Birthday

Berkeley, September 24, 2012—

ANOTHER TRIP to Berkeley for another birthday celebration — this time the big 80th of an old dear friend, justification as if needed for two days of festivity.

We began on Sunday with a surprise party reception in the Berkeley-Oakland hills; then on Monday a private party for three couples downstairs at Chez Panisse. There we started with the delicious salad imperfectly photographed here: grilled albacore with tomatoes, yellow wax beans, and capers. Soft, barely-cooked fish, full of flavor, beautifully balanced, a last tribute to summer.

Then duck: pan-seared breast and confit duck legs with crisp potatoes, caramelized apples, and braised radicchio — an invitation from autumn: crisp, salt, sweet, complex.

Dessert: a crêpe filled with honey ice cream, roasted black figs on the side and over. Delicious.

Pinot gris, Domaine Pfister (Alsace), 2010: floral, soft, inviting, artless; Vernatsch, Baron Widmann Kurtatsch (Südtirol), 2010: full, direct, pleasant

• Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley; 510.848.5525