LARKSPUR, Calif. -- Something is drawing crowds to this small community north of San Francisco. Is the raw food at Roxanne's restaurant a genuine culinary breakthrough or the emperor's new clothes?
Chef Roxanne Klein and her husband, Michael, opened the 62-seat restaurant last December. Restaurant openings are a frequent occurrence in the Bay Area, but from day one Roxanne's has attracted diners in search of a totally new dining experience.
For openers, the kitchen has no stove, oven, broiler or cooktop. Klein, a classically trained chef, describes her cuisine as organic living foods (others refer to it as "raw") and she uses inventive techniques to obtain maximum flavor, which is sometimes destroyed through conventional cooking.
Klein and Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter have co-authored a cookbook, "Raw Food," available in January. She says the "user-friendly" cookbook could conceivably change the way cooks shop and cook at home.
At 38, Klein seems to have it all: a loving husband and business partner, four children, four dogs and a successful career. She is the perfect spokeswoman for her cuisine and attributes her good health and high energy to a raw food diet. A vegetarian for 10 years, she was encouraged to try the raw food diet for a month and as a result saw her energy level change. Fashioning this diet into a fine cuisine required experimentation and study.
Inspired by her garden and love of food, she is well-versed in the chemistry of food and ingenious in creating dishes.
A fifth-generation Californian, she calls her parents and grandparents "incredible home chefs" and remembers always wanting to be a chef. Her grandparents were organic farmers, and her grandmother would take a young Roxanne to the garden and ask, "What do you smell?"
Today, she still uses her sense of smell to pick from her garden or buy produce. "I can't order on the phone; I have to see and smell what I am buying from the market or picking in the garden.
"Taking each ingredient and maintaining it in a natural state, means having it at its peak."
A vegan challenge
Like Merlin the Magician, Klein and her kitchen team of 17 apply a variety of alternative processes and special equipment -- Vitamix high-speed blenders and juicers, food processors and a custom-made low-heat convection oven -- to combine and intensify flavors and create appealing textures while retaining nutritional value.
No ingredient is heated above 118 degrees and through the application of low heat, soaking, blending and straining, the crew creates a stunning array of beautiful -- and mostly delicious -- dishes. As if this were not enough of a challenge, the restaurant is also vegan, so the cooks use no meat, seafood, dairy or eggs.
Klein's desire to "create an essential as well as sensual dining experience through a journey of the senses" includes an elegant dining room. Food is served on Bernardaud French porcelain with wines poured into Riedel crystal stemware. Tables are set with white linens made from unbleached organic cotton.
The evocative menu uses terms and descriptions that are easy to understand. A well-trained, enthusiastic, young wait staff describes all dishes.
Order pizza, Pad Thai, tortilla soup or lasagna, but what is served goes well beyond conventional definition. Exquisite, artistic plated presentations are reminiscent of the French Laundry in Napa Valley.
Yes, there is wine. Sommelier Larry Stone, a master at pairing wines with food, helped compile a wine list that complements the cuisine at Roxanne's.
In designing the restaurant, the Kleins paid close attention to environmental standards and the entire facility was constructed with regard to ecological sustainability.
The best way to understand Roxanne's is to dissect some of the dishes we ate one evening:
A trio of Asian dishes included: cucumber-wrapped Summer Roll with sweet red peppers, julienne carrots, coconut noodles and sweet chile sauce; Tom Kha, a traditional Thai soup flavored with red chile and green curry oils, kafir lime and thickened with pureed avocado; and Pad Thai.
Soups designed to be served hot arrive lukewarm but never above 118 degrees.
Roxanne's interpretation of Pad Thai, a Thai noodle dish, uses julienne young coconut meat for noodles in combination with julienne zucchini and carrots, Granny Smith apple and bell pepper, sliced serrano chile and cilantro. The mixture was tossed with a seasoned and spiced tamarind puree garnished with an almond chile sauce seasoned with soy sauce, white sesame oil and sprinkled with chopped cashews.
The three appetizers fully captured authentic Thai and Asian tastes. Visually, the foods sparkled. Bona fide texture and concentrated flavors made it easy to believe we were eating Pad Thai with noodles, not julienne young coconut meat.
Heirloom tomato paved with cashew cheese, pesto, herb oil and 100-year-old balsamico vinegar qualified as fine food at its best. The Green Zebra heirloom tomato -- the best I ever tasted -- was served at its peak of perfection.
A marinated olive and tomato pizza with baby arugula and herbed cashew cheese was interesting, but will never put Pizza Hut out of business. A serving larger than a "tasting" portion was filling.
It is difficult to make pizza without actual dough and cheese, and this is how Roxanne's does it. Klein created cashew herb "cheese" from cashews soaked overnight, then juiced and ground, gently fermented and mixed with fresh thyme, oregano, basil and garlic while the crust used almond flour and flaxseed meal dried in the low-temperature convection oven for two hours with spring water and zucchini added for moisture. Crust and "cheese" overpowered the pizza.
Hold the cream
Before opening her restaurant, Klein's specialty was pastry and the restaurant excels in desserts. Ice cream made with nut milk not only looks like ice cream but tastes as good as those made with cream. The banana split with strawberry, pineapple and coconut almond crunch ice creams, fruit and chocolate saucers topped with candied walnuts was tempting, and the delicious warm fig and raspberry tart with candied hazelnuts and Tahitian vanilla ice cream met all expectations of what a dessert should be.
In describing her famous White and Dark Chocolate Pistachio Torte, Klein said, "A cake made with no eggs, sugar or dairy is a mental challenge."
She succeeded. "It's delicious," she said and I agree. For chocolate lovers this dessert may be reason enough to consider a raw food diet.
A meal at Roxanne's does not mean deprivation. All dishes must pass the good-taste test. It is not inexpensive. You can choose from appetizers, salads, soups, entrees and desserts. An entree and one starter is $29, two, $38, and three, $47, plus tip and tax.
People should leave the restaurant satisfied, but "the difference," Klein said, "is anything raw uses its own enzymes to digest and not rely on the limited number of body enzymes. Retaining enzymes makes you feel better, with more energy."
It all begins with ingredients. She is an advocate of home gardens and farmers' markets and believes you should choose your ingredients before deciding on a menu.
"It's not about throwing out stoves."
Roxanne's is at 320 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur, Calif. (Marin County). Phone: 415-924-5004. Hours: 5:30 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
Jane Citron is a Squirrel Hill free-lance writer and cooking teacher.
Related Recipe:
Young-Coconut Pad Thai With Almond Chile Sauce
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