Les Dames d'Escoffier "Afternoon in the Country"......

Nicole and I took the boys Sunday afternoon to Les Dames d'Escoffier ("Afternoon in the Country") at Serenbe Farms in Palmetto, GA. They said more than 35 chefs from Atlanta’s best restaurants would be set up under the festive big-top tents. It was probably more like 50. The food was great with unreal creativity. The tough part was the food for my boys. It was a little to unfamiliar and we had a hard time convincing them to eat it. (Both were very hungry by the time we got home.)

One of my favorite dishes was the lamb, not sure which restaurant, though (but the lamb was from Tommy Searcy's place, Gum Creek Farms) and Rathbun’s pork belly dish. Both were bursting with flavor and stood out from the crowd. Some others worth mentioning, the smoked bratwurst with spicy mustard from the The Four Seasons, the chicken pot pie from The Hills at Serenbe and a Cuban sandwich from a restaurant I can't recall.. All were very nice. Unfortunately, I was so miserably full by the time I got to them, it probably skewed my taste buds.

The scenery was amazing. It is one of those places that you wish were your back yard. Very rustic yet everything seemed to have a place. We walked behind The Farmhouse Inn and let the boys play on the tree house for a while. As we were sitting there we noticed the garden that sits directly behind the Inn. It was agrestic simplicity. It was like something from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. There was an old picketed fence covered with moss, non conforming walkways snaked through the garden, and varying sized garden boxes built with old wooden stakes. The soil was spilling out of the boxes nearly as if it was supposed to. Old, gnarly rosemary bushes highlighted the landscape, cleverly mixed in with the seasonal vegetables. It was a sight.

We walked back through the event to the other side, towards the animal petting area and it looked like a painting. Something imagined but not real. Tall pine trees lined both sides of the wooden fences creating a pathway of pinestraw. No underbrush at all, just sheer beauty. The pathway looped around to a lake on the other side which was also very nice.

Overall it was a great time, even as miserable as we were from eating to much, we would do it again.

Quote:


Success is not measured by what you do compared to what others do, it is measured by what you do with the ability God gave you.
~Zig Ziglar