Dinner begins on a dark and windy
night. An errant newspaper skitters across the street. My invitation to a
tasting by chef Paul Shoemaker, says the address is 4200
Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood 91602 but the entire block looks abandoned.
Using my iPhone as a flashlight, I locate the numbers on the building although
a battered sign says this is the Evolution Dance Studios.
To escape the darkness, I follow a
rectangle of amber light. Just beyond the doorway, the entryway brightens with
stylish lighting and colorful paintings on the wall. A plaque declares this is
INTRO. A few steps more and I’m inside a large space with a beautifully set
communal table. Overhead bare bulbs hang like trapeze artists. Bingo! I’m here.
General manager, Rob Ciancimino greets
me with a flute of light and dry Marcopolo prosecco. I join the other
twenty guests and wander around the space, which doubles as an art gallery. The
colorful paintings are by Oscar Meza, a multi-talented professional skateboarder
and artist.
Rob returns to see if anyone needs a
refill. Glasses are raised and he pours. He tells the group that he is happy we’ve
joined him tonight. INTRO is open for Friday and Saturday night dinner
and available for private events. All of this is prelude to the fall when he and his partners will
open Verse, a bar, club and restaurant down the block.
It’s time to take our seats and read
the menu. The fourteen courses are a mix of elegant ingredients (big eye tuna,
foie gras, Maine lobster and Hamachi) and comfort foods (beets, dates, bone
marrow and ravioli). And because this is fine dining, there will be wine,
including a tasting of wines hand carried by Matthew Ospeck from AuburnJames
winery in St. Helena.
As we are introducing ourselves to our
table mates, Ciancimino sounds a small chime. It's time to begin our meal.
Chef Shoemaker comes out of the kitchen to talk us through his first dish. He has a great smile. He avoids the traditional toque and chef's whites. Appealing and friendly, he wears a baseball cap and a brown apron. His first presentation is visually stunning.
The Edible Cocktail is a Meyer lemon icy-foam gin martini sharing a block of charred wood with two Asian spoons. We raise our glasses to salute the chef and each other. The cocktail is delicious and fun like eating a best-ever lemony snow cone. Then we feast on the spoons, enjoying the mix of textures, temperatures and flavors. Sweet, frozen, crunchy, spicy and acidic sensations roll around in our mouths. The evening begins with a “wow”.
Chef Shoemaker comes out of the kitchen to talk us through his first dish. He has a great smile. He avoids the traditional toque and chef's whites. Appealing and friendly, he wears a baseball cap and a brown apron. His first presentation is visually stunning.
The Edible Cocktail is a Meyer lemon icy-foam gin martini sharing a block of charred wood with two Asian spoons. We raise our glasses to salute the chef and each other. The cocktail is delicious and fun like eating a best-ever lemony snow cone. Then we feast on the spoons, enjoying the mix of textures, temperatures and flavors. Sweet, frozen, crunchy, spicy and acidic sensations roll around in our mouths. The evening begins with a “wow”.
The next dish riffs on the great
versatility of salmon. Half a dozen roe are scattered on top of a thin slice of
sashimi quality belly meat which in turn is placed on a strip of salmon skin
cooked to chicharon-crispness. Designed as a sensory encounter, when
placed in the mouth, the skin evaporates and the roe releases its salty
creaminess leaving the pleasure of the fatty, pliant belly meat. The art of the dish is notable because even after the bits and pieces are consumed, the
favor sensation continues with the wonderful heat of Togarashi, the sharp edged Japanese
pepper powder.
For his tastings, each dish, from the first to the
last, from small plates of single bites like the bone marrow ravioli or the
butter poached lobster to the larger plates of Hamachi and hanger beef steak,
demonstrates Shoemaker’s culinary talent. His flavors are balanced. Every
element has a contrary element. Sweet is paired with acidic. Crispy with
pliant. And, more often than not, a gentle heat lingers at the finish to
prolong the experience.
Adding to the sensory experience, the dishes are beautifully platted. Some are served on charred blocks of textured
wood. Others in pure white porcelain bowls. Shoemaker arranges the edible
ingredients like an artist applying paint to canvas. The ingredients are as
much a part of the visual portrait of the dish as they are part of the flavor
composition.
Each time the chime sounds, we are
alerted to the beginning of a new adventure.
For the sixth course, a single Maine scallop in a porcelain
white bowl is placed in front of me. Cross-hatched with grill marks, the pink-white scallop the size of
a silver dollar rests on a pillow of avocado mousseline next to a pale white
cube of pickled daikon, smaller than a dime. At the bottom of the bowl, chef
poured a pool of house-made ponzu broth with a gathering of white and black
sesame seeds. The scallop is paired with AubernJames’ Meritage 2010 (Napa
Valley), a lovely, crisp white that compliments the delicate flesh and acidic
broth.
