In the Kitchen With . . .

Young Chang

Chris Garnier was willing to do anything to get into the kitchen. When

he started working at Roy’s in Honolulu more than 10 years ago, he’d wash

dishes and clean the hoods above stoves just to be where the action was.

Then he’d start his real shift busing tables reeking of fish and sauces.

One day, a line cook bailed. The head chef said, “get your butt in

here.” So Garnier donned a chef’s jacket that fateful day and hasn’t

taken it off since.

Today, as the executive chef at Roy’s in Newport Beach, Garnier still

uses valuable lessons he learned from Roy Yamaguchi on fusion cooking.

DP: What are some lessons or secrets you learned from Roy?

G: Basically, making sure everything that you do cook, you must

respect. And it involves not only you, but your team. You’re one of the

team players -- your line cook is your line backer.

DP: What do you mean you should respect what you cook?

G: Your passion for the food. You put yourself and effort in making

that one dish or making that one sauce. His secret is consistency --

without consistency, a restaurant won’t succeed. Everything has to be

consistent each time. He would get totally angry at other cooks who’d

just be putting up the food. No matter how fast you’re getting slammed,

you have to put your heart and soul in everything you’re making.

DP: What do you most like to make?

G: Right now I’m on a fois gras high. I like miso yaki, marinating

[the fois gras in] that, then we grill it. Usually what we do here is we

serve our miso yaki chili and white fish. And I just took that form and

miso’d the fois gras so it has a real nice texture. It’s very unique

tasting and adapts very well to Pacific Rim kind of fusion cooking.

DP: You come from a mix of backgrounds: Chinese, French and Italian.

Does this help you cook fusion food?

G: The majority of me is Chinese. I know I have my feel for the

Chinese cooking. That comes out because the dishes I create are family

oriented. My vision of the dish is to be when it’s presented at the table

for a family. The sense that I want the whole table to experience all the

flavors that I’ve put into each dish. The flavors is what Roy instilled

in us -- if you make something that has a whole bunch of words in it,

you’re supposed to taste all the words in it. I like to keep everything

simple, but I like to use the fusion to get everyone’s attention.

DP: Why do you emphasize family dining?

G: We use the word “ohana,” meaning “family” in Hawaiian. It’s just

important to me to emphasize that to our customers or our fans because

when you come out and eat, you don’t come out by yourself. And if you do,

you come out to enjoy the atmosphere or food or company. Everyone has a

really good time. We want to get the point across also in the kitchen,

we’re a big family also.

DP: Do you have a favorite cooking tool?

G: You know what I love? It’s the best thing that they ever made --

the blender you can adjust the speed. We take so much hard-core hours and

time preparing our sauces -- 25 to 50 sauces a day. The biggest thing

that helped us out . . . Vitaprep with a variable speed.

DP: Do you ever get people who don’t like fusion food?

G: Oh yeah. Basically we base that on maybe they’re on a strict diet

-- no oils -- everyone out here I’ve seen is allergic to peanuts and no

butter or cream. To me, that’s like the most challenging, if I get a

vegan and they can’t have butter or cheese or they’re allergic to wheat.

DP: Personally, do you prefer fusion cooking?

G: Yes. I find it very unique. I kinda find it almost challenging

because I like to see what the fusion chefs do also. Meaning, in a

food-wise sense, two different ingredients fused together to make one --

it’s very challenging. It’s very unique when I see other chefs do that

also. Like a Bonito crusted fish rare ahi. And what we did is we fused it

with a sweet Maui onion, balsamic vinegar and soy and truffle oil drizzle

and basically all the agents were fused together to make that

vinaigrette. The sweet Maui onions matched with the dark balsamic. The

soy is salty and evens out the sweetness, and the truffle oil goes good

with both. Bonito broth is the mother sauce of all Japanese stocks. We

use that to crust it on the fish.

DP: So fusion cooking is fun for you?

G: Yeah. It’s challenging every day, and it’s like an accomplishment

for everyone who had a say. You know, most the time people just ask you,

“how do you come up with those ideas?” We were messing around in the

kitchen and we had a vision and we came to work and wanted to express it.

FROM ROY’S COOKBOOK

Kula Tomato, Maui Onion and Pancetta Salad with Basil Balsamic

Vinaigrette

Serves six

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 ounces pancetta, diced

1/4 teaspoon finely minced shallot

1/4 teaspoon finely minced garlic

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

6 large fresh basil leaves, julienned

3 Maui onions, julienned

6 large ripe Kula beefsteak tomatoes

6 cups washed and torn baby mixed greens, such as arugula, mizuna,

spinach and red leaf lettuce (about 5 ounces)

6 sprigs fresh basil, for garnish

Vinaigrette with Maui Onions: In a large saute pan, heat olive oil and

saute the pancetta, shallots and garlic over medium-high heat until

shallots are opaque (about 1 minute). Remove the pan from the heat and

stir in the vinegar, half of the julienned basil and the Maui onions.

Return the pan to the heat for 30 seconds. Remove pan from the heat

and add the remaining julienned basil, stirring to incorporate.

Salad: Cut a slice from the top and bottom of the tomatoes, then core

the tomatoes. Using a serrated knife, cut each tomato into three thick,

even slices. Re-stack the tomatoes in order and hold until assembling the

salad.

To assemble the salad, place the bottom slice of tomato on each

serving plate. Take about half the greens and divide them equally between

each serving, laying the greens on top of the tomato slice. Add a layer

of onion vinaigrette, making sure to drizzle some extra vinaigrette on

the greens. Top the greens with the center tomato slice and repeat the

layering with the remaining greens and the majority of the onions in the

vinaigrette, reserving the remaining onions for a garnish. Place the top

tomato slice on the greens and garnish with the remaining onion and the

springs of fresh basil. Drizzle some of the vinaigrette on the salad and

around the the serving plates.