Sheppard’s Remains Young at Hearth

Inductive reasoning has forced me to conclude that, safely hidden behind a secret panel in the executive offices of the Sheraton Harbor Island Hotel, lies a thin envelope marked “Sheppard’s Culinary Strategy.” As I visualize it, the envelope contains a simple directive: “Never trust anyone over 30.”

The strategy of installing eager youth in Sheppard’s kitchen thus far has served the Sheraton well. The new chef, John Chalaye, is, at 29, an old man contrasted with predecessors Cindy Black and Jack Huxtable, both of whom barely had reached the quarter-century mark when they took up the ceremonial wire whisk of office.

Future Looks Secure

But Black and Huxtable (who moved along to greener pastures after a couple of years each on the job) both steered Sheppard’s on an innovative gastronomic course that kept this handsome room in the highest echelon of the city’s restaurants. Now in its sixth year, Sheppard’s seems likely under Chalaye to retain its standing as the premier hotel dining room in the downtown environs.

The son of distinguished French restaurateurs and the grandson of the maitre d’ of the legendary Paris-Rome Express dining car, Chalaye undertook the customary grand tour of top French kitchens before settling down to cook in this country. He also apprenticed under his parents, proprietors of the noted Le Rhone restaurants in San Francisco and the Napa Valley.

The result of this binational training is a strikingly contemporary menu that, though based on the soundest French principles, pays close attention to fashionable flavor combinations, especially those lumped together under “Southwestern cuisine.”

An excellent example of this Franco-New Mexican approach is the smoked salmon appetizer, a typical standby on luxury menus that here gets a surprising treatment. Tiny, basket-shaped blue-corn tortillas, filled with a flavorful avocado puree (when all is said and done, it amounts to a French guacamole), serve as bases for cornets of delicately smoked fish.

Up to this point, everything is novel, but, as a finishing touch, Chalaye adds a sprinkling of capers because French cooking grammar decrees capers to be de rigueur with saumon fume . The sum is a happy combination of new and old.

Details Enhance the Whole

Chalaye’s contribution to Sheppard’s has to be considered the essential one, but, unlike many modern restaurants, there is more to this place than the cooking. It is much like good restaurants used to be, with a grand, formal decor and a great deal of attention given to service. Small but pleasant details add to the sense of well-being; among these are the little dish of rillettes (a rich pork paste) that arrives with drinks, and the chocolate truffles that escort the check.

The chocolates presumably are intended to soften the blow, at least for the host, because this is a very expensive restaurant--a dinner for two that includes a modest bottle of wine will not cost less than $100. A tab like this wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in New York or Los Angeles, but here, it puts Sheppard’s under the special-occasion heading.

There are actually two menus, a lengthy standing list and a brief seasonal menu that changes periodically and offers but a trio each of appetizers, entrees and desserts. (The desserts are the best from among the standing menu’s offerings.) The advantage to the seasonal menu is its $31 fixed price, a relative bargain considering that it offers three courses.

The current seasonal menu disappointed somewhat with a starter of lobster and shrimp-stuffed ravioli garnished with caviar; the pasta covering was a touch pasty, and the rich cream sauce rather salty. However, a salad of grilled scallops, sauteed foie gras and exceptional greens, the whole jumbled with a cilantro-flavored vinaigrette, made a remarkable appetizer and showed off Chalaye’s predilection for balancing French and Southwestern cuisines; the saute pan was swashed with the vinaigrette, so that the heady foie gras flavors entered deliciously into the dressing.

Salmon, Halibut Are Joined

For entrees, the seasonal menu offers a “weave” (it looks like it sounds, a kind of basket effect) of salmon and halibut; grilled medallions of domestic venison finished with lobster, pink peppercorns and port wine, and a grilled, stuffed veal chop dressed with a sweet but tangy grain mustard sauce. This last was an elegant cut of meat, sliced across the grain to display its savory mushroom stuffing.

A few favorites from former kitchen regimes, most notably the whole Dover sole and the fine dessert souffles, continue on the new menu, but otherwise it is very much Chalaye’s list. A poached seafood sausage, basically a glamorized quenelle , heads the appetizer selection, followed by a good, low-calorie plate of chilled asparagus with pink peppercorns and aged vinegar, a salad of Santa Barbara shrimp with avocado and papaya, and a duck consomme garnished with duck dumplings.

The gratin of oysters is much like the smoked salmon mentioned earlier, with wedges of blue-corn tortilla slipped between the bivalves and their shells, and a classy tomatillo salsa providing plenty of flavor. However, the oysters seem somewhat incidental to the show and tend to get lost in the commotion. A plate of curry and lemon-flavored linguine garnished with a red bell pepper and truffle sauce has its moments, although the lemon flavor is not particularly noticeable.

John Dory Stands Out

The entree list features the obligatory steaks (a grilled New York, and a filet mignon imaginatively dressed with goat cheese, hazelnuts and truffles) but quickly gets down to business with such items as the John Dory (a meaty New Zealand fish) stuffed with scallop mousse, and grilled sea bass garnished with a confit , or long-simmered stew, of red cabbage.

The kitchen really handles these dishes well. A medium-rare duck breast arrived beautifully fanned across the plate, its honey- and thyme-flavored sauce a rich, mahogany-dark confection of well-reduced duck stock. A stuffed rack of lamb was rosy and juicy, its interior spilling out a cargo of flavorful “California ratatouille,” or diced squash and vegetables. A pesto butter gave a light, basil-garlic glaze to the meat.

The most spectacular presentations were the sauteed sweetbreads and the Dover sole. The sweetbreads, arranged around an immense oval platter like brown diamonds on a jeweler’s tray, were simply floured and crisped in hot butter, a sensible treatment that allowed them to absorb flavor from the perfect, translucent brown sauce. A jade green mound of asparagus mousse trembled at the center of the plate, surrounded by baby carrots and asparagus spears and succulent morel mushrooms. The overall combination reached a rather exalted plane.

Classic Preparation

The sole (at $27, the most expensive dish) was presented as an entire, glorious creature, and then boned by the captain, who placed the long, dun-colored roe at the top of the plate. Prepared in the classic meuniere method, the fish had simply been rolled in flour, sauteed, and then finished with its own cooking butter enriched with lemon and parsley, a perfect sauce for the meltingly tender morsels of meat.

The roe, a rather novel treat that few restaurants offer (but then, exceedingly few offer genuine Dover sole) had a rougher and coarser texture and a rather stronger flavor--but made a savory morsel to nibble after the last bits of fish had disappeared. Like most entrees, this dish was accompanied by an elegant side plate that bore a tumble of forest mushrooms and a variety of tender baby vegetables.

Desserts seem to be Chalaye’s weak suit, with the exception of the featherweight souffles and the baked-to-order pear tart, a glamorous pastry finished with a rich caramel sauce. Compared to these, the extravagant sampler plate, which includes less-than-incandescent versions of chocolate mousse, chocolate-hazelnut torte and poppy seed roulade , seems a too-costly indulgence.

SHEPPARD’S

Sheraton Harbor Island Hotel, 1380 Harbor Island Drive.

692-2255

Dinner served Tuesday through Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a moderate bottle of wine, tax and tip, $100 to $130.