One From The Heart

One plus one equals one. At least it does at the new Los Angeles restaurant opened by French-born chef Serge Burckel and his wife, Corinne, who lends a warm presence to the front of the house. It’s a place with a whimsical spirit of play. Burckel has taken as his model Ekahrt Witzigman, the wizard behind Germany’s groundbreaking three-star restaurant L’Aubergine, with whom Burckel worked in the early ‘80s.

The 39-year-old chef comes from Alsace, the prized wine region in northeastern France that has been passed back and forth between Germany and France so many times that it’s no longer distinctively French or German. Its cuisine is a melding of the two traditions, which may be why a chef from Alsace would take to fusion like a duck to water.

Though Burckel grew up in his father’s restaurant and later worked with Jacques Maximin at the Negresco Hotel in Nice, his biggest influence comes from Asia. Before he moved to L.A. in 1997, Burckel spent several years cooking in Hong Kong. The Crown Plaza in Redondo Beach then hired him to open Splash, building it to suit his French-Asian cooking style, as well as his idea of restaurant as theater. He may have been inspired by his mentor Maximin, who once put a theater curtain in front of his kitchen, which was drawn up to reveal--ta-dum--the chef at his stoves. Splash’s design played up the fishbowl theme, with an aquarium and floor-to-ceiling glass looking onto the chef and his crew at work. The choicest seats were right in the kitchen, at the chef’s table.

After more than 20 years behind the stoves, Burckel longed to open his own place. And when the former Gadsby’s space on La Brea near Wilshire became available, he jumped. He decorated One himself, with the help of a French artist friend, sponging the walls in shades of yellow and orange, and painting the high ceiling cobalt blue. He splashed decorative Japanese paper fans with bright pigments and partially screened the kitchen by tying Vietnamese straw farmer’s hats together to make a grid. And, yes, he included a chef’s table, too.

Open only since April, One is very much a work in progress. Each time I visit, I discover something new--a solar system of balls hanging from the ceiling in front of the windows, bud vases sprouting sputnik-like flowers, a dramatic red velvet curtain half drawn to suggest a performance is about to begin.

And, it is.

Duck firecrackers mimic those pull-apart New Year’s party favors--crisp rice paper wrappers rolled around a sumptuous filling of shredded duck and vegetables. Served hot and wrapped in lettuce leaves with sprigs of mint, they make an enticing starter. One day, dainty foie gras dumplings are served in a bamboo steamer accompanied by a glass of apple soda water dosed with fennel and black pepper. Weird, but provocative. Poached egg comes topped with an oddly appealing olive-studded jelly. And pale watercress coconut milk soup is ladled over nuggets of custardy sweetbreads. Burckel, as you can see, is a chef who isn’t afraid to take risks. Not every experiment works. (Some dishes sound more like combinations that cooking school students eager to impress might dream up in the dorm late at night.) But he’s pushing himself, and when he gets it right, his food can be exciting.

Take his marinated sushi-grade tuna set atop a cake of pearly sushi rice garnished with Japanese pickles and a thatch of seaweed. And the surprise of black mussels wrapped in a sheet of rice noodle bathed in an ethereal turmeric curry apple broth, or his “mussel pie,” a terrific takeoff on shepherd’s pie with mussels buried under a blanket of mashed potatoes splashed with a lemon grass broth.

We watch, curious, one night as the waiter rolls out a service table and attempts to slice open a papaya, wrestling it in place with a metal spatula held in quilted mitts. I half expect a bird to fly out. But this trick falls flat: inside is only a rather bland minced beef filling. Burckel’s spiced roasted Chinese duck, however, is a splendid burnished-mahogany bird accompanied by a seductive date puree. Chicken en cocotte is served from a sealed casserole steamy with the scent of garlic and porcini mushrooms. And braised rabbit is uncommonly good with a sauerkraut of turnips, a recipe Burckel got from his father.

For dessert, the chocolate cigar is a hoot. The waiter lights it and then puts it out in an ashtray filled with creme anglaise. I’d pass on the banana and eggplant tempura, though, in favor of the more conventional apple tart with almond cream and a fragrant vanilla ice cream.

New to L.A., Burckel seems to be playing it more cautious than he did at Splash, scrapping that more daring menu. He doesn’t have the staff that he did there, but whatever the reason, the food is not quite up to par. He seems torn in two directions. At lunch one day he finds me contemplating a flank steak sandwich of truly heroic proportions--for $7. He hastens to explain, “Sandwiches are not really my forte (he’s right, they’re not), but I want to give customers what they want.”

It’s fun to reserve the chef’s table with a group of friends. The chef will create a special five- or seven-course menu, and he clearly relishes the challenge. On a recent evening, we found a menu set at each place when we arrived, but he’d already decided to insert an extra smoked foie gras course. We started with an amazing “caviar sundae” in a martini glass layered with cold potato miso, caviar, dashi jelly and seaweed stained with beets. This was truly exotic, but the next course, nori-wrapped sushi rice balls stuffed with ochre sea urchin roe and sitting in a hot black rice broth, didn’t set my mouth dancing. And though I liked the breaded sea bass, its grapefruit broth wasn’t exactly wine friendly. Nor were most of the dishes, in fact.

Burckel’s piece de resistance that night was lamb shoulder and lamb neck slow-roasted to a melting tenderness with handfuls of fresh dill. “I want to introduce some classic cuisine as well as the fusion,” he announced, showing off the huge roasting pan. Now this was wonderful. We had a great time at the chef’s table, staying long past the other guests as the staff cleaned up around us.

Here’s a chef who is enthusiastic about cooking and who makes every effort to please. One may be a small restaurant, but it’s one with a big heart and a very personal point of view, qualities that are becoming increasingly rare in the L.A. restaurant scene.

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One

CUISINE: French-Asian fusion. AMBIENCE: Quirkily attractive room decorated in bright colors and Asian-themed art, with a semi-open kitchen and a glassed-in chef’s table. BEST DISHES: raw marinated tuna on sushi rice, duck firecrackers, black mussel rice noodle, watercress coconut milk soup, chicken en cocotte, roasted Chinese duck, braised rabbit with turnips, apple tart, smoking chocolate cigar. WINE PICKS: Roederer Estate Brut, Anderson Valley; 1996 Schlumberger Pinot Blanc, Alsace. FACTS: 672 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 692-0540. Lunch weekdays; dinner daily. Dinner appetizers, $6.50 to $14; main courses, $12 to $22; five-course tasting menu, $75; seven-course menu, $95 per person. Corkage $10. Valet parking evenings.

At the recently opened One, dinner is like a performance. Start the evening off with foie gras in a mushroom jelly or Chinese duck salad. Or be daring and order from the tasting menu.