CHRIS GARNIER: ALOHA SPIRIT IN THE KITCHEN
Chef of the Year Garnishes His Asian-European Fusion With an Island Ethic
Executive Dining
by Fifi Chao
Christopher Garnier is the executive chef of Roy’s of Newport Beach. When considering possible picks for the Chef of the Year, he exemplified for me the things that bring us great pleasure at the table. Chris is giving Orange County some of its most interesting food,a delicious blend of the best of Hawaii and the mainland,and yet he remains so modest and unassuming. Although people initially come to Roy’s for the world-renowned cuisine of Roy Yamaguchi (the Hawaiian founder and namesake), most leave the restaurant impressed by the creative influence that Chris conveys on the persuasive menu. In fact, in a group of restaurants that now numbers 32, Yamaguchi acknowledges that the Newport Beach restaurant (the busiest of them all) is in very good hands with this prot & #233;g & #233;.
I can best describe Chris Garnier’s talent as the ability to prepare a unique style of aloha comfort food with just the right amount of sophistication. He respects his ingredients and presents them with panache. He uses Asian spices and European cooking techniques in creating the dishes. He strives always to maintain the integrity of the freshest local products, while combining the local bounty with fresh Island produce and just-caught fish from those pristine waters. To him, the tie between dedicated farmer, fisherman and hunter and a chef is paramount to fine cuisine. He searches for interesting ways to showcase all these products, and in cooking each dish, he stays within certain boundaries. He is careful, for instance, not to introduce too many competing flavors or textures.
Chris executes the signature dishes of the restaurant, as envisioned by Yamaguchi for all his restaurants. These make up one page of the menu. With selections on the other page of the menu, Chris enchants diners with his own creations. In these dishes, Chris entwines his own vision with our local ingredients and our perception of food.
Chris Garnier and Yamaguchi, the mentor, share two very important traits: a unique culinary passion and a shy and humble demeanor. Chris’ character is the result of a background rich in family, and the basic values of hard work, which many Hawaiians describe as an aloha spirit. He was born and raised on Oahu, Hawaii. His ethnicity is a combination of Chinese and French, a good representation of the cultural blending for which the Islands are known.
As a practical decision, Chris studied liberal arts and accounting at a community college. In 1991, he obtained his first job at Roy’s as a busboy.
The moment he stepped in the doors of Roy’s Hawaii Kai, he’d discovered his calling.
“I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of that kitchen,” said Chris. “I, just about like everyone else, worshipped Roy and Gordon Hopkins (Roy’s corporate executive chef).”
Chris says that he cleaned the hoods over the stoves, washed dishes and watched Gordon and Roy work. One day, he stepped in as a line cook, when a cook called in sick. Chris honed his talent after that by working six days a week while still attending school. His schedule was so full that he would often sleep in the car in between school and work.
Yamaguchi took note of his enthusiasm for cooking and watched a talent emerge. Chris was asked to begin training new cooks and chefs as the popularity of Yamaguchi and his restaurants soared and new locations were being added around the Islands. He moved to Guam to help open the Roy’s there in 1993. The first time he traveled to the mainland was for the opening of Roy’s in Seattle in 1996. Upon returning to Hawaii, he worked at the Roy’s in Waikoloa on The Big Island.
Chris left Roy’s once, briefly, to take a position with the highly regarded Kahala Mandarin, where he worked under several talented European chefs. However, he was soon back working for Yamaguchi. Chris initially came to the Newport Beach restaurant as a culinary trainer. But in a short while, he agreed to become executive chef of this extremely popular restaurant and has since been making his mark.
If you were to ask Chris about his professional style as a chef, he will tell you that he is uncompromisingly dedicated to ensuring that the purity of flavors in food is respected. A balance of flavors is the hallmark of each dish that Chris cooks. He says that chefs must treat ingredients with integrity and let them be the stars on the plate. Most restaurants are high-turnover businesses. To his credit, more than 50% of the original kitchen crew, hired three years ago, is still with Chris in Newport Beach, obviously sharing his passion and commitment.
Chris has yet another passion, playing guitar, which he has done for 17 years. He admits that he sometimes draws the analogy that running the kitchen of Roy’s is like conducting a musical concert. He is the lead musician, his cooks are the band and the guests, he hopes, are his fans.
