Whiz-Kid Chef Has Broadway Place Jumping

Doug Organ, the whiz-kid chef who commanded the stoves at such places as Frederick’s and 926, and at the rather unlucky Le Corbier, had planned to leave these sunny shores and head off for the great kitchens of France. The idea was that he would absorb the knowledge of the current master chefs, return to San Diego, and set the local cooking scene on its ear.

Organ changed his mind for reasons of his own, and while his departure date tentatively has been rescheduled for May, he currently is practicing his black (the color of caviar and truffles) magic at downtown’s redoubtable Broadway Place.

Broadway Place has been tossed on the waves of fortune in its two-year life, suffering at first from Dobson’s Syndrome (people walking south on Broadway Circle from Broadway tended to stop at Dobson’s, and to leave the extra 50-foot journey to Broadway Place for another day that never comes), but then rebounding under the quietly talented kitchen stewardship of chef Brion Flynn.

As these things happen, Flynn left, and Organ, suddenly quite available, signed on to captain his segment of Broadway Place’s culinary odyssey. Certainly, there is a devoted clientele that will follow Organ anywhere he goes (perhaps not all the way to France), but will this clientele continue to patronize Broadway Place when its favorite has departed?

In a classic restaurant, the owner set the tone and menu while the chef, no matter how gifted, toiled in anonymity. A clientele developed based on the restaurant’s ongoing theme and performance, not on that of a single chef--except when the owner was the chef. In general, the chef was a technician who re-created established dishes by the numbers, and whose own creations redounded to the restaurant’s glory, not his own.

The ongoing culinary Renaissance has elevated the chef to a much more majestic plane, however, and as often as not the good ones become celebrities, their cuisines personal signatures that travel with them wherever they may go. The chef thus becomes the true purveyor of moveable feasts, while the restaurant suffers an identity crisis each time it loses the chef.

Organ’s cooking style is certainly his own and, as luscious as it can be, it is also predictable. If Organ is in the kitchen, it is certain the menu will include light beurre blanc sauces, sprinklings of caviar over various seafoods, imaginative salads, and desserts prepared by someone else because Organ can’t be bothered with the labors of pastry making.

In any case, Organ’s fans can take pleasure in his being at Broadway Place, because his cooking continues to be clever, provocative, intelligent and generally wonderful. He continues to have a nice way with seafoods and meats and a good hand with pastas, and his talent at matching seemingly incompatible ingredients remains at its zenith.

The menus change frequently, but a recent one incorporated several dishes Organ prepared during his brief stay at Le Corbier. Notable among these were several appetizers, a potato galette (a warm cake of sliced potatoes dressed with creme fraiche, smoked salmon and caviar), and a salad of Belgian endive, blue cheese, walnuts and apples. Other starters were tried, however, including a perfect plate of pungent Pacific oysters, plumped in hot butter, finished with a fine julienne of vegetables and prosciutto, and topped with caviar. A limpid beurre blanc brought the serving together.

Also likable was a remarkable spaghetti topped with wild mushrooms, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and an herbed broth; not merely were the flavors good, but the pasta stood alone, flavorful and perfectly cooked by itself, a tasty foil to the other ingredients. A dish of lentils mixed with sun-dried tomatoes and topped with warm rounds of creamy goat cheese doubled as a salad, and was quite nice, especially because of the cool, scallion-spiked vinaigrette that moistened the serving.

These dishes were lovely, and quite the equal of anything ever served at this restaurant. It should be noted, though, that Broadway Place used to offer as many as a dozen pastas at a time, and these, too, usually were of good quality.

The entree list also has become much more formal and grand, and one can’t help but like it. Organ’s approach in this department never varies; he always selects an excellent piece of fish or meat, cooks it perfectly, and pairs it with an unusual but delicious sauce or garnish. Thus a recent list included king salmon doused with a tomatillo-and-cilantro beurre blanc; sea bass coated with Dijon mustard and poised on a bed of herbed tomates concasses (chopped fresh tomatoes lightly cooked in butter), and braised rabbit garnished not only with roasted onions, but also with slivers of grilled rabbit loin. Doing the same meat in two ways--that’s a rarity.

A beautifully crusted, perfectly moist serving of John Dory came dressed with the light butter sauce and sprinkling of black caviar that Organ views as nearly essential for mildly flavored fish. An individual rib roast of veal was gilded in the oven until it acquired a rare (as in unusual), crackly finish that seemed proper to some other, stronger meat, but was as delicious as it was exotic. The pan juices mixed with a saute of chewy, earthy Portobeno mushrooms made the meat seem almost like game, and it certainly was a wonderful way to serve veal. The toss of green beans and slivered red bell peppers that garnished both entrees was the kitchen’s tasty nod to the holiday season.

True to form, Organ pays little enough attention to desserts, ordering the pastries from a good outside supplier. The rich hazelnut torte is quite satisfactory.

For the moment, then, Broadway Place boasts one of the better kitchens in town. But there seems no point in predicting how long it will retain this status, or if it will maintain it after Organ moves along.

BROADWAY PLACE

926 Broadway Circle.

234-3442.

Lunch served Monday through Friday, dinner Monday through Saturday. Closed Sundays.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a moderate bottle of wine, $60 to $90.