Botanical brunch that can’t be beat

Greer Wylder

Picture this. You’re a world-class chef in the heart of Corona del

Mar. Your job is to create dishes for just one meal, lunch. This

gives you most nights free to spend with your beautiful wife. And it

gets even better. Your culinary skills have allowed you a rare chance

to represent California in the prestigious Internationale Kochkunst

Ausstellung, otherwise known as the “Culinary Olympics” in Germany.

Life is good for Donald Lockhart.

As the chef de cuisine at Cafe Jardin in Sherman Gardens, Donald

Lockhart creates gourmet lunches and caters weddings and private

parties. It’s one of Pascal and Mimi Olhats’ highly rated restaurants

set in Sherman Library and Gardens that encompasses more than two

acres of pristine gardens, patios and greenhouses. Brick walkways run

throughout the blooming gardens that display desert cactuses to

tropical exotic specimens.

Lockhart is one of four chefs on California’s team competing for a

gold medal in October at the Culinary Olympics. Established in 1896,

it’s the world’s oldest and most respected international culinary

competition. The team’s meal will include a chilled California

seafood platter and a vegetarian twist on meatloaf, wrapped in potato

dough with root vegetables and wine/berry reduction.

Lockhart grew up in Anaheim. He worked in restaurants since he was

a teen to earn summer spending money, yet never imagined that he

could learn to cook. He was a paralegal student until he discovered

Orange Coast College’s Culinary Arts Program. He was impressed with

the program and considered it a wise investment.

“The culinary field has a large amount of dropouts,” Lockhart

said. “Why spend $40,000 to $50,000 on schooling if you’re not sure?”

Lockhart says his two-and-half-year program cost a total of

$7,500.

“You can learn the foundation of cooking at OCC,” Lockhart said.

“And the rest, you learn on the job.”

He doesn’t lament the fact that OCC’s program isn’t as prestigious

as San Francisco’s California Culinary Academy or the Culinary

Institute of America in New York. Lockhart says incredible chefs come

out of OCC, including former graduates who cook at the Hotel Laguna

in Laguna Beach, the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills and the

Bear Creek Country Club in Murrieta. In February, OCC’s Culinary Arts

Team won the Western Region championship of the American Culinary

Federation and will now advance to a national competition in July.

Lockhart apprenticed at the Sheraton Hotel in Anaheim, then went

on to cook at Zov’s Bistro in Tustin, Robert Mondavi Winery in Costa

Mesa and the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.

Lockhart spends thousands on kitchen tools, equipment and

cookbooks. He loves the “aesthetically beautiful and exciting dishes”

that Charlie Trotter’s cookbooks offer and “the incredible cookbooks”

of French chef Paul Bocuse. Lockhart favors Bocuse’s cooking style;

he’s considered a founder of “nouvelle cuisine.” Bocuse avoids heavy

cream and butter sauces, instead choosing simpler recipes with fresh

ingredients that enhance natural flavor and textures. Lockhart also

reads the books of James Beard and Julia Child, who he once cooked

with at a benefit dinner. Lockhart subscribes to six cooking

magazines, which he considers important.

“We all learn from each other,” Lockhart said. “I’m inspired by

what someone else is doing; the twist is what makes it yours.”

His favorite cooking tools include heavy French iron pans

available at Sur La Table, hard-to-polish copper pans, Henckel and

Wusthof knives, and KitchenAid mixers. As with many busy chefs, he

doesn’t dine out often, but besides Pascal’s his favorite restaurants

include the “diamond in the rough” Pavilions at Four Seasons Hotel in

Newport Beach, which he considers a local gem with impeccable food

and service; WaSa, a new Sushi restaurant at Newport Bluffs Shopping

Center on the corner of MacArthur and Bison in Newport Beach; and

Pastis, his favorite small French bistro in Los Angeles at Beverly

Boulevard.

At Cafe Jardin, Lockhart prepares dishes with a twist to Pascal’s

classic French theme. There’s a light beet salad with feta cheese and

a citrus vinaigrette ($8.95); a lamb salad with crispy carrot and

sweet raisin vinaigrette ($14.95). The Atlantic cod is oven-baked

with mushroom beurre blanc and julienne vegetables ($13.95); and an

herb-crusted pork loin served with a mixture of brown, wild and white

rice served with a slightly complex berry gastrique -- a sweet and

sour caramelized sauce that’s reduced and finished with butter

($14.95). A signature dessert, the cranberry bread pudding, is served

with orange creme anglaise ($7.50). Its rich flavor comes from the

sweet buttery bread: Danishes, brioche and croissant.

Sunday brunch at the Garden is seasonal -- offered now through

October. Brunch costs $33.95 per person. It includes a three-course

appetizer served family style, a choice of four entrees and a dessert

platter. Fresh orange juice, iced tea and coffee are also included.

There’s assiette provencale, a plateful of tapenade, eggplant,

roasted tomato spread, olives, pates, rillette, saucisson (smoked

cured sausage), Dijon and cornichon. Then a seafood sampler of smoked

salmon and trout, salmon salad with dill creme. Fresh herb omelet,

grilled salmon with Bearnaise; poached halibut and spiced vegetables

a la nage are among the other selections.

* BEST BITES runs every Friday. Greer Wylder can be reached at

[email protected]; at 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; or by

fax at (949) 646-4170.