Powered by kitchen equipment both sophisticated and simple, Luce restaurant in the InterContinental San Francisco is stepping into unusual territory for a restaurant within a hotel.
Open little more than a year and already home to a budding celebrity chef, the upscale Cal-Italian restaurant is attracting its share of attention in a city of gastronomic stars. Piloting its kitchen is French-born Dominique Crenn, named Best Chef in America last year by Esquire Magazine and feted in a recent cooking stint at the James Beard House in New York City.
“Sometimes people are hesitant about a restaurant in a hotel,” said Tobias Gessner, InterContinental assistant food and beverage director. “But her name is becoming known in this city.”
Helping Crenn stay at the top of her game is a combi oven that is programmable to cook with precision in three modes: convection heat, steam and the two combined.
“It’s good for long, controlled cooking of things like short ribs because it is computerized,” said Gessner. “The flavor, quality and consistency are better if you keep it at a lower temperature and cook it longer.”
For precise cooking at even lower temperatures, there is a six-liter, digitally controlled thermal circulator.
But not every handy tool is large and complex. The compact Pacojet is the choice for making small, quick batches of frozen desserts.
“We make all our ice creams and sorbets in house,” said Gessner. That includes savory concoctions like bacon ice cream and olive oil ice cream that have graced some of Crenn’s plates.
Also in the category of small but useful is a five-tray food dehydrator. It dries fruits and vegetables at low temperatures for up to 26 hours and has a timer that shuts off automatically. Its uses include dehydrating carrots into a powder for Deconstructed Carrot Cake, one of Luce’s signature desserts, and drying black olives to make a preparation called “soil” that garnishes a vegetable appetizer.
“It is a small but very efficient piece of equipment,” Gessner said.
Heading the wish list for future purchases is the Anti-Griddle, which resembles its namesake but works by the opposite principal. Its surface gets as cold as minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit to flash-freeze sauces, purees and garnishes for creative applications.
“It’s not in the budget yet, but the kitchen would love to have it,” Gessner said.