- [Kyle] The caviar dish is a dish
that highlights a small lettuce
that we grow that's called Salanova.
(upbeat music)
- This is Michaelangelo.
He's one of our externs here and he helps clean
the Salanova lettuce for our caviar course every day.
- First we're gonna take out the outer leaves here
and we're gonna save these
for a puree that goes into the Salanova dish.
As we get closer to the middle, we're gonna stop
when we get to these medium-sized leaves as we're gonna save
these for a garnish on the Salanova dish.
The bigger leaves, medium leaves,
and then we have the parts that actually go
in the middle of the dish.
- [Andrew] You can see how much faster
he is at this than me, he does this every day.
I feel like you've done three
in the time that I've done one, Michael.
- I've gone from thinking about caviar
where it's a star of the show and to dishes
like this one where it's really the seasoning of the dish.
Like this is really about the greens
and a lot of the flavors on that.
So we have puree of the Salanova.
We have the fresh Salanova and all the different greens.
Rather than being a caviar dish,
this is like a vegetable dish that has caviar.
(lively music)
This is my wife, Katina. This is her farm.
It's about seven minutes from the restaurant
and we grow most, not all, of our produce here.
- So it's a little bit later in the morning.
And we come out here and just gather all
of the items that the kitchen has requested.
So these are just really beautiful petite summer squash
with the blossoms attached.
The kitchen is often fond of these.
- These are the first tomatoes of the season.
We have not tasted these tomatoes yet.
I'll bring some of these in
and we will get them on first course tonight.
- [Katina] Yeah, that's great.
- So great.
We start harvest at 5:00 AM every day.
And then every day at 11:00 AM, everything comes
in from the farm and basically gets used that day.
(smooth music)
It is at 9:00 AM here in the Single Thread kitchen.
This is Marley Brown, she's the head chef
for the restaurant.
We are starting to make breakfast,
sending breakfast up to the rooms.
The first chefs arriving and they're getting
the the day started.
They're building the fire in the hearth,
they're making breakfast for the guests in our inn.
So this is a very traditional style of Japanese breakfast
but we do our Sonoma version of it.
So what's growing from our farm,
what's in season here, but all kind of the classic elements
of all the side dishes and fruit and pickles and rice.
This is the first of many donabe that you're gonna see here.
This is our main cooking tool.
We'll see that in the service tonight.
So this is salmon that's marinated in a saikyo miso
from Kyoto, cooked in cedar.
So this is homemade tofu, different styles of pickles
all coming from farm vegetables, a lot of components here
but this is a Sonoma take
on a traditional Japanese breakfast.
These are the beautiful squash blossoms,
all of the flats of all the greens.
So rather than the farm cutting that,
we actually have the chefs come out
and clip all of their own garnish for the day.
This is shiso.
- This is the first of the season, aka shiso, red shiso.
It makes umeboshi a really beautiful color.
So we're gonna start working on that today.
It's super exciting.
- We're really a restaurant that's driven
primarily by what's coming from the farm
and what the vegetables are.
And so we have different zucchini, different squash,
and basically we're highlighting all
the different parts of the plant.
- So these were just harvested from the farm.
They just came in this morning.
This is for our squash sashimi.
Right now Chef Darius is shaving this to make
really beautiful ribbons that are gonna get cut
into nice size and then get ribboned out
onto the sashimi dish.
We're trying to create a chrysanthemum flower.
So after they're all ribboned out,
we compress them in a kombu dashi with fresh herbs.
So this is the madai for our sashimi course.
We typically scale it, starting at the tail and working
up towards the head after it's scaled, we break it
off the bone and then salt cure it with a little kombu.
- So this is all very classic Japanese fish butchery.
This is really about precision because all the way down
to the final slicing and getting each one of the slices to
be exactly the same is really important for not
only how the dish looks, but how it eats.
It all impacts what ultimately the guest experiences.
No pressure, Julian.
You know, I think like a lot of restaurants
we're very timing oriented.
