Service certainly has its charm. And though you’ve got your reservations about selective service and secret service and service fees and self-service, you are happy to accept dinner service from your server. Especially if he keeps his name and sign and ulterior profession to himself.
For instance, one evening while observing evening services at a new restaurant, one that specializes in small servings of absolute deliciousness, your server serves up this tidbit: Order the lamb. You do. As well as the fresh sardines and grilled swordfish and hanger steak and veal empanada and chickpea cake and wilted spinach and mixed olives. He serves just the slightest sneer while toting up your plate count.
Following the orderly march of the kitchen brigade, runners rush a succession of courses from kitchen to table. One tiny plate features a charmingly charred lamb chop foreground. And an intoxicating garlic, caper and olive oil background. Urgently, you hoist a red napkin and flag down help. You need bread.
Your server smiles. He is employed by the sort of modern establishment that no longer considers the breadbasket a tabletop standard, like the water glass or the saltcellar. Your server details the custom options-whole-wheat fougasse, Sardinian caresatu, fine herb focaccia or pugliese, the “rustic bread of purgatory.” You glance at your lamb chop cooling in its garlic emulsion and explain: Now.
You take dainty bites of lamb, yet finish before bread service begins. You long for a dip in the remaining sauce pond. A fresh detachment of servicemen reports to clear and bus. You suggest: Later. A second unit is dispatched to recover the ex-lamb plate. You explain: No. Marshalling the assistance of water glass and saltcellar, you barricade in the garlic, caper and olive oil encampment. You repel three more clean-up attacks before the rustic bread of purgatory arrives.
You rip. Dip. And grip the soul of this dish.
Later your server serves nectarine tart and chocolate terrine and coffee and check. You make plans to make lamb at home. You will let the savory sauce and pliant bread mingle, at length. Chez You, no dish is ever threatened by zealous cleanup service.
SAUCY CHOPS
Serves two
For vinaigrette:
2 teaspoons finely minced shallot
2 fat cloves garlic, degermed and smashed to bits
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, whole
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
For lamb:
Salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon butter
1 pound (8) single-cut lamb rib chops
Coarse salt
Pepper
Butter lettuce
Parsley
Fresh crusty bread
1. Whisk: Mound shallots, garlic, herbs and capers into a small bowl. Briskly whisk in lemon juice, then oil. Set aside.
2. Sear: Season lamb chops lightly with salt and pepper. Heat butter and oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium. When hot, add chops and cook until just done, 2 minutes per side. (Thicker cuts may need an extra half minute per side.) Arrange chops on two plates.
3. Serve: Scatter a few lettuce fronds and parsley sprigs alongside the lamb. Douse greens and meat with vinaigrette. Serve with an ample and absorbent bread supply. We are particularly fond of the Italian pugliese, or “purgatory,” loaf, which, with its spongy center and not-too-crusty crust, offers equal parts salvation and damnation.
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LeahREskin@aol.com
