John Gardiner’s Rancho Valencia Is Quick to Take On a Genteel Air

At some point during a phone call for reservations in the dining room at the new John Gardiner’s Rancho Valencia resort hotel near Rancho Santa Fe, the maitre d’ will ask, in the most discreet tone, “Have you dined with us before?”

Should you respond in the negative, he will then say, in the gentlest of voices, “Gentlemen are required to wear coat and tie in the evening.”

If you reply “I certainly hope so,” you may get an especially choice table at which to sample the buttery veal chops in French curry sauce; the herbed, roasted lamb from Sonoma County and the clever ginger custard with poached pears. If, on the other hand, the idea of dressing for dinner seems unbearably stressful, there are many other restaurants in North County.

However, none of the alternatives has the charming and almost seductively suave ambience of the dining room at this small luxury retreat, which consists of only 43 suites and seems the sort of secluded resort that well-heeled out-of-towners would expect to find in the coastal hills of San Diego County.

The decor might be summed up as Spanish Mission Deluxe, and although quite new, the place somehow has acquired the genteel air that usually comes only with maturity. Tennis legend John Gardiner often occupies a corner table and lends something to the mood; a pianist plays quietly behind a bank of rhododendron, and the service is almost astonishing in an age in which so many servers seem to be manning gas pumps rather than assisting guests. The servers are present whenever needed, and watchful at other times; thank one for performing some service or other, and you likely will receive a murmured “ C’est un plaisir “ in reply.

The menu, written daily and supervised by Chef Serge Backes, who is new to the area and seems possessed of considerable talent, fleshes out the dining room’s tone of understated luxury. It runs, surprisingly for so small a hotel, to considerable length, and, on one recent evening, offered 15 appetizers, an equal number of entrees and nearly as many desserts. The cooking style is purely French and quite classic, in the sense that, although some dishes may be updated, all are based on traditional principles.

Prices reflect the unabated upward spiral seen in California restaurants in recent months, with starters and desserts averaging $7 and most entrees priced in the mid-20s. (The prices of appetizers and desserts at almost every sort of restaurant seem to be rising to almost ridiculous heights these days. Restaurateurs explain the situation by saying that they no longer make money on entrees and have to turn to these auxiliary courses for their profits.)

The menu seems designed for appetites fueled by a day on the tennis courts (especially with the massive platter of chilled shellfish with lime cocktail sauce), yet it also shows consideration for contemporary dietary concerns, with low-calorie, -sodium and -cholesterol dishes marked by asterisks. These have included baked salmon with mussels in watercress sauce, broiled ono with caviar and beurre blanc , and, rather interestingly, a New York sirloin with mushrooms.

The appetizer list is particularly lovely and has included such things as saffroned mussel soup; a salad of squab, endive and greens; an imaginative preparation of snails in black bean sauce with tofu, as well as a more traditional offering of snails flavored with Pernod; Florentine meat and vegetable fritters and a very classic dish of sauteed sweetbreads in a puff pastry bouchee . This last was perfect and luscious, the melting meat enrobed in a supple cream sauce flavored with pan juices and good brandy.

Rather out of form for a French restaurant, but quite in step with current American eating habits, the menu offers several pastas as entrees, including versions garnished with smoked salmon and cream, or with sauteed vegetables, olive oil and mixed cheeses, or an extravagant linguine with shellfish, wine and herbs that at $25 probably sets the price record for a pasta dish in this county.

The more formal entrees are characterized by cautious, watchful cooking that results in finely finished meats and exquisite sauces. Those based on stock are reduced to a velvety consistency and flavored precisely to match the meat they garnish. This applied especially to a boned, roasted breast of Muscovy duck, served a la Bigarade in a light brown sauce flavored with cherries and brandy. The duck breast had been roasted to the exact point at which the meat remained tender and moist, while the skin crisped as the fat sizzled away. The kitchen carved this into slices and arranged them in a fan before sending the plate out under a silver dome.

The sauteed veal chops probably were finished in the oven, a simple French trick that does not appear in cookbooks and does not seem well understood by American-trained cooks. In any case, the meat was exceptionally toothsome--veal chops, though costly and luxurious, too often are cooked into tasteless hunks of meat--and the sauce, a French-style curry of some sweetness and considerable heat, was amazing. This sort of sauce, unlike a true Indian curry, includes brown sauce, fruit and curry powder, and can be either flat or deep. This one had fine depth.

A third entree, roasted venison in green peppercorn sauce, came off just as well as the others, the meat gamy and beautifully roasted, and well-served by both its strong, piquant sauce and by the tangy compote of lingonberries that garnished the plate.

Vegetables arrived in quite the French style, in a manner that never occurs in this area except at occasional banquets given by dining societies. The kitchen arranged a silver platter of buttery turnips, slender green beans and roasted potatoes for the table, and the server, using two spoons, dished these out in individual bouquets. The vegetables no doubt would have tasted the same had they been plated in the kitchen, but the elegance of the presentation added to the overall tone of the dinner.

The dessert list has a certain seasonal inspiration and has included such things as pumpkin bread pudding and spicy pumpkin souffle. Chocolate, increasingly the mainstay of dessert lists, here is honored by a souffle but also by a fine, gooey tart garnished with caramelized apricots, whose intense flavor goes so well with chocolate. It is an excellent dessert.

* JOHN GARDINER’S RANCHO VALENCIA RESORT

5921 Valencia Circle

756-1123

Lunch and dinner daily.

Reservations suggested.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a moderate bottle of wine, tax and tip, $80 to $130.