Casanova Special Dinner Collaboration Impresses

The kitchen crew was still hauling in buckets of seaweed freshly harvested from Carmel Bay after guests, sipping a refreshing Georis Rosé, had already arrived.

They made tofu that morning, using seawater collected off Carmel Beach. Then they used the remaining whey to make ravioli filling.

These things were early indications of the kind of foodie nirvana Chef David Baron would conjure last Monday night for a special dinner at Casanova (625-0501) in Carmel, where around 40 diners gathered for a creative, Japanese-accented meal. 

Baron, who’s a chef at popular uptown Oakland spot Plum Restaurant, teamed up with Klaus Georis, aspiring chef and son of Walter Georis (who owns the eponymous winery and Casanova Restaurant with his brother Gaston) to craft a multicourse meal that felt as much like an expression of art as it did dinner.

But it probably should have: For $120 a head, expectations ran high, and except for a few strange choices of cutlery—espresso spoons where forks would’ve functioned—those expectations were met.

The dinners also represent a chance for Baron to flex his creative culinary muscles.

“You’re always under pressure from yelpers, bloggers, owners, all that shit,” Baron says. “Can I just cook the food I want to cook and people love it?”

By most accounts, eaters left happy. That means Baron is scheming to replicate the special seating on a monthly basis. Also beckoning return diners: generous wine pours—all, predictably, Georis.

The younger Georis and Baron met when Baron was living above La Bicyclette (622-9899), another Georis spot, and working there and at Casanova. (He later moved to San Francisco and worked for North Beach contemporary California cuisine hub Coi, a 100-hour-a-week gig that he ditched when he had a baby seven months ago.)

Baron’s new schedule has him conjuring epic menus like this one, and coaching the younger Georis, who also lives in S.F.

Baron thinks Georis is headed for culinary acclaim, but not entirely by accident.

“He’s just a fucking lucky dude,” Baron says. “He has all these resources. I didn’t grow up eating this kind of stuff. My grandma was the tamale lady.”

Now he’s serving food that tastes nothing like tamales. And Georis is being schooled in the sensual arts by a chef with a tremendous attention to detail.

The meal started with the aforementioned Carmel Bay seawater tofu and oysters with cucumbers grilled and raw, and few leaves of baby spinach.

After a few briney ocean-flavored bites, Zane Fiala, the wine director at Chris Cosentino’s acclaimed Incanto (where he worked with Baron a few years back), sipped his Sauvignon Blanc and said,“The wine changes it.”

Indeed, that pairing—one of the best—brought out a sweet, fruity quality to an otherwise salty dish.

The Georis wines—all whites, with the exception of their fruity Late Harvest Merlot to accompany dessert—were poured generously and consistently, and the Petite Vignes Sauvignon Blanc, another stand-out, added a bright, summery layer to a subsequent earthy course featuring lots of mushrooms.

Next, more ocean flavors with a cured Carmel Valley egg from Cowgirl Winery (also part of the Georis holdings), which has a cool garden setup that includes a chicken coop.

The egg had been slowly smoked for about 20 hours, served over farro, matchstick watermelon radishes and a room-temperature dark, smoky dashi broth. Bits of seaweed, supplied by Monterey Abalone Company, added crunch and saltiness.

As the next course, titled Spring, was being served, the Carmel Valley landscaper to my right said, “It really smells like spring.”

There were peas, sprouted peas, snow peas, pickled peas, pea sprouts, blanched peas, sprouted peas. There were peas that were crisp and peas that were soft, peas that were acidic and peas that were sweet. And there was a potato puree below and a sliver of morel on top, earthy flavors to draw down the sweetness.

Then came ravioli filled with caramelized whey and ramps, topped with generously thick truffle slices.  

That course, with a Petite Vignes Sauvignon Blanc, marked the moment when Danielle Fiala, Zane’s wife and a chef at the trendy new Oakland restaurant Duende, seated across from me, looked at the chefs and said, “They make everything taste sexy.”

Next was seared Moss Landing halibut and Pezzini Farms artichokes with Meyer lemon braised in Pinot Grigio and chamomile over an artichoke puree, topped with a single, barely spicy nasturtium petal.  

Then came the most inventive course: a pickled MEarth Habitat carrot over carrot puree and ricotta, covered in a translucent sheet of gel made from Carmel Valley hay and straw.

This was the course that shifted the meal from sea to farm, one Baron says was inspired by the MEarth student-grown root veggies:

“With carrots, I always think of a mule. We got hay and straw, then made stock and made the gel out of it. That was the barnyard flavor.”

The hay addition came after Baron and Georis were walking around Carmel Valley Village, checking out tasting rooms.

“As we were walking around, you know that smell,” Baron says. “Let’s just cook food and use our lifetime experiences and put it all on the plate.”

The final course stayed on the farm, with a foie gras creme brulee—a forbidden flavor that servers delivered with the message, “This is a gift.” (It’s illegal to sell foie in California.)

It also prompted our table to reminisce to each of our memorable first bites of foie: “My first time…” the stories began.

To top it all off: a slice of lardo and prosciutto cake soaked in scotch. Our table couldn’t decide if it was more like eating a slice of grandma’s Christmas cake or a breakfast of bacon and eggs—but agreed it was a decidedly cozy end to a sexy meal.

Casanova is open 11:30am-3pm and 5-10pm daily. Fifth between Mission Street and San Carlos Street, Carmel. 625-0501,www.casanovarestaurant.com.