Chris has not forgotten his roots. He spends time as a mentor at a Newport Beach public school, and also enjoys his role as a mentor in the restaurant, spending time every day with his staff relaying the lessons he learned from Roy and Gordon over the years. As a personal value and representation of his culture, Chris also strongly believes in spreading aloha in everything he does.
“Part of the aloha spirit is treating each of our guests like family,” said Chris. “I try to cook them dinner just as if they were guests in my home,with attention and care in every detail.”
His Chinese grandfather was a master chef, a position greatly revered in that culture. In unhurried moments, Chris reminisces fondly about the feasts his grandfather prepared for the family. Those memories are part of the inner spirit of Chris Garnier and they’ve led him to our doorstep. We need only to dine at Roy’s of Newport Beach to share in his vision of great food as he delivers some of Orange County’s most extraordinary cuisine.
Personally, given all the dinners I’ve had at Roy’s and the intriguing moments waxing poetic with friends and associates over what was on our plates, you have long been a favorite chef of mine, Chris. You more than deserve the title of Chef of the Year.
ROY’S OF NEWPORT BEACH
453 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach
(949) 640-7697
Dinner only
It didn’t take long for Orange County diners to fall in love with Roy’s of Newport Beach. From the day it opened almost three years ago, it has been packed. Does this already sound like you should make reservations? Indeed, make them you must, so that you will know what all the gourmets and gourmands, casual diners and foodies in general are finding so fascinating.
The pre-opening publicity, of course, leaned heavily on the name of Roy Yamaguchi, the guru and founder who already had several restaurants worldwide carrying his name. Many of us had eaten at his already famous restaurants in Hawaii. Some had merely heard that a famous Hawaiian chef and his franchising partner was opening a restaurant in Newport Beach and were curious.
We all discovered a place that had much going for it: superb atmosphere, great energy, big and impressive open kitchen, a most convivial cocktail lounge and most important of all, food done up in a way that was very fascinating. That food kept us wanting to try more and more of this fusion cuisine built on Asian nuances married to the best quality products the kitchen could purchase locally and from the Hawaiian Islands, each dish presented in an exciting way. It was American food with a very distinct twist. Jaded palates accustomed to finding many of the same dishes in our upscale restaurants suddenly had a new reason to dine out. The saga continues.
Menus change daily as the house specials and even a few of the signature dishes are rotated, but at any given time, I am sure you will find some of the things I mention on the menu. From this you will at least get an idea of the creativity of the executive chef, Christopher Garnier.
Let’s begin with some of the signature dishes that come from the heart of Roy Yamaguchi. Soy sauce and mustard find their compatibility for enhancing Roy’s original blackened ahi. Love the seared shrimp on a stick to be dipped in a wasabi-enhanced cocktail sauce. I am always recommending that friends order the salmon that is grilled over hot coals and served with a soy-citrus sauce called ponzu. I have ordered the beef short ribs at least three times. These happen to sing a special culinary song with their Dijon mustard-honey glaze melding with the smokiness of the wood grill that permeates the tender meat.
Daily specials come to us courtesy of Chef Chris’ creativity. If the butterfish marinated in miso is on the menu, this is a must have appetizer or entr & #233;e (whichever way it is being served). Only recently has miso turned up as a marinade and glaze for fish in other restaurants, but it’s such a kind background flavor in this preparation that it seems to lift the flavor of the fish itself to another level. Don’t be surprised to learn that the eggrolls (lumpia) are stuffed with Muscovy duck. The crispy crab cakes are so good, crusted in panko (fresh Japanese breadcrumbs as fine as corn meal) and served with a sesame-butter sauce. I also like the calamari appetizer dipped in those same breadcrumbs and then spruced up with roasted peanuts and scallions. Not your everyday hors d’oeuvre.
I’m supposing that almost everyone has a certain culinary memory of good corned beef and cabbage. But, wait till you taste this version in which the corned beef is grilled and imported mustard and spices turn the pan juices into cosmopolitan dining. Mahi mahi gets a dusting of ground peanuts and a most interesting sauce of spicy butter sprinkled with tiny bits of sweet Chinese sausage.
Desserts tempt so much. I cannot help recommending above all else that you order the absolutely decadent, thus very memorable, melting hot chocolate souffl & #233;.
And, the wine list is an award-winning affair from which I have ordered wines from all over California and a few imports as well. They have a corporate sommelier who searches out real gems to match with this ever-interesting food, so this is a good restaurant to share with your wine-loving friends.
