Gastroville

Early on, I did not have the means to eat out, even in run-of-the-mill Chinese restaurants. Later, I discovered honest dim sum and the tasty scallion cake at the HOUSE OF NANKING is San Francisco. But the first eye opener was a French restaurant in Berkeley called NARSAI which does not exist now. I still remember giving up from buying a radio to take a girl there whom I thought was too classy to be entertained at one of the Thai restaurants which were very popular in Berkeley at the time. I have no idea how I would like the same food were I to eat it today, but Narsai remains an emotional favorite of mine.

The real favorite, on the other hand, a year before I discovered a little restaurant whose decoration made it look like an upper class bordello on the rue de Longchamp in Paris, where I was conducting doctoral research, was a restaurant called CHEZ PANISSE. This one did not imitate a hotel ballroom, which I had, at the time, identified with pretentious expensive food, anyway. It looked very much like a Berkeley intellectual’s house decorated with subtle and impeccable taste, and, more importantly, the food was nothing like what was served in other American restaurants. It was also not expensive. Even with my meager budget, I became a habituee of their upstairs salon where they served unpretentious but flavorful soups, salads and pizzas. Once in a while, I also dined downstairs and always left the place thinking that this was better than any of the more expensive French restaurants I had been to so far in Turkey with my parents. Of course I did not know much about Alice Waters. I knew even less about the food revolution in the States, and I did not realize that what was unfolding before my eyes was an historical rupture point in American gastronomy. One thing I know for sure though is that had I not dined many times at Chez Panisse, I would never have been adequately prepared to appreciate what France had to offer in 1986 and to get excited each time I dined at Jamin-Robuchon. I still recall a lunch menu at Robuchon for 140 FF in 1986 with a “tete de cochon mijotee” as the main course, and I took advantage of it, and ate at this restaurant about 30 times in the second half of the 80s. But this is another story.

Despite some discontinuities, I lived in the Bay Area until 2000. Unfortunately I never dined at MASA before the celebrated chef Masa was murdered . When I dined there, I liked the food of Julian Serrano who replaced the guy who had first replaced Masa. It was quite good. Equally good was the bold, flavorful cuisine of Roland Passot at the time when he had first opened his LA FOLIE and was thriving on a meager budget. Since then La Folie became much better known, but unfortunately it no longer lives up to its early promise.

Also in the early 90s, I became a repeat client of a small hole in the wall in South Lake Tahoe, called LA CHEMINEE. In this small shack, the ex-sous chef of Lameloise, Jean Pierre Doignon, a diminutive and shy man, concocted some of the best classical French dishes one could have outside of France. Nobody paid attention though. Especially the food critics in San Francisco did not or could not appreciate what was going on. Jean Pierre, being a skiing freak, did not want to cook in the city. Eventually his partnership collapsed, he relocated twice, and he is now enjoying himself and cooking indifferent dishes for a suburban clientele in a nondescript shopping mall in Tahoe. Even though there was no chef at the time at the same caliber, Jean Pierre never became part of the celebrity chefs’ circle. I suppose he did not have any PR going on for him. Well, life is not fair. C’est la vie…..

But what is undeniable is that, in the early 90s, there was a void to be filled for cooking classical French cuisine with a modern accent in the Bay Area. Soon, in 1993, this void was filled by a very talented, rigorous and good humored chef: Thomas Keller of the FRENCH LAUNDRY. It is only in this restaurant in the whole of the United States that my wife and I had meals we have compared favorably with the French three stars. Some of these meals merited a score of 18/20 in Gastroville. And, for about 10 years before he set out to cash in on his rightly earned success, Thomas did not give any concession from his search for the best quality ingredients available in the Bay Area. When he imported something, such as caviar or wagyu beef, he never settled for the second best. He was also assisted in his search for excellence at the time by his partner Laura Cunningham, who was not only a strikingly elegant lady , but also the first restaurant manager on the West Coast who understood how to combine French efficiency in technique with the easy going attitude prevailing in California. This is a hard balance to achieve, but she managed to strike the right balance, ably assisted by the incomparable gentleman, Monsieur Pascal, a no nonsense Corsican, who was the maitre d’ at the time before he retired.

