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w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 | 7 1 (left) At Montage Laguna Beach, Chef de Cuisine Michael Campbell has added some new and imaginative items to the Loft's menu, making full use of the kitchen's mesquite wood–burning rotisserie and super-hot cast iron plancha. (right) Balboa Bay Resort's Executive Chef Rachel Haggstrom oversees the widely divergent Waterline and A&O restaurants. At this year's Newport Food & Wine Festival she served up her unique A&O bone marrow cheese-it—beef tartar with a pepper dusting and sitting on a Cheese-It perched on a hollowed-out bone. Chef Ron Fougeray: California-French Flair Meanwhile, just down the coast, the strategically located Surf & Sand Resort at Laguna Beach literally sits on 500 feet of pristine oceanfront. In fact, guests dining at the resort's aptly-named Splashes restaurant can not only smell the salt spray, but sometimes can feel it at high tide, with waves lapping against the walls 25 feet below the restaurant's picture windows. This is an environment far removed from Executive Chef Ron Fougeray's Philadelphia upbringing and his 15 years of cooking award-winning classic French cuisine. "I think most of our customers prefer a lighter style of cuisine, compared to back home in Philadel- phia," he says. "Many menus [in Southern California] are very produce-driven compared to highlighting the protein. My menus are California-French, using French techniques when it comes to our stocks, sauces, and daily sautéing, grilling, poaching and so on, but with a modern twist on presentation and food combinations. I don't think you need a lot of butter and cream to establish great flavors . . . . We look for a dish without the added fat. Of course, being Califor- nia-coastal allows me to explore a variety of produce and seafood that wasn't as accessible on the East Coast. Even at the local grocery store I can find prod- ucts I'd have to special-order back home. I try to buy 'local' as much as possible, but I won't use a product just because it's local if it doesn't taste good." In this regard, Chef Ron's top signature items include seared scallops with purple sweet potato purée, aspara- gus, pomegranate, pickled hearts of palm and almond foam. Another specialty is whole branzino provençale sautéed with halibut mousse, red quinoa, corn, toma- tillo, cherry tomato and a tomato-lavender emulsion. But my favorite is his flash-fried crisp octopus appetiz- er, made with chickpea purée, cured olives, deep fried Tuscan kale, Fresno chili coulis and fingerling chips. Chefs Craig Strong and Michael Campbell: Imaginative Teamwork Traveling further south along the coastline brings us to the elegance of Montage, a seaside resort majestically stretched along the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. Here the Craftsman-style Studio restaurant combines fine dining with an organically-influenced California-French menu cultivated under the skilled eye of Executive Chef Craig Strong, whose garden— adjacent to the restaurant—provides the freshest fruits, herbs and vegetables for Studio's menus as well as producing garnishes for their cocktails. "It's the ultimate hands-on experience for both chefs and guests," says Chef Strong. Likewise, at the resort's more casual all-day dining restaurant, The Loft—which appropriately overlooks one of the Montage pools and the ocean—features a cheese gallery with more than 150 international cheeses and a six-foot wood-burning rotisserie, which newly-arrived Chef de Cuisine Michael Camp- bell makes full and imaginative use of. Bringing a wealth of experience that began in Portland with barbecues and accelerated to skills perfected in France and Spain, Chef Michael's new menu is an experience in imaginative cuisine. "I like to keep my cooking simple and look for little influences that I can tie in without making it too ab- stract," he says, noting the abundance of local ingre- dients found in Southern California. "For example, I take my Muscovy maple leaf duck breast, give it a light smoke and put it with potato gratin and candied quince—one of my favorite things to cook with—and add a duck au jus. Guests love it." Also new and wildly popular on his menu is a rich, thick and creamy truffle baked potato soup, made with poached egg, Pecorino truffle cheese, bacon, a pinch of smoked sea salt and freshly minced chives. "One of the salads I'm experimenting with is a charred pear salad with endives, date vinaigrette and a little goat cheese," says Chef Michael. "We have a plancha [a cast iron plate placed over a grill] which gets ripping hot, so I get fresh pears, leave the skin on, take out the cores and place them on the plancha until they turn black, to the point where you think they're burned, but that char brings out an interest- ing layer of sweetness. I learned this technique when I was cooking in Spain." To be sure, the California coast brings out the best in chefs, no matter where they've cooked before. Executive Chef Craig Strong has elevated Studio restaurant at Montage Laguna Beach to iconic status, inspiring Robb Report to label it one of "America's Finest Dining Restaurants." PHOTO: RICHARD CARLETON HACKER PHOTO: RICHARD CARLETON HACKER PHOTO: RICHARD CARLETON HACKER ■cr