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CONTRA COSTA TIMES, April 4, 2001

THE NAKED KITCHEN Bay Area chefs reveal what it's like to be exposed --behind glass or in the flesh

By Deborah Grossman TIMES CORRESPONDENT

WOLFGANG PUCK launched the "dining as theater" craze in 1982 with Hollywood's Spago. It closed last week -- having lost its edge after Spago Beverly Hills opened in 1997. That's when Puck brought display cooking to a new level with a glass-enclosed kitchen.

Now it's a classy trend. At new restaurants such as Bollinger in San Ramon, Elisabeth Daniel in San Francisco and Bradley Ogden's Birch Creek in Roseville, you'll dine with glass.

The "Naked Chef" is hot, too. Have you seen cookbook author and TV personality Jamie Oliver strip recipes down to the basics?

Chefs as celebrities may be turning diners into voyeurs. At the quiet, upscale French restaurant Elisabeth Daniel, cooks get it from both sides. The kitchen is visible from the street and -- surprise -- in full view from the hallway leading to the restaurant's restrooms. A 3/4-inch sheet of glass is all that separates you from chef Daniel Patterson and his crew.

"People will stand and watch, and be less than a foot away," says Patterson. "It's kind of a funny feeling sometimes. But there's a certain honesty about it. We're not trying to hide anything. It forces the cooks to be more on top of their cleanliness and organization." And "It makes them very aware who they are cooking for."

Elisabeth Daniel's clientele is paying for a certain experience. Menus are all prix fixe ($35 at lunch and $77 at dinner). The dining room just wouldn't be the same with a busy, intrusive kitchen

"Having it hidden and glassed-in ... it's a refinement of the open kitchen idea," says Patterson.

At Birch Creek, the glassed-in kitchen is right in the open -- along with the floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace and glass wine cellar. Ogden wanted diners to enjoy the action of the kitchen while still being able to talk and relax. And with Birch Creek, he's found the perfect compromise. It offers visible action -- absent at his Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur -- while staying much quieter than the long-and-noisy open kitchen at Lark Creek Walnut Creek.

But a sound barrier doesn't mean Ogden can compromise his kitchen's high standards for food, cleanliness and courtesy.

"Cooks in open kitchens are always on stage," says Ogden. And dress standards are higher, too -- cooks wear caps with logos of the restaurant, not their favorite baseball team.

Soon after the original Spago opened, Square One debuted as one of San Francisco's first exhibition kitchen restaurants. Chef/owner Joyce Goldstein's philosophy was simple: "I believed in letting people see how we cooked. I didn't want a hallowed hall of fine dining."

Which might be one drawback of the glassed-in model -- it does have as light air of pretension. You can't sit at the counter and chat it up with the crew.

Walk into Danville's Brazio and the warmth of the wood-fired grill greets you. Chef/owner Fred Halpert is often right there, grilling steaks, asking customers how they want their lamb prepared or kibitzing about marinades.

"So many people in the Bay Area enjoy eating and talking about good food. The open kitchen breaks down barriers and opens up a dialogue with customers," Halpert says. His other three restaurants, including the new LiveFire in San Francisco, also showcase open kitchens.

Giuseppe Ferrara, owner/chef of Amalfi in Walnut Creek, also likes to interact with his customers -- and he's happy the dining room picks up the vibrations from his open kitchen.

"Putting it behind glass, you can see movement," he says. But "it's like watching TV with no sound."

Which is perhaps why the formal glassed-in model has yet to find its way into hip dot-com hangouts, where interaction is key. The noise and flash of a kitchen adds to a restaurants' cachet -- as at Bacar, the new tri-level 300-seat hot spot in San Francisco.

"Take a dish like mussels," says Arnold Wong, Bacar chef/co-owner. "First, you hear the sizzle in the wok and see the flames when the mussels' liquor spills into the cooking oil. Then you watch the reflection of the flames 'dancing' on the ceiling."

Just as diners can feel close to the kitchen, Wong can -- with no barriers -- feel at one with the dining room.

"This isn't necessarily the executive chef's role, but from my vantage point at Bacar I can keep tabs on other parts of the restaurant. I care about what's going on."

Faz Poursohi is another Bay Area chef/owner on a mission to set a comfortable stage for diners.

"As soon as you walk into our restaurants, you should see the fire glow at the pizza oven. It sets the tone, like you're relaxing by the backyard barbecue."

Poursohi opened San Ramon's Bollinger with an eye to elegance. Inheriting a glassed-in kitchen, he replaced the industrial-style tile surrounding the glass with warm cherry wood.

Though other Faz Restaurants feature open kitchen areas, Bollinger's 300 seats and live music create enough ambient noise on their own. A background symphony of pans clanging into the sink and hood-fans whirring might be overwhelming.

And anyway, Poursohi adds, "The sensational view of the San Ramon Valley in the dining room overpowers the kitchen view. But diners still enjoy seeing the chef and cooks in action through the glass."

A glass wall won't shatter the open kitchen concept. But it's a curtain that may help define the next generation of "dining as theater."

 DINERS ON OPEN KITCHENS

"Sitting by the open kitchen is like previewing a movie. I didn't know what hanger steak was, but when I saw the presentation, I wanted it." --Ruth Fortune at Lark Creek, Walnut Creek "I dine out for a quiet meal, not to watch the cooks." --Edward Rubenstein at Bollinger in San Ramon. "I should have ordered the onion rings -- they smelled so good." --Will Southard at Lark Creek Walnut Creek. "We've learned how the orders are handled. We guess when our food is ready, and give the cooks a thumbs-up when it's good." --Dean Gilbert at Brazio in Danville. "I felt like the staff were watching us -- this is too open." -- Moya Watson at Bacar in San Francisco.

CHEFS ON OPEN KITCHENS

"At Square One, it was nice for cooks who work so hard to see people enjoy their food. But we had two kinds of diners: those who asked to sit near the kitchen and those who didn't." -- Joyce Goldstein, former chef/owner of Square One in San Francisco. "You're not locked away in the dungeon -- you're part of the action. But you can't shout down the cooks' line to your Kansas City buddy when the Raiders beat the Chiefs." -- Amos

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