When the announcement came that Carlos Nieto would take over Sinclair`s, the Lake Forest restaurant owned jointly by Marshall Field V and Gordon Sinclair, the tongues of the restaurant world wagged. What did Gordon Sinclair`s departure from the restaurant mean? Would Nieto, renaming the place La Foret, try to clone Carlos, his highly acclaimed Highland Park restaurant? In answer to the first question: Sinclair`s departure meant nothing more than a realignment of priorities. He was putting 2,000 miles a month on his car shuttling between his Gordon restaurant downtown and Lake Forest. The sale of his 50 percent share in Sinclair`s also gave him working capital for new restaurant concepts.
”I was tired,” Sinclair said last week in a telephone interview. He was in Florida where he`s working on the completion of his second restaurant in that state. ”I was falling asleep at the wheel on my drive up to Lake Forest, and quite honestly was losing interest in the restaurant. I worked with Marshall Field in the negotiations to bring Carlos into the restaurant. It`s only 10 minutes drive for him between the two places.”
In answer to the second question: Don`t expect a clone of Carlos in La Foret. First, La Foret`s interior is expansive by comparison. Second, the food, while decidedly French, at this point is neither as consistent as Carlos` nor as complex. Some memorable dishes stand out among the selections, most are good and a few fall far short of the high standards diners expect from Carlos.
The sensible menu lists only six appetizers, two soups, two salads and six entrees. A nightly list of specials augments these offerings.
Unfortunately, after the recitation of these specials, the server leaves no card behind to help diners consider their orders. The specials include two or three appetizers, one special salad and four entrees nightly–a good test of one`s mental faculties perhaps, but also an unnecessary and easily corrected nuisance.
In most every other way this restaurant specializes in solicitous service. The maitre d` stops by each table to make sure diners are content. The waitstaff goes out of its way to explain dishes, pace meals according to patrons` wishes and please in every way. Busboys maintain a constant vigil to fill water glasses and remove plates.
Meals begin with a selection of simple complimentary appetizers–a small ramekin of Nicoise olives surrounded with bite-size circles of toasted French bread topped with a composed butter with herbs and smoked salmon, mild mousse of anchovies, chopped liver pate or cheese mousse, depending on the evening. None is a knockout, but the gesture is thoughtful nevertheless.
More ambitious appetizers follow and most delight with strong, clear taste sensations. A regular offering, fresh fruits de mer with basil sauce, features shrimp, clams, fish, oysters, mussles and lobster. A pool of the light green basil/parmesan sauce sets off the seafood in this beautifully presented dish. The sauce has surprising peppery overtones yet masterfully treads the line between adding interest and obliterating the natural flavors of the seafood. A small salad garnished with salmon caviar accompanies this seafood melange.
A special of warm, thinly sliced salmon garnished with fresh dill and complemented by a delicately herbed cream sauce, also with a small salad of mixed greens, looks terrific and will please salmon lovers. However, the variety of textural and taste sensations offered by another seafood special of poached oysters, mussels and lobster in a similar sauce offers far more enjoyment.
The selection of three raviolis also provides a study of contrasting textures and flavors. Made fresh at the restaurant, the well-crafted, triangular green- and cream-colored pasta shells each feature a different filling–duxelle of shiitake mushrooms, vegetable mousse and finely chopped lobster with vegetables. An herbed lobster sauce pulls all of this together into a coherent and pleasing dish. Only the escargot, snails without the shells sauteed with chopped vegetables, cream and lemon zest, fails to deliver the distinctive taste sensations found in the other appetizers.
Indeed, when La Foret`s chef, Didier Durand, departs from simplicity he tends to get into trouble. Perhaps in an effort to appeal to his classy clientele, Durand dolls up some dishes with flights of fancy that are to food what crinolines are to fashion this season–seductive at first blush, but too gimmicky to last.
