Rondelli brings haute cuisine home

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 1, 1993 by Alan Liddle

Alain Rondelli -- the young French chef who since early 1990 has masterminded the critical resurgence of San Francisco's landmark Ernie's -- is as much a juggler as a culinarian.

Rondelli is known for dishes that surprise and delight Ernie's clientele, including one featuring a large ravioli filled with triple-reduced Maderia and veal stock that floats in chicken consomme; the diner breaks the ravioli with his or her spoon to release the dark, intensely flavored filling, which swirls dramatically in the golden consomme before blending.

But the 31-year-old chef acknowledges that he constantly is juggling his desire to simplify the food at Ernie's with his need to meet the expectations of the restaurant's patrons, who spend better than $60 each to be dazzled.

"I like to put just a few ingredients on the plate -- no more than four because after that I'm lost," he said.

"I would love to put a fillet of fish, grilled and topped with whatever sauce there is and have just that on the plate," Rondelli continued. But referring to some of the 58-year-old restaurant's loyal customers and Ernie's tradition of haute cuisine, he added, "We cannot move too fast. We don't want to loose the old clientele; we want to attract a new one."

One of the simpler but innovative dishes fielded by Rondelli was created by baking pork shanks in a mixture of rock salt, vanilla, bay leaves, thyme, cumin, black and pink pepper, turmeric, oregano, caramelized onions and six types of tea.

A number of shanks and seasoning mixture were placed in a large, round pan that was then covered with bread dough and put in a low-temperature oven for 12 hours. Ernie's waiters removed the bone from the shanks at table side and presented the tender meat on a plate with fried plantains and celery-root puree. Butter, cream and wine are used sparingly in the Ernie's kitchen these days because Rondelli prefers "lighter" flavor enhancers, including flavored oils, reductions and fresh herbs.

Rondelli, born of French and Italian parents, was studying to be a nuclear engineer at Paris' Ecole Superieure when he decided to pursue a career in the kitchen -- a move inspired by his part-time work at Le Manoir, a small restaurant outside the city. He spent a year at the Elysee Palace, cooking for two French presidents after winning a national contest for apprentices staged in observance of the French Culinary Academy's 50th anniversary and then traveled to Burgundy to work at Marc Meneau's Michelin three-star L'Esperance.

After six years at L'Esperance, where he rose through the ranks to oversee the day-to-day operation of the restaurant and help Meneau pen a book, he moved on to Mas de Chastelas in St. Tropez, where, as chef de cuisine, he was featured on Pierre Salinger's "Great Chefs of France" television series. Cousulting-chef assignments at two Michelin two-star restaurants preceded his arrival at Ernie's.

Victor and Roland Gotti, owners of the venerable Ernie's hired the young, bespectacled Rondelli to underscore their commitment to high-quality, imaginative cuisine.

Along with a penchant for uncluttered plates, Rondelli ascribes to a holistic philosophy of "top of the earth and under the earth" when he is pairing foods. "That means I like to use carrots with rabbits, not just because rabbits live on top of the earth and carrots grow in the earth, but because rabbits love carrots," he explained.

The chef also strives to maintain the "context" of ingredients and their natural surroundings, which prompts him to combine foods such as sea scallops and pastry shells because, as he reminds you, "scallops come from a shell."

As an example of how he pays homage to standards while keeping true to his ideas about cooking, Rondelli cites his variation of the creamheavy French classic, hommard au champagne.

For his dish, Rondelli combines shelled lobster meat with a shell-stock reduction and champagne grape halves and serves the combination with a champagne sabayon on the side. He uses fried sage to "bridge " the salty and sweet components of the dish and add another textural dimension.

Whenever he is praised, the chef says he tries to share it with his executive sous chef, Didier Lenders, and the rest of the his staff. Recent accolades have come from Food and Wine and Esquire.

Rondelli said part of his personality welcomes the "intensity" of French kitchens, where many chefs view themselves as the only "important" person and tolerate few, if any, mistakes. However, he added, another part greatly appreciates the "nurturing" of others that is made possible through the "team" approach found in many American kitchens.