A Rare Jewel

Diners at The Restaurant at Four Seasons Resort should be prepared for something unusual — for once, everything is right.

by Frederick J. Krantz

To walk into Palm Beach's Four Seasons Resort is to enter paradise. A modern palace in grand style, the hotel features light-colored marble walls and floors and high ceilings, accented with Oriental antiques. The hotel, originally called the Ocean Grand, is a Palm Beach landmark.

The Restaurant is situated at the far end of the entrance foyer. It is a dining establishment, which, since the hotel opened seven years ago, has gained a reputation for fine food and service. Today, The Restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort is one of the brightest jewels in the diadem of Palm Beach upscale eateries.

Recently, a friend and I went to The Restaurant for dinner. Ascending a wide, gracious staircase, we entered the dining room and were shown to a cozy window table. Because our reservation was early in the evening, we were able to take advantage of the breathtaking view of the ocean afforded by our window. Later, glancing around, we noted the room's muted appointments: hand-painted Chinese murals, ruche-damask curtains and opulent floral displays — all in elegant shades of beige.

"The understated decor shows that the food is the most important thing in this restaurant," my companion observed.

A waiter, wearing a tuxedo, arrived and, after greeting us, took our drink order. A busboy — also in a tuxedo — asked if we had a preference in the water we drank with our meal (we chose Evian). Along with our water, he brought a basket of various crispy breads — sourdough, multi-grain and French — which, he said, were baked on the premises.

Shortly afterward, we were joined by the Four Seasons Resort's executive chef, Hubert De Marais. A native of Roanoke, Va., De Marais speaks with a soft, Southern accent; his manner is modest, relaxed and professional. He told us his interest in food began at the age of five years.

"I used to enjoy visiting my grandmother's house," he said. "She had beautiful gardens tended with great care by many gardeners. I remember the wonderful meals her chef cooked with fresh vegetables and herbs he picked right from the garden."

By age 14, De Marais already was in the restaurant business. While still in high school, he cooked in the evenings for a small French restaurant in Blowing Rocks, N.C. After realizing he wanted to become a chef, he studied at the revered Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, N.Y.

"And not just a chef," De Marais said concerning his ambitions, "but an exceptional chef — to do everything to the extreme of excellence."

At 35, Chef De Marais has achieved just that. In the seven years he has been at the hotel, his innovation and vision has steered The Restaurant on a course that has earned critical acclaim from magazines such as Gourmet and Food & Wine and, more recently, has captured both the coveted Mobil 4-Star and the American Automobile Association 5-Diamond awards. In fact, The Restaurant at Four Seasons Resort is the only one in South Florida that can claim this honor.

We asked Chef De Marais about the food at The Restaurant.

"The style of our food is Southeastern regional," he said. "As much as possible, we use local ingredients when making the menu — taking into account their history and heritage." De Marais explained that he has researched meats and produce that are raised in this area and what the natives eat, as well as the contributions various ethnic groups — Caribbean, Mexican, South American and Oriental — have brought to the local culinary landscape.

We began our meal with two appetizers so colorful that De Marais might have received his inspiration from Paul Gauguin. The yellow tomatoes used as a base for the iced gazpacho my companion started with made the dish as golden as mimosa. The soup offered a subtle heat — produced by the Scotch bonnet peppers included in the recipe — and was garnished with delicately flavored focaccia croutons and pieces of lobster.

The gazpacho is one of several appetizers from The Restaurant's prix fixe side of the menu, in which the entrée's price indicates the cost of the complete meal; appetizer, entrée, dessert.

My hors d'oeuvre chosen from the à la carte side — Indian River blue crab ($14), was a complex, multi-textured tower of tastes and chromatics. It began with a layer of jumbo lump crab dressed in a lemon-herb vinaigrette; then came a layer of paper-thin plantain crisps; another layer, consisting of avocado — called 'alligator pear' on the menu — mixed with fresh tarragon, followed by more crisps and finally, sour cream with osetra caviar on top.

"The crab stack is a popular item," De Marais said about this dish. "Many people come to The Restaurant just to try it. The herbs are all fresh and come from the extensive herb, spice and rare-fruit garden I keep just outside the hotel's kitchen."

Our attentive and most gracious captain, Thom Smith, selected the wines to go with our dinner. To accompany our appetizers, he chose a Gewürztraminer, Field Stone, Sonoma ($31 bottle) whose flavor was fruity enough to support the gazpacho's spicy nature and the multitude of flavors advanced by the crab stack.

My companion's entrée, yellowtail snapper ($38, prix fixe; $27 à la carte), provided the most dramatic presentation of the evening. A complete fish was split, boned, seared on the outside and then finished in the oven. The snapper was brought to the table languishing regally on a plate, containing a luxurious watermelon relish and a sauce divined from lemon thyme and tangelos.

To complement the fish, Smith chose an excellent Sancerre, Hippolyte, Reverdy 1994 ($40 bottle). Its delicate flavor hinted of melon, a perfect foil for the snapper.

An unusual item on any menu these days is a braised meat dish. Even more unusual are short ribs of beef. In a bold and confident move, Chef De Marais braised short ribs with guava ($26) and elevated the dish into an noble pièce de résistance. This was my entrée choice. The braised beef was boned and neatly mounded on the dish amid a spicy okra/corn sauce and then crowned with a truffle-scented cress salad. This offering was full of surprises, including a garnish of deep-fried threads of boniato — a starchy tuber popular in the West Indies.

Smith poured a French wine from the Rhône Valley, Mercurey "Les Villeranges," Charton et Trubrichet 1992 ($40 bottle), which, although light, accorded sufficient body to stand up to the beef.

Although the appetizers and entrées at The Restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort were complex, surprisingly, they were not heavy. "We keep things light," Chef De Marais said, "because everyone these days is conscious of their health and well-being. Therefore, we use hardly any butter or cream in our kitchen."

My companion and I, being great fans of rich desserts, discovered with great relief it is not a tenet upheld in The Restaurant's pastry kitchen.

My companion ordered a warm chocolate truffle cake filled with a chocolate ganache soufflé, drenched with a milk-chocolate sauce. My dessert, autumn hazelnut pastry leaves — two small triangles of nut-encrusted phyllo sheets held together by a hazelnut/cappuccino cream — was equally irresistible, and equally deadly (à la carte desserts: $8).

The Restaurant at Four Seasons Resort, 2800 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, (561) 582-2800.