Making Beautiful Music Together -- in the Kitchen

Patrons of the San Diego came out during the day recently for an al fresco luncheon where the musicians not only played for their lunch, they cooked it as well.

Normally clad in a tuxedo when he works, trumpet player John MacFerran Wilds donned a chef's jacket for the second annual event and conducted four of his colleagues in the culinary movements. Their audience: 75 patrons of the symphony.

After poring over his vast collection of cookbooks and retreating to his favorite Cooking Light magazines for inspiration, Wilds, who cooked at restaurants throughout college, enlisted the input of his wife, Janis, and the other musician-chefs. Together, they crafted a midday menu that succeeded in being hearty, healthy and chic at the same time.

Guests were treated to a buffet of grilled beef loin with a Marchand de Vin reduction; balsamic-glazed, oven-roasted carrots; Mediterranean couscous; a sprightly spring-mix salad dressed with a mustardy Meyer lemon vinaigrette; fresh fruit; and assorted artisan cookies.

The prepped foods came in from all quarters: cleaned and scrubbed carrots from principal trombone Tim Smith; dried-fruit-studded couscous from the kitchen of violinist Tricia Lee and principal horn Wei-Ping Chou; pounds of marinated beef loin from principal horn Ben Jaber; and sauces and dressings from Wilds. Wilds easily moved from station to station in the deluxe kitchen of Annika Kovtun, who opened her home for the luncheon, checking on the internal temperature of the large hunks of meat and supervising the status of the wine-sauce reduction.

"The real stress was occurring two weeks out, when I was trying to price the food and do a lot of recipe testing with my wife to see what dishes might go well together," John Wilds said. "The labor of actually doing the lunch was kind of reassuring."

The symphony musicians are working on the creation of a San Diego Symphony cookbook to honor the symphony's 100th anniversary next year. They also are raising funds for the naming rights to one of the musicians' practice rooms in the newly renovated backstage area.

Among the fun things the symphony patrons do to reward themselves for their efforts is the luncheon, where musicians cook for them and perform afterward, Kovtun said.

As lunchtime approached, Janis Wilds assembled cookie platters laden with spiced wafers drizzled in white chocolate, pine-nut shortbread and slim chocolate coins dipped in dark chocolate. Seated next to her was further evidence that the symphony is indeed one big family. Valerie Hall, the teenage daughter of assistant personnel manager Doug Hall, threaded fruit onto skewers.

Surprise guest Marvin Hamlisch led the queue at the kitchen counter, where the buffet was set.

"This looks so good. I'm ready!" the composer said enthusiastically as he took his plate and repaired to one of several tables set up on the large, terraced patio with a view of San Diego Mission Bay

After Hamlisch, guests stood, plates in hand, as John Wilds and crew presided over the buffet, offering a drizzle of Marchand de Vin here, a spoonful of roasted carrots there.

All of John Wilds' fellow chefs volunteered their services for the day, even though it meant cooking in a strange kitchen with the distinct likelihood that 75 people would come up and engage them in conversation while they worked.

"I begged to help," horn player Chou said as she constantly stirred her red-wine sauce, coaxing it to reduce. "This is just such fun."

John Wilds said many musicians love to cook in their spare time, and inevitably the conversation in the musicians' lounge between rehearsals and performance intermissions gravitates to cookery and recipes.

"I think the biggest challenge of this lunch was making sure all my colleagues understood what was needed in each recipe, and they did," Wilds said. "They knew exactly what each dish was going to be like when it was done."


MEYER LEMON AND ANCHOVY DRESSING

2 tablespoons Italian parsley

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1Ú2 teaspoon salt

3 garlic cloves

2 or 3 anchovy fillets, rinsed

3 tablespoons olive oil, preferably Spanish

6 cups spring-mix lettuce and/or arugula

Yields 4 servings.

Combine parsley, water, lemon juice, mustard, salt, garlic and anchovy fillets in a food processor or blender. Process until smooth. With blender on, add olive oil in a thin stream until emulsified. Toss dressing with lettuce.

