White Light – Commis – Oakland, CA

For some obscure reason, this evening I decided to review some food pictures from the past few months. I realized that I had not described my January dinner at Commis, Chef James Syhabout’s modern cuisine restaurant on Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue. Commis has a space next to Bay Wolf, one of the most important restaurants of post-fusion cuisine of the high-energy 1980s. Bay Wolf was a temple of combinatory creativity, but as I looked at Wolf’s menu I realized how far we have come in technique and in ingredients. Children, can you remember when your fruits, vegetables, and proteins lacked a provenance?

Commis is hip to the new millennium. Of all of the restaurants striving for modernist cuisine, Commis is the most Zen of all. It is so white, so placid, so restrained that for an instant I felt that I had stumbled upon a Methodist heaven or a Jewish hell. It is neither quite: it is architecture filtered through the light of the East.

My wife and I sat at the smooth wood kitchen counter, and were pleasantly ignored, as we ate our four-course tasting menus (two choices for each course for a mere $68, which for this level of cooking is a bargain of epic proportions). Often in such circumstances one communes with the staff, chattering, chatting, and, always, gossiping. Not at Commis. These cooks worked in a focused fugue. We weren’t dismissed, just unseen. The hard-working cooks became objects of observation, not friends. That’s OK, but perhaps it led to a feeling that there was to be no Commis family. Every restaurant has its style, and focus is Commis’s. Chef Syhabout was there, murmuring to his staff. Anthony Bourdain he will never be. He’s a dish whisperer.

Chef Syhabout is a sterling chef, very much in the style of David Kinch, one of his mentors. In this, he is a synthesizer, incorporating styles, techniques and ingredient often with great aplomb. The meal was distinguished with some dishes that were remarkable, and a few that were less so. His cuisine is surely appealing enough to try again. Perhaps the atmosphere overwhelmed with its serenity. (“Serenity Now!”, sayeth Frank Costanza), but the foods had sparks and flash to balance the silence and the white light.

The Amuse: Egg Yolk, Creamy Onion Soup, Majool Date Puree, Granola. Very clever start, and totally delicious. This start represents the best impulses of a cuisine of astonishment: Cuisine Agape. This bowl builds on molecular techniques and a commitment to flavor.



Oysters and Fresh Cider in Sunchoke Cream, Ginger and Radish. An impressively composed dish with challenging and fascinating flavors, with an Asian sensibility. A profound appetizer.



Coastal Heirloom Beans in Onion Consomme, Raisins with Warm Spices. This appetizer matched its sibling in its intelligence commitment to texture and agriculture. A very successful dish in all ways. A lovely soup with surprises peeking everywhere.



Atlantic Haddock with Smoked Mussel Vinaigrette, Herbs and Cabbage. Dishes like this have become fairly standard in modern cuisine. It hasn't become cliched, but it wasn't astonishing.



Leeks and Celeriac Cooked with Anise, Citric Crab Emulsion, Wild Lettuce. Along with the amuse, this was probably the most startlingly successful dish of the evening. The crab and anise merged so well with the greens. A quietly triumphant plate.



Slow Cooked Lamb with Horseradish Yogurt, Quince and Winter Greens. Well-cooked if somewhat fatty lamb but with enough interest with the accompaniments.



Pressed Guinea Fowl, Young and Braised Garlic with Potato. This was the least effective dish of the evening. It was somewhat bland, perhaps it was too much of a classic throwback.



Chocolate Gianduja, Green Apple, Hazelnut, Absinthe Ice Cream. I enjoyed the Absinthe Ice Cream, but this dish lacked a focal center - a bit of this and that.



Panna Cotta Scented with Winter Citrus, Pomegranate, Coriander. A very pleasant modern dessert. The two desserts had less interest than the appetizers, as so often is the case.



Commis
3859 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA
510-653-3902
http://www.commisrestaurant.com/index.php

The Citrus Mind – Manresa – Los Gatos, California

David Kinch, the esteemed chef at Manresa, is perhaps the most accomplished shape-shifter in American cuisine. But maybe I am the one who has been unable to pin his butterfly wings. I have found French, Catalan, molecular, and Japanese nods in his preparations. Two weeks ago some friends and I attended the nine course Citrus Modernista that he and his friends at Love Apple Farms prepare annually with the crucial contribution of Gene Lester and his citrus orchards above Monterey Bay.

