Chapter 26: Playing Princess - Dave

I was surrounded by lovely ladies as we headed downstairs to the restaurant. Michelle looked quite amazing, an incredible change from this morning. My sister was her beautiful self, and Cindy looked radiant in her purple dress, and Missy... What could I say? I felt like the luckiest guy in the world as I walked with my beautiful girlfriend on my arm. She looked incredible in the dress. Missy was always pretty, as much as she liked to put herself down, but she didn't usually dress in ways that accentuated her natural beauty. When she really went all out and turned it on, she looked amazing. Of course, I don't just like her only because she is beautiful, because there are many pretty girls in the world. She's a brilliant, sweet girl, who is almost too nice for this world, but tonight, her beauty just captivated me. I'm so glad that we've finally gotten together. I really think that I owe Jess a lot for what she's done. I know that a lot of the changes that helped me really notice Missy of late were because of my sister. Some of them were likely things that she just does without paying much attention to it, but at the same time, in a lot of ways, Jess has been trying hard to get us together for some time, even before the trip.

I stopped by to talk to the concierge briefly before we headed to the restaurant. Tables in the casino usually required reservations on busy evenings, and I wanted to make sure we were all set up. As I chatted with him, I mentioned that it was too bad they didn't have poker tables at the casino, and he raised an eyebrow. "Monsieur, there is, how do you say, a tournament tonight?"

I leaned forward at this, "What kind of tournament?" This was surprising, but I knew that the Casino had hosted some WPT events in the past.

"It is a... high stakes tournament. I believe there are fifty people total and it is 10,000 EUR to enter. There were a few spots available the last time I checked," he said. Hmm, this was certainly interesting.

"Sign us up for two spots, if you would be so kind," I said, giving him my name and my sister's name, and he nodded. I rejoined the party and we headed down to Louis XV.

"Looks like I got us a poker gig tonight, babe," I said to Jess, as we walked. She looked at me, and burst into a big smile.

"I thought you said they didn't have it here?" Jess asked.

"It's a tournament, 10k buy in. I figured you'd be down," I said.

"Oh hell yeah," Jess said. "So when we go heads up at the end, how do you want to do it?" she asked, with great confidence.

"I figure we can go heads up, then split the money later. You know you can never out-bluff me though, sis, I can read you like a book," I smiled.

Jess snorted, "We'll see bro, we'll see."

We came to the entrance to the restaurant Louis XV, one of Alain Ducasse's masterpieces and arguably the best restaurant in the world. The concierge had informed me that Chef Ducasse was cooking tonight, and he escorted us to a table near a window with a beautiful view of the sea. Louis XV is decorated in the style of Versailles, gilded panels everywhere, and the room was almost blindingly bright. Our table sat in front of a magnificent large scale painting and next to an antique grandfather clock that looked like Louis XIV could have used it to tell the time.

I'd dined at Louis XV before, and I think Missy told me she had as well, but the others were amazed at the décor and refinement of the restaurant. While the room wasn't overly large, the ceilings were extremely high, by my eye, at least twenty feet if not more. The gold inlaid mirrors that were scattered throughout the room were a nice reminder of the splendor of Versailles, and the effect was slightly overwhelming. All of the servers were in black tie, and the tablecloth at our table was white with gold trim. The head waiter for our table introduced himself as André, and he brought us a wonderful light Chardonnay to start, along with a classic Mediterranean starter of olive halves served on unleavened bread that was dipped in olive oil. The olives were amazingly flavorful and I really enjoyed the starter. The mildness and fruit of the Chardonnay was the perfect compliment to the rich and salty olives. Michelle sipped at her wine experimentally, and a smile broke out on her face as she took a bigger sip. "Be careful with that, young lady," Missy said. "We don't want you getting drunk," Michelle nodded.

Michelle's eyes were dreamy as she took in the surroundings. She turned to me, "You didn't go to all this trouble for me, did you?" she asked, with a shy smile.

"Of course I did," I said, with a grin. "Only the best for our little princess," I said, teasingly. She gave me a strange look that quickly disappeared into a blush and she looked downward, embarrassed. Sometimes it was hard to remember that she was only fifteen.

"Dave is just teasing you," Missy said, smiling at Michelle and putting a dainty hand on top of Michelle's. This drew what I now recognized as one of her thousand-watt smiles. The young girl didn't hide her feelings or emotions one bit, and I mentally sighed a bit at her innocence and lust for life. I hoped she kept that quality with her as she matured. It is always sad to see sweet young girls become cynical and materialistic. I guess that's just the way the world works. I'm so lucky to have found Missy who seems to be as sweet as any 12 year old would be.

