Photography by Katherine Bish
The Details
The hosts: Mark and Debbie Wilhelm
The guests: Mike and Janet McMahill; Mary Pat and Tom Santel; Debbie and Steve Tharpe; Bob and Beth Schenk
The cause: Friends of Wings Pediatric Program and Fashion Group International, St. Louis Chapter
The location: Wilhelm home, Town & Country
The florist: Barb Wehking, Bloomin’ Buckets
The chef: Brian S. Hale, Executive Chef, Monarch restaurant
The sommelier: Aaron Grove, Monarch
It was September 2005, during St. Louis Magazine’s Fever Fall Fashion show at the Moolah Theatre & Lounge. Maybe it was the grand lobby, with its deco Moorish moldings; the 45-foot-long movie screen, which was used to project film clips before the catwalk came to life; or just all those people in silks, satins, sparkles and tweed tomboy caps. Some extra fairy dust in the air inspired Mark and Debbie Wilhelm and four other couples to pool their resources and make a generous bid on one of the silent auction items. The money went to support Friends of Wings Pediatric Program and the St. Louis Chapter of Fashion Group International, and the Wilhelms and their friends won a dinner party, with Monarch’s executive chef, Brian S. Hale, to prepare a four-course meal. They decided to throw the party this January, just as the mercury dropped from a warmish 45 to a chilly 25 and the sky settled into its regular seasonal hue—vaguely the color of dirty snow.
With her upbeat demeanor and strawberry-blonde hair, hostess Debbie Wilhelm brought a solar warmth to the party. “We’re all friends, and we were so excited to be out that night at Fever, not being moms, so we were like, ‘Oh, this would be great—let’s do it!’” she said. “We’re hosting the party, but everyone pitched in for the event.”
Earlier that day, Mrs. Wilhelm’s friend Barb Wehking of Bloomin’ Buckets stopped by with a bouquet straight from a Delacroix still life, made with lush red roses, privet berries and orchids, plus individual orchids for tucking into napkin rings. The table was set with black-and-gold china, gold place mats, crystal stemware and tapered candles, the bases of their holders jazzed up with little beaded baubles. “I had to borrow chairs from friends,” Mrs. Wilhelm laughed, pulling a chair out to exhibit its zebra-print seat. “Isn’t that cute? I told this friend, now that we have so many chairs, we really know we’re having a party! But really, it’s just a fun evening together … It’s a January party, when it’s a little bit quieter. The snow’s coming, so everyone will be stranded, maybe—it’ll be fun. Everyone’s recovered from the holiday parties, so it’s time to start over again.”
And the Wilhelms’ dining room, with its high ceiling, metallic drapes pooled on the floor and chandelier dangling with pieces of crackled crystal that looked for all the world like iced-over fleurs-de-lis, made for an ideal spot for a midwinter, post-holiday soirée.
“When we built the house, it was so much fun to choose all the different light fixtures and fabrics,” Mrs. Wilhelm said, moving around the table with a candle-snuffer to douse the candles for cocktail hour until the couples assembled for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm have not only a fine eye for fabrics and furniture, but good taste in canvases as well, including a suite of parrot paintings hanging in the dining room that recall Audubon’s sketches. And across the way in the hearth room—“My monkey’s in there,” Mrs. Wilhelm smiled, pointing to the fireplace where indeed, a portrait of a very distinguished-looking creature hung above the mantel.
Speaking of animals, the Wilhelms’ ginger-and-white dog, Toby, observed his greeting duties perfectly all night, wagging up to the front door as guests arrived. They came bearing big smiles, small gifts and a whoosh of cold air that trailed them in from outside. The four couples—Mike and Janet McMahill, Mary Pat and Tom Santel, Debbie and Steve Tharpe and Bob and Beth Schenk—assembled in the great room for cocktails, standing near the fireplace, sipping wine as jazz played in the background.
“Our connection is Saint Louis University High School,” Mrs. Wilhelm explained. “All our boys attend St. Louis U. High.” They are in good company: Hollywood director George Hickenlooper and civil rights activist Henry Hampton are also SLUH alums—as is Mr. Wilhelm and Barb Wehking’s husband (the two were classmates). “There’s all these connections tonight,” Debbie Wilhelm smiled, delighted by the serendipity.
