Photo of Manresa by Tara F. Walker
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In August 2008 I had the most memorable meal of my life –at Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos to celebrate my 40th birthday. For years I had wanted to dine at Manresa. It not only met my high expectations, it far exceeded them.
I recently had the opportunity to interview the man behind Manresa: chef and owner David Kinch. I am excited to share our conversation, divided into parts, over the next couple weeks.
In 2009 Manresa was awarded two Michelin stars – an incredible distinction in the culinary world – for the third consecutive year. It has received awards and praise since Kinch first opened the restaurant in 2002. Other honors include Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants (San Francisco Chronicle, 2003-2009) and Top 40 Restaurants in the US (Gayot, 2005, 2006, 2008). Chef Kinch was a James Beard Foundation nominee for the category “Best Chefs in America: Pacific” in 2009 and 2008.
Manresa is as renowned for its amuse-bouches as it is for the other courses it serves. Three that I fondly remember from my birthday dinner: first, a small glass of strawberry gazpacho. I was worried it might be too sweet, but it was savory and exquisite. One of my companions, who is an avid cook, asked a waiter about ingredients and found out two were “a little bell pepper and chives.” Next, a zucchini sorbet (I believe it was officially called courgette), which I must admit I was skeptical of. It featured a foam top, which added great texture, and the next thing I remember was a wonderful taste in my mouth! The last was called a “soft egg” and the presentation was appealing and creative. It was a hollowed-out egg shell: the top of the shell was broken off and staff told us to put our spoons all the way to the bottom to make sure we got all of the layers together. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and included soft-boiled egg, sherry vinegar and maple syrup.
Click here for a slideshow from Manresa.
Interview Part 1
How do you come up with your amuse bouches?
We’re inspired by many things. It could be a season, it could be an idea from one of the cooks, it could be a taste of something that we’ve had at another restaurant that inspires an idea – like a flavor combination, or a method of delivery…you know, whether it’s drinking out of a glass or spooning something out of a coffee cup…it can come from many different sources. The main point of the amuse is to inspire a little bit of wonder about what’s going to come; it’s supposed to build a little bit of excitement. It shouldn’t be too heavy. It tends to be either bitter flavors or slightly salty flavors. Bitter in a good way. Because these are tastes that tend to stimulate the palate, don’t deaden the palate but actually enliven it in preparation for the meal itself.
I know that your menu changes – do you update it seasonally?
It changes a little bit every day. We fine-tune it – maybe a different kind of spinach came from the garden, or a fish isn’t available, so we serve another fish. I’d say 10% of the menu changes every day mostly by tweaking and making adjustments. A full-scale seasonal menu changes every six weeks. It tends to be an evolution, it’s not like “time to change the menu.”
Is there one ingredient or one dish that is a constant?
We have a first-course dish called “Into the Vegetable Garden.” The title of the dish is always on the menu, but the dish always changes. It’s a dish reflective of the season and the produce from our garden.
We also have some dishes that come back every year, seasonally. In tomato season, we have a dish or two that comes back. In the winter, a dish or two that come back, etc. One dish that’s always on the menu is a sashimi with olive oil and chives, but the fish changes depending on availability.
I very much enjoyed one amuse-bouche that included soft-boiled egg, sherry vinegar, and maple syrup. I’ve heard it referred to as your “signature amuse- bouche.”
Yes, that is always on. And that is a dish that’s done at one of my favorite places in France, so it’s a dish in tribute.
Has it been served ever since you opened in 2002?
Yes.
May I ask what restaurant that it pays tribute to?
L’Arpege in Paris. It is a signature dish there and I do a variation in homage to it.
You first began your relationship with Cynthia Sandberg’s biodynamic Love Apple Farm in 2005. Although you started on a smaller scale, today Love Apple has an exclusive partnership with Manresa. Do all of Manresa’s vegetables and herbs, or most of them, come from Love Apple Farm?
If it’s on the plate and it’s a vegetable, more than likely it came from the garden (at Love Apple). Certainly in the spring and summertime, but even in the wintertime the majority comes from the garden. We don’t have a lot of fruit there, but chickens, eggs, beehives, honey, all the vegetables, many herbs.
How has working with Love Apple Farm and biodynamic gardening changed your cooking, and/or influenced the menu at Manresa?
It writes the menu now. When we started transitioning over, it really was the most challenging thing we’ve ever had, professionally, to encounter. Because we didn’t want to waste it, didn’t want to waste any of the produce, so -- all of a sudden you have large amounts of beautiful eggplant. And you have to do something with it. So you’re forced to create dishes to use it. It’s not like you’re picking up the phone and ordering eggplant from the produce company.
You walk through (the garden)…you see a patch of something that’s growing and growing and getting closer and closer to maturity over the weeks as you constantly walk by it. And one day you realize that it’s going to be ready - so the idea can almost foment in your mind, too, while you’re waiting for it.
It used to be it’s time to change the menu, it’s seasonal, you have a list of seasonal ingredients and you sit there and you write your menu. Now the garden gives us certain things, and it forces our thinking about how we want to write the menu. We spend a lot of time and effort to make the garden work and make the partnership work. (Author’s note: see end of article for a video of Chef Kinch talking about Love Apple).
What is your favorite aspect of living in Santa Cruz, where you’ve lived since 1997?
Being close to the water.
You’re a surfer, correct?
Yes but I like being on the water, period. Surfing, sailing, the beach. You know, I have to drive that hill every day -- which is great, because the hill is like a barrier. It’s like I leave my professional life behind, and I go home to my private life. And when it’s time to go to work, the hill’s this giant fence. It’s very, very nice. I very much like living there.
Read more from my interview with David Kinch: part two here and part three here. If you’d like to be alerted every time I post a new article, go to my home page and subscribe.
Manresa offers dinner Wednesday-Sunday, and has occasional special dinners. If you want to experience the restaurant’s most popular event, it’s coming up on September 19 & 20: the annual heirloom tomato dinners, officially entitled “Tomato Modernista.” (Click here for more info). This is the fifth consecutive year and tomatoes are in each dish, including dessert. Watch the 5-minute video below which includes appearances by Chef Kinch as well as Love Apple Farm's Cynthia Sandberg. It was filmed on September 26, 2006, a day when a special heirloom tomato dinner was held at Manresa.
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