Chef Gary Menes is a huge fan of having you eat your vegetables. In fact, dining at Le Comptoir, his Michelin-starred restaurant in the Normandie Hotel, has often been compared to the American version of L’Arpège, the iconic three-star bastion of haute vegetable-intense cuisine headed by Alain Passard in Paris.
But, with the world upside-down right now during the pandemic, Chef Gary has also decided to refocus his fine-dining training (he has, among other establishments, cooked at Patina and The French Laundry) on what else? Barbecue! Yes, the man can still work wonders with meat - no doubt about that.
LA Bake is Le Comptoir’s version of an haute BBQ, but with a Californian bent. Orders are taken (by phone) during the week for selected upcoming weekends.
The prime brisket is smoked and cooked Central Texas-style, but using local almond wood. It is incredible.
The delectable and tender baby back ribs are also cooked with California almond wood. The sauce is a bit tangy, with a lovely sweet note. Trusting Filipino chefs with pork has pretty much always worked out for me, and these perfect ribs simply reinforce that notion for me. I just had to get my hands on a bottle of Chef Gary’s BBQ sauce as well.
Rustic sourdough bread, baked in-house with 25 year-old starter, sifted organic whole wheat, Rouge de Bordeaux and rye flour, filtered water, sea salt. “This starter is older than my kids,” Chef Gary quips. It’s good, good bread.
Not surprisingly, vegetables get as much love and care as the meats do at a Le Comptoir BBQ. The creamed corn featured at LA Bake undergoes simmering for hours in butter and cream. As for sourcing, the corn itself is from the demigods of corn-raising at Chino Farms in Rancho Santa Fe. This is not your average BBQ side dish - Its stupendous taste stands on the same podium as the meats during this meal.
With ingredients also sourced from Chino Farms, the tomato and green bean salad is dressed with crème fraiche, pine nut red wine vinaigrette. This is an old French Laundry salad Chef Gary used to make to offset all that richness.
Dessert comes in the form of Vahlrona milk chocolate chip cookies (X4). These are a favorite of the family. They are wonderful when paired with milk.
The flavor of that fresh, dreamy creamed corn (which I finished in one sitting) lingers in my memory. Luckily, I still have some of that marvelous brisket to keep me happy for another meal. With LA Bake, Chef Gary Menes has accomplished the feat of meshing the casualness of a backyard family barbecue with the nuanced cooking and professional execution we’d find in a Michelin kitchen. Definitely check it out if it’s available.