WETA Tours Local Fine Dining Restaurants
Still of José Andrés and crew at minibar courtesy WETA
Local "celebrity" chef groupies and aspiring foodies itching for a glimpse inside their favorite D.C. restaurants' kitchens can get an hour’s worth of behind-the-scenes restaurant dirt (in the figurative, NOT the literal sense) tonight as WETA premieres the latest installment of its local D.C. documentary-style series: The WETA Guide to Fine Dining. The guides, which are produced four times a year, cull together some of D.C.’s most notable sites and establishments into half and whole hour-long segments — luckily producers devoted a full hour for this installment. Previous episodes have highlighted D.C.’s memorials, the area’s unusual attractions and neighborhood eats, among others.
The WETA Guide to Fine Dining profiles more than 20 fine dining restaurants throughout the D.C. area, a project the crew researched and shot over three months leading up to the program’s premiere tonight at 9 p.m. on WETA TV 26.
We know what you’re thinking — tough job working for WETA and having to spend three months dining out at D.C.’s best restaurants. Were that the case, you’d be right. If a previous WETA Guide on neighborhood restaurants is any indication, however, the documentary-style program is less food review, and more of a Food Network-style travel show: interviews with executive chefs, owners and their loyal (and enthusiastic) patrons who are happy to rave about them.
The Guide aims to "explore the elaborate menus, creative chefs, distinctive atmospheres and interesting histories that create the fine dining experience at each locale." So it’s no surprise that the quirky Michel Richard is featured at Citronelle, or that D.C. restaurant mogul José Andrés gets a chance to explain the inspiration, history and technique behind Minibar's elusive olive oil bon bons. Rumor has it, they caught The Inn at Little Washington’s proprietor and chef Patrick O’Connell leading his line cooks in several yoga poses before the beginning of service on a particularly busy night. They also watched as Restaurant Nora's Nora Pouillon packed up doggie bags of the restaurant’s fare for the Mennonites who deliver the restaurant’s organically-grown ingredients each week from Pennsylvania.
Other spots the WETA crew visited include 1789, CityZen, Restaurant Eve, The Palm, Rasika, Ray’s the Steaks and Blue Duck Tavern, to name a few. A full list of the restaurants is available on their site. Also, after tonight's premiere, the program will be permanently available on WETA's Watch Online, so don’t think all is lost if you can’t pull yourself away from tonight's The Office season finale.