Music and Dining

"The Boss" found out about this event when she went to Capital Brass Works and saw an advertisement for this.  She pretty much came back and said to me, "Awesome food and classical music, how can you go wrong?".  Well, she was right!  The evening was memorable.

This event is a part of the Music and Beyond festival and was being hosted at Tabaret Hall at The University of Ottawa.  The location ended up being an excellent choice for acoustics while still having that intimate feeling with musicians.  The premise of this event was hosted by Julian Armour, who chose a list of classical pieces that he felt would fit food, and dining.  He then passed the list to Chef Richard Nigro, former Chef at Juniper, who then planned the menu with the help of Chef Patrick Garland of Absinthe Cafe and Chef Chris Tremblay.

For the evening, they would pair up the music with each course of a 6 course meal and wine parings.  The evening started off a little rocky as there was some organizational issues with delivery of the plates, which caused the event to start late.  As the doors did open up, it seemed a little crazy and people tried to get in and get the best seats possible.  There was an intimate 55-60 guest in the end, plus a table for the musicians.  The music and performances were top notch.  The mix of the atmosphere with the food really accentuated the paring of the music to the food.  Another extra notch for the food was that it was mostly bought from the local farmers markets, which highlighted how we can get some excellent quality ingredients locally and support our local farmer's.

The courses started with a creamy marinated Quebec brie cheese launched in a crispy phyllo boat, floating in a sea of strawberry rhubarb soup.  This combination was unusual but worked very well with the hot weather outside and the combination of the brie, with the sweet and sour taste worked really well.  A buttery rich duck Terrine with foie gras torchon melted in my mouth while the valley smoked trout rillette and Atlantic Salmon with gravlax Gooseberry vinaigrette left me wanting more. The last main, was a two part beef dish, a seared beef, blue butter herb and slow, braised beef  was cooked and tasted perfect.  Desert was a special Epicuria Cake which was at the perfect level of sweetness and bitterness, and was not too heavy.  Coffee was then served by Bridgehead and extra chocolate was provided by Stubbe.  The presentation of the food was very simple yet elegant.  Nothing was over done there.  I have included pictured of the courses at the end that I took with my old camera phone.

Overall, the excellent music, the atmosphere, and the food combined into a very memorable evening.  Tickets to this event cost about $150.  Value wise, a classical concert, 6 course meal with 6 glasses of wine, this is a very respectable price.  The evening was very fun and we will be going back to this special event again next year.  Great job to both Julian and the Chef's!!

Review (out of 5):
Food: * * * * *
Value: * * * * *
Atmosphere: * * * * *
Service: * * * * *
Price (dinner): $150 (6 Course tasting with wine)
Website: http://musicandbeyond.ca/musicanddining/