The perfection of La Becasse
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
What is the perfect finish to an ideal summer day? What dwelling could you possibly enter after baking all afternoon on a secret beach where the sugar sand and the sweet water have drawn every knot of stress and worry from your languid body? Where can you find the ideal balance between light and darkness, between laughter and silence, between refreshing wine and delicious food? My friends, C’est facile!
La Becasse in Burdickville is that place; the little white house on the corner with the blue trim. When you push through the thick plum curtain into the French country house you have the sensation that you are entering a magical place right out of the Scheherazade, and it will take you one thousand and one nights to taste its delights. The bright walls are adorned with lithographs of woodcocks (la becasse is “woodcock” in French) and dappled Greg Sobran paintings that only enhance the sweetness of the space. You could be in a fold in the mountains on the way to St. Paul de Vence or Aix-en-Provence.
Patty greets us, and she has been the same cheerful, warm, and knowledgeable server here, both summer and winter, for 17 years. My wife Mimi, the artisan queen of Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire, picks out a table for the two of us, and as the late afternoon sun lemons the curtains and the maple shade spreads, we settle in for another dining adventure. There is a welcome little bowl of olives with herb de Provence, the flavors of which get you trying to remember your broken French. We choose a 2008 Sauvignon White Bordeaux from Prince de Tabourg for this evening, and its light citrus notes bring crisp closure to a hot day. Let the evening begin. With the wine comes a snack of tiny round toasts bearing a blue cheese/cream cheese spread with a bacon apricot glaze and scallions – each is a perfect mouthful that welcomes the wine and gets the juices flowing. Tres jolie!
The selection of appetizers is so tantalizing that choosing is tough. There are duck pate, seared scallops, escargot, artisanal cheeses, or French gravlax with aquavit (my usual favorite), but the specials tonight are even more alluring. Onion pie? Crab cake? No, we guiltily go for the frog legs (our pond is full of big healthy croakers) and the pork rillettes. With the cracker-and-bread basket come the two lovely plates, and we are not disappointed. The pork rillettes arrive adorned with tiny pickles, blueberries and mission figs next to a hillock of Dijon mustard. The naughty, fatty pork is warm and earthy — you smell the woods where the truffle hunting pigs of France root and nose through rotting leaves, you hear their snorts and see their steaming, foetid breath. These flavors transport you to another continent. Fresh from Lake Okeechobee, Mimi’s sautéed frog legs are even more astonishing. Served on a bed of spring lettuce with onion and tomato, the curry-chili-tandori herb seasoning sensationally compliments the tender, juicy delicacy of the butter-fried frog legs. The spices contrast in a perfectly balanced way, and you realize that this is exactly what Robespierre ate with his fingers secretly in his quarters late at night, the way Americans today wolf hot wings in sports bars! These are perfect appetizers.
Now the glow of excellent wine and food settles over us with the honeyed evening light, and we recall a recent conversation with dear friends: what’s the difference between a $50 bottle of wine and a $400 Chateau Mouton Rothschild? Or the experience of gnashing down an ordinary chocolate as compared to letting one of Mimi’s Mayan chocolate truffles melt slowly on your tongue? Surely it is in the complexity, the way the multitude of flavors reveal themselves in gradual epiphanies as your taste buds tease out the richness, the variety, and the balance of properly prepared food like you find at La Becasse. For Guillaume and Brooke Hazeal-Massieux, every plate, every meal, every evening is a work of art, This is why there is slow food, and this is why the finest restaurants require reservations and chefs are celebrities. Everything here is deliberately crafted with a highly refined sense of composition, presentation, and balance.
For our main course we have perused the menu that includes Lake Michigan whitefish, pan-seared breast of duck with a duck leg confit, sautéed veal noisettes, grilled lamb rack, grilled hanger steak with truffle sauce, or morel mushroom risotto served in roasted acorn squash. But the specials change every day or two, and we are drawn back to the blackboard from which we chose our excellent appetizers. Mimi goes with the Snapper from Florida, and I can’t resist the Tazmanian Salmon. After fresh, buttery Bibb salads, both entrees arrive elegantly presented, and before we trade to taste each other’s choice, Mimi exclaims simply, “This meal is really outstanding!” Both kinds of fish are served with red and mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower florettes, green beans, pea pods, and tender slices of zucchini and squash. My salmon has a lively, rich fennel smell, and the melt-in-your-mouth fish is expertly highlighted with a savory, sassy, complex “hage” sauce. It tastes so incredible that it’s hard to find a language to capture its beautiful texture and flavor. Mimi’s snapper is firmer, bolder, a muscular fish that lets you chew into the amazing flavors.
Suddenly you are poling a flat-bottomed skiff through the mangroves in the ten thousand islands of southwestern Florida (where the murder of Mr. Watson is chronicled so brilliantly in Peter Matthiessen’s trilogy) and you smell the Seminole swamps, the mounds of tiny shellfish, the Spanish moss, and you hear an anhinga squawk over your left shoulder. This snapper has a subtler roasted bell pepper “coulis” sauce, and you begin to discern a formula at work here: the bolder fish gets the subtler sauce, while the subtler fish gets the bolder sauce. That Guillaume is a master!
As we wait for dessert, Guillaume comes out for a chat. He shows us the back of the menu where all of the local food producer’s excellent wares are summarized. Most of the produce, eggs, tea and coffee, and some of the meat, cheese and wine comes from our own back yard in northwestern Michigan. La Becasse is having a very busy summer, he says as he sits for a moment. Brook and Guillaume’s oldest daughter Margot just had her missing-two-front-teeth grin pictured in the Leelanau Enterprise, and the affable Guillaume laughs that from now on his local fame will probably come from being Margot’s father, and not from anything he does himself.
The dessert of a Tarte Tatin is as exceptional as everything else has been. It is a carmelized apple turnover served warm with a chestnut crème fraiche. Again the flavors are pure and flawlessly blended, requiring your taste buds to stretch, wait, sigh, and sing. C’est parfait!
La Becasse is open six nights a week (closed Mondays). For reservations call (231) 334-3944 or visit www.restaurantlabecasse.com.