[Jump directly to LA Wine Fest 2010 pictorial]

This relative newcomer (open since March 2007) on LA’s premiere restaurant row, has seen its share of drama.

However, it is very apparently the executive management team has been desperately trying to turn the restaurant around, starting with the food. After months of hosting sake socials, Gonpachi offered a collabarotive dinner earlier this month. While it ain’t quiet The Keller/Achatz doubles, everyone should be glad Gonpachi is now food-centric before scene-heavy. Gonpachi’s new chef Chris Behre has helmed the oar for 6 months and it’s easy to see the difference is tremendous.

Witness the menu and the obvious effort to extract the best from the entire Gonpachi organization:

COLLABORATION DINNER OMAKASE 2010

Collaboration Canapé
Yutaka Kudo from Gonpachi Torrance
Sohei Matsukura from Gonpachi Tokyo

Tray passed sushi/nigiri

A Taste of Gonpachi Amuse
Chris Behre from Gonpachi Beverly Hills

Seafood mist plate

Appetizer
Alberto Chavez from Monsoon Café Santa Monica

Lobster-coconut bisque and grilled shrimp on ruby salad with curry aioli

Fish
Chris Behre from Gonpachi Beverly Hills
Sumiyaki monkfish, smoked bacon & ankimo with kuromitsu glaze on fennel & green apple confit

Main
Nao Mizuguchi from La Boheme Tokyo
Sohei Matsukura from Gonpachi Tokyo

Fungi fantasy soba with foam milk-truffle oil
Decoration aigamo sirloin “sushi” with foie gras

Dessert
Christine Banta from La Boheme West Hollywood

Warm valrhona chocolate cake with valrhona cocoa sauce,
salty caramel ice cream and red berries

Let’s just dissect one plate by chef Chris: the sea mist.

Tempura oyster topped with creamy avocado (pictured above R), uni chawan mushi, smoked salmon, blood orange over cucumber, right is blood orange gelee, Grilled pork & calamari wrapped in daikon (pictured above L), cilantro coconut sauce.

How many ingredients are there? Some would say too many. Perhaps the descriptions were a bit verbose. Just a little. But there is obvious effort in fusing the best of the East to the Angeleno’s currentpalate. The tempura oyster easily could’ve been served from Ricky’s Fish Tacos. The grilled pork wrapped in daikon seems to be Korean BBQ kimbap. This is LA on a plate.

One of the more mystical creations (from Alberto Chavez of Monsoon Café Santa Monica) was the coconut lobster bisque. Again, this Gonpachi dish would easily work at a Thai fusion restaurant (think Nakkara). The New England inspired soup, now spiked with coconut milk, could easily be a lobster curry – hello Thai restaurants, can we make this a menu regular instead of tom yum soup instead? The accompanying salad of greens and blood orange cut right through the coconut fat but simultaneously increased the Thai profile with a light curry dressing.

While fellow dinner goers (among which were Ms. Barbara Hansen of Table Conversation, Food Writer Carl Chu, and Mr. Donut Man himself) may have been befuddfled by the monkfish atop of green apple “confit”, I was delighed by the random use pairing of fish and apple “sauce”. This childhood stable is so difficult to find in haute cuisine, and the first bite produced a strong, fond, taste memories.

Finishing off the 3 hour desser interjected with beautifully constructed tuna hors d’oeuvre (seen above) was chocolate cake with valrhona cocoa sauce, salty caramel ice cream and red berries by pastry chef Christine Banta (La Boheme West Hollywood). This was just a solid chocolate cake, slightly warm, slightly sweet, plenty bitter and chocolaty. What set this apart was the savory ice cream which took away the possibly offensive bitterness, and the 2 ripened raspberries finished off with a sprig of mint. It’s not quite complex, but the dessert was able to provide a perfect closure at the end of this far-reaching meal.

Here’s some coverage on Chris’ welcoming party at Gonpachi. The only industry in which one has to cook his own passed apps would be the restaurant industry?

** Thanks to Andrea Rademan’s gracious invite

Gonpachi
http://gonpachi.globaldiningca.com/
134 N La Cienega Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(310) 659-8887

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“Winos and Food Truck Chasers”

Before the conversation filled dinner covered above we did a brief stint at the annual LA Wine Festival. Well over 100 beverage brands were represented, with nearly a dozen food / restaurant vendors present at this year’s festivities. This marks the beginning of the food “festival” season in LA, and the 2 year event is perhaps the most well-balanced in terms of variety, space, attendees, parking, cost, location and fun. Below is the photo recaps (click all pictures to enlarge):

Spotted were: Dishing Up Delights, AriannaLA, Rock My Palate, Stuffy Cheaks, Diana Takes A Bite, Banana Wonder, awesome girl w/ the wine glass stuffed full of singles, passed out girl being comforted by boyfriend on curb, drunk girl in heels trampling and elbowing everyone in sight without dropping her wine glass, et al.

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