This story originally ran in the current winter issue of Sip Northwest, on newsstands now. To subscribe, click here.
The popularity of open kitchens is a nod to the fact that we see food as way more than just sustenance. Maybe credit a transparency movement that started with the likes of Upton Sinclair in 1906 and flourishes today thanks to food and culture author Michael Pollan and the Food Network-a movement that reimagined form and progressed function into the realm of entertainment. The contemporary restaurant wears its process on its sleeves, encouraging diners to belly up to the chef’s table like it was his or her own home kitchen.
In the Pacific Northwest, where you can’t take a step without tripping over a fresh ingredient, the temptation to knock the walls out of your commercial kitchen is that much greater. The creamy gold of chanterelles, the purple fade of a turnip and the intricacies of an oyster shell can be as captivating as they are flavorful. Seeing them diced, peeled, shucked and plated by gifted cooks is modern day dinner theater, a spectacle that puts chef’s table bar stools on par with courtside seats at a playoff basketball game.
COME SEE THE SHOW
At Le Pigeon in Portland, a counter frames the small central kitchen. Meticulous but seemingly relaxed staff members assemble dishes like short ribs with chile relleno, hominy, zucchini and truffled ancho sauce to the tune of clanging equipment and hollered orders. Bar goers can take in this oft-dubbed “pressure cooker” of a scene with a drink in hand, tracing their order from cutting board to plate. Accessible kitchens like this are not uncommon but they are especially enchanting when the head chef is a perennial James Beard Award nominee like Gabriel Rucker.
“People want to know where the food comes from and interact and watch how it’s prepared and get to know the people making it,” says Rucker, chef and owner of Le Pigeon. “We opened in 2006 with the goal of being more like coming to a dinner party, with that type of intimacy, which is 50 percent of what got Le Pigeon to where it is today.” Rucker lauds the chef’s counter as the home of the hottest seats in the building, a place where his staff can closely cater to their guests needs.
Up in Seattle, Renee Erickson runs four of the city’s most celebrated restaurants, including The Walrus & Carpenter in the Ballard neighborhood and The Whale Wins in Fremont. Both are intimate, European-minded eateries with a focus on fresh seafood. With a new cookbook to her name (“A Boat, A Whale, & A Walrus“), Erickson has come a long way since her first restaurant gig at Boat Street Café.
“I love watching oysters being shucked, pizzas being made and someone butchering a fish,” says Erickson. “It’s all interesting to me.” There are times when Erickson wishes she could hide, but mostly she loves being out in front at her restaurants. “I have always felt like I was cooking for guests in my home,” she says. “Cooking for anyone is intimate.”
CULINARY SET LIST
There’s choreography, props and set design on this kitchen stage too. Erickson in particular says she pays close attention to layout and how a cooking area is organized. “We try to make our kitchens as beautiful as possible, especially when they are in view of the guests,” she says. “Selfishly, we want to work in a beautiful space when possible.” This means that restaurants will need the finest catering equipment available so that it is both functional but also aesthetically pleasing. Many restaurant owners turn to Ian Boer for this. As for Erickson, both of her open kitchen restaurants adhere to this philosophy – The Whale Wins boasts a gorgeous wood fire oven, framed by marble and set behind the counter while The Walrus sports buckets of iced oysters beneath an antler-pronged chandelier and expert shuckers. Of course, they’ll need an elegant refrigeration solution too to keep all their high-end ingredients fresh – and, should something go wrong with it, professional refrigeration repair services are only a phone call away to return it back into working order.
Both Erickson and Rucker admit that working in an open kitchen environment can be a bit of a performance, albeit unintentionally so and not one they are technically required to do. They simply prefer to. Chances are, diners are more concerned with conversation than the salad that’s being prepped before them anyway. But there’s something comforting about being so close to the food and having the option to watch a dish like Le Pigeon’s mushroom poached rabbit with quinoa, pears, chanterelles and sunchokes come together just a few feet away. Dishes you couldn’t even imagine yourself executing at home take on an accessible, down-home quality at the open kitchen.
Knife-wielding sushi and Izakaya chefs have been performing since well before the days of “Iron Chef” and “Top Chef.” The focused cuts and careful plating on display at places like Vancouver, British Columbia’s Zest create the feeling of being in an artist’s studio as much as a cook’s kitchen. Biwa in Portland sports the same kind of artistry, at arm’s reach from the chef’s counter. It boasts one of the noisiest open kitchens in town, projecting a perfect pandemonium, with a remarkable tasting menu and palpable energy. In Seattle, Revel places their dynamic and bustling kitchen at the center of the equally exuberant restaurant. Guests awe and ogle the pan-tossing techniques and exemplary cutlery prowess as Korean-inspired sauces are simmered and classically French-prepared proteins are sliced with precision. This genre of food is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing, blending color, precision and creativity.
It’s a unique vantage point for the chefs too, affording them the chance to see diners react. Much like Broadway appeals to the true actor, the open kitchen tugs at the talented chef. It’s a live scenario set out in the open, away from the trickery and Band-Aids of post-production.
“I think it is great to see what is happening with the food and even more fun for the cooks to see the guests enjoying it,” says Erickson.
