{"id":120,"date":"2019-11-18T13:26:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T13:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/2019-11-15-joshua-skeness-saison-part-i\/"},"modified":"2024-03-03T15:02:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T15:02:28","slug":"2019-11-15-joshua-skeness-saison-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/2019-11-15-joshua-skeness-saison-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua Skenes’s Saison, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hegel was the philosopher of retrospection, for whom understanding only comes in retrospect. “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.” Joshua Skenes, by recent media reports, was a sort of shooting star that lit up the American dining horizon but faded out prematurely in a by now faint trail of stardust. If it is indeed the truth that he has disappeared, at least temporarily, from the dining landscape, that may say more about the strictures of a dining scene that moves on prematurely itself, in its perpetual search for the \u201cnew.\u201d 3 out of 4 of the Gastromondiale editors (who were able to dine at Saison before he left the stoves to Gras) were dazzled by perhaps the only American chef to show how ingredients could be enhanced by paying a parental care to them. No American chef had ever exhibited the sort of maniacal care to their temporality, patient to their developing maturity as an elementary school teacher might wait for an unruly one to shed its acerbic edge.<\/em>
The Skenes era at Saison was the greatest period, not only in Californian cuisine, but in American. Skenes was an original, not because he did not borrow (he did profusely), but because his sensibility and capacity to adapt the ideas that preceded him, soared beyond those from whom he learned. As with any figure who shrugged off the politically correct imperatives of a mediocre American dining scene, he attracted his detractors. Greatness seeks resistance and produces resentment, inevitably.<\/em>
We at Gastromondiale celebrate Joshua Skenes, the chef who made us rediscover the possibility in a turnip, a beet, a pumpkin. Who made us enjoy cuisine, uniquely American in its diversity, unlike we had until then and have since. We hereby present the first of Vedat Milor\u2019s two reviews of Skenes-era Saison. Cheers.<\/em><\/p>Brandon GRANIER<\/strong>, Besim HATINOGLU<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saison<\/strong> is an excellent restaurant. It is certainly one of the best in America and is the best in San Francisco. I will contend that, one ate three Michelin stars level food at the French Laundry<\/strong> between 1993-2000 when Thomas Keller <\/strong>was at the helm. Today, neither the French Laundry<\/strong> nor Meadowood<\/strong>, both three-starred restaurants, deliver at the level of Saison. (The only comparable quality in the Bay Area can be had at the David Kinch<\/strong>\u2019s restaurant in Los Gatos, Manresa<\/strong>.) Certainly the fact that the founders of Twitter are among the financiers behind the venture help the chef Joshua Skenes<\/strong> to select the very best and rare ingredients. He charges the highest price of any restaurant in the Bay Area for the quality and luxurious rarity, but this is the United States and true luxury here has a higher price than in Spain, Italy, and even France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two reasons for which this restaurant is not appreciated by the general public, and I understand them. One is obviously the price tag. Secondly, the service, although efficient and kind, has not yet reached the perfection one expects there. The welcome and farewell are as they should be at this level, but I found a couple small \u201cgaffes\u201d with service that came across also as a tad stiff. One is that, when, towards, the end of the meal, my wife\u2019s camera flashed, we were told a bit too authoritatively that flash was not allowed. I agree with the policy, but there are less intrusive and gentle ways to give the same message before it happens.  Secondly, I did not appreciate our server telling us not to take notes because they hand out the carte at the end. This is a well-intentioned gaffe, but nonetheless one feels \u201ctoo closely watched\u201d when told such a thing. I don\u2019t need to rationalize to a server that: a. I write reviews and need more detail; b. The handouts are always inadequate and sometimes wrong (as it turned out it did not note down a couple of dishes we were served and it wrongly added a dish). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, servers in gastronomic restaurants should have minimum verbal contact with clients, other than answering questions about dishes (like \u201cwhere do you get your lamb? How old is it?\u201d). But gastronomic restaurants never seem to fit in in the States for cultural reasons beyond this review, and finding the right voice in the States is a learning process. One should be tolerant for mistakes like these, but I am mentioning them because I found the chef, Joshua Skenes, to be a perfectionist, and then you expect perfection at every level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new location of Saison may lack the warmth of the old location, but one cannot deny its luxe-rustic ambience. They valet park your car, so don\u2019t look to find a spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The welcome was warm, and we were offered two glasses of Krug Champagne. The Krug was an excellent welcome before the start of a very successful meal. Even non-millesime Krugs are driven by minerality, and they are always, lush, and explosive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second aperitif was a soda, as is trendy nowadays: shoju<\/em>, sake<\/em>, and seaweed. It was actually very good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First course:  turnip custard and grilled turnip and sea urchin roe from Fort Bragg. Sea urchin is one of my favorite flavors on earth, and the quality was outstanding. I believe the chef countered its rich, intense, sweet taste with soothing but slightly sharp baby turnips. It was good, but I was not too convinced about the combination. The turnips did not enhance the quality of the sea urchin, and the flavor calibration was not optimum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A good dollop of local caviar, from white sturgeons raised in the Sacramento valley, was served with a tomato jelly, corn pudding, and okra.  I believe chef David Kinch is the first one who served caviar with tomato juice, and while skeptic, I was converted when I saw that the salty-fat-briny caviar married well with the sweet acidity. In Saison, too, this was one of the most satisfactory, truly 19\/20 level dishes (but I hope one day we can find again the truly great caviars of the Caspian sea from wild beluga).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These first two courses were paired with a Demiere Ansiot, Brut Blanc de Blanc, GC. I did not know this champagne producer. It was an elegant 100% chardonnay, but felt a little lightweight following the deeper, more complex Krug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one feature of the chef Skenes I like very much at Saison. He knows that human palate may not appreciate more than three to four flavors in each dish. His cooking is complex in the sense that ingredients are treated (maceration, different cooking methods, and then assembled), but they retain their clarity and focus. The next four tidbits which followed the caviar showcased this ability, and they were all delicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we had instant grilled amberjack or kamachi<\/em>, cured in seaweed oil with the addition of a touch of cherry blossom oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Second, we had very fresh Maine scallops, smoked avocado, tiger lily, and a sauce from fermented pineapple skins. The scallops were sweet and nutty. This was an excellent calibration of flavors with a contrasting bitter element. Kudos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Third, we had slightly smoked rainbow trout and roe on a rice cookie. It was nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n