Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Curtis Pieratt, owner and chef of California Bentos in Los Gatos, specializes in fresh fish daily.

Indonesia, the Pacific Rim meet Los Gatos at Bentos

By Suzanne Cristallo

Flags flutter out front to the thumping beat of reggae music in the background. The youthful and the elderly come on foot, in trucks loaded with construction materials, in sleek sedans and in 4-by-4s topped with surfboards. They come to California Bentos in Los Gatos to get their health food for the day--Vitamin E, protein, carbohydrates and immune-boosting antioxidants--all in a balanced meal in a takeout carton.

But the real lure comes from the exotic aromas emanating from a charcoal broiler and the big soup pots on the stove. It also comes from the energy generated behind the counter. Customers can feel it before they walk through the door. It comes in the lightning-fast sound of veggies being chopped and in the jovial remarks tossed around the room. It's an energy that has propelled owner/chef Curtis Pieratt through life.

Pieratt, a Los Gatos resident, believes in the healthful properties of his food, but the exotic flavors he has infused into them are what keep the customers coming back. The seafood, meat and veggie dishes he serves come with a choice of sauces he has created from ideas gathered around the world: the Caribbean, Bali, Indonesia, Venezuela and even Mendocino. They are there in the orange chile with mango, the Southwest teriyaki, the red Thai curry, the Madura dark peanut and panang curry with coconut. His menu reads like his life.

The Marysville native grew up in Santa Cruz, where he surfed a little and soaked up the "fantastic" cooking influences of his mother and grandmother. At 14 he worked as a floor-sweeper in a restaurant after school while helping build boats at the local harbor. The restaurant job evolved to salad prep and eventually to making cheesecakes, which he sold to the restaurant for $8. Cooking came naturally to him, and he knew what he wanted to do.

He saved his money and at 17 left home for the Caribbean, where he pooled his funds with two partners to buy an Italian restaurant. Except for a year while he earned his chef's credentials at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Pieratt did not live in the United States again until he was 34. He was busy running a fish and herb farm, serving as a hotel executive chef and cooking on the Mosquito Coast. When he returned to the U.S., he created meals for the $350-a-day patrons of a Mendocino guest ranch.

Pieratt is 38 now. He developed the Bentos concept of "clean, lean, healthy cuisine" to emphasize nonfat, quick and easy meals with lots of fresh vegetables in a green salad and fresh meats or fish charbroiled and served on a bed of sticky rice with a choice of sauces.

"It's Indonesia and the Pacific Rim meets Los Gatos," he says with a smile.

Skewers of vegetables and tofu as well as chicken breast, top sirloin, pork tenders, lamb and turkey are offered along with the fish of the day, which could be mahi mahi, sea bass, snapper, cod, salmon, shark, shrimp, trout or swordfish. There is no cheesecake.

California Bentos, 151 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Open Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5-10 p.m (or until sold out). 395-8133.

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