The Cupertino Courier

Dining

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Park Place executive chef Brad Kraten displays housemade sausages, halibut with sweet white corn, asparagus, wild mushrooms and an organic tomato vinaigrette, and homemade crispy flatbread on salmon and tuna tartar.

Farm-fresh comfort foods are restaurant's specialty

By ANNE GELHAUS

Situated as it is in Cupertino's Cypress Hotel, Park Place Restaurant already attracts its share of out-of-town business. To executive chef Brad Kraten's way of thinking, however, it's time for Park Place to build a local following.

"We're still a special-occasion restaurant, but we also need to be a neighborhood restaurant," Kraten says, adding that the menu should reflect this local sensibility.

"We need to cook for what the community wants," he says. "We don't want to teach the community how to eat; we want to fit in and be what they want us to be."

What the community wants, Kraten says, is farm-fresh comfort food. Diners are more aware these days of where their food comes from, he adds.

"Farmers markets are popping up everywhere," he says. "With all the news about genetically engineered foods, there's sort of a backlash against that.

"We're trying to use local, farm-fresh produce. I've been going to the Cupertino Farmers Market on Fridays."

Kraten is not alone. Many restaurant chefs want ingredients picked in the morning to hit the dinner plates that same evening.

"Restaurants are trying to promote sustainability," Kraten says. "As customers demand it, restaurants are doing it. It's more expensive, but customers are willing to pay for it. In general, you get better food.

"When food's that fresh, you don't have to do much to it," he says. "You don't have to hide or pump up the flavors."

Kraten is also a homegrown product. The San Jose resident went to Leigh High School and studied culinary arts at West Valley and Mission colleges. Before he began his stint at Park Place four months ago, he spent time in the kitchens of the Agenda in downtown San Jose and Spago in Palo Alto.

He also took classes at the Culinary Institute of America's Napa Valley location, where he learned how to include California cheeses in his recipes.

Kraten infused this knowledge into the Park Place menu, adding new twists to old favorites--such as serving gnocchi instead of dumplings with chicken and white beans instead of pinto with baby back ribs.

Besides shopping locally for produce, Kraten keeps things fresh by making his own sausage and ravioli, curing salmon in-house and brining corned beef and pork chops on the premises.

"When I make my own sausage, I know what's in there," he says.

The chef says the trend toward fresh ingredients has changed the way restaurant suppliers do business.

"One of our suppliers goes directly to the farm and brings the produce to the restaurant," he adds. "Another supplier I use is itself a farm."

For meats, Kraten says, "some restaurants are going to particular ranchers instead of going through a big slaughterhouse. [Diners] want to see to meat from certain ranchers because they know the consistency and the quality."

Kraten says these same diners want to limit their intake of processed foods, at least when they're eating out.

At home, he adds, "It's not necessary anymore to make your own olive oil or preserve your own meats. It's become an art form now because it's more a labor of love and less a need."

Park Place at the Cypress Hotel, 10030 De Anza Blvd., Cupertino, 408. 873.1000. Monday -Friday, 7 -10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Monday -Thursday, 5:30-9:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 5:30-10 p.m.; Sunday, 5:30-9 p.m. Brunch Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. www.parkplacecupertino.com.