Mark,
Great review.
Manresa is one my favorite restaurants in the USA.
I only live a few block's from Manresa.
Rick



"Mark Lipton" > wrote in message
news
> Last night, I met a friend for dinner at the restaurant Manresa in Los
> Gatos, CA. The restaurant and its chef, David Kinch, have recently
> received quite a bit of positive press in the NY Times magazine, Gourmet
> magazine and -- most recently -- it was cited as #38 on a list of the "Top
> 50 Restaurants in the World," as compiled by London's Restaurant Magazine.
> The emphasis at Manresa is on the creative use of locally procured
> ingredients. Although Mr. Kinch was absent from the kitchen last night
> (he's in London this week), the kitchen was ably run by his long-time
> sous-chef Jeremy. Both of us opted for the tasting menu, which we left up
> to the chef (as in Japanese omakase).
>
> Here is what we ate, and the wines that we had with it:
>
> amuse bouches:
> red pepper and black olive "petits fours"
>
> This gives me a picture of what the chef is doing. Here he subverts the
> standard idea of petit fours by swapping savory for sweet flavors. It's an
> intellectually stimulating way to start the meal.
>
> Mexican lime and hibiscus "cocktail"
>
> Yes, hibiscus! This consisted of a lime granita with a small infusion of
> tequila, atop of which was a red hibiscus jelly (for lack of a more
> descriptive term). The combination was very refreshing and stimulating to
> the palate.
>
> Parmesan churros
>
> Mashed potato and parmesan shaped into logs and deep fried. Nice finger
> food.
>
> Strawberry gazpacho
>
> This is apparently one of the signature dishes of Manresa, and it was a
> standout. The strawberry was present in small quantity, just enough in
> fact to "brighten" the tomato in the gazpacho, which also was seasoned
> with chives and lime.
>
> Salt cod bunyols, honey and sherry
>
> Frankly, I don't remember much about this dish -- I must have been
> distracted.
>
> The "infamous egg"
>
> [The name derives from some flak the chef took from some foodies online
> regarding whether he'd properly attributed this dish to L'Arpege
> restaurant, where it originated]
>
> A soft-boiled egg is opened up and, on top of the egg is placed some
> whipped cream and maple syrup. I know that it sounds bizarre, but it
> works and is a fascinating combination of flavors, not at all bizarre in
> taste. This BTW is another signature dish of Manresa.
>
> With all of the above, we had a bottle of Pierre Peters Cuvée de Reserve
> Blanc de Blancs Brut Le Mesnil Champagne. I didn't know this producer,
> but it came recommended by the staff and was very good: not much toast,
> citrus and green apple with a very pronounced mousse. It reminded me
> quite a bit of the few Champagnes of Egly-Ouriet that I've had.
>
> This was followed by:
>
> "Twice cooked" foie gras with delta asparagus
>
> A very thin slice of foie gras (the twice cooked bit I don't quite get)
> with lots of black pepper was draped over an asparagus tip. Very
> enjoyable combination.
>
> Japanese fluke, sashimi-style, with olive oil and chives
>
> I don't remember much about this dish, either, probably because it was
> eclipsed by what followed.
>
> "Just shucked" scallops with oceanic gelée
>
> This was another standout dish. The scallops were either raw or very
> lightly cooked, minced and reassembled into a football shape. Surrounding
> it was the gelée, which had a salty/citrusy character. The scallops were
> delicious on their own, but the gelée did add to the overall flavor as
> well. Totally delicious
>
> Artichoke soup with chickpea frites and manchego
>
> This was essentially a reworked version of French onion soup, with the
> chickpea frites standing in for the bread and the shaved Manchego
> replacing the Gruyére. The thick asparagus soup was poured over the solid
> ingredients, which slowly softened. The soup was rich and wonderful, and
> the solids provided interesting surprises when encountered.
>
> Skate wing with morels, fava bean pesto
>
> To me, this could have been a Charlie Trotter dish. All the ingredients
> were carefully showcased, and the combination of flavors provided the
> interest. The skate wing had been grilled and combined beautifully with
> the small, soft morels. The fava bean "pesto" tasted fresh, in contrast
> to the other flavors.
>
> Rouget and clams a la plancha, sweet and sour sauce
>
> Manresa's custom-designed kitchen includes a griddle-like plancha for
> searing fish on. In this dish, small squares of rouget (what's the
> English name for rouget?) were seared on the plancha and served with a
> very subtle "sweet and sour" sauce. I don't honestly remember the clams.
