I N T E R V I E W

Interview. Photographs. by Stasia Droze

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What about favorite restaurants?
ARNOLD: For different reasons I have different places. But I would have to say Masa's, its not an everyday kind of restaurant. However for a special occasion it would be the place to go. Though, I'm a little biased because I apprenticed there and admire Chef Serrano a great deal.

How often do you change your menu?
ARNOLD: I'll change it anywhere from 10-20% weekly. Just subtle changes, nothing drastic. It seems to me in this neighborhood and the size of the kitchen, we can't change it that often. And since we've been open, there are some things that are engraved in the menu as signature items. We also offer a number of daily specials. I don't like to force changes onto the menu. New dishes that I create I believe are executed best when they evolve naturally with a great deal of consideration.


What is your most popular item on the menu?
ARNOLD: There are several now, the tea smoked pekin duck breast, the blackened Asian catfish with lemongrass risotto, shi-itake mushroom dumplings and for dessert, bananamisu, our version of tirimisu (a blend of ripe red banana mousse and imported mascarpone). These would have to be some of our most popular items.
Which is your favorite to cook?
ARNOLD: I would have to say the tea smoked duck. Its such a long process. We first marinade them, then smoke them and then grilled to order.

What do you serve them with?
ARNOLD: The current one is smoked with blackberry sage tea. Served with sweet mashed potatoes and a plum kumquat chutney, along wit seasonal baby vegetables.


Where do you get your fruit from?
ARNOLD: It comes from all over. Being in the San Francisco Bay Area, so many people sell products form all over the world. A lot of times what happens, especially with fruit, it switches from climate to climate in different countries. So, for example a crop would start up in Mexico and as soon as the crop dies down, the U.S. crop will kick in. It's very possible for a particular item never to have any lapse in availability throughout the year.


So you do buy internationally?
ARNOLD: Yes ... [for instance] Chile... A lot of times tropical fruit will come from there. Mangos, starfruit, passionfruit...


What is the best meal you've ever had in your life?
ARNOLD: The whole experience...I would have to say Masa's. That would be the food, the wine, the service and the company of course.


What is your first memory of food?
ARNOLD: Really far back.........I can recall when I was five or six years old snacking on pinenuts. I asked my mother to buy some more and I would roast them in the oven. I remember getting burned from it. Pinenuts and then later it became ....Italian chestnuts. It went on and on. Later our family market started a delicatessen in 1982, I was 14. My whole upbringing became memories of food.

Do you cook at home or do you eat out?
ARNOLD: Well for now I'm here pretty close to 18 hours a day. If I eat out, I try to make the most of it. In fact I just flew back from Portland. I went there specifically to go to two restaurants...Zefaro and Wildwood. I enjoyed both very much.


How big is your staff?
ARNOLD: 25


Do you find that you love to cook every day?
ARNOLD: People think I'm crazy. When I get up, I enjoy knowing that I do this for a living. Were located where the N-Judah train line goes downtown. Some mornings I get here at seven or eight in the morning and the train is filled with people that don't look thrilled about going to work. Going downtown to do the nine-to-five thing. Yeah, I definitely enjoy what I'm doing. Someday it's harder than others. And of course, it is stressful, but what isn't.


I know you studied Architecture. Did you have a hand in designing the restaurant?
ARNOLD: Yes I did. It was easy for me to communicate with the team of architects involved because of my background. We had a great rapport. Because I was never a practicing architect, things that I wanted to conceive or things that I could visualize, but not quite materialize was made easy through them. It's funny though, I go back and forth then on the colors. When I first thought of the colors, I told the architects what I wanted. They thought it was really radical. They didn't think it was going to work at first. But in the end it did.


What was here previously?
ARNOLD: The Ironwood Cafe.


Did you have to radical renovations?
ARNOLD: Yes. We had to gut the entire space. Actually........ if you notice the lighting, that was the architect idea. We left the remaining frame that held up the second floor balcony and integrated lighting into it.


Do you see any connection between architecture and food?
ARNOLD: Yes. I guess one of the more obvious things would be the aesthetics. Then being an architecture student, you learn to be very detailed. My beginnings were in pastry, as with architecture..... you learn to be precise. I'm sure that personality has something to do with it too. I think that I was just drawn to one creative and disciplined industry and somewhere along the way traded it for another. Actually, you know, one book that does inspire me a lot is On Food and Cooking. Its basically a reference book and teaches you about the chemistry of food. Is there a tool in the kitchen that you could not do without? Something that makes things much easier.....other than knives? A: Yes. A mandoline. I don't know who invented it first, but it saves us a lot of time. We use it mostly for shredding and julienne cutting. My food is very labor intensive. There's just so many more ingredients we use than in other cuisine's. And that's not to talk it up or make it sound any better, because it's not. All food is good. But generally, its just more complicated to prepare. Some of my marinades will have up to 25 ingredients. And they should be checked constantly to make sure they are balanced properly.


Are there any other "cuisine's" besides Asian that inspire you?
ARNOLD: Yes. European, Italian more than French. Risottos. Cuisines with bold flavors. I'm striving to find new [ingredients] all the time....I think I have a little bit of an advantage, being in retail food and having been exposed to so many ingredients. Researching things out is an important thing for me in developing new dishes. Things like the red rice from France that we use in a stir fry, along with rock shrimp, a tropical fruit salsa and a sauce to balance all the flavors together.


How do you create your recipes?
ARNOLD: Ironically, it happens at the strangest times. Even in the shower. I find it hardest to create new dishes when I force myself, when "I have to come up with something". Someone was in the kitchen the other day as we were doing our prep for the night and I was staring over some ingredients an he asked me "are you OK?" And I said "I have palate block." He thought that was funny. But I really did. For some of the things that I do, I try to use my memory of the different ingredients and the way they taste in combinations. It's relatively easy for me to look at a recipe that I'm working on and taste the ingredients together without actually making it. Of course it must be physically made at some time to perfect before applying it.

-- Arnold, thanks so much. Good luck with EOS.

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