Le Meritage
As guests enter the Maison Dupuy Hotel in New Orleans’ French Quarter, they’re greeted by sometimes larger than life images of dancing girls and frolicking chanteuses in a French bistro setting…complete with the full cast of characters a Parisian cabaret in the late 1800s would attract. Although quite striking, the colorful Toulouse-Lautrec-styled murals covering most of the walls in the hotel bar and adjacent corridors are just a visual appetizer for what lies ahead.
The real drama takes place in the hotel’s restaurant, Le Meritage, where newly arrived Executive Chef Michael Farrell presides over the kitchen’s culinary artistry.
Over the months preceding the hotel restaurant’s grand re-opening (it was formerly Dominique’s) in early March, General Manager Morty Valldejuli launched a national search for a new executive chef after announcing the hotel’s restaurant was making a change in its dining concept.
The new menu follows the lead of its sister hotel, Boston Harbor, featuring fresh seasonal cuisine offered in both small and large plates paired with suggested wines by the glass, available in either full or half pours, allowing patrons the opportunity to taste a variety of wines and dishes at one seating.
The wines are divided into six different categories such as light whites, fruity reds and spicy-earthy reds with a variety of suggested dishes for pairing.
For Farrell, the opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time. He and his wife, who is a New Orleans native, were living in Colorado and trying to move back to New Orleans when he got word of the position he believed would suit him perfectly.
He had to fly to Boston to interview with hotel executives where Maison Dupuy’s sister property was located.
“I interviewed, and was asked to cook and prepare a tasting,” said Farrell. After returning to Colorado, he was summoned back to Boston for more intense interviews with the hotel’s owners and to again showcase his cooking skills.
It was a wonderful fit and Farrell and his family moved to New Orleans. “I’ve always loved this city and want to be a part of the rebuilding,” he said. Farrell has been coming to the city for fun and food, and to attend Jazzfest for nearly twenty-five years.
A native of Virginia, Farrell grew up on a horse farm close to Charlottesville and near the Blue Ridge Mountains. “My mom and dad entertained a lot,” he said. “We had a huge garden with corn for feed as well as for food.”
Depending on the season, he and his four older brothers and sisters would gather all kinds of fresh vegetables including tomatoes, onions, potatoes, lettuces, radishes, beets and more for his parents’ dinners. “You name it, we grew it,” he said. Farrell also hunted game birds, bringing home the bounty to share at dinner.
“My mom’s a wonderful chef,” said Farrell, who used to help out in the family kitchen. “I developed a love for food at a very young age.” He still remembers the aromas of his Mom’s herb-seared beef tenderloin and pecan pie.
His first cooking job was at his parents’ country club as a prep cook. From the very beginning, Farrell was always fascinated by the art he saw in the kitchen.
“I have always connected with chefs and how they’re creating art forms in the kitchen,” said Farrell, “not just to look at, but to smell and taste and touch, utilizing all the senses.”
Farrell, who clearly enjoys his work, said, “I’ve never done anything else. I knew from a very young age that this is what I wanted to do with my life.”
He worked summers and after classes, during both high school and college, and had already served as a lead line chef and sous chef by the time he was nineteen or twenty.
After studying business administration at a nearby college, Farrell announced to this parents that he was going to pursue his true passion, a cooking career.
“They were very supportive,” he said. “They have always been very proud of me and stood behind me. I am very lucky.”
“It’s really amazing, he said. “You have to really want to be a chef. The hours are crazy. You can work maybe six days a week, a minimum of twelve-hour days, and you have to work on holidays and weekends … that may be the hardest part. It’s difficult to do this year after year and not burn out, but chefs who love the work continue to have fresh ideas and positive attitudes and the ability to motivate others.”
In 1990, he moved to Colorado where he worked as a chef at several ski resorts.
Farrell wanted to expand his horizons—and probably his sports skills as well—because his next chef’s position took him to the Virgin Islands where he worked on a 73-foot yacht, “Wanderlust.”
“I was preparing three meals a day for a crew of eight and twelve guests,” he said.
