They Redefined Dining in OC
This article has been mulling around in my mind for the past two years. I periodically jotted notes on my yellow pad about the really, really important occurrences in Orange County’s restaurant industry throughout the last decade. A surprising thing happened. The same two restaurants and their chef-owners came up so often, it was as if the roads of major importance kept leading me back to the same place.
In all those notes there were questions, so many questions, about how I could sum up the ’90s in Orange County. Should I take a look at how many more restaurants have opened in the past 10 years? Should I mention the ethnic foods we’ve come to understand? Should I try to come off as an intellectual writing about the overall impact the industry has had on this county? Then, there’d be another reference in my notes to either Restaurant Pascal or Golden Truffle, to Pascal Olhats or Alan Greeley. Finally, I concluded that it was these two restaurants that changed our dining experiences profoundly in the past decade. While many fine restaurants are giving us new experiences every day, these two have changed the way we want to dine and they’ve guided us to an understanding of what makes a passionate restaurant with true soul.
I do extend my congratulations and appreciation, as this decade and century end, to all of the restaurateurs and chefs who work long, hard days for a bottom line that would be considered totally unacceptable in any other industry. However, as two chefs who cook with such ardor and who practically introduced the idea of a chef also spending time in the dining room discussing the food with guests, I really feel compelled to bestow the title of Chefs of the Decade on Pascal and Alan.
PASCAL OLHATS
Pascal Olhats cooks what he calls “La Cuisine R & #233;elle.” Real food, genuine food. The restaurant is now just over a decade old and when he left Hotel Meridien in Newport Beach to chase his dream, I must admit that I was worried about his chances for success, even though he was merely blocks away from his former employer. There was little foot traffic in the center at Bristol and Dove streets. He and his wife, Mimi, didn’t have a lot of savings.
But, it was clear from the outset that they were willing to work very hard to be on their own. They could both be found with hammers and paintbrushes redoing the space themselves as much as possible. They built waist-high divider walls, a couple of step-up dining areas, and Mimi bought colorful fabrics from the South of France, which she made into tablecloths.
At that time, none of us had a clue that she also had a penchant for fresh flowers , lots of flowers, primarily roses. There are always at least a dozen bouquets situated throughout Restaurant Pascal. As in an auberge (small, intimate hideaway), the scent of flowers adds powerful meaning to the room.
The restaurant opened with little fanfare, but word spread like wildfire that a French couple had introduced a cozy, intimate, and very charming French restaurant. Pascal’s food took us to a culinary place we’d never been to this side of the ocean. In his impeccably starched whites, he cooked an accessible, lighter version of regional French food than we’d known. The presentations were as charming as the restaurant. He began to cook more of the foods of Proven & #231;e; a bright, flavorful cuisine punctuated with basil, olives, tomatoes, and a variety of herbs. Cooking as he did with such attention to detail and to the nuances of each dish, and putting together a wine list that was full of heretofore-unknown boutique wines to match his food, were a turning point for OC diners. We felt like we were in France rather than Newport Beach. So much so that we almost wanted to learn to speak French.
On the current menu are poached halibut with sea beans in a tomato bouillon, filet of venison with roasted chestnuts, marinated salmon with a creamy potato “risotto,” chicken supreme and veal sweetbread with morrel sauce, roasted quail, and p & #226;t & #233; of pike with a crayfish and lobster bisque. Excellence in dining has become the norm.
In the mid-’90s Pascal continued our education by introducing Pascal & #201;picerie next door to the restaurant. This small food emporium, exactly like those found all over France, is full of fresh pastries, imported cheeses, Pascal’s signature dishes to take home and pop in the oven, delightfully priced wines, and exotica such as fresh foie gras. Until he came along, we didn’t have a clue about the French obsession with food. Now, we obsess over finding time to eat again and again in his restaurant and take home some delicacies from the food shop.
ALAN GREELEY
Alan Greeley is all-American, raised in Orange County. As a chef, he’s severely passionate about what he does. He is a genius in the kitchen. He’s deadly serious about food tasting perfect and looking gorgeous when it’s served, but there’s a sense of joy to his personality that is noticeable in everything he does. Because he wants to eat exciting food himself, he set out to teach us how to dine with a sense of freedom we’d never even thought of before. Trust is the most important factor. Having tasted his clever takes on classic dishes of the world, the diner is immediately inspired to try more and to revel in the contentment that his cuisine brings.
He began as a caterer and opened Golden Truffle as a sideline to doing private functions for famous clients he’d acquired here and on travels throughout the Pacific and Europe in the ’70s and early ’80s, and Asian clients he’d added to his roster from the mid-’80s on. Now he spends almost all of his time here, save for an occasional meal he’s cooking for a private client in Paris or Tokyo or somewhere on a Caribbean island. He’s cooked at some prestigious restaurants in France and we, in the last decade, became the recipients of all that he knows from a global perspective.
Nothing that Alan cooks is ordinary. While the main ingredient of every dish is allowed to shine, his instinctive knowledge of what flavors will enhance that ingredient make for some awesome creations. This is by no stretch of the imagination anything that anyone else is plating up in Orange County. Alan single-handedly gave the term “spontaneous cuisine” a real definition. Whether sitting in the adorable center bistro with a display of wines or in one of the adjacent dining rooms (one with clever art, another a wine storage vault), life is never dull. (The wine list, incidentally, is one of the most interesting in the county, sporting at least 26 Champagnes and a lot of distinctive half bottles.) Confit of duck leg with a red onion pie is indicative of his cleverness, as is red hot lobster taquitos with a cool sauce. Who else offers macaroni and cheese with optional truffles, turning a classic comfort food into haute cuisine? Imagine the marvelous taste of grilled quail ravioli with leek juice.
The peerless encounter extends to the plates themselves. White asparagus with truffle vinaigrette comes on a triangular salmon-colored plate. Giant prawns dotted with pomegranate seeds and with a spicy Thai cucumber salad on the side come on a plate with a gold and blue fish design curving around the perimeter.
Alan is to Orange County what a three-star chef is to Europe. He interacts with his guests. When we learned to put our trust in his commitment to making dining a wonderfully unique experience, we knew that it was not dining with abandon, but rather with the greatest anticipation. He liberated us from our addiction to having the same meal over and over again.
Chao publishes Chao’s Dinesty, a food, wine and travel newsletter, in Irvine.
