When a Michelin three-starred restaurant reaches a milestone 15th anniversary, you know it will pull out all the stops.
Such is the case with San Francisco’s acclaimed Atelier Crenn, which marks that occasion this year by debuting Continuum, a new collaborative dining experience. It brings visionary chefs from around the world to cook at the Cow Hollow neighborhood restaurant with Chef-Owner Dominique Crenn and Pastry Chef Juan Contreras.
I was fortunate enough to be invited in as a guest for the inaugural dinner last week with Chef Junghyun Park of Atomix, the modern Korean restaurant in New York City that’s garnered two Michelin stars, and was named No. 1 on “North America’s 50 Best Restaurants” list. It also catapulted him to a James Beard “Best Chef New York” in 2023.
Not surprisingly, it took less than a day for the $596.55-per-person dinner to sell out.
Once seated, you’ll find a small packet at your place setting. Inside, you’ll find cards introducing Chef Park, along with information about some of his dishes to be served.
Crenn always includes a lovely poem she’s written to set the mood. This one read in part: “Here, Love is the language, and dialogue, the bond that weaves us whole. I invite you into this world of feeling, where hearts speak gently, and every breath is a prayer of connection.”
She fosters that connection with her signature first bite: Kir Breton — not in a cocktail glass, but in the form of a cocoa butter sphere that you pop into your mouth in its entirety. Bite down, and the thin shell gives way to a gush of liquid apple cider and creme de cassis in a playful, modernist interpretation of the classic regional aperitif from Brittany, where Crenn is from.
The Kir Breton is served with a series of canapes: a beautiful meringue that’s subtly sweet but veers decidedly savory when topped with caviar and smoked egg yolk; a tiny persimmon tart with the sweet-sour taste of agrodulce; a luxurious, umami bombo of an uni tart ringed with truffle slices that look like flower petals; and Park’s firm-textured horse mackerel atop rice encased in roasted seaweed that is shatteringly crisp.
Park’s velvety monkfish is draped with a veil made of scallop and squid with the texture of fishcake. Owing to my allergies, my monkfish arrived sans veil but dotted with micro cilantro and Korean watercress known as minari.
Washington oysters get showcased two ways. First, its belly is pickled, giving it a perky tang that plays well with the creamy oyster mousseline with coconut for me (and smoked mussels for everyone else). Second, alongside is a doll-like tart resembling a scallop shell that holds the oyster skirt, a clever way to use up every bit of the bivalve.
Snapper sashimi sits atop creamy squash puree in a coconut sauce that gets finished with kale oil. It’s almost Thai-like — floral and tropical, but without any fiery heat.
Next up for me is Crenn’s Monterey Bay abalone that is grilled over binchotan, leaving it delightfully smoky and so tender. It’s finished with shiso leaves, pickled thin slices of kohlrabi, and smoked creme fraiche. There’s also a dollop of caviar to add pops of salinity and butteriness. For everyone else, the abalone is swapped out for Hokkaido scallop instead.
The next pairing (I had opted for the non-alcoholic option) was a real eye-opener: oolong tea with juniper and Parmesan cheese oil. It was floral, a little pine-like, and slightly toasty tasting with greater body owing to the oil.
It tied in with the creaminess of Park’s Norwegian crab salad with grated kohlrabi, the two mimicking pasta strands, topped with caviar.
That was followed by a dish inspired by a sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Black cod is wrapped artfully in thin slices of zucchini, then napped in yogurt foam infused with lemongrass and jalapeno. One of my favorite dishes of the night, it was incredibly aromatic with the vivid taste of herbs.
Crenn does her grandmother proud by using her recipe for brioche. Bronzed and buttery, it boasts a sticky top from being brushed with fermented honey. It’s accompanied by a log of soft butter, given a shamrock green hue from the addition of chives, parsley and tarragon.
Park definitely has an affinity for seafood. That really shows in his dish of golden eye snapper, cooked slow and low to a delicate tenderness, and served with a homey potato porridge enriched with cheese, plus uni.
He comes to the table to finish the next dish, melt-in-your-mouth, binchotan-grilled lobster with petite mandu (dumplings), with a foamy gochujang. (See video.) It possesses classic Korean fermented flavors, but in a much more refined manner.
To go with on the non-alcoholic pairing is Mon Cherry, served in a beguilingly tall glass. Cherry juice is infused with allspice, star anise and pink and white peppercorns to give it a big backbone of racy warm spice like that of Zinfandel.
The last savory course is tile fish cooked en papillote with white truffle and ginger, and finished with a rich red wine and beet root Bordelaise sauce made with the bones of the fish. Over the top is a thin layer of “foie gras” made from the abalone liver that’s earthy and umami tasting with a velvety smooth texture. Crenn long ago stopped serving meat, but this dish, so hearty and savory, almost eats like one that would with duck or squab.
Desserts start with Contreras’ citrus pillow. It may be inspired by baklava, but it’s so much lighter and not at all cloying like the real thing. Hollow inside, a phyllo “pillow” is done up with a citrus schmear, tangy bright with pomello and Meyer lemon, and dotted with huckleberry “raisins.” You have to exercise care when picking one up, as it’s so fragile that it may disintegrate at your touch.
The next treat is equally ethereal — a meringue wafer made of pineapple water and sandwiching pineapple-shiso ganache. It’s like eating key lime pie — that’s made of air.
Like so many Asian desserts, the final one by Park, is pleasantly none-too-sweet. It features jocheong, a syrup made by fermenting rice starch with malt, then reducing it. As he writes in an introduction on the menu, it is “a sweetness born not of sugar, but of grain, time, and care. Rich, nuanced, and unmistakably Korean.” It stars in his rice ice cream with soy bean mousse and a square of honeycomb on top. It’s sweetly starchy tasting like just-steamed rice with an almost toasty, marshmallow note.
Contreras’s mignardises are the final sweet bites: What looks like a fun little canele is actually a chocolate with a liquidy caramel filling. There’s a chocolate-covered candied mandarin peel, along with a truffle that tastes of Hong Kong milk tea.
At the end, you’re presented with a signed copy of the menu, more of Contreras’ chocolates, and Atomix chopsticks to take home.
For an unforgettable time, be sure to keep an eye on the Atelier Crenn Instagram page for when details of the next Continuum collaboration dinner are released.