Hotel cuisine is haute cuisine Hotel cuisine is haute cuisine (December 26, 2003)

Marriott's Parcel 104 a good use of space

By Robert Rich

Hotel restaurants face special challenges: Their kitchens must accommodate the rush of conferences, wedding buffets, and more. They often provide room service throughout the day. They handle numerous special dietary needs. They must answer to corporate accountants who monitor for profitability.

These extra duties can distract from the culinary goals of a chef and make it difficult to provide consistent excellence. By attempting to make everyone happy, many such large corporate restaurants merely achieve mediocrity. Thankfully, Marriott Hotel's Parcel 104 in Santa Clara is an exception to this pattern.

Founded by restaurant impresario Bradley Ogden, Parcel 104 furthers Ogden's goals to define high-end American cuisine with a focus on farmstead meats and produce, seasonal sensitivity and creative cooking rooted in Western tradition.

I admit that I tend to shy away from big restaurants. As a reviewer, I usually champion smaller family businesses. I probably wouldn't have tried Parcel 104 had they not invited me to an introductory dinner, which they paid for.

I accepted their invitation with some trepidation, preferring to review restaurants anonymously. I prepared myself to be hypercritical but I needn't have worried. Parcel 104 excels with flavorful food, an attractive environment, attentive service, and clarity of concept.

Concerned that we might have received special treatment, I noticed that other customers received the same attentive service that we did. Their entrees came plated just as beautifully.

Rather than smother a chef's talents, Parcel 104's corporate backing has actually empowered a fine chef to realize his dream, offering a well-conceived selection of dishes with the freshest ingredients in a stylish and classy environment.
The man behind the menu

Good concepts only carry weight with good implementation, and Parcel 104 has executive chef Bart Hosmer to do just that.

Hosmer, a Bay Area native, previously led kitchens at the Whitehall Hotel in Chicago, the Flying Fish Cafe at Walt Disney World, Ogden's Lark Creek Inn and others. He returned to the Bay Area in 2001 to rejoin Ogden at Parcel 104.

Hosmer explained that the name Parcel 104 comes from the pear orchard that once occupied the region now covered by the Marriott, Mission College and Great America. The restaurant pays homage to its farmland predecessor by sponsoring weekly farmers' markets in the summertime.

Chef Hosmer hopes the farmers' market will reach out to locals, most of who probably would not consider driving to the Marriott Hotel for a special dinner.

When I spoke with him, Hosmer listed with enthusiasm the different providers of free-range meats and local organic produce that supply his kitchen. He adjusts his menu daily as ingredients become available.

I could taste this passion on every plate. The kitchen successfully expresses the ideals behind the food, with clean flavors and sauces that flatter fresh ingredients rather than overtake them.
Time for sampling

To get a sense of Hosmer's broad and changing menu, we split plates from several different dinner courses. We could have ordered the chef's tasting menu, a five-course sampler for $58, but we wanted to see how the standard dishes appeared.

A tiny demitasse of Sweet Dumpling Squash Bisque arrived first. This subtle creamy soup showed a delicate infusion of nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and clove, with a wafting of fennel from the vegetable mirepoix. These accents never overpowered the sweet taste of the squash, but added a whispery depth to the flavor.

Having tasted the bisque, we skipped a soup course ($7). Instead, we tried Yellowfin Tuna Tartare ($12), a cylinder of raw tuna topped with a tapenade of kalamata olives, carrots, sweet red peppers, scallions and lemon oil. The olives had been rinsed and sauteed to soften their flavor.

Two bread crisps stood like a flag from the tuna, offering an edible utensil to accompany the fresh pink yellowfin.

Other appetizers sounded similarly delicious: an iced shellfish platter with three types of oysters and a crab claw ($16); Maine lobster hot pot with truffled herb broth ($12); even frog legs with honey sauce and apple slaw ($12).
The main dishes

We tried three different entrees from that night's menu. All of them showed creativity balanced with classicism and offered generous portions with artistic presentation that never seemed overworked.

Dayboat Scallops with Veal Marmalade ($25) was a marriage of sea and land that allowed wide opportunities for wine pairings (especially pinot noir). Four large fresh scallops sat atop a mound of shredded veal reduced with red wine and orange zest.

Topped with sweet palm hearts poached in butter, the quickly seared scallops retained their tender texture with an almost raw interior.

The veal came from Marcho Farms, Pa., a Mennonite farm which lets its calves walk freely, fed on whey from farmstead cheese. The light earthy flavors from the skirt and flank steak added depth to the scallops, bridged by the tart sweetness of citrus.

