This chef has great taste! Chef tasting with wine pairing at Via Matta

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of dining with one of the most kind people I know. My friend Katie and I were out for dinner to celebrate my new job, working together and great news in her life as well. Katie was one of my companions at Erbaluce a few posts back so she and I have now had two extremely enjoyable dining experiences in a row in Boston.

This experience was at Via Matta in Back Bay, about a 3-minute walk from Erbaluce. I had never been to this restaurant, but I have been itching to go for a while, granted there was no urgency on my part because I hadn’t heard much about it.

We arrived and decided the dimly lit, large dining room was perfect for us. Especially since at about 6PM on a Wednesday it was relatively empty but didn’t seem so. As expected, the place filled up within about 20 minutes.

We sat down and ordered drinks to start. Katie ordered a grapefruit fizz and I had a basil lime gimlet. Both drinks were wonderful. I was so pleased to start my meal off with a refreshing lemonade-like drink. Katie and I both agreed that when are entertaining guests in the future we will be sure to make lemonade and add basil into the mix as it made the wonderful citrus flavor shine more than we thought possible.

Katie and I struggled deciding what we wanted because everything on the menu looked like perfection. On top of the menu items, the special gnocci with white truffle made it just about impossible to make a decision. Right as we were about to order, Katie spotted the chef’s tasting and, after we asked a few questions of our waiter Petar and shared our preferences, we decided to go all in and do the 6-course tasting along with supplemental wine pairings.

Surprisingly, a pre-course came to our table to start off what we knew would be a long night of eating, drinking, laughing and chatting. This pre-course was what Petar called an “Oyster shell” filled with salmon, sunchokes and ham. It was a beautiful plating arrangement and the simplicity of the tastes were a great way to start the meal. We were also given prosecco to go with our first dish, but we had some with the pre-course and it went well with that as well.

Our first course was tuna carpaccio with pickled sun chokes, pine nuts and crispy pancetta. The mixture of textures of the pickled sunchokes, pine nuts and the pancetta were perfect against the smooth delicacy of the tuna. The salty, nutty, sour and smooth flavors had my tongue dancing. The prosecco was a wonderful combination with this as well. It was perfect bring you back to square one between bites, so you could go on the roller coaster ride of flavors and textures with the next bite.

Along with the tuna, we were presented with oysters with a lime and pickled watermelon rind topping. As you know from my posts about East Dennis Oysters, I love love love oysters. These were Welfleet Oysters, they were good, but the topping was so refreshing and unique and is the main memory I have rather than that actual oyster. I’d love to have that combination again in a half dozen spread so I could enjoy it for a bit longer.

Next came Tocai wine that is also known as Fruili as it comes from Italy. This wine was paired perfectly with two dishes in the next course. The two dishes were a burrata with smoked figs wrapped in speck and a homemade prosciutto with arugula, peppers and a crispy egg.

The burrata knocked us out of our chairs. All of the dishes of the night were pretty amazing, but this was the only one that we truly were floored by. The combination of the sweetness of the fig, the smoked flavor along with the saltiness of the speck was out of control in itself. But, then you combine that with freshly made burratta, it was not even fair. We were both speechless, which if you know me you know to shut me up is about impossible and Katie is a chatty Cathy just like me. So it was shock to anyone that was around us that there was a moment of silence. The experience was well work the moment of acknowledgement of the amazing combination of flavors that were concocted for us.

The poor prosciutto had no chance when it was served at the same time. It was very good, but  it was overshadowed completely. The crispy egg was really cool because it was lightly breaded and flash-fried so the outside resembled a hard boiled egg but on the inside the yolk was still runny and wonderful. One thing I would have changed would have been that I would have asked the chef to slice the meat a bit more thinly, it was a bit overpowering at the thickness that was served.

Our fourth course came with a wine that was a combination of Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. It was called Trelaner (or something like that). I’m having a hard time finding it online, so I’m assuming I got the name wrong. I usually dislike Chardonnay in general, the creamy, oaky, perfumy elements don’t please me. However, this wine was wonderful, it may have been that the other two blends muted the elements of Chardonnay that I usually turn up my nose to, but it was a wonderful surprise.

The wine was served with two pasta dishes. One was osso buco agnolotti with a lemon, horseradish and the osso bucco broth sauce.  In the image you can see little cubes that look like cheese, but those are the pieces of horseradish. I’d never had those flavors together and they were genius! The agnolotti was the perfect selection for these flavors because they are like an open sided ravioli so the sauce infiltrates the inside of the little pocket of goodness that made the meat inside that much more yummy!

The second pasta dish was pappardelle with wild boar, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. This dish was a nice counter to the other pasta dish because it was lighter and it had a subtle meat and mushroom flavor, but the pasta itself was the star. Pappardelle is one of my favorite types of pasta, so I knew I’d be a happy camper after this course.

Next came a Baretto wine that we were told pairs wonderfully with salmon upon being served our glasses, so we naturally assumed salmon was on its way.

