Assessment: Inn at Little Washington Restaurant, Three Michelin Stars

• Chef Patrick O’Connell opened the Inn at Little Washington restaurant in 1978.
• The Inn is now a five-star lodge, and the restaurant has held onto three Michelin stars since 2018.
• I went behind the scenes of O’Connell’s kitchen and dined at his restaurant. It was an unforgettable expertise.

Blessings from an altar boy amid the sound of chanting monks is just not how I anticipated to start my first-ever three-star Michelin restaurant expertise.

But it surely was a becoming introduction to the Inn at Little Washington and chef Patrick O’Connell, who was as soon as nicknamed the “Pope of American delicacies” by the legendary winemaker Robert Mondavi.

For many years, O’Connell has hosted probably the most highly effective folks in American politics at his five-star lodge in Washington, Virginia, a tiny city (inhabitants of 84) about an hour-and-a-half drive from Washington, DC.

O’Connell took me behind the scenes of his world-famous kitchen earlier than I dined on the $388 prix-fixe menu. There was truffle popcorn, a Dolly Parton soundtrack, and among the finest dishes I’ve ever tasted.