Grab a front row seat in the kitchen for a show stopping meal at the Marcus Whitman Hotel in downtown Walla Walla
Studded with wineries and bistros, Walla Walla’s historic brick-lined downtown was recently named one of America’s Top 10 Great Neighborhoods. Among its crowning foodie glories is The Chef’s Table—a hip, fun, deliciously decadent dining experience staged in the kitchen at The Marcus Whitman Hotel’s The Marc Restaurant.
Small groups (four to twelve persons) can reserve the elegant chef’s table that is tucked into a spacious alcove off the main kitchen, built solely for this purpose. Here, diners enjoy a high degree of privacy while hobnobbing with The Marc’s chef and staff and witnessing the culinary activity from behind the scenes.
Thousands of meals have been served at The Chef’s Table since its inception a dozen years ago. With captivating dishes prepared using top quality, locally sourced and seasonally fresh ingredients, matched with great local wines, it’s an authentic experience that embodies the heart and soul of this agriculturally-rich community.
The idea was inspired during a meeting that entrepreneur Kyle Mussman attended nearly three decades ago. “One of our vendors took us to the Commanders Palace in New Orleans and we had dinner in the kitchen. I said at the time, if I ever owned a restaurant, I’d have a chef’s table in the kitchen,” he recalls.
Years later when Mussman purchased the Marcus Whitman Hotel property, he kept true to his word, completely renovating the facilities and expanding The Marc Restaurant’s kitchen area to include room for his chef’s table in the process.
A typical evening involves samplings from the menu, but epicurean surprises are known to happen. At a recent dinner, the head chef and his team wowed the table with a special hors d’oeuvre of pureed Jerusalem artichoke, followed by an amazing six-course presentation that included a dessert of Valrhona dark chocolate shell filled with chocolate mousse and garnished with blueberry conserve. Each course was paired with a different wine, among them Woodward Canyon Winery, TERO Estates, L’Ecole No 41 Winery, Leonetti Cellars, and Three Rivers Winery.
The special dinner treat was a ‘dress rehearsal’ for an upcoming James Beard House dinner at New York City’s iconic gastronomic institution this December (on 12/12/12).
But to our small group that night, it was an encore performance deserving of a standing ovation. Much of the ingredients were locally sourced, foraged, harvested and grown, such as the buffalo Carpaccio encrusted with Walla Walla Roastery espresso, accompanied by fingerling potato chips, Monteillet Causse Noir goat and sheep’s milk cheese, marinated sweet onions, with a black truffle garnish—paired with L’Ecole No 41 Walla Walla Valley Merlot.
When you’re looking for an unforgettable evening in Walla Walla’s wine country either entertaining or with a group of friends, you won’t go astray in the kitchen at The Marcus Whitman Hotel restaurant.
RESERVE THE CHEF’S TABLE
Private groups from 4 to 12 people. To schedule your Chef’s Table experience, call 509-524-5110. For more information, visit www.marcuswhitmanhotel.com
Written by John Vitale
Editors’s Note: The photos below were taken at The Chef’s Table in October 2012.