The waiter interrupted my personal reverie by bringing small dishes of soup. It appeared to be a bouillon with small pieces of grouse, thinly sliced sautéed red onion, and bow-tie pasta floating atop, garnished with shavings of black truffles. It was marvelously smooth and incredibly rich for such an apparently thin soup. I later found out that this soup was made from pheasant stock that had been prepared over the course of several days. Amazing. Michelle attacked her soup with undisguised gusto, and I smiled. Missy gave her a look and she began to eat her soup in a more ladylike fashion, and Jess laughed.

All of a sudden, a mild commotion arose from the diners, as Alain Ducasse strode from the kitchens and came to our table. I had met Ducasse a few times at his restaurants and we'd had dinner together along with some of the people from Concierge, but we hardly ran in similar circles. I was surprised to see him walk up to me and extend a hand and a friendly greeting. "David!" he said, clasping my hand warmly. "So good of you to visit us," Although not a particularly imposing man physically, the force of his personality and reputation were quite intimidating and even my loquacious sister had nothing to say as the master chef stood in front of our table. Ducasse looked at me reprovingly, "David, you've been holding out on us, who are all these lovely ladies? And four of them? Perhaps you live up to your formidable reputation after all, no?" he said in a charming manner. The girls ate it up, giving him lovely smiles.

"I believe some introductions are in order," I said. "Monsieur Ducasse, of course, needs no introduction. He is, simply put, the greatest chef of our generation," I continued, to which Ducasse modestly waved his hand in a self-deprecating manner. "This is my lovely sister, Jessica," I said, gesturing to Jess, "And her beautiful friend, Cindy James." Ducasse bowed. "This young lady is Michelle Maxwell. I believe you are acquainted with her cousin, Ryan,"

Ducasse raised an eyebrow at this. "Your cousin is a great man, of course, but I certainly did not know he had such beautiful relatives," Michelle blushed prettily and thanked him.

"Last but certainly not least, this is my beautiful girlfriend Melissa," taking Missy's hand.

Missy smiled at me, "Alain and I are old friends, aren't we?" she said, looking at Ducasse.

"But of course, my dear," he said. "How is your father? It's been far too long,"

"Good, as usual. We'll be meeting up with him in Como in a few weeks," Missy said conversationally.

"Well, give him my best," said Ducasse, turning. "Thank you all for coming to my humble abode," he said. "I believe we may have a few surprises for you yet," he said, with a wry grin, "Even for you, perhaps," he said to Missy, as he walked back to the kitchen. The other guests in the restaurant stared, wondering how we had gotten so much time with Ducasse.

"My father is good friends with Alain," Missy said, and we all marveled at that. "He was once in the restaurant business, himself. He's very close to Thomas Keller, and they once owned a restaurant together," she explained. None of the other girls even knew who Keller was, but they accepted her explanation. My regard for Phillip Davidson had just increased somewhat. The man was clearly full of surprises. "How do you know Alain, Dave?" Missy asked.

"I've been involved with Concierge quite a bit. I'll likely be accepting a position with them in the next few weeks," I said, not elaborating, and they nodded.

"Are you close to Ryan?" Michelle asked.

"We're friendly," I said. "The relationship isn't this simple, but you could say that Ryan Maxwell is my boss, of sorts," I added. "I've more or less been working directly for him in my projects with Concierge." Michelle nodded. She didn't know that much about what her cousin did, but she did know that he was quite important.

The next course arrived, and although we were still deep in appetizer territory, it was clear that Ducasse had broken out the big guns. It was a spring salad, with a yogurt dressing that was embedded with what looked like an enormous amount of black truffle, and there was a whole black truffle sliced up amidst the greens. It was heavenly. I was a huge fan of truffles, and when I was in Europe during truffle season, I made it a point to have them as often as possible. Besides Missy, it was clear that most of the others had never had them, and they ate their salad without too much initial interest. After a few bites, they looked up, shocked. The delicate, earthy flavor of the truffles made a simple, but superb salad into something much more complex and wonderful.

Next up, of course, was a foie gras dish, and Alain outdid himself with this creation. First off, 1990 D'Yquem in brandy sniffers (an interesting choice) followed by sizzling pieces of foie gras garnished with sliced truffles, in an olive oil base, of course. Between the incredible Sauternes and the delicate goose liver, the flavors were utterly amazing. I wasn't sure how he managed to get the pieces of foie gras so creamy and smooth while retaining all of their original flavor, and the truffles just complemented the main event. Even a mediocre vintage of d'Yquem is great, and 1990 was one of the best. I wasn't sure how the winemakers at Chateau d'Yquem got the wine to taste like coconuts, pineapples, and apricots, but those flavors and more erupted from the thick golden nectar.