Call it juggling, improvisation or just an attempt to choreograph spontaneity — chef Ian Anderson and the crew at Chic le Chef manage it well.
The Hidden Valley Lake kitchen operates as a five-day a week restaurant, but it is also subject to the whims of catering clients. And they serve a menu of specials that change every shift. It’s not a challenge taken up lightly.
Despite the potential for culinary carnage, Anderson approaches the task with quiet confidence.
“It’s just utilization of what we have,” he said.
The chef’s steady nature implies a certainty with ingredients. But it doesn’t prepare you for the craft and wisdom the kitchen impresses on each dish.
On Tuesday, for instance, the dinner menu listed roast turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy. The idea seems almost homespun — a Norman Rockwell sketch very few restaurants bother with outside of the winter holidays. It is either too simplistic or too formidable, in the sense that diners tend to shun versions that veer from their memories of grandma’s table.
But this was a beautiful dish. Tender turkey breast, a pillow of potatoes, fresh vegetables cooked just to the narrow edge of al dente, blessed by an orange cream gravy.
Yes — the traditional country overalls spun in bright colors by Vivian Westwood, the Rockwell nostalgia piece splashed by Jackson Pollock.
It’s nothing that overwhelming, actually. The splash of citrus eases through the hearty meat and potatoes, lending a brightness to the dish. The tart aspect picks up on the lean streak of smoke ringing the breast, giving it a denser character.
Many people would shy away from orange in such a staid, savory presentation, Anderson admitted. “But it goes so well if you do it right,” he pointed out.
The chef credits Mario Monroy, Chic le Chef’s owner, for inspiring the dish. But he seeks ideas from fellow chefs, staff members and even customers. The menu may include touches of Thai, Mexican, French and the American roadside diner — from mahi mahi to the all-American burger.
Anderson refers to the new menu, which the restaurant unveiled last week, as California cuisine with a little global fusion.
“We try to keep it different, but not too crazy,” he explained. “Mario keeps me grounded.”
While the pairing of citrus gravy and white meat is remarkably deft, the achievement may be overshadowed by an appetizer portion of fries.
A fixture on their new menu, garlic Parmesan curly fries rivet your attention. Other than a series of mumbled acknowledgements, table conversation falls silent after the first bite.
Unlike the frail curly fries of fast food lines, Chic le Chef prepares thick, wavy wedges. Under the crackling patina, the potato billows — crunchy and cushy in the same instant. More impressive is the restraint show when applying garlic.
Too often kitchens douse the fries with the bitter, grassy savor of garlic until everything else on the plate withers. Anderson and his crew take a different approach, first fixing a potent garlic butter then setting it aside.
“After a couple of days it mellows,” the chef reported.
Even so, Anderson cuts the garlic butter with olive oil before drizzling over the fries. Again, the result is subtle, yet masterful. With shreds of cheese a plate of fried potatoes transform into something rich, crunchy, tangy, biting, earthy, grassy and amazing.
Few restaurants make a meal — along with the planning, ordering, prepping, cooking, rushing to catering gigs and everything else involved — appear so effortless.
