I have never felt so light after 11-course dinner. Organic gastronomy. This is how I would describe the cooking of Danniel Patterson at Coi restaurant in San Francisco. I really begin to like the New American cuisine – unconditional freshness and quality, respect to the ingredients and intelligence…
In archaic French Coi (“kwa”) means “calm” , “tranquil” . The name perfectly represents my dining experience – the service was very professional, unpretentious and it was the food that was the star of the evening.
In the picture above amuse bouche of green peas soup and green peas with sheep milk mousse.
“Valencia orange, green olive sorbet, pink peppercorn, litsea cubeba”. As you might guess this mousse is hiding the explosion of orange and olive oil flavours. The liquid around the foam was Coi perfume that you are supposed to rub on your wrist and smell it. I couldn’t guess what the perfume was made of but I liked the overall dish very much. (You can buy the perfume for $49)
“Grilled zucchini terrine, nicoise olive, saffron, herbs”. This is something that I didn’t expect. I imagined the terrine very oily and grilled, but the zucchini was almost raw. Excellent.
“Gaspacho parfait ella bella early girl tomatoes, cumin, mint” Classical gazpacho “deconstructed”. Reminded my tomatoes and cucumber salad. Excellent.
“Little farm heirloom potatoes, moevoy olive oil, seagrass, radicchio/fennel/parsley salad.” What can be more simple than that? The secret – top-quality olive oil, rough sea salt and “al dente” potatoes. I loved it.
“Corn- brioche custard, huitlacoche, flowering cilantro” Traditional American cuisine revisited. Very good.
“Yuba “pappardelle”, oxheart carrot -coconut milk broth, young bok choy, basil”. Yuba is dried tofu skin. A very unexpected mixture of products. Didn’t like the carrot sauce, but loved the texture of the yuba pappardelle- it was very ” al dente”.
“Truffled ricotta “raviola”, chanterelles, bloomsdale spinach, squash blossoms.” Very fine raviola- very good
“Medai grilled on the plancha, turnips, dandelion greens, garum”. Medai is some kind of Japanese fish – I found its smell very strong. Its texture was similar to cod fish.
“Roasted lobster mushroom and star route artichokes, preserved lemon, coriander, purslane” The only thing that this mushroom has common with lobster is its colour (when not cooked). I absolutely loved this dish- especially the lemon sauce that reminded me the cream of “tarte au citron”, but salty. I didn’t like the flower salad so much.