Chez Panisse and the French Laundry continue to be very good restaurants in the Bay Area, even though it is so hard to motivate successful restaurateurs, such as Ms. Waters and Mr. Keller, after so much success. I have recently reviewed the French Laundry so further comments are not necessary. I will continue to recommend Chez Panisse, esp. downstairs, in late Spring when they have access to some of the best products in California from the Chino Ranch in Southern California. I also think that David Tanis, who cooks there in late Spring and in summer, is a very good chef who knows how to add a touch of whimsy to the cannons of the Chez Panisse philosophy of cooking simple but honest American food inspired by Northern Italy and Southern France. A good example of their philosophy would be the dish pictured below, “Tuna tartare with avocado, fennel and beets”. All ingredients in question are first rate, their combinations judicious and balanced, not to say that they are also very elegant. Even if you can’t choose what you order at Chez Panisse, chances are that at least one of the three courses will be very very good and the others will be at least quite good.

In addition to the French Laundry and Chez Panisse, I regularly frequent three restaurants in the Bay Area. Interestingly, two of them prepare Italian cuisine, but their version of Italian cuisine bears zero resemblance to the international-continental-hotel style Italian cuisine one can find all over the United States. Both of these restaurants put tremendous emphasis on seasonality, and they change their menus every day. I should say that they basically prepare a Northern California cuisine inspired by ideas one identifies with Italy. Besides, both of these chefs come from the same school, in the sense that they both worked under Paul Bertoli, who was the chef at Chez Panisse and then at Oliveto. He must have been a very good teacher too.

Canales’ cooking at OLIVETO is rustic, flavorful, and bold. Canales is one of the very very few chefs in the States who can actually quarter a beast himself and concoct various dishes from different organs and offals of an animal, often pork. Indeed his cuisine is the opposite of many chi chi restaurants in America, some crowned by Michelin, who buy little pieces of indifferent meat and fish, vacuum packed, then set the sous vide machine and go on to the business of decorating the plate nicely to make it look “sophisticated”. The no nonsense owner of Oliveto, the bearded teddy bear looking Joe Klein, is a stickler for developing long term relationships with local suppliers, and he does not look like the kind of person who will ever visit celebrity chef style restaurants in the States or in Italy. He travels often to Italy and sometimes comes back with nice stuff like Tuber Pico Magnatum, which is then immediately consumed in the restaurant.

Oliveto makes its own salumi and pates, and they are much better than their competitors, including salumi made by the father of the Mario Batali fame and also much better than the salumi the great Bertoli now sells to the public (because he cannot use natural casing). The anitpastis are often very good too, like the “”insalata di carne cruda with castelmagno cheese” below:

But what I can’t resist are the pastas in Oliveto. One reason I like them very much is because they use lots of offals in their pasta dishes. Duck skin cracklings, kidney, heart, etc. Their ragu is always the most flavorful I have encountered anywhere outside Italy. So is their sugo. When they make it, their “Agnolotti dal plin “ is almost as good as the one you eat in Piemonte. Their combinations are usually intelligently thought out too: take “Rye fettucine with caviar, vodka and green onions”. The average quality CA caviar is put to intelligent use here as it is not the main element of a dish, and its saltiness is carefully set against the pungency-tartness of the rye. On the other hand, the following day, when they ran out of caviar (the dish was offered for a reasonable price of $17), they substituted “smoked haddock” for the caviar, but changed the fettucine to one made from “farro”. Again the juxtaposition is well thought out, not random or copied from a book. All said, there is one category of pasta where Oliveto can compete with any restaurant in Italy; that is their “gnocchi”. They use all kinds of combinations for their ethereal gnocchi dishes, and I especially like the ones with creamy cheeses, such as Robiola. The picture below, however, is the “Potato gnocchi with braised Watson Farm Lamb”

The main courses in Oliveto do not disappoint. But there is one which I consider the best of its kind in the States: they have the best pigeon from the Paine Farm. They always grill it and change the condiments. The quality of the pigeon is about the same level as what you find in Piemonte. They don’t age it as much as they usually do in France. But the quality is consistently good. The picture below is one we had in early 2007: “Charcoal Grilled Paine Farm Pigeon with Fuyu Persimmon mostarda and Liver crostini”. Notice that, as a testimony to the integrity of the management philosophy, they call it “pigeon,” not “squab,” whereas many restaurants in the States which serve average quality Pigeon call it Squab.

