Keep it Simple!

Walking into the kitchen at the tail end of lunch service, I watch beautiful food being plated and expedited out of a clean, highly organized kitchen. The sound of food sizzling in sauté pans, the roar of the ventilation hood, and voices shouting and communicating with one another plays like a soundtrack that has been performed many times before. The sight of copper pans on French flat tops and bright lighting fills the kitchen. Steam from hot food caresses the face of the cook who prepared it as he wipes the plate, and sparks float upwards behind him from hot coals being moved about on a wood fire grill.  The Sous Chef stands at the center of the line, pencil in hand, marking tickets and communicating not only with the cooks on the line, but with the whole front of the house. All of this, to create a beautiful yet simple plate of food which allows the ingredients to speak for themselves. The kitchen is in full swing. 

One thing that I love in food is clean simplicity. Take “Into the Garden” by David Kinch of Manresa. The sheer beauty of a plate made from vegetables that the restaurant has grown is stunning. Although it is plated very nicely, the beauty is drawn from the vegetables themselves.

The reason this is important is because I believe that customers are beginning to take a journey back to simplicity in dining. Also related to my old post on locavores, people are demanding local ingredients presented in a way that they can really taste and enjoy them without the flavors being muddled by excess. For myself, I can say that I enjoy this trend because it allows the palate to taste the multiple, sometimes complex, flavors of a few ingredients rather than an overbearing symphony. Chefs are playing with different styles of cooking, for example charring vs. blanching, to bring out flavors that could not be singled out if served with too many other ingredients. Chefs also serve a vegetable or protein three different ways, or use three different parts of a whole animal, to showcase its diverse range. Both styles aim to let the natural flavors shine.

At Michael Mina’s restaurant American Fish in Las Vegas, he uses sea water to poach fish in. When I first saw this I felt like it had a huge ‘duh’ factor, because we always season anything we cook, including poaching liquids.  However, how cool is that? Purified sea water being used as poaching liquid is as simple as it gets, but it really grabs you when you look at the menu. Of course you have tasted halibut with a brioche crust or romesco sauce, etc., but have you really tasted the halibut? The concept of unedited pure taste is what interests diners in their renewed desire for simple food. Sure, really complex sauces and techniques taste very good as well, and I don’t mean to discredit that. However, I would compare this to a jazz solo versus a big band. Both have their place, but listening to a pianist flutter around in tempo with a bare bones rhythm section shows off the unique qualities of a few instruments. This bond between a few instruments can make a wide range of sounds similar to the wide range of tastes that can come from a few ingredients.

Here are a couple other restaurants taking the simple approach. Pizzaiolo in Oakland:

Adesso in Oakland. A gastropub/charcuterie bar. Basically, an all hand crafted cured meats, city cocktails, and wine kind of place.

Click here to see more delicious food. Isn’t simple beautiful?