Gérard Pangaud's
Poached Lobster with Ginger, Lime and Sauternes
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For the lobster:
     2 cups    white vinegar
    10         whole black peppercorns
     2         bay leaves
     1 bunch   parsley, washed
     1         carrot, washed and diced
     2         medium onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
     3 ribs    celery, coarsely chopped
     3 cloves  garlic, peeled
     2 oz      salt (about 3 tablespoons)
     4         live lobsters, about 1 1/2 lbs each

For the sauce:
     1 cup     Sauternes
     2 oz      peeled fresh ginger, julienned
     1 lb      cold butter, cut into small pieces
     2 limes   zest grarted and juice reserved
               salt and pepper to taste

To finish:
 1 1/2 pounds  fresh spinach, washed and stemmed
     2 Tbsp    butter

For the garnish:
     1         mango, diced
     1         red pepper, diced
     1         avocado, diced

For the lobsters: In a large non-reactive stockpot, combine 2 gallons 
water with the vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaves, parsley, carrot, 
onions, celery and garlic.  Bring to a boil.  Add the salt and live 
lobsters and return to a boil.  Remove from the heat and allow to sit 
20 minutes.  Remove the claws, knuckle and tail meat from the shells.  
Cut each tail into six pieces.  Reserve 1 quart of cooking liquid.

For the sauce:  In a nonreactive pot, heat the Sauternes with the 
julienned ginger and reduce to a syrup.  Lower the heat and slowly whisk 
in 1 pound of the cold butter.  Do not allow the sauce to boil.  Add the 
lime zest.  Adjust the sauce to taste with the lime juice, salt and 
pepper.

To finish:  Reheat the reserved cooking liquid.  Sauté the spinach in 
2 Tablespoons of butter and season to taste with salt and pepper.  
Re-heat the lobster meat in the heated cooking liquid for 30 seconds.

Squeeze the excess liquid from the spinach and arrange on 4 dinner 
plates.  Placde the lobster around the spinach on each plate, spoon the 
sauce over the lobster, and garnish with the diced mango, red bell 
pepper and avocado.


   4 servings

   per serving with 2 1/2 Tablespoons of sauce: 792 calories, 
   38 gm protein, 22 gm carbohydrates, 56 gm fat, 239 mg cholesterol,
   29 gm saturated fat, 1111mg sodium


Gérard Pangaud, 43, began developing his cuisine of subtlety at the age 
of 15, when he entered the Ecole Hotelière in Paris.  He learned pastry 
from the great Gaston Lenôtre and apprenticed with some of France's 
greatest chefs, including the brother Troigros in their restaurant in 
Roanne, Joseph Rostaing and Roger Verger.  He opened his first 
restaurant in Paris in September 1976 and quickly won a Michelin star.  
His second star came three years later after he opened a new 
restaurant in the Paris suburb of Boulogne.  In a footnote now enshrined 
in Washington, DC restaurant lore, in becoming the youngest-ever 
two-star chef, Pangaud eclipsed Jean-Louis Palladin by two months.

Pangaud moved in 1985 to New York, as chef at Aurora and later had an 
unsuccessful attempt at opening his own restaurant there.  He regained 
his stride in 1990 at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City.  Now celebrating 
his third anniverary at Gérard's Place, he is planning to open a more 
casual restaurant and wine bar later this spring on M Street NW in 
Georgetown.  Calling it Vintage, he describes it as "a place you can go 
for salad or a glass of wine."

                                      The Washington Post, May 8, 1996