Photograph by George Sakkestad
Mondeo Pronto chef Franco Marroquin offers up a Caesar Roma wrap.
By Suzanne Cristallo
A flavor burst is what customers should get when they bite into the "fusion food" at the recently opened Mondeo Pronto in Los Gatos, according to Saratogans Martin Culver and Brad Wells. The pair co-own a privately held corporation, C.W. Gourmet, which soon will operate four restaurants in the new Mondeo chain.
Fusion food is a method of cooking ethnic food with spices not normally associated with it: for instance, pan-seared tuna with wasabi sauce and pickled ginger or grilled chicken with Thai peanut sauce and toasted coconut. The comingling creates "a flavor burst when you bite into it," says Culver.
Grilled steak, roast turkey, Cajun sausage, rock shrimp, chicken and tuna are given different treatments reminiscent of Asia, the Mediterranean, New Orleans and Texas Americana. They are delivered over rice and vegetables as bentos or rolled in tomato, chipotle and spinach tortillas as wraps.
"Quick food is pretty standard," Culver says. "So we try to deliver it differently and have a very distinct flavor."
Culver and Wells, both 43, grew up together in Palo Alto. In the early 1980s, soon after Culver graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in history and Wells graduated from Willamette University in Oregon, the two bought a bar and grill in Sunnyvale which they called California Fresh. Within 15 years, the one restaurant had grown to 58 under the name Fresh Choice. They sold the successful salad-and-soup-bar chain and started the Mondeo chain a year ago--in Sherman Oaks and San Luis Obispo--with another opening soon in Los Altos.
"We use MIS [Management Information Systems] so we can track what's selling and get customer feedback," Culver says, noting that response to customers is extremely important in the trendy world of food preparation. "The Los Gatos store will tell us a lot about what customers think is best." Two in the chain are full-service restaurants and two, including Los Gatos, are quick-service.
To keep the menu fresh, a corporate chef in the Sunnyvale headquarters works constantly with new combinations of food. "We also believe in focusing on our employees," Culver says of the 32 part- and full-time Los Gatos staffers. "If you treat them well, they'll treat the customer well."
Mondeo Pronto, 9 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Open Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. 395-4935. To-go fax 395-4975.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, March 26, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.