May 2005

Chef James Clark brings sophisticated cooking and Southern flavor to Palette in the Madison Hotel

It's hard for a restaurant, even one as attractive as Palette, to recover from an early misstep. When a restaurant opens, there's an initial reservoir of goodwill that, once depleted, seems hard to replenish.

When chef Charlie Hansji left Palette shortly after he opened it, management cited "creative differences." These creative differences manifested themselves in overwrought combinations of food, such as a lunchtime club sandwich of foie gras, ahi tuna, and portobello mushrooms, an appetizer of citrus-roasted veal sweetbreads flavored with vanilla, and a main course of rabbit, truffles, salsify, and pistachio cream.

Hansji was replaced by chef James Clark, a South Carolinian by birth who had worked in New Orleans with Jeff Tunks, now of DC Coast, TenPenh, and Ceiba, and in South Carolina with the distinguished Southern chef Louis Osteen. Clark's sophisticated Southern palate is a good match for the blond-wood-and-frosted-glass elegance of Palette's dining room.

Clark's upbringing is the main influence on his cooking, but in his hands the cooking of the Low Country is refined while losing none of its homey appeal or gutsy flavor. Quail, for example, is a standard item on Southern menus, but Clark's appetizer treatment of it--roasted with a Maytag bleu-cheese vinaigrette and caramelized fennel, strong flavors that enhance the main ingredient--raises it into the realm of sophisticated Modern American cuisine. The same is true of a main course of pancetta-wrapped rabbit served with foie gras, stone-ground grits, and heirloom carrots. It's basically rabbit with pork and grits, straight off the Southern breakfast plate but raised to a new dimension by the interplay of flavors--the saltiness of the pancetta, the sweetness of the carrots, and the richness of the foie gras.

Other successes from the appetizer menu include a cured, not-too-sweet sugar-cane-glazed breast of duck served with a spicy beancake and cilantro vinaigrette; diver scallops seared with foie-gras-stuffed morels; a smoky chicken spread with the subtle sweetness of grilled sweet-potato bread. It's hard to improve on the perfection of good crabmeat simply prepared, but Clark's entry in the local crab-cake sweepstakes--a beautifully moist cake of jumbo lump crabmeat served atop a purée of creamed corn with a roasted pepper relish--is a splendid version of the local classic.

Main courses show a similar mastery of technique and interesting combination of ingredients. Venison tenderloin, cooked medium rare as requested, was paired with a dressing of sun-dried cherries and andouille sausage, a combination of sweet-tart and spicy. A flat-iron steak is rubbed with roasted garlic and served with a galette of potatoes and green onions. Rockfish is paired with a purée of green peas, morels, and ramps. Lamb T-bone steaks from Summerfield Farm are served with a delicious cashew-and-mint pesto. One of the few disappointments on the menu, oddly enough, was a dish that has become almost a Southern icon--shrimp and grits. The grits were creamy but bland and to pair effectively with the sweet shrimp needed a more assertive sauce than the country ham-and-Madeira gravy that accompanied the dish.

Desserts are worth the calories. A warm gingerbread pudding is accented by candy-cane ice cream and a brown-sugar crème anglaise. The warm pear tart with cinnamon ice cream is also a winner, but the star of the dessert menu is a poached-fig pudding cake with vanilla ice cream and bourbon caramel sauce. How many Southern desserts is it possible to combine on one plate?