It was a very impressive evening throughout – and surprising. Walking through the doors I expected that it would be citrus all the way down – tangerines, pomelo, and Buddha’s hand. A symphony of pastel. Indeed, there was a lot of citrus: wekiwa tangelo, meyer lemon, etrog citron, Mandarins, bergamot, poorman orange. Still with all this variety, I was startled in that in most dishes Chef Kinch used citrus delicately and supplely.

My wife and I used to amuse ourselves by preparing meals with one ingredient to be found in every dish, the more bizarre the better: the best was the banana meal, the worst, the liver meal. This foolishness is, of course, the conceit of Iron Chef. But when we played the game the goal was that the ingredient would be front and center. This is not Kinch’s style.

Once one overcame the surprise of subtlety, the meal was filled with wonder. The theme of these dishes emphasized Kinch’s love of gathering, of modest ingredients. More than previous dinners it was a meal that paid tribute to the New Naturalism. It was not exclusively found foods (foie gras does not lay about), but the connection of kitchen and ground was evident. The dishes pulled back from the drama of a cuisine of astonishment to reveal the power of a cuisine of consideration.

Perhaps I was more struck by the lengthy Japanese tasting menu I was served last year, but Citrus Modernista was a tour de force, particularly as it is a one-off, never to be tasted again. And perhaps it speaks of Chef Kinch’s desire to cook food, rather than to cook theory.

Foie Gras and Buckwheat Crisps, Marmalade Bouquet de Fleurs. A pungent beginning to the meal. Perhaps it was a twist on a cliche - with foie gras replacing the expected caviar - but none the worse for that.



Garden Leaves, Shoots and Flowers, Roasted Meyer Lemon Mustard with Apple, Spot Prawns with their Head Juices. Two of Chef Kinch's passions combined: greens and local spot prawns with a subtle bit of meyer lemon.



Mackerel Marinated in Sake Lees, Charcoal Grilled with Seafood Salsa Verde , Assorted Clams with Sampson Tangelo, Salted Butter. I felt that this composition was the best dish of the night. It was a wonderful combination of textures and tastes, well-considered. Another of the increasingly popular mackerel dishes.



Scallop Shards and Dungeness Crab, Kyoto Miso with Etrog Citron. This was another fine and considered collection of tastes.



Black Cod, jus of bones and Beef Skin, Brassicas and Flowers with Ginger, Dill and Kabuso Citrus. This was another splendid dish, one of the more beautiful of the night, and the dish most gathered. It had just the right mix of flavors.



Roast Guinea Hen Jelly, Assorted Mandarins with Pickled Cucumber and Roast Peanuts, Bitter Chocolate with Bergamot Orange. Not the prettiest dish of the night, but the flavors were fine and the guinea hen was remarkably tender.



Hot Spring Egg and pure Akaushi Beef Sirloin, Black Tea and Dried Tuna Bouillon, Chestnut with Bergamot Orange. This was my least favorite dish, although it was fine. Chef Kinch likes to mix beef and veal with tuna and tea. The orange was quite subtle, but it couldn't have been more prominent without throwing the dish off.



Ginger Ice Cream and Poorman Orange Sorbet. Here was a well-made paired palate cleanser. Both scoops were luscious.



Yuzu Souffle Cake with Herb Sorbet, Exotic Citrus with Honey and Spice, Olive Oil and Almond Crumble. This was the most sustained and deep tribute to citrus with a nod to molecular cuisine. It was one of the strongest dishes of the night, and sent us into the street with a tangy fruity glow.



Manresa
320 Village Lane
Los Gatos, CA
408-354-4330
[url]http://www.manresarestaurant.com[/url]

In Hiding – Baumé – Palo Alto

Looking at the field of cuisine, it is impossible to escape the reality that molecular cuisine has run its course. Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz are mining the past. Ferran Adria and Joan Roca are bowing to classicism. But in Palo Alto, California, Chef Bruno Chemel is producing food as if it is still 2008. How odd.

I have long wondered what would happen if Claude Monet returned to Musee d’Orsay and insisted on dabbing a few more haystacks. Would he be turned out of doors? Is style a moving train that is gone once it leaves the station? And in cuisine, can a chef – having opened a restaurant a year ago – make a go of molecular cuisine.