The other chef, who worked with Bertoli and who now runs his own restaurant with his gracious wife who manages the front room, is Mike Tusk. Their restaurant, QUINCE, which is in San Francisco is one of the hardest reservations to make, and for good reason (in this case!). Tusk is a very intense person who burns with the desire to outperform himself on a daily basis. I have dined in his small gastronomic temple three times during the last six months. When, the last time, I mentioned that the “agnolotti dal plin” was perhaps a bit overcooked the previous time, he made sure that I taste one which is not overcooked. It was indeed just right, brimming with clean taste and intense flavors.

It is quite amazing how much Tusk can accomplish in his small kitchen. His first courses keep astonishing me. His vegetable flan dishes, which Italians call “sformato”, often enriched by fonduta, are stunningly good. So are his salads with braised fowl, such as quail, goose (also from the Paine Farm which supplies the great pigeons), which are carefully set against earthy (chestnut, porcini, black truffle) and fruity/acidic (marinated diced pit fruits) tastes. His fish and shellfish entrees are also very satisfying, always ultra fresh and well thought out. Tusk is a chef who, as Italians say, knows when to refrain himself from adding an extra element to a dish. But then he does not shy away from intense flavors either. One can hardly begin a feast with a cleaner tasting, palate titillating, but very light dish, such as his “Monkfish cooked on the plate” below, with just the right sprinkle of just harvested olive oil on top. As one can notice, the small rolls you can see in the picture are also delicious.

In general I find the pasta dishes at Quince to be very good too. On the other hand, even though Quince relies on a very similar network of suppliers as Oliveto and Chez Panisse, the small kitchen in Quince makes it hard to match Oliveto in terms of the range and variety of cuts they can use in pasta dishes. In return, they do what they do very very well. The pasta dishes filled with vegetables and root vegetables (such as Celery Root Caramelle and Butternut Squash Ravioli) are first rate; the risotto from carnaroli, when Mike makes it, is heads and shoulders above the bizarre rice dishes which pass under this name in Italian restaurants in America (but in all fairness, not quite the level of the top examples in Italy); the handmade agnolotti is impressive; the fettucine with duck liver mousse, black truffles and Marsala (originally a dish made in the Bay Area at Acquerello) is silken and balanced; and above all, their “Raviolo di ricotta with New Life Farm Egg”, pictured below, is an example of this classical pasta which should set the standard against which others should be compared.

Two out of the three times we have been at Quince we tasted many small portions which makes it difficult for me to evaluate the level of the Third Course or Main Dish at Quince. The last time, the piece of the pigeon breast from the same supplier (Paine Farm) was quite good, but, because it was cut from the bone and heated separately, it did not achieve the level of deliciousness that Oliveto achieves by roasting or grilling the whole pigeon. On the other hand, the first time we tried a “Liberty Duck Breast and Leg with White Carrots, Turnips and Quince Mostarda” and were impressed by it. Liberty Duck, the same supplier Chez Panisse uses, arguably is the only source of good duck in the States. I think it is a cross between Peking and a less fatty duck. and its meat is very flavorful. Mike’s rendition was on par with the rendition of this dish when we are lucky enough to have it at Chez Panisse, and the quality of the root vegetables and the overall balance of the dish, with the careful inclusion of the mostarda, rendered this simple looking dish to be one of the more memorable main courses I have encountered in either New York or San Francisco.

If one of the three restaurants recommended here is in San Francisco, and the second is in the East Bay in Berkeley. The last one is in the unlikely location of the South Bay, in Los Gatos. But the talented and respected chef, David Kinch, whom I should say is also a friend, has been practicing his art for some time in Silicon Valley. I remember quite fondly his Sant Sovi restaurant in Saratoga where we had some exciting, if a bit uneven, meals in the second part of the 1990s. We had not spoken to one another or exchanged mail then, but I was impressed by his natural openness to constructive criticism, his passion for everything gastronomic, and his desire to share good things with clients who share his passion.

