Chanterais Melons

We are officially in the dead center of chanterais melon season here. The heirloom french melon, a true cantaloupe species, dating back to the 17th century is the highlight of our tasting menu this week. The french would suspend glass above the growing chanterais to magnify and increase soil temperature to produce the super sweet melon. Here in Florida with the summer temperatures ranging in the high 80's to mid 90's the melons mature quickly. Traditionally in the south of France they would halve the melon and fill it with sweet wine and indulge. This was the basis of our chanterais theme last year. This year we are serving the iconic melon with serrano ham, lychee sorbet, fig, and basil.



Some of the melon is compressed with fleur de sel, olive oil, a touch of acacia honey, and some Forvm vinegar. Some is compressed with opal basil that grows next to the melons at hammock hollows. We shaved a bit, compressed with an envision solution to tame the sweetness and dehydrated it. Orange and meyer lemon fluid gel provide acid, the sweetness of the fig and melon work well with the salty ham.



An overall cooling sensation to start our tasting menu. We also have a chanterais mignonette addition to our raw bar until they are no more. Laurent has even developed a dessert around the melon that is killer. Come and get it while it's here, hammock hollows is due to shut down for the next couple of months after this growing season. We look forward to his return in the fall with some more beautiful and inspiring product.