Chemel is a fine and creative chef, but seems of two minds. One the one hand, he shows no desire to escape the molecular canon. However, he advertises his cuisine as “French Cuisine Moderne.” If a diner wanders in thinking that this is L’Arpege or Chemel is Guy Savoy, there will be heck to pay. His professional lineage is Catalan.

Baumé is an enjoyable restaurant, very pleasant to eat in with its private corners. Perhaps Chemel is not quite the chemical engineer as Dufresne (WD-50) or Cantu (Moto), but he has mastered the techniques. This is second-generation molecular, and not bad for that.

Each dish had its twist: Saketini with freeze dried raspberry ice cream, Asparagus with leek ash, 62 degree egg, daikon mousse, foie gras with apple foam, lemon smoke, paired bonbons – savory (lime miso) and sweet (lime caramel), and frozen snow. Each was worthy – delicious - in its own right. My favorite was the perfectly cooked halibut with Meyer lemon citrus zabaglione and butternut squash puree, a dish that I loved as much for the intense flavors as for the citrus zabaglione. Least successful was the Mont Blanc Thaw – the texture of snow wasn’t quite right, but it was a very distinct and memorable dish, worth the experiment.

Saketini with Freeze Dried Raspberry Ice Cream - better as it melted



Sponge Bread with Creamy Butter - Bread Service



Asparagus, Aioli, Trout Roe, Leek Ash - The leek ash was a creative touch, a nice mix of flavors.



Slow-cooked egg with sunchoke - this old style of egg preparation. Filled with flavor and with texture.



Foie Gras Two ways (old and new) with apple gelee and foam.



Vegetable Bisque, Daikon Mousse, Dungeness Crab - Modernist soup with a daikon mousse focus



Halibut, Curry, Leeks. The most balanced and lustful dish of the evening. Perfectly executed with excellent Meyer lemon zabaglione.



Lemon Smoke Cleanser. Pure molecular.



Grass Fed Beef, Bergamot Saveur with Carrot Flan: Very tasty flan and fine citrus combination.



Gruyere, Beets, Watercress - Nicely composed cheese plate



Mont Blanc Thaw, Madeleine, Warm Ganache with Exotic Citrus Ice Cream. Interesting in conception as dessert snow. The texture was too "snowy" after a few bites



Candied Raspberry Sphere with Chocolate Base



I plan to return to Baumé for their spring, despite their identity confusion. This is a restaurant that really takes you back, even if time machine is set in months, not in years. The San Francisco Bay Area does not have a true molecular restaurant other than Baumé. It deserves attention, despite its own imagined claims.

Baumé
201 South California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA
650-328-8899
http://www.baumerestaurant.com

The "End" of Astonishment - El Bulli's Classicism and a World of Pleasure - Roses, Spain

Every art movement has its lifecycle, a fact that is as applicable to culinary movements as to other aesthetic domains. The middle of the first decade of the Twenty-First century will be remembered as a time of triumph for the Molecular Movement, a trend that I termed Agape Cuisine for its carnal desire to astonish through the creation of new techniques of preparation that taken together had the goal of astonishment. This was the El Bulli moment, a moment that was supported and extended by world-class restaurants such as the Fat Duck and Alinea and El Celler de Can Roca and WD-50 and Moto. But where are we today? What is left after the nitrogenated dust has settled?

Such a question is properly asked in the dawning of this new decade because of El Bulli’s recently announced closure, the new directions (and restaurants) of Heston Blumenthal (in Dinner) and Grant Achatz (in Next) and the incorporationist movement of other chefs and the prominence of some restaurants (Noma, Coi) such as those that some bloggers have termed the New Naturals with chefs as hunter and gatherers and others, such as Chef Josh Skanes at San Francisco’s Saison or Chef John Shields at Virginia’s Town House, experimenting with cooking in ash. It’s back to the future.

Ultimately all art worlds (and the world of high-end cuisine must be conceived of as an art world) have their styles and fashions, and these styles and fashions can be analogized to scientific fashions, as discussed within the sociology of knowledge. When old techniques stop working or stop appealing to an audience, there is a space for a change. We are always looking out for the “next new thing.” We hope to be first movers, revealing what is hot and what is cool. This was brought home to me in a recent visit to Barcelona to dine at two of the world’s great restaurants, the estimable El Celler de Can Roca (in Girona) and “the restaurant at the end of the universe” El Bulli (in Roses).

