Musings about food and wine in my life. Restaurants, purveyors, chefs, recipes, cheese, wine... Nothing is off-limits. But I only write about the good stuff.
During my visit to Kauai I had the privilege of having Chef Christopher Kim at the Kauai Grill (KG) cook for me. Chef Kim has all the signs of greatness and I am pretty sure we will see his name in lights in the future. Just passing Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s interview speaks volumes (KG is a Jean-Georges property and Chef Kim took over the kitchen in July 2016). But way beyond that, the meal that Chef prepared for me was one of the most memorable I have ever had. In a word, it was extraordinary.
The staff at KG are all about hospitality, and they know their business well. I spoke with Manager William Fily in advance and asked if Chef Kim would be interested in an making an Omakase meal for me. There were no ground rules except that anything goes, on-menu, off-menu, no restrictions. They both jumped all over the opportunity and the next night I sat down for a 4 hour, 10 course meal that simply blew me away. Chef Kim has world class technique, vision, and palate, and like all premier chefs he uses sugar, salt, fat, acid, textures, temperature, heat (spicy heat), and umami in different combinations and methods in each dish, not necessarily all at once. Earlier dishes in the menu generally had a lighter, more subtle seasoning which allowed emphasis of acid, textures, temperature, heat, and umami. Later dishes moved to more explicit seasoning with the emphasis on sugar, salt, and fat. None of this should be taken as negative commentary -- it was extremely impressive to see his preparations bring forth those crucial elements in each dish. And while he cooks for tourists and therefore must present crowd-pleasing dishes, he demonstrated that he is not afraid to throw in subtleties too.
Chef Kim put up 10 courses, each executed perfectly, an achievement not to be taken lightly. It’s incredibly difficult for any chef to execute 10 dishes perfectly, even when they are all taken from the standard day-in, day-out menu. In fact, I have seen three Michelin star chefs who can not do it (Chef Kim knows who I am referring to). Now consider that Chef Kim drew only half of those 10 dishes from his standard menu and the feat becomes even more difficult. But wait... during the meal it became apparent that Chef Kim was putting forth dishes that not even his staff had tried yet -- dishes that are upcoming on his spring menu. That’s a gutsy move on his part. But remember, I did tell Mr. Fily ahead of time that Chef Kim should consider this a ‘no holds barred’ affair. He certainly took that to heart.
“Amuse” (above) was a petit version of the current menu’s shrimp dumpling with lobster sauce appetizer. There were a lot of elements to this dish: a rich and sweet, but not overpowering, dark lobster sauce; a thin, precise, texturally perfect dumpling skin that may have been one of the best I’ve ever had; a fine flavorful, shrimp filling; mushrooms to bring umami; micro-greens to add color. It sounds like a lot is going on with this dish, and there is. The whole combination set the tone for the rest of the meal. Those of you who have read my blog know that I don’t give the “R.E.” (Religious Experience) stamp of approval very often, but I have no choice but to give it to this dish.
“From The Garden” was a salad of local citrus, quinoa, and black garlic vinaigrette. A salad course might seem to be a strange place to emphasize textures, but this really worked so well by utilizing the crunchy quinoa as a contrast to the citrus, greens, and flowers (which came from the Chef’s garden). The acid of the citrus balanced the fat in the vinaigrette perfectly; the quinoa brought savory and umami. The seasoning was dead-on target and just under the radar. Salads are boring? Think again. This dish was excellent.
“Raw” was a crudu of raw sea bass and royal osetra caviar. This was a dish that Chef Kim plans to put on the spring menu and all I can say is “Keeper!”. The sea bass had a subtle richness to it, but not in an oily, fishy, heavy, Bluefish kind of way (not that there’s anything wrong with Bluefish!). When I enquired about how that richness was achieved, Chef Kim said that he used seaweed that he picked up that morning when he was surfing. The sea bass brought the crudo flavor, the caviar the salt, a dab of avocado the fat, and julienned vegetables a texture contrast. As you can see, Chef Kim certainly has excellent presentation chops.
“Preview of Spring” was scallops, corn arancini, and spring onion beurre blanc (shown being poured). As often as you see scallops on a menu, there are a surprising number of botches by the kitchen when cooking them. Not here. Execution of the scallop was perfect with beautiful seasoning, caramelization, and temperature in the middle. Arancini: leftover risotto made into balls. You think: heavy, rich. Think again. This version had a nice thin crust on it with a beautiful, relatively light risotto in the middle, all of which the lighter shellfish demanded. I loved the beurre blanc with its clever green coloring spread around. But hey, what’s not to like about lots of butter? Don’t worry, I didn’t leave any in the dish. Chef Kim cleverly snuck in a subtle acid element with pickled shallots. My guess is that Chef would say that it’s an obvious ingredient for the dish, but for me, it really confirmed to me that he understands how to use each of the different tools (sugar, salt, fat, acid, textures, etc.) effectively. As the name of the dish implies, this will appear on KG’s spring menu. Again: “Keeper!”