Selecting the ingredients for this dish
as with all the others, Shoemaker searches for the best ingredients. If he can't find what he wants locally, he looks elsewhere.
What Shoemaker serves depends on the seasons. He tells me with a big smile that this week he is expecting a FedEx delivery of Dutch white asparagus. He is the kind of chef who delights in the perfections of the moment. Who will source ingredients from half-way-around the world.
In his travels he is always on the look out for quality providers, which is how he found the fisherman in Maine who supplied him with the scallops for our dish. And the scallop is perfect. Tender. Slightly sweet. Full of briny flavor.
A DIY Kitchen Produces Sophisticated
Results
Looking at the complexity of each dish,
it is easy to visualize Shoemaker’s kitchen. It must be high tech, fitted out
with the latest gadgets. Given the detailing of the platting, surely there must be
a dozen sous chefs bending over plates with tweezers picking micro greens from their
mise en place.
Nope.
Shoemaker’s kitchen is a large space
with a playhouse feeling. When I walk in, one of the
chefs is taking a break on a rope swing secured to the ceiling. There are some high-tech
tools like a sous-vide cooker but INTRO’s kitchen is very basic. The two 1970s
era stoves were purchased on eBay. There is no grill so with DIY inventiveness,
to place grill marks on the scallop, the chefs use a kitchen torch to heat a
knife red hot. Pressing the sizzling knife against the scallop creates the
cross-hatch marks and adds a hint of caramelization.
Back in the art gallery-dining room, the
chimes sound. To explain the dish, Shoemaker reappears as the servers place the
next dish in front of each diner.
Foie gras is served nigiri style, on
pressed rice. Who would have imagined that fat slices of beautifully charred
foie gras go so well on vinegared rice, itself also lightly charred on the
bottom to create a thin crust? The sweet acidic flavor so essential to balance
the richness of the foie gras comes from a single blackberry sliced in half and
a dollop of sour plum sauce.
The foie gras is exactly what I want from a fine dining chef. He should have a mastery of technique. Display flawless execution. Present artful platings. Cook with inventive parings of textures. From the beginning to the end, Shoemaker delivers in all those ways.
The foie gras is exactly what I want from a fine dining chef. He should have a mastery of technique. Display flawless execution. Present artful platings. Cook with inventive parings of textures. From the beginning to the end, Shoemaker delivers in all those ways.
At the End
Talking about the meal, everyone has their favorite dish. Mine is the pork belly. A fat triangle of pork skin is fried to airy crispness. Which contrasts perfectly with the fork-tender, apple cider poached pork belly served with a sunny-side up quail egg, the yolk still runny, and pureed sweet potato flavored with maple syrup and bourbon. As we eat, all conversation ends. We're all too busy savoring each bite to talk. I am careful to maximize the deliciousness of the dish. I swab bits of pork belly into the richly sweet sweet potato, being sure to add a bit of egg yolk and maple syrup.
Talking about the meal, everyone has their favorite dish. Mine is the pork belly. A fat triangle of pork skin is fried to airy crispness. Which contrasts perfectly with the fork-tender, apple cider poached pork belly served with a sunny-side up quail egg, the yolk still runny, and pureed sweet potato flavored with maple syrup and bourbon. As we eat, all conversation ends. We're all too busy savoring each bite to talk. I am careful to maximize the deliciousness of the dish. I swab bits of pork belly into the richly sweet sweet potato, being sure to add a bit of egg yolk and maple syrup.
As people finish, they say to no one in particular, “Wow.” “That’s amazing.”
I reach for my glass of AuburnJames' delicious Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 Napa Valley and notice that chef
leans against the wall in a corner of the room. Clearly he is an impresario who takes delight in
hearing us appreciate his creations.
As we finish dinner, Shoemaker
brings out his crew. Like the end of a theatrical performance, the cast takes a
curtain call. Seen on the street, his cooks would be mistaken for
skateboarders. To our applause he stands smiling with Paul Richardson, Erik
Punzalan, Raymond Morales, Dro Dergy and Joel Ocampo.
At that
moment it seems abundantly appropriate that this space is named INTRO. Ciancimino is using the pop-up chef’s table to introduce Shoemaker to Los Angeles. With the slow roll out to the opening of Verse in the fall, Los Angeles will have the opportunity to meet a very talented chef in an intimate dining experience.
INTRO: Art
Gallery & Chef’s Table, 4200 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood 9160. Champagne is served at 7:30pm. Dinner begins promptly at 8:00pm. http://www.experienceintro.com; reservations
on https://resy.com/cities/la/intro-art-gallery-and-chefs-table
