Having a cosy Sunday afternoon, staying out of the rain and warm by the fire.  JC Bach Symphonies (all of them one after the other) are playing on the stereo, and duck is on tonight's menu.  Kaly is stuffing the breast with garlic, crushed fennel seeds, fresh chopped rosemary, grated Parmesan, olive oil, salt and Tellicherry pepper.  Later, it will be pan seared and finished in the oven.  She will then confit the legs, thighs and wings for a future winter supper.  I will produce a stock from the carcass and a duck liver pâté with cognac for which I would be willing to share recipe (the recipe and the cognac for the matter.)  We have a great friend from New York showing up for dinner and a night stay.  We are completely out of Pinot Noir and I am not going to the store in the rain.  I guess it is time for another Pinot gathering trip to Santa Barbara Wine Country.   Cabernets are a bit too powerful.  I have rummaged through the wine pile and found a bottle of Tesoro 2006, mostly Merlot with some Cabernet from the Esterhazy Estate in Eisenstadt, Austria.  I have been saving it for a special occasion, so I guess this is it.  I should change the Symphonies on the stereo to Haydn.  I will when I open the bottle.

Glyndebourne, East Sussex, England

Glyndebourne is the ultimate opera theme park. You are in beautiful East Sussex, 50 miles south of London, in countryside with fields of sheep, herds of deer, rolling downs and the occasional fox. Glyndebourne has superb productions in wonderful acoustics, dining at the long interval either in one of the restaurants or at a meadow picnic, and people- watching the fascinating, British opera goers, all right out of Central Casting. Weather permitting (which it did for us), the effect is a life experience. Here is our group of Philharmonic folks in one of our better pictures taken by our driver Graham, who is the best, by the way.

The vocal discovery of this trip to Glyndebourne – the Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee. His Macduff moment in Verdi’s Macbeth was stunning. He has a big voice and a passionate presence on stage. I missed him at the Bowl in Dudamel’s Carmen first of August. Reports from that performance echo my Glyndebourne experience. Check him out and keep him on the radar.

Look for and drink Nutbourne Wine while you are in Sussex.

Cooking class at La Villa des Chefs

While in Aix, our group took a cooking class at La Villa des Chefs given by one star Michelin chef René Berger. It was a blast.


Among other wonderful ingredients, we used Limousin beef. This is an animal native to France from around the Limoges region. The breed is 20,000 years old and is portrayed in a number of prehistoric cave paintings. We have eaten it in Paris at Le Severo, the place for steak frites. We pan seared filets at our cooking class. The flavor was amazing because the filet was marbled with some fat, unlike the normally tender but blah tasting filets we get here. Look at the marbling on one of pieces before we put it on heat. Beautiful to behold!

We washed it down with some wonderful local red wine. Domaine Richeaume is a red produced just outside Aix, a very tasty blend of Cabaret Sauvigon and Syrah – rich, intense and deeply fun. The beef and wine you can find the United States if you put in an enormous effort. It is easier to go to Aix. Please enjoy.