Some restaurants have achieved fame on the basis of exceedingly complex food preparations and dramatic plate presentations.
Heston Blumenthal’s legendary Fat Duck in Berkshire, England, made global headlines with a dish called Sounds of the Sea, an edible shoreline with a foaming ocean made of shellfish and sand made of crumbled ice cream cones and tapioca maltodextrin.
As diners were presented with the dish, they were issued iPods that played sounds of squawking seagulls and lapping waves, which helped round out the mock seaside experience.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, chef Grant Achatz’s ode to new American cuisine, Alinea, featured a dish of bacon with apple leather, which was suspended from a thin wire fixed to two ends of a shiny, stainless steel, u-shaped contraption.
The resulting presentation, a bold contrast between the organic and the industrial, made it seem like the bacon was zip-lining across the diner’s place setting, perhaps trying to escape the inevitable barrage of Pinterest-bound smartphone photos.
These chefs represent the apex of culinary creativity and imagination. Theirs is a kind of academic art, cerebral and challenging.
But as I recently plucked what promised to be the very last San Marzano tomato of the season from my small patio garden, I thought of another kind of art, the raw and simple art of unspoiled nature. How perfect this tomato was, fragrant, sweet and acidic. What could I possibly do to that tomato to make it any better? Nothing, I concluded.
This conclusion seems to be shared by the kitchen team at Bravo Cucina, Central Lonsdale’s long-standing home to simple, approachable Italian food.
I visited Bravo recently with my wife DJ. It had been a while since our last visit. We were pleased to learn that Bravo Cucina’s menu remains largely unchanged, featuring the same reliable, thoughtful assortment of appetizers, pastas and entrées that it did nearly a decade ago when we first dined there.
There is something comforting about Bravo’s static menu selection, not unlike the comfort found in visiting family and knowing that tried and true favourite dishes will be prepared according to a familiar recipe. Also, the menu is lengthy and provides a showcase for a wide variety of ingredients, including seafood, cheeses, cured and grilled meats, homemade pastas and sauces based on ripe vegetables and fresh herbs, so there is little danger of growing weary of the food.
DJ and I began our meal with a couple of appetizer favourites, Gamberi al Martini and Mozzarella Marinara. The gamberi features five enormous, grilled prawns in a lemon and caper butter sauce, heavily studded with garlic.
The sauce invariably precipitates a near sensory overload with its bracing citrus tartness that is barely contained by the rich buttery notes. I have learned to proactively ask for more bread with this dish as I am loathe to leave any sauce behind on the plate.
A glass of crisp, acidic New Zealand sauvignon blanc was a good complement. DJ’s mozzarella was warm and melting underneath its golden veneer of breading. The square of cheese, rich, salty and toasty, is served in a shallow pool of tomato and basil sauce, which tastes precisely of those two ingredients and nothing more. The simplicity of the sauce is refreshing and, similar to my prawn dish, begs to be mopped up with bread.
I find it difficult to choose between one of Bravo’s nearly 20 pastas and their Secondi Piatti, or main entrées, which include risotto, lamb, veal, salmon and shellfish.
On this particular visit, the difficulty of a meal selection was compounded by the evening’s special of beef tenderloin with gorgonzola and toasted walnuts, roasted potatoes and vegetables.
Being of periodically weak resolve, I chose not to choose in the end, and asked for a half order of fettuccine “Expo 86” as an intermezzo before the beef. The pasta, expertly made and served al dente, featured fresh crab meat and shrimp in a light tomato cream sauce with, once again, a truly formidable garlic kick.
The tenderloin was dense and tender, arriving just a touch over the requested medium-rare, but still mildly pink in the centre and wonderfully juicy. The toasted walnuts were blended directly into a generous topping of soft gorgonzola, salty and pungent, and provided a powerful lift to the beef. A glass of rich and round Chateau St. Michelle cabernet sauvignon stood up well to the complex dish.
Sticking to the theme of simplicity, DJ chose Linguine Bella Napoli for her main, a straightforward but satisfying pasta with tomato and basil sauce. We shared a light and tasty dessert of chilled rice pudding with an elegant sphere of vanilla gelato, the latter melting slowly to supply additional richness to the creamy pudding.
Our meal of two appetizers, a half order of pasta, wine, mains and one dessert was $130.
Bravo Cucina is located at 1209 Lonsdale Ave. bravocucinanorthvancouver.com
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. Contact: hungryontheshore@gmail.com.
