November 21, 2009
Our weekly blog on the New Orleans fine dining scene
Sep 24, 2009
12:00 AM
Haute Plates
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Bayona

By Jay Forman
Sep 24, 2009 - 12:00 AM
Bayona

Last weekend I had an all-around excellent meal at Bayona and upon leaving had to ask myself why I don’t go there more often. I was surprised to be reminded that it has been around for 18 years as even today it gets mentioned in the same breath as restaurants on the cutting edge.

The restaurant seems both old and new at the same time, partly because of the menu. The left side features the signature dishes, such as Susan Spicer’s Garlic Soup, and the right side gets changed out frequently with such new dishes as an andouille-stuffed rabbit roulade.

In addition, the patio’s charm is timeless, and going into fall, the appeal grows as the weather cools. The dining rooms have undergone renovations, including a cushion-like cladding on some walls that helps mute sound.

I had a unctuous crabmeat, leek and mushroom gratin for an appetizer, which came baked in a flaky puff pasty shell. Another appetizer of seared scallops came with Israeli couscous –– notable for its larger, almost pea-size grains –– which adds a lot of textural surprise. For entrees, the Pacific salmon with choucroute and gewürztraminer sauce is one of the stalwarts on the left side of the menu but one I really enjoy –– the salmon can stand up to its brawny accompaniments. Another special of peppered lamb loin came sliced in medallions with mildly tangy goat cheese and a zinfandel sauce that was declared to be “the best lamb ever.”

For dessert, pastry chef Christy Phebus served up a delicious ricotta cheesecake with a pine nut brittle and blueberry compote, along with a silky chocolate-cherry pot du crème.


 

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About This Blog


Robert D. Peyton was born at Ochsner Hospital and, apart from four years in Tennessee for college and three years in Baton Rouge for law school, has lived here his entire life. He is a strong believer in the importance of food to our local culture and in the importance of our local food culture, generally. He is a partner at the law firm Christovich & Kearney LLP and began writing about food on his Web site, www.appetites.us, in 1997. That is approximately 72 Internet years, for anyone counting.

In 2006, New Orleans Magazine named Appetites the best food blog in New Orleans. The choice was made relatively easy due to the fact that Appetites was, at the time, the only food blog in New Orleans.

Robert has gills, but they are nonfunctional.

He began writing the Restaurant Insider column for New Orleans Magazine in 2007 and has been published in St. Charles Avenue magazine and on the Web site www.slashfood.com. He is the only person he knows who has been interviewed in GQ magazine, albeit for calling Alan Richman a penis. He is not proud of that, incidentally. (Yes, he is.)

Robert’s maternal grandmother is responsible for his love of good food, and he has never since had fried chicken or homemade biscuits as good as hers.

Robert once ate an entire goat, but it was very small, and he didn’t feel too good about it afterward. He did, however, feel better than the goat.

He developed his curiosity about restaurant cooking in part from the venerable PBS cooking show Great Chefs and has an extensive collection of cookbooks, many of which do not require coloring. 

Certain parts of the above are exaggerations, but one thing is true: Robert appreciates your comments and e-mails, so keep them coming.

If you find that you need a more constant source of Robert in your life, you can follow him on Twitter.


 

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