RESTAURANTS / Max Jacobson : New Chef’s Efforts Must Vie With View for Attention

The new chef at The Towers, Jackson Kenworth, has what you call credentials. He was trained at La Varenne in Paris, and then polished his skills at Spago with Wolfgang Puck. He comes to his new job from Citrus in Los Angeles, where he spent two years as executive chef under owner Michel Richard.

Now, just as he’s ready to step out on his own, he faces competition from an unexpected source: Nature.

Every table in the Towers’ ninth-floor dining room affords a magnificent view of the Laguna Beach coastline. Even the restaurant’s decor, with its stunning Art Deco-style motifs, competes for attention with the kitchen. Any chef working this room needs to make a big splash. Kenworth does so. But that doesn’t mean that things always go smoothly.

At a recent lunch, for example, one of Kenworth’s specialties--corn soup with smoked bacon--was thin and watery, with barely a trace of the smoky flavor I’d anticipated. Even less impressive was the tepid chicken salad with shiitake mushrooms. The greens were soggy with dressing, and the toppings had lost their flavor.

But there were bright spots. The warm short-rib terrine with vegetables and mustard vinaigrette showed imagination and dexterity. And a special dessert, frozen chocolate pave in a pool of sauce the chef calls coffee sabayon , was almost as impressive as the view.

On my next visit to The Towers, five of us arrived for dinner on a quiet weekday evening, just in time to be treated to a remarkable sunset. It was a perfect moment; everyone in the restaurant fell silent and just stared off into eternity. I couldn’t help feeling apprehensive for the chef. How do you follow that act?

Things got off to a good start with a terrific pea soup with mussels (a scant two), and a velvety lobster bisque that was slightly above average (what it lacked in intensity it made up for in texture).

Other appetizers weren’t as good: A dish of home-cured salmon was notable for its presentation in bite-sized nubs, but was scarcely interesting. A grilled shrimp in a delicate herb sauce was somewhat better, but hardly extraordinary. And a salad of California greens with goat cheese croutons turned up with ordinary bread croutons that had cheese sitting on top of them like canapes at a catered office party.

By the time the entrees arrived it had grown completely dark and the chef had our full attention. But the main courses got mixed reactions. Sea scallops, light as a mousse, were served with onion sauce and potato risotto (yes, potato risotto--Kenworth got the dish from his Citrus repertoire). It was sensational.

But in another main course, Maine lobster was almost as bad as the scallops were good. The lobster was rubbery and salty, the morels were barely reconstituted, and the saffron added nothing but distracting sweetness.

There is a very nice rib-eye steak with bone marrow, however; mine would have been excellent had it not been for some injudicious overcooking. A lamb rack with fresh herbs also suffered from too much time on the stove; it came out medium well instead of medium rare. We also tried roasted duck with honey and cilantro, which proved to be a big mistake. The flavors were very subtle and pleasing, but the skin and meat were so fatty no one wanted a second bite.

As for dessert, the pave I was served at lunch is about the only one worth the effort. Most are commercially produced offerings that the restaurant buys locally. We tried the opera cake, one of those multilayered affairs with lots of waxy chocolate, and mango mousse cake, which ran down the plate like a melted ice cream pie and tasted like a tin can.

Despite the lapses, Kenworth is a talented chef and the Towers is worth a visit on any beautiful day. Right now, however, he’s going to have to settle for second billing . . . or move to a more circumspect dining room.

The Towers is expensive. Appetizers run from $3.50 to $28, and main courses start at $19.50. Jackets are required for men after 5:30 p.m.

THE TOWERS

155 S. Coast Highway (in the Surf and Sand Hotel), Laguna Beach

(714) 497-4477

Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinner served Sunday through Thursday, 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m.

All major credit cards accepted