The Terrace Hotel Grille
Lakeland, Florida

Culinary and Classical Reflections on Lake Mirror
Part 3

by Martha Hollis and Anthony Scaggs

More culinary creativity is seen with the careful matching of side dishes to each entrée. For example, the grilled Australian lamb loin is placed on roasted garlic and olive bread pudding along with delicately braised baby spinach. The dish was garnished with flash-grilled yellow and red pear tomatoes and napped with a delicate puddle of the demi glace which Fernando was making fresh. A Peruvian potato cake and fresh green beans salute the wood grilled New York strip steak. Sweet potato pecan puree, cranberry chutney, and apple jus are the sideshow for the moist grilled pork loin. And yes, red wine poached pear and risotto finished with heavy cream and vanilla buerre blanc with a red wine reduction and sweet potato shoestring set the stage for flavorful seared pheasant.

Every dish is made to order ensuring peak flavor at its arrival. The thick steak of buttery sea bass was dusted with porcini mushroom cooked at extremely high temperature (do not try this at home) and served with a tomato and leak ragout garnished with crispy wisps of fried leaks.

As one's dining choice is often guided by mood, those in need of comfort will find a haute cuisine meatloaf with beer battered onion rings and roasted red pepper potato mash. The seafood pasta on arugula fettuccini has almost a boatload of shellfish-mussels, scallops, and shrimp-zestily presented with roasted tomato pesto.

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