So when in the guests walk in, they walk up to a window
and we hand them a welcome beverage.
The chef who's slicing the sashimi that's doing the
sashimi course is standing right in front of them.
So when they walk up, he's now then slicing
for their second course.
Our farmers are working for months
sometimes like a year on a product and we serve it
that night.
So it's a kind of our responsibility
as chefs to like showcase the hard work of the farmers.
- So this is what I was thinking
for the squash blossom for the sashimi dish.
- Yeah. It's great.
- Yeah, I think this would be really nice.
Let's give it a go for tonight to see how it works out.
- Okay. That's great.
And then we also have the squash blossoms that we use all
of the, the belly and the tail and the collar
of the fish that we kind of make that into a moose, stuff
into the squash blossoms and then tempura fry that.
So you're getting all the parts of the fish
and all the parts of the squash plant all on one dish.
It's jubako, which means the stacked boxes.
So the sashimi sits underneath.
This sits on top.
There's the raw part of the fish and the squash
on the bottom.
And then the cook part of the fish and the squash
on the top.
We do a lot of cooking here in Japanese earthenware
called donabe, something we're really passionate about.
So right now it's a steamed black cod.
We wrap it in leaves from a, a green
that Katina grows called komatsuna, it's a Japanese green.
We, we uh, we wrap the fish in that.
Then we wrap it in the like it's basically the hulls
of the outside of the bamboo tree.
- So this is the final step
of the process here before it's ready for service.
So Chef Dakota here is taking bamboo skin
which he soaked in hot tea water to help bring
out some of the more floral elements to it.
Now he's wrapping each individual piece
of cod like a little parcel.
So it's ready for steaming in the donabe.
- So we're looking for this to steam
getting bubbles around the side here
the reason why we're doing two different ones
we want this to be really really clean
aromatically in front of the guests.
So this is kind of
like the workhorse to do all of the cooking.
And we serve that at the table.
We really kind of opened up the table
so the guests can get all the aromatics of the
of the fish and actually see the way that it's cooked.
We like to try to introduce guests to this type
of clay pot cooking.
Last we're serving this
with sauce that's made from grilled bones
of the cod mixed with the cell tooth, from the farm.
And we also serve this with the raw pea salad.
- These are the depths that we got in this week.
You can see that there're still a little bit wet.
- Our sort of like main course dish
and the only place where you actually see
like land animal is the duck dish.
- So we like to age 'em a week after they come in.
You can see up here, these are the ones that came
in the week before that we like to get our ducks
in a row and have 'em face the
the fans so that they get the most air flow here.
And then every morning, Blake here, our meat cook
he takes the ducks that he needs for the evening.
And then he's gonna go
and hang them in the hearth for them to render.
So from here, Blake's gonna hang 'em up.
It's gonna allow the fat
from the ducks to render a little bit.
But also it's gonna allow the ducks to take
on some of that almond wood flavor.
They looked super dry right now, but as the fat renders
they'll get nice and glossy.
Throughout his prep day Blake will be rearranging the ducks.
so they all get an even amount of render on the skin.
And so that we're not actually cooking the ducks here.
We're just trying to, again, render the fat
and take on some of the smoke from the hearth.
- So it's two o'clock in the kitchen.
The way that Chef Kyle and Katina designed this kitchen is
it's designed this way very specifically to where
you can see we're not hiding anything at all
about this time, everyone's rushing to finish their final
projects so we can move on to the next phase of our day.
It's cleaning into breakdown.
We have a large breakdown list.
Everybody has their own activities that they do
from scrubbing the top counters
to polishing all of the stainless steel in the kitchen.
- It's taken us a while, but we've finally got our system
down for, for cleaning it down efficiently.
Everybody knows that they need to get all their mise
en place put away around just five minutes before
and everybody can get right to their job
so we can get this done in 10, 15 minutes.
- One of the reasons why we do a full breakdown
and completely reset the kitchen is
because we are open kitchen,
full transparency for the guests.
- What Chef Kai here is working on is one
of the 10 items that we have on the hassun for today.
