Hello again Foodie Friends,
Well, it appears that a growing number of you are actually enjoying reading about the back stories behind the restaurants and foods that I’ve created over the past 5 decades. I’m more than a little pleased to hear this because I enjoy sharing these with those of you who are interested. I recently had a friend, who I had not seen in quite some time, (good to reconnect with you Paul) mentioned to me that I should write a book. Thinking that he meant a cookbook, my response was it’s a very deliberate and time-consuming process with all the recipes having to be tested and blah, blah, blah. His response was “No I mean writing a book telling the history behind all that you have created over the years.” I said that basically that’s what I’ve recently started to do on my Blog and invited him to log on.
So here we go…this story is a rather, long and winding road but it’s for those who ask about my chocolate souffle, which I originally introduced at Bistro 201 in Irvine way back in June of 1990, re-introduced it at French 75 in Laguna Beach in 1998, and recently re-reintroduced at my Tavern House and Tavern at the Mission restaurants.
The story really started when I was living in Boston working for the Copley Plaza Hotel back in the mid 70’s. It was during the time that they were bussing students and there was much racial unrest taking place in the city. I had beautiful walk-up apartment in a great neighborhood on just 2 blocks from the Boston Commons and the Ritz Carlton but within a period of 1 month I was held up while walking home from the hotel twice…once at gunpoint and once at knifepoint. I thought that perhaps God was trying to tell me something? One week later on a Friday afternoon when I came home early from work to find that my apartment had been broken into and half my belongings stolen, I then knew he was telling me something…it’s time to move.
I had a really funny, crazy friend from college who lived on Balboa Island who had been bugging me about coming to visit and see what SoCal was all about so I finally decided to hop on a plane and check it out. He picked me up at what was then called just the Orange County Airport when it was just the coolest place. It had a little seafood restaurant on the second floor called Delaney’s where you could have great clam chowder, a glass of wine, and watch the planes taking off and landing (check out the photo),
So, Jon said that the first thing he was going to introduce me to was a place on PCH not far away called the ‘Date Shack’ where I had my first, iconic date shake…it was awesome….(btw…not a word I used to describe it then because this was before it was popularized by Anthony Spicoli). We then dropped off my bag at his place on Balboa and toured the area for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening taking the Ferry over to the peninsula to enjoy a Chili Cheese Dog at Charlie’s Chili and then finally finishing the night with a frozen banana at Dad’s.
The following day Jon said he had to go to LA for a couple of days to show a property in the Hollywood Hills he was listing and asked if I wanted to come along…never having been to LA I was, of course, all in. We drove up the next morning and spent the night at his amazing listing. Sitting on a hillside complete with a gorgeous view of the LA lights, swimming pool and tennis court, I was beginning to understand the lure of the Hollywood Hills.
Next morning we’re sitting in the kitchen having coffee when the doorbell rings. In walks the agent with no other but her client Gene Wilder. Now you have to remember that this was shortly after the release of ‘Blazing Saddles’ in which he played one of the leading roles as ‘The Waco Kid’ so, as a fan, I was starstruck. Having experienced many quite snobbish celebrities at Maxwell’s Plum, I was not sure what to expect but he was the nicest, most soft spoken, engaging guy…he made my day. BTW…Blazing Saddles was just named as the funniest movie of all time by American Film Institute.
OK, by now you’re wondering, are you ever going to get to your f’ing chocolate souffle? Yes…I am. That night Jon said I’m taking you to The Bistro Garden, which is one of the most popular and iconic restaurants in Beverly Hills for one of the best desserts you’ve ever had….their Chocolate Souffle. I was beginning to establish a pattern here with him…Jon had a serious sweet tooth.
Time for a little, but really fascinating, side bar here to give you some context about Jon and his lineage. His Dad was Al Jarvis, and without going into an explanation about him that could take quite some time, he was the man widely credited as inventing and becoming LA’s first true radio disc jockey and one of the architects of modern music broadcasting. He launched a revolutionary program in the mid 1930’s called ‘The Make-Believe Ballroom’…a show that played records continuously while Jarvis probed commentary, introductions, and personality driven banter…this format simply did not exist before.
At a time when radio was dominated by live studio orchestras, he dared to build a show aroundrecorded music treating the studio like a glamorous imaginary dance hall. He spoke as if a live band were performing, creating an atmosphere that felt intimate, stylish, and brand new. This shift from live performance to curated recorded music became the foundation of what modern radio is today.
Please excuse me here, because I’m off topic, but I want to go on about how powerfully influential this one single man, my friend Jon’s father, was. He didn’t just play records…he hosted them. He introduced artists, told stories, and shaped the mood. This blend of curation and personality became the blueprint for every DJ who followed. But his influence didn’t stop there…he integrated music across racial lines. He was one of the few white broadcasters in LA who regularly played both white and Black musicians. He even served as Vice-President of the Inter-Racial Film and Radio Guild, pushing for more equitable representation in entertainment. But Jon being who he was, never talked about his Dad with me. It was only years later that I learned about the impact his father had long after he and Jon had both passed.
Back to the souffle. Given the time I had spent in New York at some pretty amazing restaurants I never had a souffle. I don’t want to go all ‘Stanley Tucci’ about it being life changing but I have to say that this dessert had a huge impact on me only to surface years later. You have to know that at this time I had no interest nor inclination to become a Chef or have my own restaurant someday but this experience found a place deep in my conscience.
Jump ahead to Bistro 201 which I created as a bit of a celebration of both American and French classics. When developing the menu, I recalled this souffle and spent a week or so working on developing a recipe that was both delicious but one that could be produced consistently in volume. I was pleased that restaurant reviewer Max Jacobsen of the LA Times said in his review titled “A Trip From Stark to Chic to Exotic : From Bistro 201’s outside to its inside to its food, David Wilhelm goes upscale with a vengeance in Irvine” that it was “a masterful souffle made from Belgian chocolate that explodes with chocolatey richness in your mouth.”
When I opened French 75 it was only natural to feature this as my signature dessert and I devoted one small station and oven in the pantry that produced only this dessert. But, it was surprising to me when guests at my two Taverns started asking if I would ever consider offering it on the menu. None of my managers or chefs had ever tasted my souffle but, perhaps their curiosity about all the guest requests finally convinced me to add it to our dessert menus. Or maybe it was simply their curiosity to taste its reported explosion of ‘chocolate richness in your mouth’ that convinced me to acquiesce.
In any case….I consider it a win, win.
Thanks for listening…
David & Tino (who will never be allowed to taste chocolate)
