Brooks - Attentive Service Outshines Complicated Food

Brooks in Ventura, California (Ventura County, south of Santa Barbara) is a bright spot in a culinary-challenged county. However, after two visits I'm convinced that the quality of the service exceeds the quality of the food, which is sometimes over-complicated or even served improperly.

On a visit in August, I had the beef short ribs which, while perfectly cooked and wonderfully tender, were served with an extremely sticky-sweet sauce that tended to overwhelm the plate. A dish this good deserves better than the equivalent of bottled BBQ sauce on top.

Then last night, we had the roasted artichoke starter, Romaine salad, and roasted red snapper. The artichoke dish featured a large portion of Brie encased in phyllo - yummy, but the portion of artichoke was too small and over-sauced. The Romaine salad is forgettable, overdressed and bland. And while the fish was fine, it arrived with lukewarm, slightly sweet saffron cream sauce and cold fingerling potatoes. At these prices, there's no excuse for dishes not arriving piping hot. Service (by Alana) was attentive and excellent, really exceeding the food quality.

The dining room is airy and modern with a high open ceiling, polished concrete floor and a loft-industrial feel. The space is divided by a long, bright bar into a lounge and dining area with open kitchen behind. Some diners might find it cold, but I find it to evoke an art gallery, calling for you to concentrate on your company, and your food.

I really want Brooks to succeed, but several dishes need to be re-thought and the kitchen needs to concentrate on perfection in quality.

Un-Chopped

"Chopped," one of Food Network's more compelling shows, pits four cooks--and they are not necessarily professional chefs--in competition to create the most innovative courses from a mixed basket of ingredients. As the cooks work through appetizer, main, and dessert courses in rounds of 30 minutes each (compressed for TV purposes), one cook is voted out in each successive round by a panel of food-industry celebs. Typically, at least one of the ingredients is unusual, or at least not normally used with the others. Imagine forming a main course using fresh bison, Belgian ale, and dried mango; these were within the basket of ingredients on a recent show. Yet for me, one of the great pleasures of cooking involves channeling "Chopped" in a personal way -- creating an interesting dish on-the-fly from unused or leftover ingredients found in the fridge in, as we say in Silicon Valley, real time. It's an opportunity to express creativity, without being voted off -- at least if you're cooking for yourself.

So as Sunday lunch approached this past weekend, I contemplated the following in my icebox: a ball of pizza dough (a really good local brand, actually, featured at Zanotto's in the Rose Garden); Gruyere cheese; a red onion; thick-cut pancetta. Having just returned from a trip after several weeks of nearly continuous travel, my fridge was vegetable challenged, but I was determined to succeed. Still another goal: use at least one of the myriad little jars and cans of tapenades, sauces, and other gourmet foods that friends gave me for Christmas in various gift baskets. How often do you find yourself tossing those into the pantry, only to discover them the next summer or fall? This year, I'm determined to use them soon, and well. A jar of Napa Valley mushroom tapenade spoke to me.

I set the oven to 550 and cut the dough ball in half--the dough balls available at Zanotto's will make a 14" to 16" pizza to feed four, so half was more than enough for me. I heated a tablespoon of butter in a skillet while slicing the onion lengthwise, and also cut the pancetta into 1/2" dice. The onion went into the skillet first for a couple of minutes to caramelize, with some salt. No pepper; the pancetta, while not cured with salt, is rolled in pepper so none would be needed in the pan. After the onion started to turn caramel colored I pushed it to the side and added the pancetta, taking a good six to eight minutes to crisp it. Meanwhile I rolled and pushed the dough into a rustic circle and tossed cornmeal -- the favored nonstick coating in pizza-making -- onto a pizza peel and a baking sheet.

As the onion-pancetta mixture finished up, the kitchen smelled fantastic, smoky and rich. I spread the mushroom tapenade on the pizza dough, topped it with the onion-pancetta mixture, picking over it to evenly spread out the pancetta chunks. Then I grated on the Gruyere and baked it for about 12 minutes to brown the cheese. Enjoyed during an English football (soccer match) on Fox Soccer Channel, it recalled the classic British dish of mushrooms on toast, made more complex and filling with rich onions and pancetta. And no one voted me off.