— John Wilds


STEAKS WITH MARCHAND DE VIN SAUCE

Marchand De Vin Butter:

1 cup dry red wine

1 shallot, minced

3Ú4 cup unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Steaks:

2 (8-ounce) rib-eye or New York steaks

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons canola or olive oil

1Ú2 cup dry red wine

2 tablespoons water

Yields 2 servings.

To make Marchand de Vin butter: In a saucepan, combine wine and shallot. Simmer over low heat until reduced to about 2 tablespoons, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine butter, lemon juice, and parsley. Whisk in cooled wine mixture, 1Ú4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Set aside.

To make steaks: Place a large baking dish in the oven and preheat to 150 F. Pat the steaks dry with paper towels and season both sides generously with salt and pepper.

In a large, nonreactive frying pan over high heat, heat oil. Just before it begins to smoke, add steaks and cook, without moving them, for 2 1Ú2 minutes. Turn steaks over and cook for 2 minutes longer for rare, 3 minutes longer for medium rare or 4 minutes longer for medium well. Transfer steaks to baking dish in the oven.

Immediately pour off fat from the frying pan and pour in wine and water. Set pan over high heat and cook, stirring to scrape up flavorful bits from bottom and sides of pan, until the liquid is reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, about 1 1Ú2 minutes. Add 1Ú2 cup of the Marchand de Vin butter (you will have some left over) and whisk until sauce emulsifies and thickens slightly.

Transfer steaks to warmed plates. Top each steak with several spoonfuls of the sauce serve at once.

— Adapted from "Williams-Sonoma Sauce" by Brigit Binns, Simon & Schuster.


COUSCOUS WITH PINE NUTS

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

3Ú4 cup chopped shallots (3 to 4 shallots)

3 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

1Ú2 teaspoon kosher salt

1Ú2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1Ú2 cups couscous

1Ú2 cup toasted pine nuts

1Ú4 cup dried cranberries

2 tablespoons chopped, fresh, flat-leaf parsley

Yields 4 to 6 servings.

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add shallots and cook them over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, until translucent. Add chicken stock, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Turn off heat. Stir in couscous, cover pan and set aside for 10 minutes. Add pine nuts, currants and parsley, and fluff with fork to combine. Serve hot.

— Adapted from "Barefoot Contessa at Home" by Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter)


WHITE CHOCOLATE SPICE COOKIES

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

3Ú4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1Ú2 teaspoon baking soda

1Ú2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1Ú4 teaspoon ground cinnamons

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1Ú2-inch slices

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

6 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

3 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Yields about 2 dozen cookies.

In a food processor or bowl, whirl or stir flour, sugar, ginger, pepper, baking soda, cocoa powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt to blend. Add butter; pulse or cut in with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.

In a small bowl, mix vanilla, lemon peel and 1 tablespoon water. Add to food processor or bowl; whirl or stir until dough forms a ball.

Divide dough in 1/2. Roll out each portion between sheets of wax paper or cooking parchment to about 1Ú4 inch thick. Stack and chill rolled dough until firm, about 45 minutes (or freeze about 25 minutes).

Cut out cookies with a floured 1 1Ú2-inch round cutter. Place 1Ú2 inch apart on buttered or cooking-parchment-lined, 12x15-inch baking sheets.

Bake cookies in oven at 325 F until pale brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool completely.

Place white chocolate and shortening in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bottom of bowl should not touch water). Remove from heat and stir occasionally until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Dip each cookie halfway into white-chocolate mixture, then place on baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Drizzle undipped half of cookie with more white-chocolate mixture, if desired. Chill just until glaze is set, about 15 minutes.

Nutritional analysis per cookie: 53 calories, 0.5 g protein, 3.4 g fat, 5.1 g carbohydrate, 0 g fiber, 14 mg sodium, 5.9 mg cholesterol.

— From Sunset magazine, November 2003

Caroline Dipping writes about food for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Contact her at caroline.dipping@uniontrib.com.