Excerpt from Cross Currents , Karen Brucoli Anesi, food critic:
" Chez Grand-mère, Durango's country French restaurant with classic good taste, looks like what you'd expect to see at Grandma's house: feminine, crocheted window treatment, tiny print wallpaper and eclectic china on white-starched tablecloths. Hutches and antique, oak sideboards and cabinets hold sweet sugar bowls and creamers. And this diminutive doll house is well hidden, tucked away in Rio Grande Land (near the railroad station) behind the Polo-Ralph Lauren Factory Store and the Gaslight Theater.
The comparison with grandma's house and just about every other restaurant in the Four Corners stops there. The standard of dining at Chez Grand-mère is in a class by itself. The chef's credentials and international experience explain why...
Durango offered him a chance to showcase his talents in his own restaurant. So, less than a year ago he fashioned the interior of what was a bakery into a cozy enclave where diners could leisurely enjoy fine food, European style. This is food that woos the senses, so beautiful and aromatic that it is tasted with the eyes and nose long before the first forkful ever meets the mouth.
A seven-coarse dinner enjoyed New Year's Eve at Chez Grand-mère highlighted what the French are famous for and what grandma might have mastered if she had been versed in classic French cuisine: the sauces. And it was the sauce, too, in a recent lunch entrée, beef medallions with a green peppercorn sauce, that got the top billing at our table. A salmon with oyster sauce shared the same impressive side dishes: kinoa-pilaf style, carrots and green beans sautéed with garlic and shallots and whipped acorn squash, flawlessly seasoned.
It is hard to say what coarse in the seven-coarse New Year's Eve dinner was tops, but high on the list would be the Maine lobster raviole with forest mushrooms or the appetizer: a classic, warm foie gras madeira with Truffles. the truffles were sparce but the madeira sauced foie gras was splendid. This duck liver combined with goose was attractively sliced and served with a Château Suiduiraut (a sweet sauterne), a surprising but excellent wine served with the appetizer. The Maine lobster raviole was almost comically oversized but so aromatic and beautifully garnished that it was the surprise of the night. The white sauce looked buttery rich, but, instead, it was a light, whipped veloute. The lobster was tender, and the pasta pocket enclosing the delicacy was cooked al dente.
The dinner opened with a Beluga caviar and gravlax of salmon served with a dill sauce and toast points. It was well presented but unexceptional. The same goes for the hearts of palm salad with an olive oil based creamy dressing. I'm guessing the caribou was farm-raised and corn-fed because it was as tender as any beef filet I've ever tried, without a trace of gaminess or evidence of muscle fiber. Served in an eigre doux, a red wine, herb, and red wine vinegar reduction, this main entree was garnished with a pared roasted potato, a single baby carrot and a root vegetable known as salsify, which closely resembles a daikon radish in size but tastes like a cross between a young potato and asparagus. The filet of John Dory Normande, the fish, was presented with a white sauce and slices of tart apple and Calvados brandy. You'll recognize John Dory, sometimes called St. Pierre, as the fish in the bouillabaisse. It's ugly but meaty and turbot-like. The boneless filet was rolled tight between two layers of puff pastry.A rolling cart of desserts offered more than a half-dozen impressive confections. I'm not ashamed to say that I had a chance to sample all of them. The least appealing on the cart rated a nine on a scale of ten."