For example, one night`s salad special sounded impressive and was pleasing to the eye–large pieces of bright red steamed lobster laid atop a bed of Boston lettuce, radicchio, Belgian endive, sprouts, orange wedges, blue cheese and more. So much more, in fact, that the chef tries to tie the myriad ingredients together with an intense creamy orange salad dressing. Why try to glorify this already glorious crustacean? Steam or broil it, serve it with drawn butter–magnificent. But if one must dude lobster up, don`t do it with a cloyingly sweet dressing that covers the delicious star player.
A simpler special, spinach salad made with exceptionally small, tender spinach leaves and topped with smoked salmon and roasted pistaccio nuts, fares much better. Best of all is the regularly offered duck salad, featuring thin slices of duck breast cooked rare on a mountain of greens with wedges of grapefruit, pea pods and grapes. When not overly dressed with a soy sauce vinaigrette, the same dressing used on the simple mix of greens that serves as the house salad, this salad blends the tartness of greens, saltiness of soy and richness of duck into a masterpiece.
But ordering a salad may amount to overkill for all but voracious appetites: All items on the menu are a la carte, and despite the nouvelle underpinnings of the dishes, portions are generous.
If mustard graced the rack of lamb entree served one night, I couldn`t find it. No matter; the four, well-trimmed lamb chops–tender and juicy with exceptionally mild flavor–needed no embellishment. The natural juices that seep out of the chops mingles and adds flavor to the homemade pasta served on the side. Like most entrees, this comes with a puree of sweet potato topped with a pea pod, a few French green beans and a floret of cauliflower and broccoli.
A special of thinly sliced steak topped with mushrooms in an unlikely sounding Riesling sauce surprises with its intense, delicious flavor–a fine dish worth ordering whenever it`s offered. The scalloped potatoes served on the side add little to the dish but starch. Medallions of quality veal in port wine and vinegar sauce has terrific potential, but too salty a sauce drags the dish down.
Saltiness was hardly the only problem that plagued a special entree of pounded veal and chicken stuffed with mushrooms, zucchini and spinach. In sharp contrast to the beautiful presentation of most dishes here, this sandwich of white chicken breast and veal with the chopped ingredients in between looked like nothing so much as a flattened softball in pool of madeira sauce. Worse, only the top portion of the chicken was cooked. The side next to the chopped ingredients wasn`t just rare, but raw. Finally, the stuffing was extremely salty. Even the excellent madeira sauce couldn`t save this dish.
Both the grilled red snapper, a regular menu offering and grilled opa, a special one night, turn out well. Careful cooking sears in the moisture of the fish. A light ginger sauce with the opa has a pleasant bite that complements the mild-flavored fish. Salmon with bone marrow and bordelaise sauce sounds intriguing, and would be but for the overly fishy main ingredient–an oddity given the high quality salmon used for the appetizer.
Servers present two trays of desserts at the end of the meal with much fanfare and gushing descriptions. All of this turns out to be much ado about very little.
Two simple tarts were sampled one evening, banana and lemon. The lemon tart had the texture and taste reminiscent of 1950s packaged lemon meringue pie, without the delicate, flaky pastry crust that raises tart making to an art. The flavor of the banana tart with a touch of apricot was fine, but the browned top of the tart had the texture of leather. The lemon grass ice cream on the side might just be worth the trip to this restaurant by itself, however.
The gateau au chaud froid was the best of the desserts sampled. Another study in contrasts, the dessert features passion fruit sorbet at the bottom, topped with a layer of fresh fruit and finished with hot, broiled zabaione sauce. This is a winner.
The tariff for all of this falls well short of Carlos. Nevertheless, average entree prices hover around $16 and make the dishes that fail difficult to forget. La Foret`s flaws are those one might find in any new restaurant, however, and the staff seems committed to excellence in service and cuisine.
LA FORET
(STAR)(STAR)
French. Westminster and Forest Avenues, Lake Forest, 295-8300. Hours:
5:30-9 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Closed Sun. Prices: Appetizers $4.75-$6, soups $4.50-$4.75, salads $3-$4.75, entrees $14-$17, desserts $4.50; dinner for two of appetizer, salad, entree, dessert, tax and tip: $59. Credit cards: American Express, Diner`s Club, MasterCard, Visa. Reservations: Accepted. Other:
Jackets required for men, free parking.
