Manresa Is Back!

Manresa has reopened after the tragic fire that destroyed the restaurant’s roof and a small part of the kitchen.  David’s fabulous stove was untouched though!  The dinner we enjoyed with Michelle and David showed that a 6 months hiatus did not damage David Kinch’s kitchen creativity or Esteban Garibay’s excellent service staff’s attention to detail.  All but 3 of their original employees have returned.  We met their new sommelier, Jim Watson (was the som at Cyrus in Healdsburg), who did a fabulous job of sorting through the 14 bottles of wine that Bill and David brought to the restaurant.  We asked him to choose from the bottles to which wine went best with each dish and he rose to the occasion with perfection!  Welcome to Manresa Jim!

FYI:  there is no longer a menu to choose from at Manresa.  You walk in, sit down and prepare to be amazed.  The daily chef’s tasting menu truly changes daily and the theme for Saturday’s menu was “The Winter Garden.”   They provide a menu for you to take home so you don’t have to remember each scrumptious dish.  BTW be prepared to spend money.  Dinner, before corkage ($75 corkage), tax and tip is $200 per person!  I suspect the restaurant limits how many bottles you can bring in but Chef Kinch and Esteban are very kind and generous with us and allowed us to bring in as many bottles as we wanted.   It will definitely remain our “special occasion” dinner destination.

Some of the 15 courses were signature dishes that we’ve grown to expect from Manresa and ones we enjoyed at our Manresa cookbook dinner.  We started with the savory Petit fours = black olive Madeleines and red pepper jellies (one each per person), and a new recipe called a Granola Crisp.  Very crisp, thin nut crusted wafer that will break in your hand if you don’t handle it gently, as David quickly discovered. 

Another new concept was the “Green panisse, Meyer lemon curd.”  It’s a fried chickpea rectangular log that was topped with dots of lemon and curry curds.  I must admit, I’ve not had a panisse before but this one was a complex mix of  savory, tart and spice.  Served with the panisse was a savory, stuffed nasturtum beignet served atop a nasturtium leaf.  Very beautifully presented.  Jim selected David’s 2004 Roland Champion Brut Blanc de Blancs  that had hints of apple, was dry and a perfect choice for the rich amuse bouches.  

The next dish, one of my many favs, was “Seafood with fermented

plum, caviar.”  It was a bowl with a bit of uncious uni (sea urchin), a mousse of monkfish, spiked with the fermented plum (a Japanese condiment called umboshi), and topped with caviar.   David and I are uni fans and could have just had a bowl of it but the mousse added a meatier foundation for it and was reminiscent of the fresh tastes and smells of the ocean.  

Moving on to another one of my fav’s, was “Sweet turnip consommé, crab and Matsutake,” a small bowl that had a layer of turnips fanned out over a sweet turnip consummé, that contained bits of crab and Matsutake mushrooms with a tiny, tiny piece of lemon that provided the finishing touch to a mouthful of true foodie heaven.  I LOVED this dish, as you can tell.  (My apologies for forgetting to take a photo...I was so bummed when I realized that I had forgotten since this was such an outstanding dish.)  Jim selected another of David’s bottles  (do you see a pattern here?) for this course.  Jim selected a rich bottle of Chablis 2008 Chablis Grand Cru "Bougros" Domaine William Fèvre from the King’s cellar to drink with this course.   The Chablis just kept getting better and better as the evening wore on.  I came back to it in future courses and was just amazed.   Jim also treated us a to taste of Ichinokura Sake from Japan to see which one we liked more with this dish.   It was rich with tones of cedar that stood up to the earthiness of this course.  We all had a hard time choosing which one went better .

“Scallop and carrot with flowering coriander” was 3 small scallops combined with a pickled carrot, foam that I couldn’t identify (Michelle, David?) and a couple of sprigs of a coriander that I have never tasted before nor does it look like any kind of coriander I’ve seen.  It looked more like a fern but had a mild coriander taste.  It was topped with an edible bright orange flower that I think was a miniature pomegranate flower . . . but maybe not.   See if you can identify the flower in this photo (if you click on the photo you’ll see an enlarged photo).   The pickled carrot required a wine with good acid and this one filled that bill.  And, guess whose cellar this one came from?  A wonderful, perfume-y, dry  2001 Maximin Grunhauser, Riesling Herrenberg Kabinett.   I kept coming back to this glass too as I sampled more of Chef Kinch’s creations. 

Another of Chef Kinch’s signature dish, “Into the vegetable garden” served in an amusing plate that shows a photo of two hands in a position of offering the salad that is piled onto the palms.  My apologies for forgetting to take a photo of this spectacular way of serving this eponymous dish that IS David Kinch. As was throughout the dinner, Brussel sprouts and other brassica vegetables were featured in this dish with the signature “dirt” made of chicory.  Chateau Haut-Bergey 2005 Sauvignon Blanc Pessac Leognan Grand Vin was the bottle selected for his course.  Our cellar, however, was batting zero at this point!

We ate black cod next, served with black truffles shaved over them…what’s not to like?  Black cod swim very, very deep in the ocean and are difficult to catch.   The fact that they swim so deep demonstrates why the fish is more “fatty” than other white-fleshed fish.  This dish was called “Black cod “noirande” and winter truffle.”   As you can see from the various photos, each dish is served in unique bowls and containers, and artfully arranged.   The Japanese in me loves this part of cooking and also why I like making desserts.    All of the wooden trays, containers are created and made by Loy Martin, a local artisan, who is a true master of his craft and a big fan of Manresa’s.  Bill & I have known Loy for many years and his furniture is worthy of castles and palaces!  He made the various serving pieces for Manresa and if you eat there, take a moment to look at them as they arrive at your table. We moved into a white burgundy at this point.  Again, another wine from David’s cellar, Puligny-Montrachet 2007 Domaine Henri Boillot  Cote de Mouchere.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, white burgundy, is one of my favorite wines and this one did not disappoint.  Rich, creamy, and complex. 

