Poetry in Motion – Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Dominique Crenn is a rockstar. She is truly a world famous, instantly recognisable chef to anyone interested in food. Her flagship restaurant, Atelier Crenn in San Francisco was first awarded two Michelin starts in 2012, with Dominique being the first female chef in the US to achieve that. She was named the Best Female Chef in the World in 2016 by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and whilst honoured, she’s also recently expressed her outrage that a separate award exists for females. Her social media is often intensely personal and her support for various feminist and social causes is very public. When Sonoma County (home to Atelier Crenn’s Blue Belle Farm) was victim to horrific bushfires in October 2017, Dominique was rallying support from various corners to ensure displaced residents and first responders were fed. She pays her staff a living wage and is a fierce advocate for equal pay and a better gender balance in the notoriously male dominated hospitality industry. So, when she strode over to me as I was waiting for my table, shook my hand and introduced herself, it’s fair to say I was more than just a little star struck. And when she reposted my Instagram photo that expressed my fangirl moment the next day, I lost my tiny little mind! We’re pretty much best friends now…in my head.
I’ve been following Dominique for some time on Instagram, initially after seeing the Netflix Chef’s Table episode on Atelier Crenn and then after seeing interviews with her at last year’s Worlds 50 Best Restaurants in Melbourne. When I decided I was going to spend a couple of nights in San Francisco for the express purpose of dining at some amazing restaurants, Atelier Crenn was top of the list. Having eaten at Hiša Franko in Slovenia last year where Ana Ross was named the World’s Best Female Chef in 2017, I was keen to continue the trend! After some initial disappointment about the booking system not allowing a table for one, I was excited to receive a response to an email query confirming that Atelier Crenn would be delighted to accommodate a booking for one and they would send me a link to complete my booking.
After a major refit of the small restaurant in April, Atelier Crenn moved to a pre-paid, ticket system via online booking service Tock, requiring diners to pay in advance for their $335 multi-course meal, service (tips) included. You can choose to add wine pairings, a caviar service or a signed copy of the Atelier Crenn cookbook at the time of booking or decide in the restaurant if you’d like any of the additional options. After my initial hiccup with a solo dining booking, I was actually very impressed that in a room of eight tables, seating 22, over two seatings they would happily accommodate a solo diner. That is a significant financial decision and speaks volumes about the type of experience Atelier Crenn is seeking to create.
The dining room is small, with a surprisingly intimate feel despite the generous table sizes and spacing. The walls are lined with paintings from Dominique’s father Allain and painted in earthy tones. The room is reasonably hushed, but with background music to ensure conversation at nearby tables is not jarring.
I found the service an interesting thing to watch and experience (I always notice so much more about how the restaurant moves when I’m dining solo). For a start, it’s busy; there are a lot of highly efficient, professional, poised waitstaff moving around the space. Dishing up 16 courses of complex food, much of which they are serving or preparing in some way at the table, in a two and a half hour window is a necessarily tightly scripted and timed affair. In their black suits, the waitstaff ranged from polite, if a little cool, to funny and almost chatty without ever overstaying their welcome or putting their work second to a conversation. I was treated kindly and respectfully from the moment I walked in, immediately putting the ‘solo dining in a fancy restaurant’ nerves at ease. My overall sense was that of skilled professionals, admirably executing a difficult and complex service, but I didn’t leave with quite the same feeling I did at Reale in Italy, where I felt like I was special and having a unique experience (whether that was true or not). The clear level of personal meaning in the food didn’t quite extend to the warmth of the service.
The food is focused on seafood and vegetables and is described as drawing from the memories of Dominique’s mother’s garden in Brittany through the lens of California. It is personal and beautiful and complex. You are guided through the meal via a poem written by Dominique, with each line referring to a course. It’s an evocative, whimsical touch which sets the artistic tone immediately. The word ‘presentation’ is used often in the dining room as the course is either being placed in front of you or prepared at the table, for instance “this presentation from Chef is a reflection of her heritage”. This is not just an expensive meal – it is an experience, a story, an insight, a blurring of food and theatre in the best possible sense.
Of course, it is an ever changing menu (which must keep Dominique’s poetic side fed also). On the late May night I attended, the opening dish was an Apricot Kombucha (Spring has come with it’s cool breeze) and was followed by a Kir Breton, an aperitif that consisted of a perfect white sphere of cocoa butter, filled with apple cider, eaten in one bursting bite unless you wanted it all over your clothes! It was a fun start, but also spoke of the surprises and complexity to come. A Stone Fruit Tart with Sea Urchin in the shape of a flower emerged out of a bed of San Francisco fog (See this- most adored gift from Neptune, an aureate bloom). A stunningly beautiful and bright dish of English Peas and Mint was Instagram perfect, with pops of peas from the Atelier Crenn farm in Sonoma (From the wintry mist, tender specks on the meadow begin to stir). The bread service of Brioche and house-made butter nearly killed me. A loaf of buttery, warm, golden brown, delicate brioche was served with whipped, salted duck fat. It took every ounce of self-restraint I had not to ruin the rest of the meal by eating the whole lot. A take on the Japanese tea service tradition was presented with a Matcha broth standing in for the tea and poured table side (While the ephemeral beauty born of jade effervescence sang).
Dominique’s business partner and collaborator Juan Contreras, Chef Pâtissier then proceeded to steal the show with a Coconut and Pineapple dessert that made me very happy indeed. As all excellent desserts should…but this really surpassed all expectations. Looking exactly like a real half coconut, the shell was made of chocolate, lined with coconut flesh and filled with coconut mousse and lime zest. Digging into the mousse, I found chunks of sweet, yet tart pineapple that cut through the coconut cream gorgeously. It was delectable. The final Mignardises (bite sized desserts) were presented in a cocoa pod and finished the wonderful meal off perfectly.
Atelier Crenn is certainly a very special occasion restaurant and probably, for most, a once in a lifetime experience. I save for these events. I budget for them in my travel funds, have wine by the glass if needs be and then savour every second I’m there. Who knows if and when I will ever be back in San Fran? Or how long Atelier Crenn will continue on? Although I do have backups with Bar Crenn and Petit Crenn being top of the list if I do return to San Fran. As with many of the things I spend money on when it comes to travel, my main justification for the splurge is that if you ask me in five years how much that meal cost I won’t be able to tell you. But I will be able to remember the feeling of experiencing a chef’s vision and passion in such a deliberate and beautiful way. The food in particular, but all the smaller details also, ensured I left the restaurant feeling like the outlay was well and truly worth it. I felt lucky to have been let into that world for a moment – to see and smell and hear and feel and taste the beauty of food as poetry.