We stand in another line at Helena's Hawaiian Food, often said to serve the best plate lunches in Honolulu, where Choi is treated like a movie star by a California newscaster who frequents Kogi and I am drawn into an argument about the best hand-pulled noodles in the San Gabriel Valley.
‘Do you say “osay” or “oxay”?’ Well, the most important thing is to talk about it in the first place!” (It’s “osay.”).LEFT: Pressing grapes at Domaine Dandelion; RIGHT: Aging wine at Domaine de Cassiopé.. Cedric Angeles.
Natural is the new (and old) normal.A couple miles down the road from Paquet, Morgane Seuillot and Christian Knott of Domaine Dandelion organically farm a little under 10 acres of vines, working with horses as much as possible.(The horses, Safran and Reine, were Seuillot’s father’s team until he passed away in 2022.)
“The soil is definitely less compacted if you use horses,” Seuillot said, as we tasted the wines at her and Knott’s kitchen table.“If you stick your hand in the ground, it’s soft and fluffy, not dense and hard.”.
Ironically, the older generation in the Hautes Côtes is the one accustomed to farming with herbicides and chemical fertilizers, often regarding organic and biodynamic practices with some suspicion.
Seuillot grows favas and peas for ground cover between her vines, which help with the soil’s nitrogen content."My dad was always saying, 'It's a hard life.'".
Before landing on cooking, she contemplated becoming an optometrist, physical therapist, orthopedic surgeon, and accountant."I tried to fight it as best as I could, not to be a chef," she says.
But she was cooking all the time.. "My sister just told me, 'Face your destiny,'" she says."And then I did.