When The Raymond 1886 learned last week that their long-anticipated guest chef appearance by David Feiau had to be postponed, there was already a star glowing in their own kitchen.
Newly hired executive chef Jonathan Quintana was quickly featured in his own chef guest spot over the past weekend, with his own five-course tasting menu.
The kitchen is clearly in good hands, we learned, as we dined outdoors in one of several roomy patios on the spacious property.
Quintana, who hails from the San Fernando Valley, mentored under prestigious designer chef Paul Shoemaker (Providence, Bastide, Verse), and is new to the Raymond, known now for a creative kitchen, just ahead of a traditional (read stuffy) past.
While vaguely eclectic, Quintana credited part of his menu as an homage to Shoemaker, with his Wagyu beef cheeks maybe being the best we’ve ever tried. A toss of porcini and truffles into the au jus was the perfect earthiness to the succulent beef.
“I simply looked to see what I was in season,” said Quintana, “And I could do what I wanted, so I just wanted to have a little fun with what I found.”
The trick to creative cooking is just that — creating the best presentation with your ingredients and making the ordinary special. Quintana opened the evening with two elegant endive salads, combining the endive with a frisse, a toss of Brentwood corn, just a smidgen of caviar, and a dollop of Aioli creme-fraiche, gathered in a quarter leaf of the endive. Gone in three bites, each one memorable.
Next came a pan-seared rock cod, perfectly plated with a slice of curry squash, picked pomegranates for tang and sweetness, and pepitas, tiny peppers tossed about like tiny storms of flavor.
The Kumamoto Oyster was both creamy and salty, served with corn dashi, a Japanese “base of a base,” as Quintana described it, scallions, and some jicama for “crunch,” he said.
Dessert was a jasmine tea ice cream served on a rocky bed of honey butter and quince and topped with two rolls of whisper-thin phyllo — a flaky crust — curled on top. Artistic, delicious, and gone fast.
Let’s be clear: This was an ensemble show, with no starring roles. Everything worked together deliciously. But this isn’t the Claim Jumper. You might truthfully find yourself sneaking off to the fridge sometime later in the evening. The Raymond’s regular menu will easily fill you up, but tonight we were just sampling rough diamonds.
But it’s an elegant blend of the best ingredients prepared with care, and an unexpected and fascinating mini-treatise on Peruvian, Asian, and Mexican foods and their unified histories, delivered by our server Gilberto, on the house.
It was all that that we expected, and lots that we didn’t, and that makes for a perfectly elegant combination.
The Raymond 1886, 1250 S. Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena. Call (626) 441-3136 or visit www.theraymond.com.