Spicy Cooking From the Desert Finds Welcome Niche by the Sea

There is a certain incongruity to dining on a cuisine inspired by arid New Mexico while sitting a few hundred yards from the Pacific.

This is 1990 and Southern California, however, and it may be readily understandable that Southwestern cuisine, trendy elsewhere for years if never widely popularized in San Diego, should finally blossom like some modest desert flower on the edge of Torrey Pines State Park.

The fetishes and talismans of Southwestern cooking-- ancho chilies, black beans, tart lime as a substitute for lemon--pop up regularly on the menu at Torreyana Grille, the rather overwhelming but attractive dining room at the new Sheraton Grande Torrey Pines hotel. The kitchen practices a highly stylized, hybridized brand of cooking, but one that also is quite clever, and exceptionally pleasing in the case of such dishes as seared lamb loin with eggplant marmalade and Southwestern-style crab cakes.

It should be obvious immediately that crab cakes are not traditional in the desert Southwest. Such minor distinctions mean absolutely nothing in contemporary Southwestern cooking, however, because style and seasonings rather than ingredients determine this cuisine. In the case of the crab cakes--or crab cake, because the dish is offered as an appetizer--the distinguishing marks are the chili-warmed, subtly flavorful beurre blanc that underlies the butter-crisped patty, and the pyramids of spiced black beans arranged around it. The treatment is a happy one for the cake, which consists of virtually nothing but crab and is quite nicely done.

The presence of beurre blanc , of course, adds yet another dimension to the cooking, in this case French. This is only natural, because French technique has allowed the creation of any number of hybrid cuisines, many of them qualified by the preface nouvelle . Strong Oriental overtones also find their way onto this menu (there is an appetizer of “Southwestern spring rolls,” for example), and these fit quite well. As if all this were not enough, the kitchen also possesses a pasta machine, of which it makes much use, although the end results are merely starchy accents rather than anything that could be identified as Italian. Given the culinary confusion that could result from a union of too many styles, this is just as well.

The crab cake is one of several appealing starters. The stuffed shrimp turn out to be a equivocation of that hotel dining room stand-by, shrimp cocktail, but a playful one; five fat prawns are stuffed with herbed cheese and arranged over twin sauces, one a fairly traditional tomato-based dip, the other suavely tart and sparkling with lime. The Southwestern spring rolls follow the classic egg roll format but substitute grilled chicken for the stuffing, and again are garnished with a pair of sauces, and there is even a “grilled” soup of smoked chicken, braised Guinea hen and vegetables in chicken broth. The Southwest is underlined by the offering of red chili fettuccine (the chili worked directly into the pasta dough) topped with grilled sausage, and by the gazpacho garnished with lime-seasoned sour cream. Like nearly every restaurant in town, Torreyana Grille offers Caesar salad, but unlike most, it makes a good one.

The entree list is split between grilled foods, all priced at $16.95, and a higher-priced but more interesting selection mentioned as “signature items.” This is a neat resolution to the problem always faced by hotel dining rooms that wish to attract a local clientele; the grilled choices include all the standards that hotels must offer, such as lamb chops, steaks, chicken and fish, while the “signature” dishes allow the kitchen to range more widely.

The grills are, however, prepared in the style of the menu, and the choice includes such things as ahi with papaya salsa, swordfish in ancho chili butter, chicken breast with tomato vinaigrette and lamb chops in smoked tomato sauce.

The kitchen gives some thought to the “signature” dishes, and these sometimes are startlingly good. The pan-seared lamb loin, served as several slices over a bed of chopped, highly seasoned eggplant, was exquisite, both for the buttery texture of the meat and for the marvelous, highly professional brown sauce given a tantalizing edge by the addition of fresh tarragon. The squat, squishy “muffin” of buckwheat and pureed chanterelles that served as a most unusual garnish was an interesting idea, but one whose time has not yet come.

The evening’s special, a teaming of grilled scallops and shrimp with rice noodles in a sharp soy vinaigrette, was a brilliant evocation of Oriental style tailored to suit Western tastes. Black sesame seeds added a pungent undertone, but it was the sweetly vinegary dressing that really brought the dish together, and if the noodles starred, the shellfish were cautiously cooked and quite good.

Other choices here include a combination of avocado and grilled lobster over black bean pasta, and pesto-basted guinea hen over roasted garlic linguine. But the most ambitious may be the “California” bouillabaisse, which is ladled from an elaborate, fish-shaped tureen over a bed of barley-sized pasta flavored with saffron. While ambitious, the dish also was perfunctory; the guest who ordered this grumbled that the melange of lobster, shrimp, scallops and fish in broth “lacked the fire and imagination of the first courses.” Luxurious in its ingredients, it was rather timidly seasoned, and might have been happier as a soup than served over pasta. Table settings include bottles of herb-and-garlic infused olive oil, which servers pour out into small dishes and offer as a dip when they serve the good, house-baked breads. This is another of Torreyana’s attempts at establishing a distinctive style, and if it seems just a touch put-on, it is pleasant enough.

The kitchen also bakes a good selection of pastries, including a mixed fruit tart that can seem rather soothing after the strongly seasoned entrees, and a chocolate pecan tart that rises a notch or two above the average.

The decor matches the menu in its aggression. All the elements are strong; there is much marble, trimmed here and there with rich woods, and highly polished copper tiles add a brassy note. Because hard surfaces reflect voices, the place can be noisy when only moderately populated. Oddly enough, tables are set well away from the broad windows, and while everyone knows that you can’t see the ocean at night, it would seem that guests at breakfast and lunch might appreciate getting a crack at the hotel’s terrific view.

TORREYANA GRILLE

Sheraton Grande Torrey Pines

10950 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla

558-1500

Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $50 to $100.