Spanish Pizza Margarita

Individual “pizzas” made of a crispy cheese round topped with dabs of creamy San Simon cheese, freeze dried tomato, and micro basil.

Wonder Bread

Slices of truffle and strawberry with fois gras between two slices of apple meringue “bread”, a decadent play on a PB&J.

Pan Con Tomate

Air bread filled with tomato spuma and topped with a slice of jamon iberico. a liberal interpretation of the tomato bread of the Catalan tapas bars.

Chupito

Literally a “shot” in Spanish, this version is a spherification of cava, a tiny cube of pear, and a mint leaf.  A generous bubble that bursts in your mouth to offer a refreshing splash of flavor.

Uni & Lardo

Iberico lardo fried like a mini chicharron and paired with fresh uni.  It is at once crunchy and luxurious.

Esparragos Escabeche

Asparagus slices with Sasanian Royal Oseitra Caviar, liquid nitrogen frozen egg yolk, surrounded with escabeche air.

Txangurro a la Donostiarra

Dungeness crab with spanish soffrita, crab broth, and toasted panko flakes.  As a lover of dungeness crab, this was a highlight of the meal!

Live Scallop

Scallop carpaccio with truffle sauce and topped with truffle shavings.

Foie Royale

Fois gras blended with burbot and served with nectarine slices and chicken jus.

Platija

Fluke over a chicken and pork picadillo.

Fricando

A traditional Catalan steak dish, this was made from slices of New Zealand wagyu ribeye that was paraded before the diners before plating.

The dish traditionally pairs with mushroom and ours included chanterelles.

Empanada

Cotton candy stuffed with fois gras and corn nuts!

Miel y Mato

Ricotta, honey gelee, brioche, and cheese snow.

Intxaursaltsa

Walnut cream, fresh cherry, walnut praline, liquid nitrogen frozen strawberry and cream, walnut milk shell.

Flan

Towers of flan with bitter caramel, orange syrup, and spanish snow.

Almond Tart and Cherry Bomb

The almond tart was intensely almond flavored and creamy.  To eat the cherry bomb, you placed it into your mount and pulled the fuse out.  It burst forth with a cherry liquid that was wonderful!

Assorted Treats

A frozen orange nougat, saffron chocolate (wow, that was good!), and a gin and tonic marshmallow.

After 8

The final dish was an interpretation of an After Eight mint.  A bouquet of mint with dark chocolate leaves interspersed.  A pair of tweezers was provided to harvest the chocolate leaves to be eaten with a mint leaf.  A refreshing close to an unbelievable meal!

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Chef Lon first opened Cho Lon in Denver in 2010, followed by Cho 77 in 2015, and now Concourse Restaurant Moderne in 2017.  Cho 77’s General Manager, Alan Berger, made us feel right at home immediately and his recommended dishes were spot on.

French Onion Soup Dumplings

One of the most surprising and delicious dishes was a riff on the Chinese xialongbao, or soup dumplings.  While the traditional versions are filled with pork aspic that liquifies as the dumplings are steamed, these are filled with a rich french onion soup right down to the gruyere cheese!  The results are memorable.

Crunchy Tofu Balls

Crispy outside, creamy inside, and served with a tangy pineapple mustard, these were a savory balance of tastes and textures.

Bao Mi Buns

This mashup blends the pork (pork belly in this case) with the pickled carrot, cucumber, and cilantro of a Vietnamese Bahn Mi with the sweet dough of a Chinese pork bun.

Ginger Fried Rice

Delicate blending of broken rice, shrimp, scallops, Thai basil, cucumbers, and topped with a sunny side up egg, this dish pushed my comfort food button.

We had a memorable meal at Cho 77.  I’m looking forward to trying Cho Lon on our next visit to Denver!

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In 2011, Josep Ma Roderiguez Guerola won the prestigious Coupe Du Monde de la Patisserie” competition, a first for Spain.  The following year, he opened La Pastisseria Barcelona.

On offer were a variety of pastries:

and gorgeous cakes.

Of course, we had to sample a wide selection, and they were all exceptional!

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It all started in 1903 when confectioner Antoine Rumplemayer founded Angelina, named for his daughter-in-law.

We ordered breakfast which included an omelet, a selection of pastries, and the famous hot chocolate.  The pastries included raisin snails with pastry cream, chocolate croissants, and plain croissants, all very good!

Their famous hot chocolate is a blend of three carefully chosen African cocoas from Niger, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast.  We shared a small pitcher of the incredibly thick, rich concoction that lived up to all the hype.

It was so good we went back twice more just for the hot chocolate!  In the afternoons they sell it from a cart in front of the restaurant so you can get a cup to go.  They are known for their signature Mont-Blanc that combines meringue, light whipped cream, and chestnut paste spaghetti.  We purchased one for a late night snack.  It was not one of my favorites, but everything else we had was exceptional.

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This was our first visit to Spain.  We rearranged our travel plans to be able to meet up with good friend and fellow foodie, Nelson Wang.  His CEO Lifestyle Blog is enormously popular.  Check it out at www.ceolifestyle.io

Nelson has been to Barcelona multiple times and his recommendations framed our 8 day visit, starting with La Boqueria.

The variety of seafood, meats, and produce is staggering!  Small dishes of fresh fruit and juice are available and extremely reasonably priced.

And, of course, there is the famous Jamon Iberico!

This sure sounded good but I didn’t try it!

A few seats opened up at Bar Ramblero in the market so we sampled the owner’s special oxtail stew:

And some incredible langostine:

If you are a foodie, a visit to La Boqueria in Barcelona is a must!

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