It's an homage to a Kyoto-style sushi.
Kai always gets mad at me because
I eat all his pesto rice, it's super tasty.
This is one of those projects that has to get done daily.
He starts by laying out the pickle kohlrabi sheets,
some of the bachelor's buttons that we get from the farm
and you start to see the layers come together
and then he is gonna roll it really tight and let it sit
so that it firms up and then he is gonna slice into it.
And there's a beautiful cross section of the flower,
the fish, and the pesto rice.
- So it's 3:30 PM and it's time to open the kitchen.
Things are moving. Things are moving.
These are the, the tables here.
So we know how many guests are coming in
and what table they're gonna be on.
First dish that we serve at SingleThread
the changes every day, right now
it's called Late Spring in Sonoma.
This section here is like really gonna start moving
because every guest has 10 dishes.
And so in the first seating, it's eight guests.
So that's 80 plates they have to make.
15 minutes later you probably have to make another 60
15 minutes later, another 60.
So our first seating is at four o'clock
but since that dish is ready on the table, when
the guests arrive, it's just nonstop until the last seating.
So, you know, they're gonna make just here alone
700 plates tonight.
In Japan, in the traditional kaiseki menu.
There is a place in that early on in the menu
that's called hassun, which kind of serves a similar purpose
which is really very, very seasonal and small bites to
sort of tell that, that story.
And we just kind of like expanded on this theme.
This is what's happening on our farm.
It's a collection of all these dishes of like
what is actually, and it's peak season what's coming in.
And we begin to tell that story about the farm.
Timing is super critical here that they get, we fall behind
by five minutes in one seating,
and that will compound all night.
Adrian's leading the station here.
You doing anything in particular
with tomato's what we brought in?
- [Adrian] We can add it to the share.
- Yeah. That's what's on the share.
Yeah. Yeah, there we go.
Sometimes decisions just made on the fly.
He can see all the guests that are coming in
at what time and what all of their dietary restrictions are.
So he's got all of his mis en place laid out
for all the dishes that he's making
and all of the different substitutes.
Basically, he's just set up with everything here,
all the fish, all the shellfish
all the vegetables, all the garnish, all of the sauces.
I, I don't know that there's really any restaurant
that's doing that many things, you know, that fast
putting it out, that many plates that quickly.
Okay, you'll be fine.
(Kyle laughs)
The dish really starts with the floral
like it's as much a visual dish
as it is about the ingredients on there.
So we're telling a visual story
of what's happening out in nature.
Also when guests are coming to like a three
Michelin star restaurant or something, they worry
that it might be like very formal and sort of tense.
So I wanted guests to walk in and sort of shed all
of that and just dive right into that experience.
This, the way that it's built is different
for the dishes are different and the hoards are different.
The floral is different.
So every, every day, but every everyone is different.
So you kind of have to work with what the floral team makes.
We really like this idea of the sense of time
within the place, because we are driven by our agriculture.
We're very, very sort of
in tune of exactly what's happening seasonally.
And so we want to express not just the season,
it's spring, but this is specifically today.
And that dish allows us to really do that
from the beginning.
Yeah, I'm happy.
I love it.
I love doing this.
We do it every day for every guest.
So we just love to start out this way.
One kinmedai on the board.
Fire round two for two, two.
So I just fired.
What's gonna be the warm bites.
So we call it round two.
So this is part of the first dish.
This is the warm components
all the warm bites from the first dish.
So 10 cold bites, three warm bites for every guest.
So these are eggs from our farm, savory custard
on the bottom of sabayon that we make from the eggs.
This is the IU trout with rhubarb.
- [Andrew] We call it the, the Loch Ness Monster.
- And then these are malted potatoes.
And on the bottom's kind of a mixture of mushrooms
and a little bit of glazed porcini on there.
- After the ducks have been hung
and they get all, they got all sweaty
which kind of pre-renders the skin almost.
We'll just clean 'em up, get,
get 'em off the crown into breasts.
One breast is about two portions
and then we'll start cooking 'em
once the service starts rolling out.
