Sometimes you don’t know your life is missing something until you run smack into it.
So it was earlier this month with a foie gras tortellini. Whoa.
Other times you didn’t realize you’d be just fine without something you love.
So it was with the Maine scallops over electric red beet risotto: No butter needed.
These discoveries were part of a recent media tasting, and the handiwork of one of the area’s newer talents, Matt Zimny, who now oversees the open kitchen at youthful Affina (250-7744) at Sixth and San Carlos, a block off Ocean Avenue, in Carmel.
After cheffing in Chicago and Minneapolis, he logged big chunks of time in Alaska, much as an executive chef for storied Talkeetna Alaska Lodge, and some working on a tiny and remote island with whales frolicking in the front yard.
He misses the lush seafood and the “sense of adventure” – “You can step a mile out of town and feel like you’re somewhere no one’s been,” he says – but won’t miss the produce situation, which often meant veggies were days in arriving and often starting to turn. Monterey County’s bounty reminds him just what he was missing. And he found he could squeeze by without whales quite so close.
After relocating here with his wife, he spent a year and a half working the kitchens at La Bicyclette (with Brian Kearns) and Casanova (with former Quince chef David Baron), getting to know local vendors and eaters alike.
“It helped me understand the scene, what some of the diners are looking for,” he says. “People like their rustic styles and French and Italian braised meats.”
His current menu, while in flux, includes a daily soup, three salads, six bites (including a Midnight Moon grilled cheese on Sumano’s sourdough, $4, and marinated olives with Morcona almonds and stylish ricotta salata, $8) and six bigger plates (titled “sustenance”).
Under the tagline “New American Terroir,” he’s nudging things at Affina to be less bistro, more entree-driven, with a little more seafood (citing Alaska) and a little more artistic precision (citing experience at Charlie Trotter’s during his time in Chicago).
The arrangements of his foie tortellini with cress and yellow-footed chanterelles ($20) and the scallops with the striking risotto, shaved fennel and pickled daikon ($30) furnish evidence to that end, and will get better as he brings in new flatware so items aren’t staged on the same plates.
In his soft-spoken manner, he adds things are getting more fresh-oriented. That seems ironic given the fact he worked with previous chef James Anderson (who’s moved over toPoke Lab in Monterey), and Anderson knows his way around local farmers markets and outfits like Coleen Logan’s Savor the Local well. Fresh is something he knows well. But Zimny’s talking technique, not sourcing. By deploying, say, grapeseed oil over butter and focusing on flavor lifters like salt, acid and vinegar, things gain zing without weight or too much sodium. (Less butter means less salt to overcome it.) And he can be more versatile in adjusting recipes for different diets.
That plays in with the lively scallops, his roasted Brussels sprouts with golden raisins ($10) and a clams-chorizo-kimchi skillet ($14). Our table wanted all of them again. Nobody missed the butter.
The winter chicory salad ($12) with fennel, grilled radicchio, frisée, blood orange and vinaigrette reveals another type of vivacity through a layered medley of bitter, with a counter note of sweet citrus just barely reining it in.
Another freshener will be simple: a printer. Once Affina adds that, the outdated menu format should shrink and items will change more often. (For now, the big chalkboard by the wine bar helps with fish of the day, and other frequent specials.)
The only miss for me proves forgivable and fixable: the house-crafted fettucine with roasted chicken, dandelion greens and goat cheese ($22) needs more balance from heat and/or acid to offset the sweetness of the winter squash.
The final dish, his petit rack of lamb ($34), was a revelation on par with the scallop and bright beet risotto. The pink meat appears raw but is ready to melt in the mouth – accompanied by contrasting charred eggplant, couscous, carrot, parsnip and spiced yogurt.
It demonstrates a sense for texture reflected elsewhere – including his zebra-beet take on the beet salad with Sweet Water Farms goat cheese – as he wields tender proteins and pairs them with crunchy shaved and/or pickled roots.
His New York steak ($32), with a combo of a sunchoke puree and a black garlic creation, speaks to a comfort with sauce. And the sauces match the black-and-white decor and modern-but-classic feel, not to mention the piano keys on the grand where a young pianist taps out jazzed-up standards, and the fun feel of the big wine bar and sweet servers.
“I want Affina to be more arty and edgy,” Zimny says, “and bring that feel to the food too.”
QUICKBITES
Chef Jeremiah Tydeman and GM John Ferguson of Alvarado Street Brewery (655-2337) are introducing a new burger menu with five options including the vegan double double and “Kolohe” with grilled Spam, pineapple, fried onions, scallions, hoisin and Sriracha aioli. Really. More on the blog.
No surprise Relais & Châteaux GourmetFest tickets to choice events have already started selling out (Feb. 25-28, www.gourmetfestcarmel.com).
Larry Hosford anchors the one-year anniversary of Bon Ton L’Roy’s Lighthouse Smokehouse (235-7662, $10) 7pm Saturday, Feb. 13.
International Flavors of Marina ropes in restaurants, purveyors, winemakers and breweries for one of the better bang-for-buck tasting events of the year Tuesday, Feb. 16 ($35 in advance; $45 at the door, 272-4557).
If it’s an ice cream float you seek, the spot you want is Big Sur Roadhouse (667-2370), with housemade ice creams like lemon custard and creme brulee with craft sodas ($7).
Pacific Grove looks to make its sidewalk seating permanent this month as the successful pilot period ends Feb. 17.
The Monterey County Vintners & Growers Association (375-9400) just established the Rich Smith Memorial Research Fund in celebration of the life and extraordinary accomplishments of Richard Smith of Paraiso. Contributions to the fund will directly support local viticulture research through the U.C. Cooperative Extension program in Salinas. More at montereywines.org/foundation or 375-9400.
Me & Ed’s recently closed in Seaside’s City Center. Mountain Mike’s Pizza will take its place and do the same all-you-can-eat lunch buffet as other outposts 11am-2pm weekdays, with a revamped interior. Early April target date.
The remade Marina Dunes food project, for an area with all that retail and foot traffic and no grub besides Target popcorn, REI energy bars and movie theater candy, passed a big hurdle last week. More on the blog.
Erol Ozan: “Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.”