After a few amuses, an expectation stretched, flavor combinations dared, the downbeat of molecular meals drops – and it always pops! One bite, as always instructed, where the slightest resistance breaks with an explosion of flavor, its startling intensity foreshadows more surprise. Jaws clench down, cartoon eyes bulge, and smiles expand – a collective we have been waiting for this! At Atelier Crenn, the Kir Breton, served as the final amuse, pops with intense cool apple cider and sparkles as it engulfs the mouth – appearances are deceiving and the unpredictable fun.

Kir Breton

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When the perfect storm descends, I asked Chef Joshua Skenes, let me seek sanctum at your kitchen counter. Three proteins – shrinking and intensifying – black arts based on basic principles – were near a convergence point. By land, sea, and air. Welcome to a meal of waxy 7-day fish, 50-day Epoisses pigeon, and fruity 120-day beef. It was not so much a “tasting menu” as a “tasting” menu – a glimpse into new possibilities for Saison.

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How many times have you tasted perfection? Sprouting peas, tender and delicately sweet, welcome Spring to the Bay Area when they pop up on menus everywhere. It was no different at Ubuntu except that Jeremy Fox created a masterpiece out of these tiny harbingers, showcasing them in a Michelin 3-star-worthy dish. Seductive, with a crisp burst of minty punctuation, his peas and white chocolate dish is one of the great Spring-time signatures. Smith popped up at the end of Spring – would Fox prepare the peas too?

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Tucked along a particularly post-modern stretch of Silicon Valley,¹ Sawa sits next to a Subway with its shades drawn, lights dimmed, and a Closed sign that pauses even the most intrepid eaters. Circumstance or calculation, the anti-business practices have fed into the mythology of this most incongruous of American fine dining restaurants. All is not what it seems in Santa Clara. Sitting down, the Sapporo-branded laminated sushi menu greets you with cross-cultural irony – or test. California roll?

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Searching for the new, in the constant grind to stay relevant, many chefs have adopted a maximalist philosophy, unleashing a barrage of technique and flavor combinations that aim to surprise first – the Cuisine Agape.¹ At its best, such as Pierre Gagnaire on an inspired day, thinking in eight more dimensions than humanly possible, epiphanies pop across the plate with revelations of flavor and texture. But there is something too about peeling back the onion, so to speak, paring the food down to its most elemental – fire and nature – where simplicity reveals the complexities of taste. Minimalist and light, Joshua Skenes has developed a style where the inflections of a toasted sea leaf divulge as much about food as an entire space-age twelve-course tasting menu. “Simple”, he says, “sometimes is very difficult.”

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