An even more surprising pairing of surf and turf came in the form of seared yellowfin tuna topped with Sonoma foie gras ($26), accompanied by a demitasse of celery foam. This creation arrived on a bed of sauteed crones, tiny root vegetables that look a bit like shrimp and taste subtly sweet and nutty.

The kitchen had quickly seared both tuna and foie, leaving the tuna delectably raw but for a thin layer top and bottom. A drizzle of veal stock reduced with pinot noir added richly flavored artwork to the sizable plate.

The celery foam reminded me of David Kinch's innovations at Manresa in Los Gatos, combining sweet and salty flavors with surprising textures. It added a light but creamy contrast to this intense dish.

We concluded our savory courses with Jameson Farm lamb T-bones topped with black trumpet mushrooms ($36). The lamb sat atop a bed of pureed cannellini beans, infused with rosemary and black truffles. The earthiness of the mushrooms and aromatic herbs merged with a reduction sauce made from the braising liquid.

While the two chunks of lamb looked large, the center bones took up most of the volume. Some diners may wish for a slightly meatier cut, but the wild mushrooms compensated well with truffle perfume infusing every bite.
Artful desserts

Pastry chef Carlos Sanchez has a knack for turning simple-sounding desserts into artwork. He modifies the sweets menu daily, where each dessert costs $6.

The Chocolate Lover's Dream offered four decadent little explosions of high quality chocolate, including melted Valhrona brownies, Scharffenberger chocolate custard, an espresso cup full of Mexican hot cocoa, and a tiny ice cream sandwich made from fluffy meringues.

Each of these chocolate tidbits showed soft finesse and lightness, rather than the full frontal attack of dark chocolate that one might infer from the description. I appreciated the light touch after our lingering feast.

Our waiter then pointed out that the Chocolate Persimmon Napoleon didn't involve chocolate at all, but used the dark fleshed fruit called chocolate persimmon.

The Napoleon arrived as an oozing stack of vanilla custard, thin phyllo crackers with a crust of brulee sugar, layered with slices of sauteed persimmons, in a pool of light rich caramel sauce. Its flavors matched the late autumn season perfectly.

Sanchez's Caramel Flan showed classic smoothness and a velvety soft mouth-feel. The small disk of egg custard came framed in an ultra-wide lipped bowl with just a dollop of whipped cream and a mint sprig.
Wine fit for pairing

A formidable 25-page wine list offers unique and intelligent selections. General manager Robert Sharpe updates the list daily as rare stock rotates, and our waiter showed good familiarity with the wines.

Prices range from about $30 to hundreds per bottle. Markups range from 200 percent to 250 percent of retail price, with lower margins on premium bottles.

The list featured some exceptional high-end wines priced very fairly, like Fisher's 1997 Wedding Vineyard Cabernet ($127 per bottle), a chameleon that changes constantly in the glass as it breathes. At auction, this wine sells for over $100.

Wines by the glass range from $7 to $20, and the list is a well-chosen selection covering a dozen varietals. I tasted several of these and found the suggested pairings worked beautifully.

Babich Riesling from New Zealand ($8) showed floral honey perfume with a light clean palate, adding finesse to our early tastes of soup and raw fish. The J. Lohr Syrah ($9) had a deep blueberry nose with intense tarry fruit, accenting rosemary flavors in the lamb. The Iron Horse Pinot Noir ($15) paired with everything we tasted.

Diners can arrange tasting sequences to accompany different courses, with 2 oz. pours of different wines offering a range of optimal pairings.

The price of art

Some restaurants cost a lot but disappoint with heartless glitz. Parcel 104 is expensive, but its food delivers on the promise of freshness, balance and discovery. It feels worthy of the expense.

In the jaded haute cuisine culture where novelty wears thin, a chef can feel challenged to find an original creative voice without losing balance or tradition. Somehow Bart Hosmer has found a balance between European classicism and California clarity that feels totally natural yet fresh and creative.

For special occasions, Parcel 104 certainly merits the short drive down Highway 101 to the Santa Clara Marriott.
Information

Parcel 104 Marriott Hotel 2700 Mission College Blvd. Santa Clara, CA, 95054 (408) 986-5623 www.parcel104.com Banquets, catering, outdoor seating, private rooms, full bar
Open Monday-Friday: 6 a.m.-10 a.m., 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday: 7 a.m.-11 a.m., 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday: 7 a.m.-11 a.m.
(Note: Parcel 104 will be closed during the holidays until Jan. 5.)

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