“We sailed all over the Caribbean and would stop in different ports to refresh the supplies. The ships coolers were very small and sometimes it was difficult to get fresh produce. It was one of the toughest jobs I’ve ever had.”
He loved the ocean, but after a year or so of scuba diving and beautiful seas, he returned to Colorado, this time to Denver to take on the responsibility of executive chef at the renowned Castle Pines Country Club, one of the country’s top private clubs and a stop on the PGA tour.
“They were interviewing chefs from all over the country,” said Farrell. “They wanted to serve food at the club that was as good as any restaurant in the state. I considered it a challenge.”
It was a fantastic experience, but after four years, Farrell decided to move on. “I was hired away to open a new country club in Las Vegas,” he said.
Farrell loved the job but didn’t care much for living in Las Vegas so after three years, he went back to the east coast, this time to Nantucket where he had friends and his brother lived there.
He saw an opportunity to purchase a very highly regarded restaurant there, the Summerhouse. “It was very hard work,” he said. “Very seasonal…. The peak season was July 4 to Labor Day.
“We’d open in mid-May and close in mid-October,” he continued, “so we had six months to make a year’s worth of revenue.” Farrell did exceptionally well in the half year he was open, serving two hundred people nightly. He also did extremely well in the other six months because that’s when he would travel, scuba diving in Hawaii, skiing in Colorado, and revisiting New Orleans.
In season, Farrell participated in the annual Nantucket Wine Festival, presenting wine dinners and cooking seminars. During the fifth year he was involved, he met his future wife, Gina Ciolino, a New Orleans girl who owned a home on Nantucket. The couple was married in 2005.
Farrell sold the restaurant and he and Gina moved to Colorado where he was named to the executive chef position at Alto, a hot new Denver supper club. The couple really wanted to come to New Orleans, so when he heard about the Le Meritage position several years later, it seemed to present the perfect opportunity.
That idea worked both ways. “I knew he was the guy the very first time I met him in person,” said Valldejuli.
“I don’t plan on ever leaving here,” said Farrell. “I feel like I’m home.”
Diners will find the same sort of comfort—and delight—when they experience Chef Farrell’s cooking.
For example, dishes prepared to match with Champagne or sparkling wine, include P & J oysters on the half shell with a horseradish and citrus zest, a jumbo lump crabcake with added crawfish and Creole seasoning and a smoked salmon Napoleon with caviar and a crunchy parmesan crisp.
Dishes like pan-roasted red drum with fried green tomatoes; Gulf shrimp and grits; and an apple, goat cheese, toasted pine nut salad with a grapefruit vinaigrette, are paired with light white wines like Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio.
Another set of specialties—corn and crab bisque, rabbit tenderloin and diver sea scallops—are recommended with more full-bodied whites like Chardonnay.
Creations recognized as harmonious with fruity reds such as Pinot Noir and Chianti Classico include tuna tartar with avocado, sesame and spicy aioli. Other selections are black grouper with quinoa and Pinot Noir butter; and duck two ways, featuring foie gras, duck breast, and fig compote.
Spicy, earthy reds such as Riojas, Rhones and Zinfandel call for dishes like Chef Farrell’s grilled quail with andouille and corn meal stuffing, molasses pork tenderloin and flat iron steak.
Meat preparations often demand a heavier, fuller bodied wine so Chef Farrell had just the right wine pairings in mind for braised short ribs, savory lamb chops and grilled beef filet; Argentine Malbec, Washington State Merlot and California Cabernet Sauvignon.
Guests can choose a small or entrée size portion of any dish on the menu and as well as a half or full-sized pour of the selected wine.
In addition, the expanded wine list offers more than five hundred labels by the bottle, many of which are stunners from some of the most sought after vintages and wineries.
With Farrell in place at Le Meritage, and the hotel recently completing a highly successful third annual French Quarter Wine Festival last month, Valldejuli feels he’s found the right chef for the right time, and apparently, so do New Orleans’ diners.
Le Meritage, Maison Dupuy Hotel 1001 Rue Toulouse New Orleans, La. (504) 586-8000 www.lemeritagerestaurant.com Tuesday—Saturday, 6 pm–10 pm. Reservations suggested. On-site parking available. Most cards accepted.