>
> These dishes were eaten with two wines that I'd brought along:
>
> 2002 Roland Lavantureux Chablis
>
> Initially a bit reticent, this opened up after 30 minutes to reveal the
> character that I remembered: good minerality, lemony citrus and green
> apples. As time wore on, the minerality became more pronounced.
>
> 2003 Manfred Felsner Grüner Veltliner Moosburgerin Kremstal
>
> A lighter-styled GV, but one that still has great substance to it and no
> signs of flabbiness from the hot vintage of 2003. It showed typical
> pepper and floral notes with citrus and some kind of melon on the palate
> and a nice, crisp finish. Not the biggest GV, but good varietal character
> and a nice complement to many of the fish dishes we had.
>
> Then, the final round of savory dishes:
>
> Local abalone with slow-cooked veal cheeks
>
> For me, this was the highlight of the dinner (and another signature dish!)
> The square of pan-fried abalone alone would qualify as a treat but, placed
> atop a small pile of braised veal cheeks, it was taken to a new level.
> Both components were excellent in their own right, but eating them
> together proved to be a revelatory experience. Surf and turf reinvented.
>
> Milk fed Pennsylvania pouillard stuffed with porcini mushrooms
>
> This was a delicious dish, reminding me quite a bit of dishes I'd had in
> France. Coming immediately after the previous dish, it suffered a bit in
> comparison.
>
> Season's last choucroute with suckling pig and boudin noir
>
> Two different parts of the pig found their into the choucroute, and the
> house-made boudin noir sausage was tremendous. The sauerkraut was
> somewhat subdued, giving this choucroute a bit of refinement.
>
> Baby spring lamb and merguez, goats' milk whey polenta
>
> I mostly remember the house-made merguez sausage, which was garlicky and
> good. The creamy polenta also provided a great backdrop to the meats.
>
> With these dishes, it was deemed prudent to get a red wine, so we opted to
> get by the glass:
>
> Robert Sinskey 2001 Los Carneros Pinot Noir
>
> A very decent Pinot from one of my favorite producers of Carneros PN.
> Soft, lush, with clear varietal fruit and a hint of smoke. It was very
> good with the veal and choucroute, but a bit overwhelmed by the lamb.
>
> The desserts:
>
> Green apple and rhubarb sorbet
>
> Of the two, the rhubarb was startlingly good.
>
> Pineapple beignets with passion fruit
>
> Delicious combination of the cooked pineapple and the passion fruit.
>
> Strawberry soufflé with kaffir lime ice cream
>
> The soufflé itself was great, but the combination with the lime flavor
> proved fasinating, even at this late stage of the meal.
>
> Chocolate marquis and devil's food cake
> Petits fours "white peach-chocolate"
>
> By this time, I'd basically had enough, so didn't really sample these last
> two desserts well enough to have much to say about them.
>
> The meal lasted just over four hours, though at no point did I feel either
> rushed or impatient for the next course. One point worth making here is
> that, although there were 21 different plates presented to us, the
> portions were quite small so that, even by the end of the meal I was not
> overly full. Instead, the cumulative impact of all the different flavors
> was almost kaleidoscopic. The overall impression of the cooking was
> certainly the creative use of high quality, fresh ingredients; beyond
> that, however, was the desire to create (what for me is) a new synthesis.
> This is not "fusion" cooking in the hackneyed sense, but rather a coming
> together of several different traditions with this ethos of highlighting
> the ingredients themselves. At the same time, I never felt that the
> combinations were forced or that the chef was trying to do too much in a
> given dish. Each dish had its own distinct character, and it was the
> sucession of dishes of differing character that provided a lot of the
> excitement.
>
> All in all, a most memorable meal, conceived of by a rising superstar of a
> chef. The wines, while good, were in the end overshadowed by the cooking,
> but the cooking was what I was there to experience after all...
>
> One final thought: with the growing popularity of chef's tasting menus
> such as this one, it's becoming increasingly difficult to select a single
> bottle of wine that will go with a meal. Restaurants such as this will
> usually have a selected list of wines by the glass to accompany the
> tasting menu, but at times patrons will not want to partake of those
> wines. In such cases, restaurants will need to increase their supplies of
> half bottles to provide greater flexibility to their patrons in choosing
> wines to go with the food.
>
> Mark Lipton
>
>
>
>