Two prominent Fort Worth cultural institutions, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and The Cliburn, fêted the art of food and music with a French Champagne dinner and concert on Bastille Day, July 14.
Celebrating France’s national holiday wasn’t necessarily the reason for the sparkling gathering (as if the French ever need a reason to drink Champagne), but it did lend jubilant elan to the evening.
The stars of the night were Jett Mora, executive chef of Cafe Modern, and pianist Fei-Fei, a laureate and fan favorite of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Also sharing top billing was the French Champagne house Billecart-Salmon.
As the sun set outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Modern, guests were greeted in the foyer with a glass of bubbly and directed to an exquisite “butter board” table. Fresh-baked focaccia and Parker House rolls were presented alongside artful dollops and smears of fresh butter, vegetable crudité, and flavored salts (sourced locally from The Spice & Tea Exchange in the Fort Worth Stockyards).
Guests gather around the artful “butter board” and Champagne wall.Photo by Rene Steffen
At the appointed time, attendees sat down to several long tables decorated with flickering faux candles for a unique multicourse meal-and-concert in one.
Cafe Modern manager Jamie Holderby and Cliburn president and CEO Jacques Marquis greeted the intimate crowd, announcing that the collaborative dinner had been dreamed up more than six months earlier but planned comfortably after the 2025 Cliburn Competition’s conclusion.
One attendee who benefited from the event’s delay was Halona Norton-Westbrook, who, on July 1, began her tenure as the new director of the Modern. She had just completed a big move to Fort Worth from Hawaii, where she had been director and CEO of the Honolulu Museum of Art.
The dinner, it was explained, would consist of a starter, four courses, and dessert prepared by chef Mora, chef Andrew Swanson, and the team from Wolfgang Puck Catering, paired with a Billecart-Salmon Champagne. Before each course, Fei-Fei would play a piece she carefully selected to correspond with the flavor and style of the next dish.
2013 Cliburn Competition laureate Fei-Fei (pictured in a promotional photo) was the featured pianist for the evening. Photo courtesy of Fei-Fei
“It’s so wonderful to be here to share some music, along with a lot of delicious-ness coming your way and the incredible wine pairings,” said the affable pianist, who flew in from New York to participate. “I’m not a connoisseur at all, so after a lot of online research and reading a lot of reviews, I hope I’ve picked out the right selections to go with each course.”
As an appropriate starter, Fei-Fei opened with a sweeping prelude by French composer Claude Debussy. In a bit of culinary choreography while she played, servers walked single-file to the tables and placed the amuse-bouche in front of each diner.
A rich Rachmaninoff prelude preceded pasta, and Debussy’s “crispy” Passepied came just before the fried chicken. This wasn’t merely background music; it was a delightful five-minute concert between each plate.
The courses and Champagne pairings were as follows:
- Starter: Ossetra Caviar with quail egg yolk on brioche; paired with Billecart-Salmon Champagne “Blanc de Blancs”
- Course One: Doppio pasta with uni brown butter and summer corn; paired with Billecart-Salmon Champagne “Sous Bois”
- Course Two: Fried chicken with pate and hot honey; paired with Billecart-Salmon Champagne “Vintage 2013”
- Course Three: Rohan duck breast with cherry, granola, and fennel soubise; paired with Billecart-Salmon Champagne “Le Rose”
- Course Four: Triple creme brie with Jezebel peaches, pate brisee; paired with Billecart-Salmon Champagne “Le Reserve”
- Dessert: Peach Melba Baked Alaska
Peach Melba Baked Alaska was a pretty and summery dessert.Photo by Rene Steffen
For her final music selection before dessert, Fei-Fei chose the lighthearted “Drunken Waltz” in C-sharp minor by Frederic Chopin; when she announced it, more than a few giggles went up as guests finished their final sips of Champagne.
This was the first collaboration of its kind between the Cliburn and the Modern, but – the organizers hinted – perhaps not the last.