My buddy, Mike, here is also breaking ducks.
- So these guys, Chef Mike here, and Chef Blake are
duck racing.
You know, we like to have a little fun here
but also be productive and efficient at the same time.
- We really want to just kind of like show off the duck.
We roast some over the open fire and right now
we're serving them with beets and kohlrabi,
our very first potatoes that we're getting,
some of the Japanese greens that we grow,
and sort of something unique that we did this year
was actually serve them with strawberries.
- It's 6:30 PM.
All guests are in for the first turn.
We're into dessert land now and final course of the menu.
- Our final dish, we always do a, a grains dish.
So it's rice koshihikari rice.
It's cooked in the Kamado-san Donabe.
It's a rice cooker clay pot.
And then we are gonna pour into that a,
a little bit of egg as well as some chive
and almost kinda like set that like a risotto.
You have to cook the egg and it has to heat through
but you have to stir very quickly, incorporate air in there
and make sure that you don't overcook and scramble.
We have three chefs that
all they do is cook out of clay pots all day.
So it's like a really great like learning curve
for them to come because it's a technique that
you really have to to learn.
Once it's hot, it retains its heat.
It's not like a metal pot where you can shut
off the heat quickly and the temperature will go down.
It stores it.
So you have to really like catch it on the
the arc of the curve.
And no, not when it's hot enough, it's too hot.
You kind of have to catch it on the upswing
and then cook the porridge on, on the downs swing.
So this is why we're looking for this like really
creamy risotto like texture.
On the bottom grilled spinach from the farm,
acidic sauce we make from wild noori that
comes from the Sonoma coast,
braised kombu, and yeah this is the kombu that
we use for making the dashi.
These are little jellies that's made
from a Japanese sweet potato vinegar. It's called beni-imo.
This is a wild anago coming from Japan.
Some of the radishes and turnips from the farm.
So it's traditional to serve the Japanese rice courses
with broth and pickles.
In our case, we have the pickled vegetables in, in the rice
but this is the broth that we serve.
Things are going well, things are moving along.
We had about five more hours of service left,
but yeah, everything's looking good.
Finish a build on 36 please, till 10, no raw pea one.
You have 33 and 16.
Something to be said about
things being infinitely complex within their simplicity.
So the more simple and straightforward
a process is the more you need to go
sort of deep in defining that nuance of it.
We have something fun.
We only have five inn rooms here.
So we do an inn room menu.
So we have a few different options.
These guests have ordered a shabu-shabu,
but our sort of unique take on that is
is we use all different vegetables from the farm.
Chef Andrew starting to slice some really
beautiful Wagyu beef.
- [Andrew] It's fun because it's, you know, obviously
a five Wagyu but I feel like the real star of this
are the vegetables from the farm.
- The guests are gonna cook this dish themselves
in this simmering water.
Very, very simple shabashabu. Swish the wish.
Just adding a little bit of shero tamari,
white tamari, as well as some really nice sake.
And then they have a burner in front of '''em.
They're gonna just simmer it up.
I'm not trying to be the most like cutting edge,
avant garde, you know, chef in the world.
I'd rather be known for the people that we like graduate
through here and what they take out into the world.
The cuisine for me is important, but beautiful food
on the plate is not the point of what we do.
It's the result of what we do.
It's the results of bringing all these pieces together.
It's the results of our agriculture.
It's the result of mentoring.
It's like the result for the guests
but it's not the end all and be all.
We really want guests to leave with this appreciation.
And my hope is that people do leave
and think a little bit more about the kind of food choices
and things that they make in their daily life.
Well, it can mean just having more
of appreciation for locality and seasonality.
It can mean about shopping at a farmer's market,
making that connection with the farmer.
And even too, with our dishware
we work with all these incredible artisans.
So even have an appreciation for seeking out a potter or
you know, someone's whose work you really like
and just like supporting that artist.
If we don't support artists and artisans
and craftspeople and farmers, like those things will die
out and then they're not coming back.