David Kinch Steps Up to the Plate

Pick up the January issue of San Francisco magazine for a 12-page cover story of Manresa's David Kinch penned by restaurant critic Josh Sens. Sens's insightful profile is beautifully illustrated with photographs by Mark Holthusen. Go to page 48 of the digital edition.

"When you think of all the people who have come through his kitchen," says James Syhabout, "and the way his style has spread to other restaurants, David Kinch has done more than any chef since Alice Waters to reshape California cuisine."

Recollections of a meal at Restaurant Alain Chapel outside Lyon "make the hair on my arms stand on end, ' says Kinch. "I remember going back to my room that night and having a weepy moment. Here I was thinking I was this hotshot cook who knew everything. Then I have this meal, and suddenly, everything I'd been doing up until then seemed like bullshit."

 

"The problem I have with so much modern cuisine," says Kinch, "is that you're eating at a restaurant in Chicago or New York or Shanghai or Sydney, and you feel like you could be anywhere. I want you to come away from Manresa feeling like you couldn't have had that meal anywhere else."