Scott Spencer's House, Piedmont

I have probably bragged to most of you that my buddy Scott catered my BBQ a little while ago for only $2.50 per person, and that the food was amazing. Well, he is now currently working at Town Hall in San Francisco and decided to spend some of his newly earned money on his friends, cooking a five course meal for eight of us.

As I told Scott, I wouldn't be writing him up in my blog if I wasn't impressed with his food. Instead, I'd just continue reviewing some of the other restaurants I've eaten at and not mention him. Scott really is that good.

In exchange for all of us bringing wine, the occasion being for our friend Kranzthor's last night living in the East Bay, Patton and I showed up at Scott's house in Piedmont at around 7:15. He had already been hard at work all day, planning, prepping, and re-planning our menu. The focus was going to be on using the highest quality ingredients, cooking them perfectly, and arranging them beautifully. I am getting increasingly angry at myself for not bringing a camera to this meal.

All eight of us sat down and took turns playing waiter, bringing in food from the kitchen while Scott cooked. Our first course was two mini-courses. The first that I will describe was an heirloom tomato and watermelon salad with honey champagne vinaigrette. When Scott first told me about this combination, I was really, really skeptical. And wrongly so.

Two ripe heirloom tomato slices, fresh from Scott's garden, were cut into squares and stacked with two slices of sweet, crunchy watermelon of identical size and shape. The green vinaigrette was drizzled lightly on top. Again, reading this you might be doubtful, but somehow the two textures and flavors melded perfectly; the sweetness of the watermelon enhanced the tomato's flavor, and the crunchy watermelon texture contrasted with the tomato's firmness. I couldn't stop eating it, despite the fresh hamachi tuna that sat next to it on my plate.

The hamachi tuna, flown in fresh from Japan that morning, was cut sashimi-style and topped with a smoked salmon beurre blanc flambe. It was my turn to play waiter during that course, so I got to see Scott take a torch and lightly brown the top of the sauce.

The tuna was melt-in-your-mouth good. It had a smooth, sweet but savory taste that one can only understand after having ridiculously fresh fish. The sauce was smooth and tasted strongly of smoked salmon. My only critique on this dish is that I would have liked to have had less sauce on the fish. The two flavors worked together nicely, so I wouldn't want to get rid of all of the sauce, but I would have liked to have had just a dot of it. That way, the salmon flavor would have enhanced the fish and allowed us to really taste the tuna.

Next on the menu was salt and pepper calamari with a fresh tomato and kaffir lime leaf cocktail sauce. My only complaint was that this was on the menu. I do like calamari, but it didn't exactly fit in with the whole feel of the meal. Fresh grilled squid would have fit in fine, but unfortunately, fried calamari was a request by our guest of honor. Needless to say, Scott was up to the challenge of cooking Kranzthor's favorite food. The calamari was lightly dusted in flour and nicely seasoned with salt and pepper. The tomato cocktail sauce had a great kick to it and a really unique flavor from the kaffir lime leaves.

Our third course was one of my favorites: a roasted heirloom tomato tart with caramelized onions, garlic confit, and basil sauce. The tart was very buttery and flaky, one of my favorite textures. Scott said he had been roasting the tomatoes all day, and it showed. They were rich, garlicky, and delicious. Patton doesn't even like onions, but I noticed that she scarfed down her tart just like the rest of us!

My favorite course, however, was the main course--the duck. I've said many times how the only duck I will eat is the Chinese-style roast duck. On Thursday night I added a second duck to my list. The duck breast was seared and served on a bed of baby carrots, artichokes, and green beans with a port and dried cherry mustardo.

Since the duck breast was seared, it stayed very moist. The meat was tender and the skin kept crunchy with just the right amount of fat on it. I thought that the vegetables that Scott chose to prepare it with were also cooked perfectly, and I liked the selection. In many restaurants, I have seen duck served on a bed of spinach, which completely ruins the flavor of the duck and makes the skin soggy.

In this case, the vegetables were lightly cooked, still crunchy, and very colorful. The thing that pulled everything together was the sauce. At first it tasted a lot like hoisin (Chinese plum sauce) sauce, which I have always loved on duck. But then, after another bite, I tasted the tartness of the dried cherries, which just added even more to the flavor. I liked the sauce so much that I even took my vegetables and started dipping them into it.

Our last course was dessert, which was a nilla wafer bread pudding with root beer syrup (homemade!) and homemade vanilla ice cream. This, as with all of the other courses, was delicious. I usually don't even like bread pudding, but this was great! As I shoveled mine into my mouth at record pace I began to get a little embarrassed until I looked around and noticed that everyone else was doing the same thing.

Now here comes the fun part. You can get Scott to cater for you, too! He's the self-proclaimed cheapest caterer/chef in the Bay Area (I can attest to that), who cares more about the integrity of the food and honing his skills than taking your money.

Scott is great at discussing menus and figuring out what works for his client (i.e., "I don't want to spend a lot of money but I want gourmet food." --me). He can be reached via email: mrspencer@gmail.com, but it's probably easier just to call him at (510) 301-2130.