In the kitchen, Chef Brian Hale assembled tiny, colorful canapés on square white plates and sent them out for the couples to nosh on while sipping wine and discussing football, kids, weather, current events and history.
Salad plates—and greens—chilled in the refrigerator; at the stove, there were culinary fireworks as Chef Hale’s skillet burst up in a blossom of flame. What got the heat? “Sea scallops,” he grinned, as calm and methodical as a tai chi master. Sommelier Aaron Grove had his job of pouring wine down to a fine art, moving between kitchen and table, joined periodically by the chef at the dining room door as he announced each course before it appeared on the table.
But before anyone had eaten a bite, Bob Schenk rose, glass in hand, to toast to vida (life), amare (love) and amicizia (friendship). The friends raised their glasses as outside the window, a very light snow began to fall. At this table, lush with flowers and warmth, it already felt like spring.
The Menu
First Course
Spinach salad
Red onion, hearts of palm, golden raisins and goat cheese fritter with poppy-seed dressing
Wine selection: 2005 Miner Simpson Vineyard Viognier, California
Second Course
Pan-seared sea scallops
Pumpkin risotto with cranberry, pancetta and sage and a mascarpone cream
Wine selection: 2002 Brocard Extreme 1er Cru Chablis, Burgundy, France
Third Course
Pistachio-encrusted lamb chops
Brie-whipped potatoes, shiitake beurre blanc and bing cherry
demi-glace
Wine selection: La Croix de Beaucaillou, St. Julien, France
Fourth Course
Chocolate Grand Marnier crème caramel, with fresh raspberries and crème anglaise
Wine selection: Taylor-Fladgate 20-Year Tawny Port
Recipes
Courtesy of Monarch and The Five Senses, LLC
Strawberry Poppy-Seed Dressing
Yield: 1 1/2 quarts
3 cups poppy-seed base (see below)
1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries (thawed)
2 ounces puréed onions
4 cups salad oil
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Preparation:
Purée onions before you weigh them. Add poppy-seed base, strawberries and onions in a KitchenAid mixer. With the whip attachment, slowly add oil until well mixed. Then add poppy seeds. (Hint: Chill all the ingredients beforehand—doing so will help in emulsification.)
Poppy-Seed Base
Yield: 1 1/2 quarts
1 quart sugar
2 1/4 tablespoons dry mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 cups cider vinegar
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in a double boiler. Cook until all sugar is dissolved. The mixture should not be grainy.
Shiitake Lemon Beurre Blanc
Yield: 2 quarts
1 pound shiitake mushrooms, cut in half
6 ounces shallots, finely diced
1 cup Chardonnay
3 lemons, fresh juice
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves
1 quart half-and-half
1 quart chicken stock
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 ounce oil
Roux (for thickening)
Preparation:
Sauté shallots in oil until soft. Add Chardonnay, lemon juice, vinegar, bay leaves, thyme and garlic. Cook until it has reduced by half. Add the rest of ingredients except roux and mushrooms. Simmer for 15 minutes, then strain through a fine mesh strainer. Add mushrooms and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in roux until desired consistency is reached.
Bing Cherry Demi-Glace
Yield: 2 quarts
1 quart lamb stock
1 quart veal stock
1 cup bing cherries (dried)
Preparation:
Combine ingredients together in a pot and reduce by half. Strain through a fine mesh strainer. Remember to push as much juice out of the cherries as possible. If needed, adjust consistency with a grenadine slurry.
Chocolate Grand Marnier Crème Caramel
Yield: 2 quarts
For custard:
16 ounces heavy cream
6 egg yolks
4 ounces sugar
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
1 vanilla bean split length-wise
6 mint leaves
12 raspberries
For caramel:
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon water
Preparation:
Combine yolks and sugar in a stainless steel bowl and whisk until the mixture is creamy. Combine vanilla bean and cream in a pot and heat to a boil. Remove from heat, scrape vanilla bean seeds into cream; discard bean and reserve mixture. Melt chocolate in a double boiler and add to cream mixture along with the Grand Marnier. Slowly pour cream into egg mixture while constantly stirring.
For caramel:
Put sugar and water into a heavy-bottomed skillet and cook until the mixture is smooth and a deep amber color. Stir the mixture constantly to avoid burning the caramel. Spoon enough caramel into 6-ounce ramekins to cover the bottom of each. Let cool for 5 minutes.
