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© 2007 Dan Perlman
Casa SaltShaker
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chef: Dan Perlman
Host: Henry Tapia
November 2-4, 2007
Émile-Antoine Bayard was born 170 years ago this weekend and since we missed his other birthday parties, we decided to throw him a three day fete. You likely don’t recognize his name right off the bat, but you might recognize his work. He was a book illustrator, and a fairly famous one, most well known for having illustrated Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, a good number of Jules Verne’s books (he’s sometimes considered the first “space artist”, having illustrated From the Earth to the Moon in 1865), and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He was born outside of Paris, in the Ile-de-France region, and so, I set my sights on the cuisine of that area as I planned the weekend’s menu. So off it was to a bit of French style cooking...
Thoughts from some of our guests:
"Thanks Dan, I enjoyed everything! Hope to see you again." - G.S."We are continuing our eating adventure in BA. Our evening with you was most delightful, a must do for visitors. We have recommended Casa SaltShaker to all who have not heard of you." - C.H.
"It was just great (the white asparagus soup was simply sublime, the brie dish remarkable, the fish stew probably the least favourite but still good). My family loved the whole experience. I look forward to coming again, and if all goes well I'll have a very interesting space ready at some point next year that I'd love for you to cater a dinner in." - R.M.
"Many thanks to you and Henry! We thoroughly enjoyed our experience. The food was excellent. We are back in the States wishing we were still in Bs As. We envy you!" - J.G.
"I appreciate your inquiry about our dinner experience with you. I am quite surprised that someone would relate to you what was obviously a third hand comment since we made no such mention of the dinner to anyone who was there. I really question the person's motivation for doing so. In any event, the main issue we had was that we found the Matelote too salty for our tastes. I do not think this in any way qualifies the overall experience as "quite disappointing". We especially liked the Torta de Brie and the Sopa de Esparragos Blancos. We also found your choice of wines for the parings to be very tasty. You introduced us to some Argentine wines that were unfamiliar to us but we will look for them in the future." - K.D.
"Thank you so much for having us; we enjoyed our evening at you're dinner party immensely! We are settling back into our lives back here in Oregon, and hope to return someday in the near future. .. When we do you can bet your dinner party will be in the itinerary..." - S.R.
