The problem with a ‘chef’s choice’ menu

My weekend column is about Chef Michel Tersiguel’s decision, after the pandemic, to turn his menu from a conventional one to a “chef’s choice,” offering the same six courses for all diners at just two seatings only four nights a week. He charges $99 for this, a fixed price that includes wine, making Tersiguel’s French Country Restaurant in Ellicott City a special occasion place. It was the chef’s choice to go with chef’s choice and, two years in, the plan appears to be working.

As I see it, there’s only one thing wrong: The menu changes every week. That’s ambitious, a real challenge for a chef. But if you happen to be there when Tersiguel commits an act of culinary genius — a particular dish that you’re wild about — you probably won’t have a chance to order it again for weeks or months (assuming, of course, you can pay $99 for a meal more than once a year, or at all).

Dining there recently — with a gift card from last Christmas — I had a truly remarkable and memorable dish. I think it was the fourth course: Pan-roasted rockfish in cardinal sauce. It was a small piece of fresh Chesapeake rockfish pan roasted in a mix of grapeseed oil and butter, served with a sauce I never knowingly had before, though chefs consider it a classic.

I asked Tersiguel how he made it: “The cardinal sauce is made by sautéing whole small shrimp, with the heads on, with a mirepoix of vegetables and spices, including saffron. Then I add tomatoes, then cognac and white wine and heavy cream, then I reduce it and puree it and strain it. The sauce goes on the plate first, followed by the fish and a vegetable  garnish.”

Since it’s not on the Tersiguel menu each week, I think I need to find a way to get an alert or notification when it shows up again; there must be an app for that.

Or maybe I should just learn to make it myself.