21 Courses of Fantastic: SAAM

My apologies for taking a blog break. I hope at least a few of you have missed lil ole LCG. Here's one I've been meaning to post for a while now...

For my birthday Big N surprised me with a trip to SAAM, the exclusive chef's tasting room at newly opened SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. The tasting room is in the back of the bustling Bazaar Restaurant, seats only 40 guests, though when we dined there were barely 15 people there, and resembles a library reading room. I was delighted to discover that I would be feasting on 21, yes 21, courses that evening. Luckily Big N warned me that I should be very hungry for my surprise dinner. Since there's 21 courses to talk about, I'll only hit the highlights, but be prepared to be wowed. We started with a few "snacks" as they like to call them. Memorable ones included the olive oil bonbon, which were liquefied olives in a crystal candy shell, and the cotton candy fois gras, a morsel of goose liver wrapped in cotton candy. Strange I realize, but you really must try them to appreciate these salty/sweet bite size delicacies. For the "soup" the waiter made fresh gazpacho, but brought a canister of liquid nitrogen tableside and actually froze the gazpacho until it was sorbet-like. Fun.
The main courses were mostly items from the sea: sea urchin, bluefin toro, smoked salmon, and a delicious prawn served on a squeezy tube for a skewer. You bite the prawn and simultaneously squeeze the sauce into your mouth. We also had wonderful kobe beef and a lovely Norwegian Lobster, among several others. The courses are so creative and unique, that the waiters have to give you instructions on how to eat them. Another fun use of the nitrogen was the "dragon's breath popcorn," which are caramel corn bits frozen in nitrogen, so that when you bite into them, it's so cold that smoke comes out of your nose. Entertaining to say the least, but a bit gimmicky. With 21 courses you get 2 desserts, but my favorite was the coconut in a "half shell," which was frozen coconut milk that actually resembled a half-shelled coconut, with passion fruit vanilla bean sauce.

SAAM definitely impressed, though it's not for the picky eater.
Chef Jose Andres used to be the soux chef for Ferran Adria at el Bulli in Spain, one of the most famous restaurants and certainly the most renowned chef in the world. If you can't get to el Bulli, you can come close to tasting greatness at SAAM for $120, plus $40 for wine pairings. I'll be going back just as soon as the menu changes for the season, with friends. If you want to visit a hip tapas-style restaurant to start the evening off, you can't go wrong with Bazaar, which shares some of the menu items with SAAM. But if you want romantic foodie heaven, book a table at SAAM and leave yourself at least 3 hours to indulge.