Kauai Grill
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.