Michelin recently expanded its guide to cover the entire state of California.  Located in the state capital of Sacramento is a Michelin one-star restaurant called The Kitchen.  It’s part of a family-owned group of restaurants in the area, and it has been a local favorite for many years.  It’s newfound notoriety due to the Michelin rating put it on my list, as well as the fact that a friend from college lives in Sacramento – the combination prompted the effort to secure a reservation.  It is a tasting menu restaurant with one seating daily.  Seats are either at a counter around the kitchen area or at tables.  Reservations are taken up to six months in advance by phone, with limited seats made available through OpenTable.com. The meal experience takes 3 ½-4 hours.

The evening proceeds through a series of Acts as represented by the menu.  They offer two levels of wine pairings (House and Reserve), as well as a “half” version of either (with only the opening glass of champagne being a full portion).  I had not seen this kind of offering before, so I went with the Half Reserve Pairing.

After being shown to our counter seats and making our pre-menu drinks and wine selections, we were encouraged to roam the restaurant.

This was an important activity, as our first course (essentially the “snacks” dishes) were spread throughout the kitchen.  It also gave us a chance to chat with the chefs and staff working on dish preparations.

Food offerings included Tomales Bay oysters, sushi and sashimi, and various other finger foods.  There were no written descriptions.  One just could ask the staff at the station what was being served.  Upon returning to my seat, the champagne was served – it was a multi-vintage Brut Champagne.

One final snack was served at my seat.  It was cucumber with crème fraiche and prosciutto.  Subsequently, we were also brought bread with butter.

Before the meal continued, the Executive Chef came out and did an extensive introduction to the evening.  It was a bit like a stand-up comedy act with narrative about the menu and audience interaction as he talked about the restaurant and what was to come.  He also said that he wanted to make sure that everyone got food that they liked and enough of it, offering to swap out a dish for something else if the served dish didn’t set well or to provide additional servings of something well-liked.  During the evening, we were encouraged to get up, walk around, talk to the chefs, even during the non-designated times roaming.  We were reminded many times that everyone was there for us – we only need to ask.

Our seating had us at one end of the counter, directly in front of the main staging area.  Our location also mean we were, for the most part, the last of the 62 diners to be served any given course at the counter.

The reserve wine to go with the first dish was a 2017 Russian River Chardonnay.

The first dish was Hawaiian walu, pan roasted, butter-basted and served with creamy polenta, a ragout of Pacific clams, leeks, fennel and sumac.  It was garnished on top with fennel pollen.  Walu is sometimes known as butterfish (because of its rich, oily texture) or escolar.  It had a nice flavor and texture, being firm and moist.

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