Description
What makes food art, and not just a meal? At Atelier Crenn, Dominique Crenn is pursuing that very question in the form of modernist, gardencentric cuisine developed in partnership with Gouge Eye Farm, north of Sacramento, which currently supplies her with most of her vegetables and meats. The restaurant's format: to serve three-, five-, and ten-course tasting meals whose dishes are odes to the season. The menu descriptions, with titles like "The Sea" and "Walk in the Forest," read like Debussy préludes. And Crenn's plates are landscapes in themselves, terraced in soils, gardens, and honest-to-god rocks. While the execution varies from exquisite to overwrought, it's best to take a gamble on the whole shebang, with its multiple interludes and reliably astounding desserts from pastry chef Juan Contreras.
