David Kinch and Manresa Restaurant For: The Best Reinvention of A Culinary Cliché
By now, everyone knows what Surf and Turf is. It has been spun, calqued, and re-imagined a thousand times. If someone tries to serve me lobster and a steak on the same plate ever again I swear I will get up and leave the restaurant. That stuff just doesn’t belong together, thank-you-very-much.
Yet just when I thought beef and seafood could never find a happy marriage, along comes Chef David Kinch, of Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, California with something so simple, so unexpected, it took my breath away.
Sirloin and Oyster Tartare with Bouquet of Greens and Horseradish Cream
I never would have ordered it off of a menu, but when I received it as an amuse-bouche before a dinner a couple of months ago, of course I ate it. Trust me when I tell you that this concoction is one of the most innovative and remarkable things I have put in my mouth in years.
The dish tastes nothing like you would imagine, but just like it should. Remarkably, both the beef flavor (with a hint of olive oil and herbs) and the briny ocean freshness of the oyster come through as distinct yet intertwined. The whole spoonful melted in the mouth and I was left in the realm of fantasy…..so if mermaids had herds of cows that they raised on the ocean bottom, this is what they would taste like…the organic, free-range bovine Sirens of my dreams are calling.
The kitchen at Manresa has now added this dish recently as a menu item and has been experimenting with adding small hints of other flavors which they believe help support the dish in when consumed in a larger quantity than the spoonful I received as an amuse. The version pictured above has tiny bits of caper berries and a few herbs mixed in, which gave it a slight sour flavor to play off of the briny and buttery elements. My preference is actually for just the unadulterated beef and oyster version of my first experience, but Kinch maintains that serving it as a full dish rather than an amuse bouche is a different game. “When served as part of a tasting menu it has to hold up on its own — it has to be something that can be looked back on as an integral part of a complete meal, rather than just a palate cleanser or playful amuse. Hence the need for more complexity.”
It is truly the mark of culinary genius to be able to transcend all 
of the past history of a dish, and still remain true to its essential concept. Bravo Chef Kinch.
To experience Chef Kinch’s innovative Japanese and Spanish influenced French cuisine, please visit them in Los Gatos, California:
Manresa Restaurant
320 Village Lane (just off North Santa Cruz Avenue)
Los Gatos, CA 95030
408-354-4330
This award was given as part of the 2005 Independent Food Awards. For more information, and to see the other award winners, please visit the official site.
