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Food & Wine
The Dining Room: Redefined
Chef De Cuisine Michael Voltaggio is bringing cool to The Dining Room in the Langham Huntington Hotel
Article and Photos by Candice Merrill
Published: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 | 3:10 PM
How do you take the food you know and turn it into something all together different? Ask a new chef in town, Michael Voltaggio Chef De Cuisine of The Dining Room at the Langham Huntington Hotel.
“I like to take meat that’s not used in other restaurants, cook it in a way that’s better than your filet mignon. It’s more of an experience for the guest,” Voltaggio told us Tuesday evening.
Practicing molecular gastronomy, a relatively new wave of cooking technique (and relatively new to Pasadena) where science, method and technique are married to produce an entirely different result, Voltaggio says he’s extremely “particular about the flavor.”
Take for instance one of the courses we were served, octopus on a bed of pureed buttered popcorn with a strip of piquillo confetti. The buttered popcorn was deconstructed, bringing out the essence of the taste without all the kernels sticking in your teeth, and the piquillo confetti added depth of flavor and whimsy. Think of it as getting to play with your food and eat it, too.
Food is not the only thing Voltaggio gets to deconstruct. He’s “closing an old chapter” in the history of The Dining Room and constructing “a new one.”
There are plans afoot, he reveals, to open up The Dining Room to encompass the neglected terrace that looks out over the lights of the city. “It’s such under-used real estate,” he said.
Voltaggio’s menu consists of small plates savory and sweet. He suggests that you choose three from the savory and one from the sweet to comprise your meal.
To begin ours, we started with an amuse bouche of powdered foie gras, yellow fin and dragon fruit. I must say I prefer foie gras in the powdered form; you get the great taste without the objectionable texture. The play of sweet, salty and smoky definitely amused my mouth.
Pacific yellowtail, sashimi style was layered on soy-infused, crisp watermelon accompanied by a gelatin sponge permeated with the essence of kombu dashi, a type of kelp soup. All the tastes of the sea were represented in this one dish.
Pastrami pigeon was next on the menu, served with a rye-infused jus, Brussels-kraut and a Gruyere cheese puff, it brought to mind (but soared above) a delicious deli pastrami sandwich.
What turned out to be one of my favorite dishes came next, the grilled turbot topped with tomato granola and accented with artichoke, lime and vanilla oil. The delicate fish was enhanced by the touch of vanilla and the crunch of granola.
My companion loved the next course, the suckling pig, rich with duck fat and accompanied by pistachio beans, onions, orange juice and coriander. Very tender, decadent and delicious.
Lamb enhanced by vadouvan (a type of curry, sometimes referred to as French curry) shared the plate with pickled tongue, surprisingly good, eggplant-raisin and fresh hummus. I’m not much of a tongue eater (again it’s a texture thing) but it worked really well with the hummus.
The Chef’s coffee cake was served for dessert. To call this “coffee cake” is like calling the Hope diamond a rock. A rich chocolate cake was accompanied by honey tulle, lemon curd and the fun part, espresso mousse that was dipped in liquid nitrogen. I spoon-cracked the mousse to get to the creamy middle. Everything melted and mixed and danced with flavor; an appropriate ending to a wonderful meal.
Voltaggio seems intent upon evolving The Dining Room into not only a neighborhood restaurant but a destination restaurant.
“People think that Pasadena is so far away, it’s really not,” he says. And as an extra incentive he notes that “our prices are better than anyone else downtown.”
When you visit the Dining Room be sure to let sommelier Matthew Lathan give you some input in your wine selection (or just let him choose). Knowledgeable, gregarious and amusing, Matthew really lights up when he talks about wine and his selections for our meal were perfect. One that lingers in my memory was the 2008 Crios de Susana Balbo, Torrontes, Cafayate from Argentina. A delicate white wine he called his “grandmother wine” because it smelled like a grandmother, full of orange blossom and rose water scents.
So the next time you think about driving to Venice, the West Side or Beverly Hills for dinner, stop, save your gasoline and drive or walk on over to The Dining Room in the Lanham Huntington Hotel. There’s an important new chef in town and he’s bringing cool to Pasadena.
The Dining Room is open for dinner Tuesday – Saturday, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. The Langham Huntington Hotel is located at 1401 S. Oak Knoll, Pasadena. For reservations and more information call (626) 585-6218.
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