Now that Manresa is a well known and a Michelin two star destination, IMO it is the only one of similar standing in Northern California that actually makes sense to spend top dollars. Although some of my meals there, like the last one on December 30, 2006, have been even more impressive than others, one can see that, even when a dish does not quite work (such as his oversmoked foie gras), David fails in the big way, attempting to create something out of the ordinary, but not whacky or gimmicky, a bit like Gagnaire! That is, his failures reveal intelligence and the soul searching process, rather than blindly copying somebody else or indifference.

But, to tell the truth, David mostly succeeds and some of his best dishes are rather mind bogglingly good. In a menu which was composed of 15 dishes or so in the dinner to which I have alluded, other than the foie gras I mentioned, there was indeed not a single dish that made us unhappy. The little tartlettes, croquettes and cromesquis, which come as amuses, together with nice (I believe farm raised) abalone, and an oyster with urchin jelly were all delicious, displaying both technical mastery and a fine calibration of taste.

But, besides the amuses, which are probably better in comparison to other Michelin two and three star restaurants of America, David especially succeeds with shellfish and vegetable dishes. He takes vegetables very seriously, and he is involved in the cultivation process by having a close link with a farm in the vicinity. At this point, the level of the produce at Manresa is on par with Chez Panisse, Oliveto and Quince, but, even two years ago, Manresa was behind. Hence it is possible that we may be witnessing a historical process in California. The one vegetable dish that David included in his menu that day, the “Garden vegetables with gnocchi and burrata” was reminiscent of his friend Aduriz’ (of Mugaritz fame) preparation, save the substitution of burrata for emmenthal, which is actually more complementary with the spirit of the dish. Had the gnocchi been better (they were not bad, but nowhere on the level of the rest), this would have been a super dish.

There are, however, super dishes to be had. His “Roast Turbot with meat juices, truffles” was simply the best fish dish I have had in the States. The wild turbot was procured from the coast of Portugal, and the large piece cut from the bone was superb. One can not take too much issue about the quality of truffles (not very good) given that they are rarely ripe in end December. But the meat jus and truffles certainly brought out the gamy, opulent, and mouth filling character of the great turbot which was cooked to the optimum point, a rare accomplishment. On the other hand, even if I have qualms with the quality of truffles, I usually have more qualms with the quality of the black caviar I find in America, lately. David stunned me by preparing one of the best caviar based dishes I have had anywhere, period. “Don’t ask the source” quality caviar, probably not available in the market, was brilliantly paired with a seaweed gelatine made from the gelatinous parts of the turbot. (Clearly David is one non-Spanish who can prepare a true pil pil, which is rare even in the Basque country.) The dish was served in a martini cup and the black caviar (which I thought to be an Oscietra from its nutty-spicy undertones, but have not checked it) shined just like a bunch of black pearls would shine in the sea shore on a clear, sunny day. Both of these pictures are below.

I should also say that other shellfish dishes have also been very good lately at Manresa and, in general, his preparations should especially appeal to those who are fond of good sushi. Indeed the shellfish I eat at Manresa, such as Spot Prawns, Sea Urchins, local crabs, bay scallops, are either rare or barely cooked (a la plancha typically), and seasoned gently with olive oil, salt, and yuzu. One exception is his use of Vaudavan, a curry concoction popularized with his friend and ex-chef of Bastide, Ludovicz, and I should say that the inclusion of a very fresh Spot Prawn with Indian Spices, following the refreshing salad with burrata and before the Turbot, was certainly an optimum decision from the of view of the flow of the meal. David’s Spanish training shows itself in that he can design a multi course menu with small portions and do it PROPERLY.

In the past I found two general issues which troubled me in Manresa. One is that desserts were average. But if my last meal is any indication, this has changed. We had a few desserts, all were good. One, particularly, the “Beignets with orange and licorice”, was memorable.

The other weakness is the meat main course. They are usually above average, such as his pigeon and suckling pig dishes, but they never satisfy me as much as the main courses mentioned in this article do. Even though I wrote a rather critical review for the French Laundry, and at this point in time Manresa is the place to head to in California for the high end of the cuisine, Thomas Keller does find better sources for small fowl and other kinds of meat than David does. But perhaps, given that the meat course at Manresa is still not bad, and that when he scores high in other dishes, he scores very high, I am overly fussy. But how can I not be fussy given that he is a friend, and, I can not help but wish for him to create a three star Michelin restaurant in Northern California.