Pascal Sanchez, the chef de cuisine at Twist by Pierre Gagnaire in the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas, is a master of sourness, tartness and bitterness in cooking. His cooking is marked by complexity and the fusion of disparate and unlikely ingredients in a single dish. Sourness, tartness and bitterness, whose controlled deployment is the mark of the sophisticated chef, are the tastes that elevate each of his dishes.
The cuisine at Twist is, like much of the best food in Vegas, truly a global cuisine, one which reflects the easy availability of air-freighted products in this city, as well as the extensive travels of its chefs. The menu spans ingredients and flavors from North Africa, California, Thailand, Israel, Australia, even Colorado.
Sanchez/Gagnaire (they have been cooking together so long it’s possible to think of them as a single entity) combine cuttlefish, red currant puree and cauliflower in a single dish. Or langoustines, arborio rice and yuzu. Or Meyer lemon mousse (tart), green peppers(bitter) and piment d’espelette (spicy).
The most impressive savory course I tried was this salad of raddichio and grapefruit, and foie gras. This salad seems to owe a distant debt to that favorite salad of California cuisine: raddichio, grapefuit and avocado, which I learned when I first started cooking in the 1980s.
Here, the fat of the avocado, which tames the bitterness of the raddichio in the California classic, is replaced by curls of frozen foie gras. The elevated dressing is a complex but clean-tasting vinaigrette made with grapefruit juice reduced with sugar syrup (Sanchez uses glucose, a product favored by pastry chefs), champagne, olive oil, nut oil and sesame oil.
Though this salad is made with foie gras, Chef Sanchez allows for the use of lardo or smoked duck breast in the salad — the important thing is to use a rich, fatty ingredient to counterbalance the bracingly bitter grapefruit and raddichio.
John Broening cooks at Duo and Olivea restaurants in Denver.
Raddichio, Grapefruit and Foie Gras Salad
Serves 6. Look for foie gras at specialty butcher shops — ditto smoked duck breast, lardo and pancetta.
Ingredients
6 ounces foie gras or 6 ounces lardo or 1 large smoked duck breast, thinly sliced, or 1/2cup chopped sauteed pancetta
2 heads raddichio, quartered, cored and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 head frisee, cleaned, white and yellow leaves only
2 pink grapefruit, peeled and cut into segments
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
Fleur de sel (sea salt) and freshly ground pepper
Grapefruit vinaigrette (recipe follows
Directions
If using the foie gras,freeze for at least 2 hours before using.
Place the raddichio, frisee, grapefruit segments and sesame seeds in a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Toss the salad with a generous amount of the grapefruit Vinaigrette.
If using the foie gras,cut the foie gras into thin shavings with a mandolin or a peeler. Toss with salt and pepper and a small amount of the grapefruit vinaigrette and sprinkle on top of the salad. (If using lardo, prepare in the same way as the foie gras. If using pancetta or smoked duck breast, toss with the other ingredients of the salad.)
Grapefruit Vinaigrette
You will likely have extra. Store this for up to a week in the refrigerator
Ingredients
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup grapefruit juice
1/2 cup champagne or sparkling wine
1/4 cup fish sauce
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup hazelnut oil
1/4 cup sesame oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
In a small pot, simmer the sugar and water until dissolved. Cool completely.
In another pot, reduce 1/4 cup of the sugar syrup with the grapefruit juice until thick and syrupy. Cool and transfer to a stainless steel mixing bowl. Whisk in some salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the champagne and fish sauce to dissolve. Slowly whisk in the oils to emulsify. Chill until ready to use.
