85th Anniversary Dinner

As many of you will know, 14 November of this year marks the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Society. We have organised a special dinner for the exact anniversary day at Blue by Eric Ripert at the Ritz-Carlton. Just for us, the restaurant has agreed to re-open early after their annual summer break to mark this occasion. We will have the entire restaurant to ourselves and so there will be space for you to bring guests. The event will begin with a champagne reception featuring Roederer Cristal Brut 2009.

The chef has created some dishes especially for us and other items on the menu will be a first preview of dishes that will be featured on the restaurant’s menu for the season. The meal starts with a selection of Blue’s celebrated amuse bouches followed by an appetiser of dorade with a tomato ponzu. Ponzu is a Japanese citrus/vinegar sauce and really sets up the palate for the meal to follow; this is one of Blue’s new dishes for this autumn and will work perfectly with La Clarté de Haut-Brion 2011, a blend of semillon (80%) and sauvignon blanc (20%) made by the famous Domaine Clarence Dillon Estate. The shellfish course will be langoustine with a chive-butter sauce, crafted specially for our dinner to match Vincent Girardin’s Corton Chalemagne 2007.  Next, we will enjoy snapper under the crispest and thinnest bread crust with a sauce based on a traditional Mexican fish stew accompanied by a premier cru Volnay, Clos des Chênes from the highly acclaimed 2005 vintage.  Our entree will be pork cheeks with apple (to cut the sweetness of the pork a little) and the fragrance of thyme. This dish will be served with Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, recently purchased in London especially for this event. The 1985 and 2005 vintages will be tasted side by side. The dessert will be coconut with passionfruit and Cayman mango, with just the right level of sweetness to accompany a Sauternes, which will be Château Lafeurie-Peyraguey 2007, a vintage rated as “the best” in the IWFS Vintage Chart. With the coffee, you will have the chance to try some Fonseca 1985 or some Boal Campanario 1933, a Madeira graciously provided from Andrew Jones’s personal cellar. 

Dress code: Black tie