The UK based Restaurant, Hotel and Wine Review
The UK based Restaurant, Hotel and Wine Review
Some of my favourite hotels in the world are Four Seasons Hotels. Just because they are all called by the same name - linked as a rule to a great city like Milan, or Tokyo, or London, or Philadelphia - does not mean, like many other hotel chains, that if you were led in blindfold then released you could be anywhere on this planet. Each Four Seasons Hotel has its own personality and ambience, characterized as much by the different styles of the management and staff, and increasingly, by the charisma of the head chef!
The one in Milan was subtly converted from a medieval monastery. The London hotel is perhaps undistinguished from the outside, but the new bar and dining room are really exciting, and with chefs like Eric Deblonde and Shaun Watling, the inner man was never so well served. In Tokyo, the Four Seasons is in the historic Chinzan-so gardens with its ancient pagoda and shrines, and in Istanbul they used a former Turkish gaol-house! In their wildest dreams the original inmates could not have guessed at the luxury of their cells in this extraordinary reincarnation!
Perhaps it's easier to associate a famous name with a famous hotel, like the Ritz in Paris or Claridge's in London, but when I set out for Philadelphia last month, I was certain that I'd be in for a treat when I checked into the Four Seasons.
It's located on one of Philadelphia's greatest squares, dominated by the Swann Fountain of the Three Rivers. The sense of space of this grand metropolitan setting is continued within, throughout the foyers, lobbies and public rooms, which are luxuriously furnished with the finest fabrics and the choicest native woods. You sweep up to a covered entrance way, and from the moment your car door is opened you are wrapped in a cocoon of excellence, insulating you from the cares and pressures of the outside world.
My room was generous in size, with such a large bed that two of you could easily get lost in it, which would be a shame. After exploring all the features of the room, (like finding that the TV wasn't working and getting it replaced in seconds!) I went down to the Swann Lounge for tea. Being English, and therefore feeling rather superior about tea, the one meal that we Brits can really be confident about, I was prepared to be critical. Everything was done by the book. The tea properly made in the pot, poured out after a decent interval for brewing, with the milk offered and added afterwards. Delicate sandwiches looked good, but I had lunched at Le Bec-Fin, so did not require much sustenance. I couldn't resist a equally delicate and delicious pastry... excellent, just like home, right down to the Devonshire clotted cream.
Time to work up an appetite for dinner. Into the health spa and a plunge into the pool, followed by a half hour being pummelled to death in the hottest and most powerful jacuzzi I've ever experienced. I felt a new man, ready for another great gastronomic challenge.
Fine dining at the Four Seasons is the capable hands of Executive Chef Jean-Marie Lacroix, a native of Epinal in France. It was the Saturday night of the Book and the Cook Festival, and we had not booked into the Fountain restaurant, but a table was found for us in the adjacent Swann Cafe which has a an impressive Brasserie Menu.
The Fountain restaurant is evidently one of the best hotel restaurants in the USA. I looked enviously at chef Martin Hamann's menu on my way in: delicacies such as a wild mushroom sandwich with squab breast on toasted brioche with a sage game jus ($16), or American foie gras and rabbit rillette terrine with stone fruit compote ($18.50) followed by pan fried aged sirloin with potato and beef osso buco hash ($39) all sounded too good to miss.
As if to make up for my disappointment at not getting a table in the Fountain, the chef sent out a very pretty amuse bouche of a morsel of fish on a white bean purée dressed with lobster jus. There were just three of us, and we ordered the "Plateau" of fruits de mer ($58 for two) with an extra order of Malpeque Oysters. This was certainly the best double decker serving of fresh seafood I've had outside France. And inside it, in many instances! The oysters were awesome, (a word I tried not to pick up from my Drexel University Culinary Arts students!), and the moules magnificent. It was topped off with succulent lobster and sweet clams.
I almost wished that I hadn't been pressed into continuing with the Alsace plate, a terrific selection of hot smoked meats of the porcine variety with various sausages and a sweet and sour kraut that was a perfect foil. I was defeated, but not until I had made considerable inroads. This was a classic brasserie dish. The glass of German riesling that was included in the price of the dish ($27) was probably not the best choice, but a very much better Alsacian substitute was whistled up in a trice by the very amiable and informative sommelier from the main restaurant.
Fran McFadden, the chef-professor of culinary arts at Drexel University enjoyed the Osso Buco with a pot-au-feu of root vegetables ($22). I tried his veal, it was lip-coatingly slippery, just as it should be when the marrow has been properly extracted from the bone. He washed it down with some of that remarkable cloudy Trappist beer Chimay Première; he's got a bit of a thing going for naturally fermented Belgian beer - it went very well with the mussels in the first course. Donna Maguire, one of Fran's Drexel University colleagues, had the rabbit with mustard sauce ($19.50), which really tasted of rabbit - I was pleasantly surprised to see such an animal on the menu. Lamb is also featured, a meat largely neglected by most Americans until fairly recently.
I was as impressed by the cooking as by the variety of different meats and fish on this brasserie menu. We could have had duck with five spices - fusion cuisine is all the rage here - Salmon Pavé or steak tartare, but there are typical brasserie favourites like steak and chips or moules frites ($16.50).
We somehow made room for a selection of desserts, made by Anthony Patafio and his brigade and elegantly served on handsome silver grey plates. A warm cake timbale was soft and delicious, with an aroma of cinnamon wafting up (five spices again). Caramelised pineapple I can always die for, this one came with pistachio ice cream - sublime!
I suppose the food at the Fountain is even better, but after our very fine dinner, we were happy to propose that if the Fountain is Philadelphia's top table (Gourmet Magazine) then the Brasserie menu should qualify the Swann Café as best kid brother!
I can't finish my impressions of the Philadelphia Four Seasons without a mention of breakfast. It's served with all the aplomb and dignity of a country house in Edwardian England. Only lacking were a few guests in full riding habit or shooting plus fours stoking up for a day in the saddle or out on the grouse moor. It was enough to set me up for the whole day ahead.
Clifford Mould April 1999
Four Seasons Hotel, One Logan Square, Philadelphia, Pa 19103 USA
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