Chef L Culinary
Chefs Eric and Laura Lee
Chef Eric Lee
- Culinary Institute of America, 1992
- Sous Chef to Cindy Pawlcyn, Buckeye Roadhouse
- Executive Chef, Simi Winery
- Chef for Apple
- Finalist, The Next Food Network Star
- WSET Level 2 wine certification
Chef Laura Lee
- Chef de Cuisine, Simi Winery
- Executive Chef, Signorello Vineyards
- Chef Instructor, Napa Valley Cooking School
- Chef Instructor, CIA at Copia
- Restaurateur, Carmel-by-the-Sea
- WSET Level 2 wine certification
Chef Eric Lee trained at the Culinary Institute of America, cooked under Cindy Pawlcyn, ran the kitchen at Simi Winery and cooked for Apple before The Next Food Network Star put him in front of a national audience. Chef Laura Lee built the food and wine pairing program at Signorello Vineyards, taught at the Napa Valley Cooking School and the CIA at Copia, and ran restaurants of her own in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The wineries of Sonoma and Napa have called on this pairing team for over twenty years. Experience their remarkable cuisine here at Duchamp, on a rooftop above Healdsburg.
At Duchamp, Chef L dinners are served at the chef's counter, The King's Table or in The Living Room, by advance reservation only. See Private Fine Dining at Duchamp
The Food & Wine Pairing Dinner
Ever opened a good bottle of wine, taken a bite of dinner, and wondered where the wine went? Over a guided multi-course meal at the chef's counter, you will taste each wine against salt, sweetness and umami, and learn why a dish changes the wine in your glass, and then watch Chef L put it back in balance. You leave with their pairing guide and a palate you trust. Twenty years of teaching this, distilled down to one evening. Wine is included.
Eric and Laura teach pairing the way a chef sees it: the wine is the constant and the plate is what you can change. Over dinner you learn the five tastes, salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami, and how they differ from flavor, which shifts with mood, company and the last thing you ate. Then comes the part most people never hear. Salt and acid make a wine taste softer, fruitier and less tannic. Sweetness, bitterness and umami make it taste drier, sharper and more tannic. Once you know that, you can fix a dish that fights the wine, and you will do exactly that at the counter, tasting, adjusting and tasting again until the wine holds steady.
You learn to match by weight and structure rather than flavor: light with light, robust with robust, and why a delicate scallop vanishes beside a Cabernet. You learn that proteins are neutral and cooking method sets the power, moving up from poach to sauté to grill to braise. You learn why the sauce is the bridge, why heat wants a touch of sweetness rather than tannin, and why a dessert wine must always be sweeter than the dessert beside it.
Wine is included. You leave with their pairing guide, the same one they hand to winery staff, and a palate you trust.
The Aroma Sensory Experience
For guests who want to go deeper. A blind aroma session with the Le Nez du Vin kit, a conversation about how aromas find their way into wine through grape, fermentation, oak and time, then a multi-course paired dinner. Wine lovers of every level welcome.
The session is built around Le Nez du Vin, the master set of 54 isolated wine aromas developed by Jean Lenoir. Working blind, you smell and name each one before you see the label: blackcurrant, cut hay, toast, honey, wet stone. It is harder than it sounds, and after a dozen vials you start to trust your nose over your assumptions. Along the way Eric and Laura trace where each aroma comes from: the grape variety, the fermentation, the oak, the years in bottle, and the terroir underneath all of it. You also learn why olfactory memory is so personal, and how to use your own associations to taste with more confidence.
The evening closes with a four-course plated dinner, each course paired to a wine chosen to show what you have just learned. Eric and Laura have run this session for winery members and private groups, including at Mauritson in Dry Creek Valley. Wine lovers of every level are welcome, and the ones who arrive most skeptical usually leave with the longest notes.
A Private Dinner, Simply
Prefer to skip the lesson? Chefs Eric and Laura also cook a multi-course plated dinner with no curriculum at all, built around your preferences. Their chef's table format, a run of shareable seasonal plates, is a natural fit for larger parties at The King's Table or in The Living Room.
Hands-on cooking classes for:
- Appetizers for All Occasions
- Hands-On Chocolate Bon-Bon Making Class
- Cheese Making and Lunch
- Gnocchi with Three Sauces and Seasonal Salad
Guests Say
“The best private dining experience we have ever had.”
“He made us a ten-course meal fit for royalty. Five stars are not enough.”
“Elevated, intimate, and luxurious without ever feeling impersonal.”
Reservations for all private fine dining and culinary experiences are subject to the chefs' availability and must be made well in advance of your arrival. For more information, and to start planning your experience today, call our front desk for concierge assistance at 707-431-1300. Four to six weeks' advance notice is suggested.
