In the days leading up to Dish Fest, we’re presenting our readers with exclusive chef interviews so they can learn the stories behind the Best Dishes being served at the inaugural festival.
Chef Christopher Gross named his iconic ABC Terrine after the A, B and C grades of foie gras used in the three most common preparations of the fine-dining staple, and each is represented here: pâté-like terrine, seared medallions and luscious mousse, one layered over the other and delineated by dehydrated mushroom powder for a decadently artful presentation. The dish debuted in the ’90s at Gross’ longtime Biltmore location and now sits on the Classics menu at his new hilltop dining palace. That’s three decades of enthralled diners – one for each layer. We chatted with the veteran Valley culinarian about his fondest food memories and how he’s looking forward to making more at Dish Fest this weekend.
What is the origin story of your Best Dish?
Foie gras is duck and that’s what this dish is. It’s produced by Hudson Valley Foie Gras in upstate New York. It’s a dish that was inspired from another chef nearly 30 years ago. He was doing a layered terrine of seafood and I liked the look of it. At one of my old restaurants, I was buying three different grades of foie gras. Foie is liver, gras is fat, so it’s fat and liver and it can be of goose as well. We were using all three grades for different purposes. The C was for a cold dish that we served in the bistro. The B quality we used mostly for sautéing because it’s best to serve hot and the A quality we made into a terrine with the foie or the liver. Not much is really done, it’s just put into a terrine mold, cooked and then served cold. The layered terrine from the chef, whose name was Jean-Louis Palladin from the Watergate Hotel, a small little 20-seat restaurant. He was really one of the first French chefs that came from France that had a Michelin star. When he was brought here, he embraced all of the American products instead of just shipping everything from France, and we became friends. But this layered dish that he did of seafood, I thought maybe I would do it with all three layers of quality of foie gras and showcase the best of what they are for each purpose.
What are the most important elements of a Best Dish?
For foie gras, it’s the least done to it, just the proper seasoning. Far too many times, people add something super sweet to it and too much of it. The little accent of salt, acid or sweet can be good in very small, balanced amounts.
What is your favorite food memory?
I can tell you what I ate a lot: hot buttered toast. I had one lunch in a public school in my life. I was from a small town, and I was a very bad eater. I ate mostly plain meat, no vegetables, plain pasta. I went to the cafeteria once. My grandmother lived close by, so I went to go eat at her house every day for lunch. I would be obsessive with putting two pieces of toast in the toaster and then as soon as it would pop out, I would put two more pieces of toast in and put the toasted pieces on top of the toaster to keep them warm, repeat it another time and then butter all six slices with room temperature butter and sit in front of the television and eat it.
Who is a fellow chef or restaurateur that you admire?
Kevin Binkley, James Quarter and Matt Carter.
What are you most looking forward to about Dish Fest?
It’s always fun to do events where there are so many of us. We all work so much and then if we get some time off, we usually just go home to significant others, family or whatever and occasionally go out for dinner. We don’t get to see each other that often, so anytime that there’s these events with a lot of people in the trade that you get to say hello to, it’s always fun.
