Concertos - or concerti, if you’re a snob about music or Italian, or both - come in movements. But sometimes, if we’re really lucky, they can come in courses too. That’s what happened last night at Triniti in Houston, with an unusual colloboration between the restaurant’s many-splendored chefs and the artists formerly known as Mercury Baroque. The light and artistically arranged starter pictured above (featuring peach, coconut and something called “balsamic tapioca”) was only the beginning when it comes to this music-meets-meal collaboration.
The chefs at Triniti worked hard to put out a dinner for 92 worthy of the music of Mercury and its forward-thinking artistic director Antoine Plante. After a few super-light courses, some as intriguing for the wines they showed up with as for themselves, the meal took on more protein-centric gravitas. Here, for instance, chefs Jose Hernandez and Greg Lowry sauce the ”butter-poached” beef ribeye with cauliflower puree and foie gras vinaigrette.
Plante led his 14-piece orchestra through nine brief numbers that - despite the group’s recent name change to emphasize a broader, more accessible repertoire - all sounded Baroque. There was Vivaldi, the genre’s darling, even including a bit of his Four Seasons as a “postlude.” And there were several Handels to get a handle on, plus some pleasing bits by a fellow named Rameau. One of those, nicknamed “La Poule,” allowed Plante to welcome the kitchen’s chicken course by conducting with a modified “rooster” routine surely borrowed from Mick Jagger.
The cuisine at Triniti, of course, was serious - especially once it ceased looking so much like a wedding invitation. Each course, such as this terrific raviolo (that’s right, just one large one) with quail egg and ricotta inside and rabbit ragout outside, was introduced by chef-partner Ryan Hildebrand and Plante, on how and why the food-music pairing seemed appropriate. Often as not, Triniti sommelier Fred Zennati chimed in with why his chosen wine went well with both. And for the most part, it did.
By the time we were all tearing into the ribeye, all 92 of us knew we’d been on quite a journey. A meaningful journey too, since the meal and its introductions emphasized our sensory experience, rather than the same “inside baseball” chef-babble that’s become the norm in creative restaurants these days. Restaurants, like music, are ultimately for and about the audience. Triniti’s collaboration with Mercury, hopefully the first of many, was the perfect corrective to the current crop of errors.
Oh, and… you musn’t feel bad for the musicians who performed off and on all night, vanishing into a frosted-glass private room in between their sets. In the restaurant industry’s grand tradition of “family meal,” they were treated to a late-night Triniti buffet that wouldn’t quit - along the same counter that had held those 92 oh-so-perfect plates. When you play music for a living, big trays piled with glorious chicken, pork loin, roasted vegetables, charro beans and salad might be the best “Bravo!” of them all.
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