BTW, our reservations were for 5:30 and we are now moving into 9 p.m. and are only two thirds the way through the menu!   We finally leave at midnight and to give a tribute to the timing of the service staff, we are not “stuffed” and very contented by then.

Another favorite dish, (so many dishes, so hard to choose an absolute favorite!) was the “Abalone porridge, morels, black vinegar” dish.  This is sort of a risotto but made with premium Japanese short grain rice (have you seen the documentary Jiro Loves Sushi?  Rent it from Netflix if you haven’t!) that was flecked with pieces of abalone, crispy sesame seeds, that were more like miniature pretzels, and enriched with morels.  The piece de resistance was the fried rice, like tiny bits of puffed rice crispies but white.   The flavors, mouth-feel, umami, and complete experience was encompassed in this single dish for me.    Ingenious!   Again, another bottle from David and Michelle’s cellar, a red burgundy, Clos de Vougeot 2005 Musigni Grand Cru Domaine Gros Frere et Soeur, had the nice acid and dry fruit that complemented the smoky flavors of the abalone and sesame crisps.   Jim was batting .300 so far in wine pairings!

We moved on to meat dishes at this point and had slices of “Roast duck with hoshigaki mostarda and sweet potato.”  The duck was dry aged, with dried whole persimmons that had a kick from mustard and the Japanese sweet potatoes were fried (they weren’t French fries but small wedges).    The aged duck was so tender and, as expected, perfectly prepared to rare slices.  It was an unexpected but delicious combination of flavors and textures.   We finally had a wine from our cellar, a lovely Rhone wine,  1989  Hermitage, Rhone la Chapelle, Paul Jaboulet aine, France.  

Our last dish was a detour from the menu and a special treat from the chef.   It was a simple dish of a slice of “Wagyu beef with Porcini mushroom,” a slice of beef with a half of a locally foraged Porcini mushroom.  I don’t know if it was Japanese wagyu or American but it was unbelievable!  We’ve had wagyu beef before in California as well as Japan and this one was beyond the pale!    It was well marbled so it was tender and rare.  But what was amazing was the paper-thin crispy exterior.  It wasn’t crispy like I think of a seared steak but “crispy.”  I asked David Kinch about the preparation and he said it takes a lot of attention to cook it because it’s 10 seconds on a very hot surface, take it off the heat for a while and repeat the process over and over.  OMG!   It was served with a half of a porcini mushroom that was so soft and tender, even the stem!  It was partially caramelized and the porcine jus/sauce was so simple but really “made” the dish complete.  Isn’t it a perfect picture too?  We drank another wine from our cellar, a 1990 Mayacamas Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley.  I expected it to be tannic and young but because it was a tenth, this evening was the perfect time to drink it.  It was the perfect pairing with the beef and we all thought it was the classical California cabernet sauvignon.

Finally, we are onto desserts!   These desserts are photo ops, so artfully arranged.  Michelle and I were served the “Quince with yogurt and hibiscus.” The yogurt was more of a panna cotta made with yogurt that had a top layer that was red and tart because of the hibiscus.  The quince are the four little flower buds arranged on the top of the yogurt.   It was creative, delicious with the juxtaposed tart, creamy and sweet.  Along side the bowl of yogurt and hibiscus was a beignet that rivals Du Mondes that was dusted with a tart sugar.  Some of you may remember my search for the perfect doughnut recipe and this one comes pretty close. 

David and Bill had the “Apple and celery with green tea.”  Although in the photo it looks like lettuce leaves, I think it was actually delicately fried green tea (think of shrimp chips) crisps or maybe celery?  It had little green ice balls that were sweetened apple sorbet.    Bill brought a St. Urbans-Hof 1998 Riesling Eiswein Ockener Bockstein from the Mosel region of Germany that Jim paired with the first desserts.  This was an amazing ice wine that harkens the flavors of sauternes and even was dark golden in color and only 6.5% alcohol.

Our next dessert was “Winter squash, chocolate and sherry vinegar” which may not sound like a dessert to you but it was aningenious combination of a Kabocha squash caramel, alongside a small rectangle of buttery dark chocolate and a dollop of ice cream.  It looked very architectural and tasted absolutely yummy.  And, this from a person who doesn’t especially like chocolate!   We drank a wine from Australia that David believes is the only wine that goes well with chocolate, a NV Campbells Isabella Muscadelle Rare Rutherglen Topaque, Australia.  This wine is reminscient of a good port and does, indeed, pair well with chocolate…or at least THIS chocolate!

And, if you think this was the end of the meal, it was NOT.   They ended the feast with the same beginning, switching from the savory red pepper jellies and black olive madeleines to sweet strawberry jellies and chocolate madeleines.  And a charming Loy Martin box alongside filled with almond clusters and chocolate mints.   And the ever-present French Macaroons, this time Meyer Lemon, sesame seed and pistachio…Ahh, what a fine ending to a fine evening. 

We left Manresa with out traditional take-out bag of a Chocolate Brioche to eat the following morning and a handful of sea salted caramels:  all to help us savor the evening for days to come.

Hope you will save your pennies, well, maybe dollar bills, to dine at Manresa.  You’ll enjoy your evening, your dinner and a wonderfully restored restaurant ambiance.  And, if you don’t have a wine cellar, the restaurant will pair each course with a glass of wine from their fine cellar for an additional fee.

Welcome back into our lives, Manresa!  

p.s. David made some corrections via email and I've made those changes.