“When you do something like nine courses, it’s very important that everything goes together like a symphony,” said chef George Mavrothalassitis, owner of Chef Mavro restaurant, where multicourse menus have been the order of the day since the doors opened in 1998.
It was this cohesiveness in the restaurant’s grand-tasting nine-course menu that led to the selection of Chef Mavro as Best Restaurant in the 2018 ‘Ilima Awards. A panel of Honolulu Star-Advertiser food writers compared multicourse menus at a handful of top Honolulu restaurants to arrive at the selection.
Mavrothalassitis, a hands-on chef who is in the kitchen every night alongside his executive chef, Jeremy Shigekane, said the progression of a menu is vital to its success. The restaurant serves four- and five-course menus in addition to the grand tasting.
“When we’re testing a menu, we will decide — if we feature chicken, lamb and wagyu on the Grand Tasting menu, the chicken’s first, the lamb second, then the wagyu. If we feature fish, fish will come before the chicken, not after wagyu. We need a progression of flavor,” he said.
Mavrothalassitis insists that figuring out progression isn’t complicated, though that could be because he’s accustomed to thinking about a dish in concert with a wine. Each course is paired, and each pairing is considered in relation to the whole meal. Mavrothalassitis parallels food progression to wine progression.
“You look for the same harmony, the same progression, when you think of wine,” he said. “Every single item, every dish, has a wine attached to it like a garnish. I know a lot of people don’t care, but I’m French — to me, food goes with wine.
“The main reason is cohesion of flavor.”
He even uses wine to help him get his bearings on new dishes.
“When I create a recipe, I always think about the wine. I must feel the wine. If I can’t (think of) a wine, maybe something is wrong with my recipe.”
Once, he said, he created a lobster dish served with white asparagus. He tried out five white wines and failed to find the right pairing — “We picked up a rich chardonnay; a white Burgundy; rich, fruity, full-flavored whites. But the white asparagus was killing the wines.” He was ready to drop the recipe.
Then his sommelier suggested a pinot noir, and “he was right!”
“Red wine with lobster! Everyone came and said, ‘Are you crazy?’ I said, ‘If you don’t like it, you don’t have to pay for it.’ Everyone loved it,” he said with a grin.
The point: Nothing is black and white, whether pairings or progressions.
“This doesn’t mean that if chicken is served with white wine, I would put the lobster after the chicken. I still put the lobster before, because when you use a light, clean, crisp red you can serve it before the white.”
In running through the restaurant’s summer grand-tasting menu, the chef further illustrated the process.
>> The meal opened with a diver scallop appetizer, served with sweet corn. The chef’s notes: “Very mild, texture like silk, soft consistency. It is a very ethereal recipe.”
>> Next, egg “poutargue,” a poached local egg topped with sun-dried roe: “Even if it has roe slices on the egg, the eggs are a step up following the scallop.”
>> Third, Hudson Valley foie gras: “It hits you — Boom! Boom! Boom! The wine is almost sweet, a dry riesling.”
>> Fourth, onaga provencale: “Light but rich, with basil, fennel, tomato and pernod — very intense. A white from Italy balances all that. Why does fish follow foie gras? Because we want harmony, not seafood, seafood, seafood.”
>> Fifth, Keahole lobster: “This is the last seafood, prepared with ginger, soursop and paired with white Burgundy.”
>> Sixth, free-range isle chicken: “Served with foie gras jus, it is silky like the scallop. The wine is a red from Lebanon.”
>> Seventh, lamb or wagyu. Rack of lamb: “We paired it with a big, rich, full-bodied wine from Provence.” Miyazaki wagyu, served with green apple and fresh wasabi: “A Burgundy from Capitain Gagnerot enhances the flavor.”
>> Eighth, goat cheese: “Why is this at the end? Because it is almost a dessert — it’s served with honey and poha berry. It’s a link between the meat and dessert. It’s a pre-dessert that cleans the palate” for dessert, the final course.
The process involves examining the menu as a whole and paying attention to small details that elevate it.
“Lots of restaurants use the same garnish on several dishes — steak, fish or chicken all with the same garnish of asparagus, zucchini, carrots, potato. We never repeat a garnish,” said Mavrothalassitis. “We avoid repetition. Repetition is not harmony.
“A fish dish is not just fish. The sauce, garnish and spice are as important as the center of the plate. Everything should be complementary to achieve harmony.”
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1969 S. King St.; 944-4714. Dinner (closed Sundays, Mondays). $$$$
