Brasserie Four: A french Manifesto
Brasserie Four
A French Manifesto
BY ALEX BARROUKTonight’s menu and pairing
Rillettes Porc et de Canard
Pork shoulder & duck breast preserved in lard with juniper berry & sage.
Paired with Pichler-Krutzler “Loiben” 2021 Riesling.
Escargots
Snails broiled with parsley-garlic butter.
Paired with white Burgundy Macon-Vergisson “Sur la Roche” 2020 by Jacques Saumaize.
Moules Frites
Penn Cove mussels with fries, choice of white wine broths: Pernod & garlic or spicy tomato. Paired with Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 'Ste. Claire' 2021.
Cassoulet
Bean stew with duck stock, onions, garlic & herbs, Toulouse sausage, bacon & duck confit. Paired with “Poignée de Raisins” 2021 côtes du rhône by Domaine Gramenon.
Crepe au citron
Paired with Donnhoff Riesling Spatlese 2016
Double espresso
Take a generous amount of rillettes Chef Guillermo Gonzalez patiently concocted with love, add it on top of the exquisitely crusty baguette delivered daily by the Walla Walla Bread Company and voila! It doesn’t take much more than that for Frenchie McFrencherson (moi) to realize there are many synonyms for happiness.
Do you know that French people have an etiquette describing with precision how to savor rillettes and cheese, for instance? You can’t just spread it! I mean, you can… but you’d certainly get the side look of disapproval from my Gallic people. The etiquette requires one to press the treasured delicacy with a single confident hand and knife gesture, performed with very French authority.
Brasserie Four, located in lovely Walla Walla, has come up in many conversations, but I never had a chance to try it until today. It’s funny how, when you come from somewhere else, you can tell just by looking at a menu if a chef has figured out what the heart and soul of your “somewhere else” are about… or if they are using it as a canvas to perform their own interpretation of the cuisine you hold dear.
From the moment I glanced at the menu to the very last bite, Brasserie Four, led by owner Jamie Guerin, hit all the right notes. Chef Guillermo Gonzalez, General Manager Meredith Call, and Wine Director Robert Ames maneuver this ship with a serene attention to details, ensuring all guests are simultaneously receiving and participating in this very convivial and family-like experience. **Insert sigh of pleasure and nostalgia here**.
I'm transported to my hometown. Next table neighbor and Brasserie Four regular, Peggy, confirms: “This is as close to Paris as it gets.” And she knows what she’s talking about—I can tell by the way she makes fun of the very French scarf I’m wearing. She winks. She has the attitude. That’s it. We’re both fluent in Parisian now. **Insert playful and subtly mischievous wink here**.
Guerin, French by name and heart but born, raised and trained in culinary arts in the U.S., keeps the French vibration alive. In the continuity of former owner and Chef Hannah MacDonald, the line is clear: no change. That might sound like a passive statement, but in our culture, it’s quite the opposite. It takes so much work, so much attention to detail, so much love and reverence to a culture to pursue and deliver cuisine bourgeoise with French flair, consistency and stubbornness.
Relish the salty creaminess of the rillettes, the garlicky bite of escargot, the anisette touch elevating the mussels, the earthy and hearty richness of the cassoulet and the delicately tart and zesty gourmandise of the crepe au citron… Brasserie Four’s inspired team captures and generously shares a sense of terroir I have rarely found since I moved to the U.S.
All the Frenchness in me starts getting worked up. I’m reminded that I’m surrounded by “French-inspired” restaurants continuously attempting to reinvent our cuisine and, honestly, I’m annoyed. I wonder… Am I a jerk or am I just French? Admittedly, we are a little elitist and straightforward. Are we just difficult every time we taste an “interpretation” of a French traditional delicacy, or is there actual ground to support a case for our cherished and centuries-old traditions?
In order to weigh in on this critical matter, I have to invoke the spirited opinions of two respected figures. Chef, former owner, and Brasserie Four founder Hannah MacDonald…and my dear friend Chef Carrie. I mean, who in the whole universe is in a better position to discuss Frenchness than someone whose motto is “I resist Mondays.”—French people should have come up with this.
Chef Carrie, a reference when it comes to cultures, cuisine and palate, will tell you that she has no reverence in her own cooking but when it comes to honoring a century-old cuisine culture, honesty is everything. Chefs don’t cook, they expose guests to certain ways of thinking. Understanding and celebrating the cuisine you’re serving, who you’re serving to and what for matters. When she cooks for others, just like other chefs, she becomes an ambassador. If you're calling your place a tapas bar, then serve real tapas. There is nobility in honoring a culture and the gifts its culinary traditions have to teach you.
Chef Carrie continues, “I love watching my kids cook recipes I taught them, like ratatouille, slice vegetables peacefully, and assemble them. Tradition being carried on is beautiful to witness. I’ve just made it once for them but they remember. I put all the love I have in my cooking, and now they do, too.”
It’s like poetry in motion, in textures, in colors and in flavors. When you observe someone working on dough, they put their soul in that dough. Magic can’t happen if you take love out of the process. If us French actually have something to say about love, then why try to interpret it? Brasserie Four pays a vibrant homage to the culture I’m lucky to call mine, and every bite, every interaction, every moment in the restaurant is a little touch of French spice, in “a city so nice, they had to name it twice!”
Chef Hannah MacDonald founded Brasserie Four after years of traveling, tasting, understanding and learning French cuisine and its ancestral techniques. Her vision was to craft traditional French food with beautiful locally sourced and seasonal ingredients in order to offer the most adequate pairing to a vibrant and nascent wine region. What could echo and celebrate a new terroir better than a centuries-old terroir?
Chef Hannah notes that consistency is paved with challenges. Cooking an old recipe the exact same way every single time is no easy task. With Brasserie Four, that was the goal, while embracing seasonal changes.
“We’ve done an excellent job at doing that and when Jamie Guerin took over, he didn't change anything. They’ve done an excellent job at maintaining its integrity.” It’s with profound joy that I say I couldn’t agree more.
One of my favorite parts about the whole experience is a detail some might not notice. While you will see families with kids at Brasserie Four, there’s no kids menu. Only half portions for half the price. When Chef Hannah opened, her son was four and she wanted an approachable and elevated brasserie, where families would be able to dine and children would be able to be part of the experience.
Palate elevation and understanding the beauty of traditionally crafted cuisine is pure magic, and it’s not owed. It’s learned. It takes patience, knowledge, intentionality and character. There’s nothing more beautiful than witnessing taste buds opening up and blossoming into the next generation of dough kneaders, patient stirrers, traditional stew makers and food lovers. For all of you looking for that experience, Brasserie Four is a must-stopover on your culinary journey.