Pour custard into ramekins and bake at 312 degrees in a water bath for about 2 hours or until custard jiggles like Jell-O. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.
To serve: Run a paring knife around the inside of the ramekin and tap out. Serve with fresh mint and raspberries.
Wine Notes
From Sommelier Chris Hoel, Monarch
2005 Miner Simpson Vineyard Viognier (California)
“Viognier is a varietal that’s indigenous to the Rhone Valley in France. It’s cultivated as a white wine, but it’s also blended into some of the red wines in the area, particularly Syrah, to give it aromatics and a little lift. The Viognier that comes out of California tends to be a little lower in acidity, and that’s why you can pair it with a salad. I use it when I’m working with something that’s lean—sushi, white shellfish without sauces, salads. To me, it’s always very fruity; you get things like peaches and apricots and all of these tropical tree fruits. It smells like it’s going to be a sweet wine, but generally it’s fermented all the way dry, and comes off as a very clean, crisp white wine with an abundance of fruit to it. It’s not aged in oak, so it’s not going to have that oaky flavor a Chardonnay can have from time to time. I think it’s under-utilized in the world of wine. I think it has a great place on the table with leaner dishes.”
2002 Jean-Marc Brocard Extreme 1er Cru Chablis (Burgundy, France)
“Chablis is about 150 kilometers south of Paris. Soil plays a large part in this wine. If you’re familiar with the White Cliffs of Dover, which are solid chalk, that is the same kind of soil sediment; it dips into the English Channel, and it pops up again in Chablis. There’s so much chalk—which is basically a compressed, fossilized oyster shell—that the ground looks white, and that really shows through when you taste these wines. Most Chablis is not aged in oak, so you get pure expression of the ground, pure expression of the grape. It’s very big, very forceful in the mouth, lots of lemon, lots of lime. That chalky note brings, too, an elevated acidity. Here, you have the exact opposite of what the Viognier was; and in the dish, you’ll notice the fat content increased quite a bit, so I needed a wine with a higher acidity. Chablis is a delicate wine, and should be paired with a delicate dish, but it’s also rich, and that’s why it’s paired with that course.”
2003 La Croix de Beaucaillou (St. Julien, France)
“This is a Bordeaux, a blend of cabernet, merlot and cabernet blanc. La Croix de Beaucaillou is a second label. By law, a winery can only produce so much in a given vineyard, and everything else has to be what they call declassified, or put into a second label. To me, they are great values; the front label is called Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, which is $200 or $300 a bottle, so the second label is affordable but possesses a lot of the same qualities. You’re going to get lots of cassis, black currants, black cherry, a little bit of an espresso note to it. It’s aged in oak barrels, so it’s going to have a little bit of a sweet vanilla top note. The vintage is one of the important high points of this wine—2003 was a very, very hot year. Because of that, these wines are extremely ripe, flashy and fruity; Bordeaux usually has a more herbaceous edge to it, but this vintage showed more like Napa Valley. The grapes got lots of sun, lots of heat, and it’s the earliest vintage that they’ve harvested since 1858! It’s full, it’s ripe, it’s got a bit of a cedar and tobacco note to it, and it really works with items like what we paired it with—lamb, rib-eye, truffle risotto—just really gamey, hearty fare.”
Taylor Fladgate 20-Year Tawny Port
“This is a blend of several different casks that end up averaging about 20 years of age. Around that time, wine starts to lose color. Oxygen binds with pigments in the wine, and they fall to the bottom of the barrel. Extended aging also lightens up the wine, and it smooths it out considerably, so it’s very approachable, it’s creamy. You get these tropical fruits of banana and Meyer lemon, huge caramels, sweetwater taffy and butterscotch, which is the high note to this wine. But because it started out as a red wine, it still has characteristics of black cherries and plums. It’s halfway between—a purgatory wine, if you will. We paired it with chocolate crème caramel, though since that’s an egg-based custard, you almost need a white wine. But when you fuse it with chocolate and Grand Marnier, a 20-year tawny port really matches it, but won’t overpower it. The chocolate and custard sing through, and the port offers a creaminess, a caramel note. Putting these two together ... it’s probably illegal in some states!”