I was fortunate to dine at El Celler de Can Roca two years ago and, although I was an EB virgin, I dined with a multiple-time diner at El Bulli. Neither chef (Chef Joan Roca or Chef Ferran Adria) has forgotten the techniques that he had pioneered and that brought fame. Both meals were filled with creative nummies. But each seemed to recognize that cuisine is built on a classical foundation. Perhaps this is not Escoffier’s Paris 1906 as Grant Achatz will replicate in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, but it recognizes that new techniques take us only so far, they need to be integrated into the canons of taste. Sauces are there for the rediscovery.

A view of photos from El Bulli reveals distinctive and joyous dishes, but nothing from a different universe, and this is not bad. Adria’s shrimp on a tortilla, wonderful and distinctive, was not mad. The other shrimp dishes were even more classical. Perhaps woodcock is not typically served with guanabana, but it doesn’t take a chemist to figure out how to do so. The San Felicienne cheese blini was as classic and as buttery as could be requested. The quails with escabeche, wonderful and precise, were remarkable in a way that is within the canon of classic cuisine (even if perhaps cooked sous vide). Even the olive oil chip relied on one of Adria’s old-new techniques. Some surprises remained, but nothing that demanded a new vision.

The same should be said of the meal at El Celler de Can Roca. The caramelized olives were wonderful, as was the herbal green colourology dessert, the mullets with stew, the steak tartare with mustard ice cream, and the oysters with cava. All of this was definitely modern cuisine in its best sense, but it no longer seemed straining for effect. Three years ago I was startled and amazed; this year I enjoyed.

So at this moment we seem to be at the ending of a phase of an aesthetic revolution in which chefs – the best ones and the new ones – are rethinking what needs to be saved and what jettisoned to produce delightful dishes.

There is a necessary and joyous tension – a dialogue – between cuisines based on simplicity and nature (the new naturals, “snout to tail dining” and “farm to table” cuisine) and those based upon novel elaborations and techniques (the family of molecular cuisine). With the attention that has been given to new methods, there is a recognition that the past has virtues as well. And so we find Chrono-cuisine, as chefs like Grant Achatz (at Next) and Heston Blumenthal (at Dinner) mine the past, remembering the forgotten.

Chefs are at an inflection point. Molecular cuisine is yesterday. And Yesterday is tomorrow.

And to the El Bulli meal (photos of El Celler de Can Roca on on the previous post). We were served 42 courses in this last year of El Bulli on a menu that emphasized winter provisions, such as black truffles and game (hare and woodcock). I was impressed in examining Josh's photos and from comments by those who had dined at El Bulli before that the meal was less experiment, but almost restrained. It was not that there were no molecular dishes, but some of the striving for the new was less evident. Yes, this was a version of "cuisine agape," a cuisine of amazement, but simultaneously it spoke to traditions in cuisine. Even Adria's new found classicism is not Escoffier's as Grant Achatz may soon demonstrate. Actually I have come to prefer dishes that are astonishingly simply, rather than those that strive for aerial acrobatics. Of the 42 courses, I would not wish to taste all again (there tofu tiramisu I could do without and the sugar cane was less than compelling), but other dishes were evocative and will live as long as I do in my memory. Ferran Adria is one of the few true geniuses in the culinary world (Grant Achatz is another), even when his ideas do not pan out.

With forty-two courses the meal permitted sets of courses, creating musical variations on a theme: we had a set of mojito courses, a set of shrimp courses. nut courses, truffle courses, Mexican courses, and game courses. And sometimes we would revisit a theme. I have had better courses, but with a very, very exceptions, never a better meal. With fifty cooks, twenty-five servers, and fifty diners, service was splendid. One of the eight of us could not eat raw fish or shellfish, meat, or liquor. For many restaurants this would be a problem. But her forty-two courses (about half were different) were just as proficient as ours. As is evident, Adria is not a star when it comes to plating - only a few dishes are beautiful on the plate and some are (perhaps deliberately) sloppy - he cares about the theory of taste, the idea of the gustatory senses. In that he is the master.

