Multiple award-winning chef Gary Danko is recognised as one of America's most talented and respected chefs. His many achievements include a coveted James Beard Award, and a Michelin star for restaurant GARY DANKO in San Francisco.

Danko was recently in Hong Kong and I caught up with this passionate and enthusiastic chef to learn more about the evolution of his Modern Classics cuisine, his thoughts on restaurant guides, and his plans for the future.

How would you describe your cuisine?

Modern Classics. To me Modern Classics is the culmination of my cooking, the evolution and refining of my dishes and the personal interpretation I have put on them over my years of cooking professionally. As a young chef learning to cook and beginning to understand the how's and why's of cooking, flavours, textures, the classics dishes, as well as the mastering of them, my roots are in the classics but I have refined them over the years. As I studied and practiced and began master cooking, I began to incorporate what techniques worked for me, my childhood flavours, my travels and experiences. This is very important in becoming a chef.  My dishes evolved with time from the classics to my signature dishes, which are indicative of my tastes and techniques.

My restaurant tends to draw people who want food that is well prepared, served professionally, and diners have a memorable experience in a beautiful environment. The food is well cooked and seasoned, presented elegantly, it is understood, with familiar flavours and hopefully gives comfort to those who dine at GD. 

What are some of your signature dishes and why are they signatures?

Signature dishes are dishes that you have perfected over time and ones that you are known for and requested by the public. I firmly believe that people go to specific restaurants, pastry shops, bakeries etc for specific signature dishes and they should be able to have them time after time! I have a repertoire of signature dishes that rotate through the seasons, for example, Buckwheat Blini with Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraîche and Osetra Caviar.

Two summer signatures are Roast Maine Lobster with Corn, Tomato and Basil, Potato Puree; and Seared Sonoma Foie Gras with Black Mission Figs, Champagne Grapes and Caramelised Onions.

How has the food that you create evolved or changed over the years?

As with any young chef's career path, chef' go through an experimental period where they feel a need to be creative and experimental, trying to combine everything with anything new. They also feel the need to follow the current trends, for example, molecular gastronomy.

In my day it was the Nouvelle cuisine of the mid-seventies when it was first being identified or "coined" in France. It translated in the US in a different form. I can recall a lot of Kiwi fruit as garnishes on fish dishes and vegetables served almost raw on the plate and very small portions. The public revolted and chefs took notice and moved on. What this movement did was start to change the way Americans saw food, there was a new attitude and openness to culinary change and creativity.

Finally, chefs did not have to stick to the same classic cuisine that we had cooked and eaten seemingly forever. I was of a generation of chefs who wanted to help change the way America cooked and ate. Regional chefs started to use their local classic flavours and ingredients in a bolder new way. Inspired cooking from chefs using traditional dishes and local products in areas like New England, the southwest (Texas), Hawaii and Florida/Caribbean started to have a new birth. This new regional cooking started to gain press. In the mid 80's the press started to focus on "California Cuisine" and shortly after came wine country cooking which started in the kitchens of Robert Mondavi and Beringer Vineyards. Later Madeleine Kamman would open a school for American chefs where she would train chefs from around the country in the virtues of pairing food with American wines. American chefs took notice of wines and food as a whole and not just being separate parts.

For every trend about 5% of its fundamentals become a classic from that period. Eventually a chef arrives at a place where they have refined their dishes and they become a modern classic. And you keep them as your classics until you decide that either times or people's tastes have changed or you have changed. Today in 2010, as a chef or restaurateur you have to be prepared to please vegetarians, vegans; people have identified many allergies and reaction to certain products that they are allergic to, so a restaurant must be prepared for those at any given moment. All of these influence the style of cooking, the menu and cooking practices.  

I read on your website that you are not a fan of "guinea pig food" and that you "don't experiment on the guests". Is this is a reference to food from chefs such as Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal?

This is not a reference directly to FA or HB, my "guinea pig" statement is 15 years old, even before molecular cuisine had even been branded or coined. So my philosophy back then still holds true today. Every chef cooks the way they want and I respect that. These are just my opinions. Chef's styles are as varied as guests' tastes are, particularly in this day and age when more people eat out than ever before.

I like a dish to be refined before I even consider it going on the menu.

Many famous cooks and chefs have said that it takes years to perfect a dish, which I tend to agree with. I have eaten at many  restaurants, over the years, where the cooks or chefs are down to the wire on finishing the new menu item for that evening and their last ditch effort was to throw something into the dish or put a garnish on just to give it colour, serve it, and let the public decide. To me this is a very young cook's approach. Today's culinary students are either led to believe that they are chefs when they graduate or it is woven into their generational thinking - "I go to school therefore I am". One of the harshest realities they will need to face is that it takes years to become a chef, but it is a great character building journey!

A well crafted dish or finished dish should be cerebral, and it should be well thought out and not just thrown together on the plate allowing the public to decide. It should somewhat represent what the chef was thinking. A seasoned chef or any chef writing a menu or creating a dish should be able to taste the flavours and textures in their mind before conceiving a dish or putting it on the plate, and know the how's and why's of all the parts and that the garnishes work together for a cohesive well thought out dish. Today, television, coffee table photographic books and periodicals have given many people, young chefs and even diners a false sense of what cooking is or is not. To me cooking is not a competitive form of entertainment with shock factor and competitive big prizes and titles with television appearances.

In reference to Ferran Adria, he obviously has his role in history. I had lunch with him 15 years or so ago when I would call his cuisine more of a well thought out meal with inspirations taken from the sea or a native landscape. His dishes had a story and he lived it. I cannot speak for what he is doing today, as I have not eaten his food in its new incarnation.

I read that you are opening a second restaurant, can you tell me more about that?

I am still looking for funding to start construction of a new restaurant one block away from my current restaurant. The food would be simple food that you can eat everyday. It would have the energy of a French brasserie but with American food and sensibilities. (No cut, edit, drag and paste French brasserie restaurant or food and look here). Again, if the funding does not come neither will the restaurant so I am reluctant to start touting anything other than concept and that we do have a space picked out.

What does the Michelin rating mean to you and is it more important than any other award/recognition you have received?

At GD the guests we serve everyday are THE most important critics and they keep our business alive and our staff's sustainability depends on them and not guide ratings. Michelin has failed terribly in it's ratings around the world. They have not garnered much credibility from the locals in the cities in which they are not native to and yet choose to rate restaurants, hotels etc. Guides and awards have their roles; Michelin rating is more about the ego of the chef than the opinion of the people! Zagat is the guide for the US dining public.

What does your future hold?

Continue what I am doing and follow my path and go wherever it leads me.

What is your favourite comfort food?

I enjoy a perfectly roasted chicken or duck; I had amazing roasted chicken in Hong Kong! I also love the comforting feel and taste of Thai red curry with pumpkin and tofu, and simple eggs cooked gently in butter, to name a few!

Gary Danko Recipes

For video recipes  http://www.garydanko.com/site/tutorial.html

Images: All images supplied by Gary Danko