We were presented with two gorgeous seafood plates. As expected, one was a salmon dish, that had a perfect sear on the salmon skin, served on top of lentils and creme fraiche with a pomegrante foam. The silky salmon and the hearty lentils paired together nicely. The foam was a cool visual element, but I didn’t think the flavor came through much. Probably because of the weight and potent flavor of the lentils. The purple/pink color from the foam made the plate beautiful.

Monkfish was our other treat from the sea. It was served in a cassoulet dish on top of a chick pea and fish broth base. I think I’ve had monkfish once in the past, but it was not memorable, obviously. The only thing I remember is that it was chewy and tough. This monkfish was tender and delicious. I’m a sucker for chick peas in all preparations so this was a winner with that addition. The greens an orange zest on top helped cut through the inevitable weight chick peas (since they are beans) bring to a dish.

At this point in the meal we started to feel more and more full, but because the dishes were all so great we knew we had to keep trucking along.

Next came lamb with polenta, kale and almonds in a lamb jus. And with that we knew the chef was evil in the best way possible. The lamb was the best lamb I’ve ever had. It was tender, wonderfully pink in the center and full of flavor. I’m a huge fan of kale, so add that and you know I’ll like the dish more. But the polenta was just what you wanted to go along with the meat and veggie. Polenta can sometimes be bland and mushy for the sake of having somethign starchy and mushy on the plate without bringing anything else to the dish, but this was buttery and accented the dish in just the right way. Sadly, Katie and I both were on a very limited amount of stomach space and we knew we had dessert left so we ate half of our plates (this was the first course where we each had a plate of the same food, the others we shared one) and took the rest home.

Wait, before you think I’m done with talking about this course, let me tell you about the bowl of roasted cauliflower that accompanied the lamb dish! Lately, cauliflower is getting the attention it has deserved for years in the restaurant world (at least in Boston). I was always the kid growing that ate all of the “weird” vegetables like brussel sprouts, artichokes, turnips, okra and cauliflower among many others. So when I would eat “white broccoli” my friends thought I was weird. Anyways, I’ve had some amazing cauliflower dishes around the restaurants of Boston over the past few years, the pistachio cauliflower at Market by Jean Georges being one of the best. This tasting had its very own bowl of wonderful cauliflower that was topped simply with Parmesan cheese. The simplicity of the dish and the beautiful carmelization of the vegetable were the perfect way to end the savory elements of our meal. We also took a decent size portion of this side, home in our lamb doggie bag. The two made a great meal the next night before my indoor soccer game, which we lost, but we won’t go there.

We were anticipating a dessert dish that may tip us over the edge but our buddy Petar came out with little dishes containing one scoop of sorbet. If you have gone out to eat with me and I’ve eaten to the point where I’m full (Gram, I know you won’t like this part) which is pretty much every time I go out to eat….you know that all I crave is a small serving of sorbet to settle my stomach. Well, Petar read my mind. A nice little scoop of lemon sorbet was exactly what I wanted and needed. I’m not going to lie the logical part of me thought, after all of that extravagance you serve me a dollop of sorbet to finish off this meal, but I knew it was for the best.

We were ready to start the slow process of getting our stuff together to go and Petar rounded the corner with more dishes! We couldn’t believe it! One dish was their pumpkin bread pudding and the other was homemade dark chocolate cookies with a marscapone dipping sauce and homemade whipped cream.

The pumpkin bread pudding was good, but I thought it was dry. It made it hard to eat because I was already ready for bed.

The cookies and cream on the other hand were amazing and woke me up. I would call them a deconstructed oreo cookie gourmet style. The cookies were light and tasty and the marscapone cheese was like the best filling you could ask for, it was fluffy, creamy and sweet but had a hint of cream cheese taste to cut the sweetness. I LOVE homemade whipped cream, so to top off the open-faced cookie with that, I knew that I had been truly spoiled that night.

If you have something to celebrate, take someone out for a special dinner or just have a solid meal that covers all of the bases, go to Via Matta and get the chef’s tasting. The wine pairing is an additional charge. I don’t think it is necessary to have the specific wines to enjoy the meal, granted it made it that much more fun for us!

We chatted with Petar a great deal during our long stay at Via Matta, we learned all about him going back to school, his winters/springs in Miami and Martha’s Vineyard, and his favorite elements of the restaurant. He also informed us that there is a chef’s tasting option that allows you to go down into the kitchen for your meal so you get to experience the meal very intimately. He was very clear about the fact that the kitchen doesn’t censor itself just because you are down there. You will be on the side of the kitchen at a table listening to the line cooks, dish washers, etc chatting away and dealing with the ups and downs of dinner service.

Of course both Katie and I perked up when he mentioned this option and our eyes twinkled – How amazing would that experience be!? I love a restaurant that leaves me wanting more and itching to come back to try a brand-new experience with them. Via Matta did all of the above.