Even with 42 courses and 6 bottles of wine (for seven of us), we were not stuffed after five hours (but no pizza on the way home)









Here is the man himself greeting his guests



Ginger and Lime Candi. An elegant start to the mojito theme.



A warm and minty mojito



Mojito 3.0 - a mojito sandwich (mojito and apple flute), very playful



Moving from mojito to nuts with the almond fizz with amarena.



Nori Seaweed with Lemon. A beautiful dish using ingredients that would challenge other chefs.



The olive oil chip was masterful. So was the parmesan macaron. It could be found nowhere but El Bulli.



Peanut and honey roll. An early dessert - and an ode to nuts



Hibiscus and Peanut. Tropical and inviting. More nuts, and the start of the Latin theme.



Pistachio ravioli. As good a ravioli as I have had. Nuts!



Shrimp torilla. One of Adria's best dishes. Simple and so clever and so shrimpy. Beautiful. I won't forget this, ever.



Classic shrimp.



The third (and fourth) shrimp - a prawn with an intense "soup"



Quails with Carrot Escabeche. Another amazing and simple dish. Four dabs of carrot and one dab of peppery carrot (it is number four). Wonderful.



Tomato Tartare. A pure palate cleanser



Soya Tiramisu. My least favorite - a bit of a mess, and not pretty. There has to be one worst dish. It just didn't sing.



Soya Matches. A much better use of soy, each bite had a distinct taste: how did he do this?



Ferran at his most playful: caviar with hazelnut cream. Hazelnut caviar with caviar cream. A very Fat Duck/Moto playful dish. A laugh riot. I wouldn't have it again, but I will talk about it endlessly.



Liquid Hazelnut Porra. Very pleasant "bread" stick, hazelnut style.



Truffle cake. Wow. As truffly as things get. The texture matched the dark intensity of the fungus. A great and extravagant use of the black truffle.



Endive in Papillote 50%. A play on fish cuisine with endive. A good and light dish.



Foie Cake. In contrast to the above dish, an uber-rich cake.



San Felicienne (cheese) Blini. Simple. Classic. And as good as cheese gets in the hands of a master.



Steamed eels. Fun as a quicky. I prefer eels more robustly prepared, but it was an aquatic palate cleanser.



Lulo Ceviche and Mollusk. A dish of sublime complexity. Part of the Latin sequence



What a beautiful dish. Iced gazpacho with prime olive oil. Adria removes all of the color (how?), but leaves in all of the taste. It would be the best dish in July, and pretty amazing in February.



Hare Bunuelo. The bridge between the Latin courses and the game courses. A bite size treasure.



Game Meat Capuccino. Soup Starbucks style - finally foam. Note the absence of form (and other oddities) in the rest of the meal.



Peas Two Ways. A vegetable dish for a diner who didn't eat meat. I just thought it was so pretty - but not a great photo. (It wasn't part of the game sequence)



Woodcock and fruit (with a Latin twist with soursop): lovely dish. The best of the game offerings.



Blackberry Risotto with Game Meat Sauce. Another fruit and game special. A strong dish as well.



Hare Ravioli with Bolonesa (and Blood). Very intense dish. A fine taste of the wild. Traditional, but also El Bulli style



Hare Cocktail with Raspberry. Another in the set of game "soups" with fruit.



Hare Chestnut with Liver Puree. Finally game and nuts - wrapped up in a delicious package. Perfect for snacking.



Pandang Ice Cream with Coconut Water. Another treat and trick. One of the jelly beans is salty: a reprise of the quail dish. The best dessert.



Sugar Cubes with Lime Whiskey Sour. OK. A palate cleanser. A mojito reprise.



Rum Sugar Cane. A second palate cleanser.



Mini-Donuts with 97% Pure Chocolate. Powerfully bitter and sweet. Can chocolate taste so intense?



Coca de Vidre - Crystal Cake - Coconut and Pine nuts. A very enjoyable sweet. It went down easily and quickly



Gold Leaves in Coffee-Chocolate Soil. A strong way to wrap up, reminding us that despite the nods to classicism, Chef Adria created much of modern cuisine that we take for granted.



The finale! The box! The freeze dried strawberries were particularly notable as was the passionfruit-yogurt sponge



El Bulli
Roses, Spain