Chef's Table

This weekend Tyler and Cheryl treated us to dinner at the Chef's Table, for watching over their boys two weeks ago. (Which we loved doing, and will do again, especially if we're paid this way. :)) Those of you unfamiliar with Chef's Table, it's the only 4-Star Restaurant in Utah County, and the best food (besides home cooking) you're likely to find in Utah. If you haven't gone, go. It is completely worth it.

BEST. MEAL. EVER.

When you walk in no less than 3 people with better manners and vocabulary than you treat you like royalty, they lead you to your table and place your napkin on your lap. You're then given a light sorbet to cleanse your palate, it might be viewed as overkill, but the food is so good, you want to taste as much of it as you can.

Tyler and Cheryl were very grateful and ordered 3 appetizers, (Tracie's parents were there as well, as they watched the boys also (and longer than we did)). We had 2 orders of their coconut shrimp, the biggest and meatiest shrimp I've ever eaten, as well as most delicious (and I've eaten a LOT of shrimp.) We also had the crab cakes, and, though I haven't had that many crab cakes to compare it to, I am fairly certain that these were some of the best I would ever have. They were flaky and flavorful, everything there is rich, but never too rich. Just right.

Tracie and I each had a salad, and not just lettuce smothered in cheap ranch. I said 4 star restaurant. The salads came with tomatoes, cucumbers (BIG cucumbers) and were divine in and of themselves. Tracie had the Chicken stuffed with prosciutto (is that how you spell it? proshooto. prashewtoe? Italian bacon that's not smoked.) with Au Gratin potatoes and summer vegetables. She wouldn't let me eat much of it, for obvious reasons, but what I can say is it was like some beautiful symphony of flavor, the chicken was moist, the prosciutto tender, all the flavors came together in a way that was better than the sum of the parts. Mmm mmm good.

I elected to have the Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin with Sauce Madeira. I have congratulated myself ever since. Actually, I stopped reading after "Bacon" and just ordered that. I expected to get little medallions of flavor wrapped in bacon, but I got quite a large filet draped in bacon. It was superb. I ordered it medium, which some family members may criticize me for, but that's how I like it, and it was pink and red and oh so tender, right now I am salivating so much thinking about it that Pavlov has called me several times for some kind of study he's doing. My largest and only regret is that it was so good I ate it all up and couldn't have it again the next day. (Something Tracie shrewdly did with her Chicken).

Now, dessert. Tracie had a Chocolate Napoleon, which I am convinced she's going to leave me for once she gets a second. To me, it looked like a slice of a multi-layered German Chocolate cake. To Tracie, it looked like the new love of her life. I had the Chocolate Rasperry Cake, with a large layer of rich mousse. The dessert tasted like the inside of a humongous dark chocolate raspberry truffle. But better. It was so exquisite I think it may have ruined other desserts for me. I'll have to eat more (and soon) to make sure.

If that wasn't the best meal ever, dessert cemented it. But besides the excellent food, I'd also like to make special mention of going to eat with Tracie's parents and older brother and his wife. We really enjoyed going out with them, and it was wonderful to go to such a nice setting and be treated as "adults" among the "adults." Not that they treat us like kids, but from someone who's spent more time at the "kids table" it was nice to be at the Chef's table as an ''adult." Everyone should do it at least once.

The only real question now is when will we go back.