“Eggs on Eggs on Eggs” paid homage to Chef Vongerichten’s signature dish, “Eggs With Caviar”. With no disrespect to Chef Vongerichten, I’ve had “Eggs With Caviar” at J-G in NYC, and I think I like Chef Kim’s dish better (they’re both great dishes of course). Even several days later as I write this review, the combination of what I think is the most perfectly poached egg that I have ever seen, the beautiful brioche, the rich but not overpowering bearnaise, the salty caviar, and the precisely-dressed arugula continue to haunt me. When I first saw the menu, I somewhat dreaded this dish. Crispy eggs can be rich and heavy, and can slow you down in a 10 course marathon. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! When I finished this dish I seriously considered asking for a repeat. Yes, it was that freakin’ good. Chef Kim was gracious enough to audition this spring menu preparation for me and I’m sure you know how I feel about it: “Keeper!”
“Intermezzo” was a coconut royale in Champagne. What a classy dish. Simple. Beautiful. The royale was richer than a sorbet and had all the sweetness of coconut that you could want. Chef Kim later told me that he felt the strong sweetness in the middle of the meal should be balanced out and I agree that the Champagne did just the trick. Spring menu. “Keeper!”
I took copious notes during the meal, and at this point they read (unedited): “6 courses. Chef Kim is a master of textures, balance of acid, umami, salt, sweetness, fat. Batting 1.000 so far.” I recall wondering if he could finish with a perfect meal since the main proteins were about to get started. Stay with me... 4 dishes to go.
“Duo of Crab” featured soft shell crab (left and right in the picture) and a petit ginger crab cake (center). Brussels sprouts. Steak sauce. Apple jam. Greens. Soft shell crab. Crab cake. There are a lot of elements, flavors, textures, and components in this dish and it could have easily gotten too busy... but it didn’t. It all worked. The overall execution was fantastic, with the star of the dish being the delicate crab cake. Spring menu: “Keeper!”
“Taste of Kauai” was Hawaiian Onaga (local red snapper), Tako (local octopus), and smoked black tomato sauce. This brought out temperature contrasts with the perfectly cooked snapper (hot) and the tender octopus (cold). The smoked black tomato sauce throws you for a loop at first because your eyes anticipate a meatier style of sauce. Instead, the sweetness and smokiness gave the dish an interesting twist. Of course the cherry tomatoes were beautiful specimens. I loved Chef Kim’s use of the many excellent local ingredients.
“Surf and Turf” featured a 28 day dry-aged ribeye from Idaho and a half of a local Kona lobster prepared in an Asian style. By this point I wondered how I would finish the steak, but after one bite there was really no question. Seasoning, marbling, and cooking were all top-drawer -- just a fantastic piece of meat. The Kona lobster seemed a little bit more tender than what we are used to with Atlantic lobsters. A fine finish to the savory courses.
I had already tried the Cinnamon Parfait and Raspberry Profiterole on a previous visit so Pastry Chef Heather Campbell served up her Salted Caramel Ice Cream Sundae for the finish. This was certainly a fun dessert with the peanuts, pop corn, and chocolate sauce on the salted caramel ice cream. A nice finish to the evening.
What an awesome meal this all was! Thanks again Chef Kim, Mr. Fily, and the entire staff.
Gracious and sincere hospitality from Cody at the bar, Mel, and Bryn Birkhohn (Somm) made for a great evening on a return trip. The 80's playlist is fun.
The wine list puts most others to shame in terms of breadth, depth, and approachability.
The food is innovative and novel. Each dish has a clear message from the kitchen, albeit with an occasional heavy hand on the salt. Savory highlights were the sirloin (carpaccio), tea cured salmon, hamachi, octopus, pork meatballs, squid/mussels, and eggplant. For dessert, the brioche waffle/strawberry/buckwheat honey ice cream was in the vein of less-sweet desserts that are more trendy in contemporary circles. It worked. No, wait. It worked exceptionally well. I thought that one would be the pinnacle of the desserts, but I hadn't gotten to the rice pudding/cara cara/cinnamon which Pastry Chef Michael Werrell says is a take on one of his comfort foods, arancini. Clever and compelling are terms that don't do this plate justice. So with that, I hereby annoint that rice-based, nearly savory sweet plate with the "R.E.(tm)" certification. That's "Religious Experience" for those of you unfamiliar with my reviews. Yes, they're killin' it over there at P&A.
Definitely this is worth a visit, or repeat visit.
I visited Nopa a couple of times recently. I had several dishes including the Little Fried Fish, Lemon and Romesco (sardines), Tomato Salad, Spiced Chickpeas, Lime and Mozzarella (Burrata), and the Squid Ink Pasta, all of which were solid. The wine list was solid too. It was a great late night eatery and I'm glad I went. In fact, I'll probably go again.
