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“You might use agar and gelatin and foam but at the end of
the day we’re really all making reconstructed classics”
– Chef John Tesar of The Mansion on Turtle
Creek
By Tejal Rao
May 2007
With so many hotels following the
trend of casual chic and dismantling the ceremonies of their dining
rooms, preserving hotel table service and luxurious classic dishes
is a challenge. Classic fine dining relies on its luxurious and
often historically grounded image almost as much as it relies on
a team of attentive servers and meticulous cooks to deliver it.
For over 20 years, the fine
dining image of in Dallas was
maintained by Texas mentor chef Dean Fearing. Fearing joined in
1979 and took the executive chef position in 1985. Last year, when
Fearing left Rosewood Hotels and Resorts (owners of The Mansion)
and partnered with Crescent Real Estate on a restaurant to be managed
by The Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood brought in John Tesar to reinvent
its image. Robert Boulogne, managing director of The Mansion, said
Tesar would “play a pivotal role as they positioned the restaurant
for the next era."
Ironically, the next era would be a return to classic fine dining
rather than a modernization with technique or flavor combinations. The Southwestern dishes
were replaced with rich and butter-poached lobster, burgundy snails with fines
herbes and garlic-herb butter, and Champagne glazed beau soleil
oysters. Tesar makes small adjustments, like the aromatics of a
Thai green curry in his mussel soufflé, but the focus is
on luxurious, classic dishes that match up to The Mansion’s
extravagant dining room.
Tesar took over from an executive chef position at
rm restaurant at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in
Las Vegas “I was hired to change the menu and didn’t
have to adhere to any rules.” But because luxury dining relies
on its image, on consistency through the ages, a few of the dishes
synonymous with Dallas’ image of the restaurant had to stay.
Fearing’s Southwestern legacy survives in the two “Mansion
Classics” on Tesar’s menu: tortilla soup with chicken,
avocado, and cheddar, and lobster tacos with yellow tomato salsa
and jicama. Because Dallas diners were used to the regional food
in a fine dining setting, Tesar’s contemporary French menu
felt like a novelty.
Dallas is warming up to Tesar, “I’d say
the response is about 90 to 10. I’ve got a lot of positive
reactions and maintained ratings.” And with a renovation coming
up this summer, Tesar’s menu and image is solidifying in the
Dallas psyche. Fearing’s project at The Ritz-Carlton is set
to open this summer as well, and as a luxury hotel restaurant, is
sure to be Rosewood’s local competitor. The question is, what
will emerge from all the constructions and renovations? Where is
Dallas hotel dining going?
Tesar’s forecast is positive: “Hotel dining
has gone through so many phases. We went through this phase where
we hired chefs like Gray Kunz and didn’t worry about 65 percent
food cost. Now there are so many hotels, so much real estate, that
they expect us all to turn a profit. Vegas is a prime example; even
casinos have to turn a profit! Nowadays hotel chefs are more accountable
for the revenue so they have to be more competitive. Big name chefs
are selling their concepts and creating a series of name driven
entities. Hotel food is getting better and better. It has no choice.”
Fearing and Tesar’s story may be specific to
Dallas, but think of it as a culinary fable that speaks to the larger
scene: as the new ages, the old becomes new again. And both chef
and diner interest in the classics is still relevant, still important.
Like all growth, progress can be achieved by looking backwards,
by developing a classic repertoire. In an age of communal tables
in fine dining rooms and experimental cuisine, the classics shouldn’t
be underestimated; it could be culinary atavism for evolution.
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