Chef Craig Strong Wants You to “Have it Your Way”

Food as entertainment? A restaurant that’s fun? That is what Chef De Cuisine Craig A. Strong wants you to experience when you visit his Michelin Star awarded restaurant, The Dining Room at The Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa.

“What we are trying to do is create memories here, and have the restaurant be more than just somewhere to eat, but a place of theater, of elegance, of refinement. But have fun too,” Chef Strong told us as he stopped by our table one recent evening.

Chef Strong went on to explain that he has created three kinds of menus to accommodate a range of different people with different agendas.

“You might be a young couple that has a baby at home and you can get away for only an hour or two and you don’t want to have a long tasting menu, but you want to have something nice. We have that,” he said.

“We have a tasting menu that I change pretty much every day. That’s a five course menu that has wine pairings that can be with or without it depending on what you want to do. Then we have the last one that’s called the personalized tasting menu. That is where I will visit your table and see exactly what you want to do. So that we can take care of your table specifically, where I come and I am really cooking for you personally. I am directly involved in your dinner,” Strong said.

The concept of “have it your way” is alive and well on a grand scale in The Dining Room. Said Chef Strong, “I have put a lot of time and energy into the dishes. I have constructed them in a way that I think that they are the way I want them to be, but within certain parameters, I don’t mind even manipulating them a little bit.”

Despite the Lanham’s grandeur Chef Strong would like the residents of Pasadena to remember that “this is a community restaurant that just happens to be in a hotel. We are here to serve Pasadena and the surrounding areas. We are an amenity for this community.”

With a flourish Chef Strong asked what we would like for dinner. My companion and I decided to allow the Chef to take the lead. He did, however, ask if there were any foods we didn’t like (there was) and how I would like my meat cooked. Now this may seem like a common question, but in all my time reviewing restaurants very seldom am I asked how I would like my meat cooked. (The chef just assumes that I want it blood-rare as seems to be the trend these days. I don’t.) I like medium. “It will be that,” he said.

I won’t go into detail about every morsel we savored that night (there were eleven courses) but I will hit the highlights. Every dish was delicious, but some stood out more than others.

The first thing we were served was a Caviar Taco, memorable because of its uncanny resemblance to its namesake. Utterly yummy, a small freshly made crepe was wrapped around a filling of sour cream, onion and briny caviar.

The Kumomoto oyster served in a soup spoon with cucumber linguine and passion fruit sorbet was a delight. All the flavors melded together on the palate – the sweet, salty and crunchy.

A squash blossom dipped in tempura batter and lightly fried was stuffed with brandade (a paste of halibut and seasonings) and served with Romesco sauce. This was accompanied by a fresh salad of micro greens. A signature dish of Chef Strong, altogether enjoyable and unique.

Breast of roasted pheasant was accompanied by a creamy sauce of pecans and salsify (a vegetable in the sunflower family), pumpkin froth and truffle vinaigrette. A savory leg confit completed the delicious combination of flavors.

For dessert we were served a slice of hazelnut cake topped with poached pears and accented with dulce de leche mousse and creme fraiche. Altogether a fitting end to a memorable meal.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the remarkable wines served. A great variety of reds, whites, sparkling and even sake was poured that evening. Each was enchanting, all were wonderful, but a few will get mentioned in my diary as stand-outs.

The light sparkling sake accented with rose hips that danced across my tongue was by Hanna Hou Hou Shu from the Marumoto Brewery, Japan. From South Australia, a refreshing glass of sparkling Shiraz by the Paringa Individual Vineyard. Blueberry and blackberry notes combined with the prickly and frothy wine.  The stand-out of the night was the most unbelievably good glass of noble (from the noble rot) wine. From the Craggy Range vineyard in New Zealand a 2006 dessert wine of Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling, this wine was sweet, without being syrup, with notes of citrus and peach.

I was told by the sommelier, Matthew Lathan, that only seven bottles had been produced for that year and he had purchased all of them. We were graced with the contents of the final of those seven bottles. I felt honored and pampered and enjoyed every drop.

The Dining Room is open for dinner only from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday. The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa is located at 1401 S. Oak Knoll, Pasadena. For more information and reservations call (626) 568-3900.