The Sunnyvale Sun

Dining

Emile's offers team-building classes that have a delicious payoff

By LAURA RHEINHEIMER

Emile's has been a downtown destination for diners for more than 33 years. The upscale Swiss and French restaurant has drawn crowds to its location at 545 S. Second St. by offering more than just mouthwatering gourmet dishes, personalized service and signature Grand Marnier soufflé.

Owner and executive chef Emile Mooser has found a niche market offering corporate team-building classes, where co-workers from such companies as Cisco and Sun Microsystems can earn a delicious payoff by working together to create a gourmet meal in Emile's School of Cooking, held in the back banquet rooms of the restaurant.

Mooser developed the cooking classes as a way to work on team spirit more than 15 years ago.

"I realized people were doing rock climbing and river rafting for teams, and I thought, 'Why not cooking?' " Mooser said.

Today, about a third of his business is generated from corporate team-building sessions. Typically, a group of 10 to 90 people comes to the restaurant to create a multi-course meal. Only a handful of restaurants in the Bay Area offer this service; Mooser said he does it best.

"We do something right because they keep coming back," Mooser said.

On Sept. 1, the national service sales force from Sunnyvale-based Fujitsu convened for its semiannual get-together, where typically they learn about new products, train new recruits and bond. Eleven employees put on aprons and chef hats and learned how to "supreme" oranges, make potato gnocchi, sear and glaze chicken and boil risotto to a thick pasty consistency. Co-workers stitched their efforts together, and within two hours, the meal was almost ready.

Throughout the cooking session, Mooser guided the group by explaining his cooking philosophy, which can easily be translated into sales terms. Organization is the key for a successful meal, Mooser said; he used a spreadsheet to plan meal preparation by the minute.

But you have to be creative in order to combat obstacles, Mooser said.

"There's no such thing as making a mistake, just an opportunity to learn," Mooser said, and this message rang true with Christina Vaden, manager for the Fujistu team. "Just like in sales," she said.

The teamwork paid off; by the time the meal was completed, co-workers busily discussed how they cooked each course while they served one another.

Vaden has organized all kinds of team-building activities, but the cooking lesson was one of her most successful events.

"You see people in a totally different light," said David Singleton, who traveled from Chicago for the meeting. "You're not worrying about pushing sales; you're worrying about not burning food."

Mooser also tried to leave the participants with practical advice. He compares his "grandmother-style cooking" to painting.

"It's an art form," Mooser says.

The best way to cook is by touching and tasting the food to determine if it's done.

"I never owned a measuring spoon," Mooser said.

Mooser and his sous chef Josh Hanuka use a slightly different approach with the 11-week cooking course, which is offered throughout the year to more than a dozen students. Emile's also gives individual and couples classes. The 11-week series starts with the basics of cooking, and each class builds on the last one. The first class focuses on stocks, moving on to sauces and soups for the second class. By the end, Mooser said, students, some of whom have never cooked before, are equipped with the skills to make a professional meal.

Students are often turned on to the cooking classes when they visit the restaurant, Mooser said, which offers time-tested French and Swiss favorites and Mooser's unique creations.

One of Mooser's specialties, which has been on the menu since the 1980s, is a three-meat dish called "Les Grenadines des Troi Roi." The veal medallion comes with a morel mushroom sauce, the filet mignon is drenched in a tarragon béarnaise sauce, and the lamb shank is served with a brown sauce with roasted garlic and basil butter. The dish is very popular, said hostess Val Catanese. When it was taken off the menu, so many people asked for it that it was put back on the bill.

Another favorite entrée is the "Emincee of Veal with Rosti," a Swiss specialty that combines thin slivers of veal with a demi-glace, wild mushrooms and seasonal vegetables. Hanuka said he always chooses vegetables based on what is the best that season.

Even though there are no meatless entrée items, Hanuka always accepts a challenge from a vegetarian. He can cook up a mushroom risotto or a phyllo roulade, which is sautéed vegetables with a pureed sauce wrapped in phyllo dough.

Emile's also accommodates budget-conscious patrons. The fixed-price menu, which changes daily, includes a salad, fish or meat entrée and a fresh tart for $25.

The entrées may sound like a lot of food, but Emile's doesn't serve oversized portions. The idea is to serve enough food to enjoy, but not loosen a belt loop, Hanuka said.

Another advantage of decent-sized portions is to save room for the famed Grand Marnier soufflé.

San Jose resident Tina Lim and her husband Nils Brummond have been to Emile's three times, and find the soufflé delectable.

"Everything we've had here has been really good," Lim said, "but it's the soufflé that keeps us coming back."

The soufflé is made from an egg yolk-based sauce that is lightened with stiff egg whites and baked into a fluffy dessert, served upside-down.

The food looks carefully sculpted on each plate, but this architectural trend in fine dining is not the focus.

"We concentrate on making our food top quality every time," Hanuka said.

The quality of the food keeps longtime friends Sid Safir, Norma Gwinn and Ray LaRochelle coming to Emile's. They have eaten at Emile's more than a dozen times since 1994 as part of their Saturday night dining tradition, where they visit different South Bay restaurants.

But it's more than just the food, Safir said.

"The atmosphere is superb, and the food is even better," he said.

And it doesn't hurt that it's easy to park at Emile's, LaRochelle added.

In a recent visit to Emile's, Gwinn tried "Les Fruit de Mer, Nantua," a seafood medley of scallops, lobster, prawns and fish cooked in a puff pastry with vegetables.

Quality is also a concern when it comes to Emile's award-winning wine list. Each wine is selected by Mooser's own taste buds; he has been recognized by Wine Spectator magazine for his "outstanding wine list."

He tries to include local wines and ones that complement the menu items. Emile's has also earned several awards of distinction for its menu from Zagat Survey.

But perhaps the best awards are the ones given out at team-building classes, such as the "Emile-Schemile" award, which recognizes the team member who ignores Mooser's cooking advice.

Mooser isn't afraid of making mistakes in cooking.

"You eat your mistakes," he said to the Fujitsu group.

Emile's, 545 S. Second St., San Jose, serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 5:30 to 10 p.m. Reservations are recommended. Call 408.289.1960 or visit opentable.com. For more information, visit www.emiles.com or email emiles@emiles.com.