But considering that it's hard to get a reservation less than a couple of weeks away, I expected something better. While Nopa is quite good, and probably about 3/4's of a Michelin star, they did not blow me away in the same way I've been impressed by other places.
The dirty secret of the food movement is that the much-celebrated small-scale farmer isn’t making a living. After the tools are put away, we head out to second and third jobs to keep our farms afloat. Ninety-one percent of all farm households rely on multiple sources of income. Health care, paying for our kids’ college, preparing for retirement? Not happening. With the overwhelming majority of American farmers operating at a loss — the median farm income was negative $1,453 in 2012 — farmers can barely keep the chickens fed and the lights on.
Milk Chocolate Ganache. hickory ice cream. bourbon caramel. marshmallow. This is a take on s'mores which absolutely, positively works for me. The reason I love this is that it is extremely gutsy for Chef Menicucci to put burnt, yes burnt, marshmallows on a plate and have it be so ever so successful. Throw in smoke (hickory ice cream)? Genius. The milk chocolate is ever so refined. And what's not to like about caramel?
Once you get past the fact that this is not going to be your traditional panna cotta and that it's not going to be a traditional old-school, sweet, rich, dessert, you latch onto the chocolate espresso taste, the white chocolate, and oh, yeah, the perfectly executed, firm, panna cotta underneath it all. This works. The long lingering espresso chocolate aftertaste hangs around and compels you to write gushing prose like this between spoonfuls. Crunchy chocolate espresso soil. White chocolate granite. Firm, firm, panna cotta (finally a firm panna cotta for a change!). Salt: just under the radar. Bittersweet chocolate? Who's the maker? A+ of course.
San Francisco, 1760, Strawberry and Cream Bavarian
Another Ricardo Mennicucci creation, and a darn good one at that. What's great about this dessert is that each element is unique and enjoyable on its own. You don't have to take some of each on every forkful. The basic sponge cake is savory and sweet. The lemon basil gelato stands on its own. The white chocolate crunch brings the crunchy texture element and an instant reminder of, well duh, white chocolate. The strawberry bavarian is light, creamy, and just enough sweetness to interest the palate. Another new-age not-so-sweet dessert that works. Oh, if you take everything as one bite? There's a lot going on. Top drawer.
Intermezzo, yogurt ice cream, balsamic peach salad, tarragon. Tarragon on a dessert, let alone a dessert? Oh yea of little faith. It all works, and Ricardo Mennicucci is the creator! The salt is just slightly above the radar, the tarragon adds an accent to the most-excellent yogurt ice cream. Along the trend line of not-too-sweet desserts, I really, really like this one. I've ordered this multiple times and loved each one.
Tomme Dolce. fig compote. bruleed figs. pine nut. shallot. chanterelle. This is an off-menu composed cheese plate using Andante Creamery’s Tomme Dolce and created by chef Matt Hanley. Honestly? This is the best composed cheese plate I have ever had. Lightning strikes twice. I had it a second time a few weeks later (it made it to the regular menu by then) and although it was slightly different, it was just as good.
The trend is towards composed cheese plates and this one runs with the best. Pine nut crackers? Oh yeah! You're puttin' chanterelles and shallots on a cheese plate? Are you kiddin' me? News flash: it works! Textures. Salt. Fat. Sweet. This plates brings the B+ Andante to life. Eat these ingredients together as a single bite, and forget that it's supposed to be a cheese course. Note to Gianpaulo: go off script and serve this with a sweet wine. This is not your father's cheese plate.
BBQ Pork Belly. corn porridge. peaches. charred frisee. I expected this to be stomach-sinker, but I was pleasantly surprised. The fat was at a very nice savory level. The peaches tender and the corn porridge had a nice subtle corn taste that was not in your face (not that I mind in your face corn flavors). Nice salt, nice smoke, nice heat. Oh, and did I mention that the pork is really, really tender? This dish passes the “sit at the table” test where you let it sit at the table, chat for a while, eat another dish and then come back to it. Low and behold it tastes even better after waiting.
Duck egg. raviolo. chanterelle. ricotta. This is an off-menu dish (thanks Ben!) and is intended to be a play on ramen. It’s rich and perfectly seasoned. The pasta is (of course) al dente. It’s in a pork stock which is not too light, not too rich. The duck egg brings a unique fat to the plate. I’m looking forward to seeing this dish on the menu: A+.
Baby artichokes. spiced pistachios. orange. basil. This is complex. There’s sweetness from the fruit and a bit of spice/heat from the pistachios in the form of a puree or humus. The orange is very clever because it’s so obvious and simple but it is dead on. The textures, the mouthfeel, heat, crunch, sweet, salt. It’s all there. Complex.
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