Celebrate the Best of Citrus

This Sunday Manresa hosts its annual Citrus Modernista Dinner featuring special varieties from Gene Lester’s farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains. What started as a hobby, Lester’s small orchard is one of the largest private collections in the country. Each year, Chef Kinch and the Manresa team showcase his rare citrus in a number of special dishes highlighting varieties from mandarinquats to Australian finger limes. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $195 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Wine pairings are $195 for premium and $110 for traditional. For reservations, please call Manresa at 408.354.4330. Please note that the regular menus will not be offered on this evening.

Manresa Celebrates Citrus!

Manresa welcomes Gene Lester for our annual Citrus Modernista Dinner on Sunday, March 10. What started as a single row of mandarins planted in 1989 has grown to be a collection of nearly 500 trees, featuring everything from Mexican limes to Indio Mandarinquats. Each year, Manresa celebrates the more than 200 varieties of citrus with a special, multi-course menu centered on the ingredient. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $195 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Wine pairings are $195 for premium and $110 for traditional. Reservations are available by calling Manresa at 408.354.4330. Please note that the regular menus will not be offered on this evening.

Upcoming Events

» The Citrus Modernista Dinner
Please join Manresa on Sunday, February 26 for the Citrus Modernista Dinner. This seasonal dinner celebrates exotic varieties of citrus grown along the Pacific Coast from Gene Lester's collection of citrus trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains. High in the hills above the Pacific Ocean, David Kinch selects the citrus that will become his signature six-course citrus dinner prepared with beautiful varieties of Mandalo and Ruby Red grapefruit, Kalpi lime, Kishu mandarin, Vangassay lemon, calamondin, yuzu, Mexican lime, and Indio Mandarinquat. Please note that the regular menus will not be offered on this evening. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $165 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Wine pairings are $165 for premium and $105 for traditional. Reservations are available by calling Manresa at 408.354.4330.

» Ben Shewry of Attica to Cook at Manresa
David Kinch welcomes his great friend and colleague Ben Shewry of Attica restaurant in Australia for a series of Cooking with Friends dinners in May. Shewry will be the next great Australian chef to visit Manresa in the past 12 months. Attica was the Restaurant of the Year 2012 and Shewry was named Chef of the Year 2011 in The Age Good Food Guide, Australia's most prestigious restaurant guide. Stay tuned for details in our March newsletter for exact dates and options.

"Melbourne restaurant Attica jumped 20 places to number 53 in last year’s S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, when just a few years ago chef Ben Shewry admits the restaurant was on the brink of meltdown. With a cuisine that reflects nature with the utmost respect and translates Shewry's childhood memories on a plate, Attica is fast becoming the darling of Victoria in Australia." —The World's 50 Best Restaurants

For an insightful interview with Ben Shewry, read "Q&A: Ben Shewry of Attica".

» The Manresa Cookbook
David Kinch is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of his first cookbook to be published by Ten Speed Press. The book is still untitled and is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2013. Kinch sits down with Jeff Gordinier for an interview published in the New York Times, "California Dreaming: David Kinch is working on a New Cookbook".

Annual Citrus Modernista Dinner

Please join Manresa on Sunday, February 26 for the Citrus Modernista Dinner. This seasonal dinner celebrates exotic varieties of citrus grown along the Pacific Coast from Gene Lester's collection of citrus trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains. High in the hills above the Pacific Ocean, David Kinch selects the citrus that will become his signature six-course citrus dinner prepared with beautiful varieties of Mandalo and Ruby Red grapefruit, Kalpi lime, Kishu mandarin, Vangassay lemon, calamondin, yuzu, Mexican lime, and Indio Mandarinquat. Please note that the regular menus will not be offered on this evening. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $165 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Wine pairings are $165 for premium and $105 for traditional. Reservations are available by calling Manresa at 408.354.4330.

The Citrus Modernista Dinner

Please join Manresa on Sunday, February 20, when David Kinch will create the seasonal six-course Citrus Modernista Dinner. Winter is the perfect time for citrus from Gene Lester's exotic citrus orchards hidden away in the coastal mountains of the Monterey Bay. The citrus collection is a veritable painter’s palette of beautiful, exotic fruit—Citrona orangelo, Daisy mandarin, Poorman orange, Keiffer lime, Owari Satsuma mandarin, Sidi Aissa clementine, Melogold pummelo, Ginger lime, Wekiwa tangelo, Indio mandarinquat, Ruby red grapefruit, and Bergamot. Two wine pairings selected by beverage director Jeff Bareilles will be available. Open seating begins at 5:00 p.m., with the last seating at 8:30 p.m. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $165 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Please note that our regular menus will not be offered on this evening. Reservations are available by calling Manresa at 408.354.4330.

The Citrus Modernista Dinner

Please join Manresa on Sunday, January 31 for the Citrus Modernista Dinner. This seasonal dinner celebrates exotic varieties of citrus grown along the Pacific Coast from Gene Lester's collection of citrus trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains. High in the hills above the Pacific Ocean, David Kinch selects the citrus that will become his signature six-course citrus dinner prepared with beautiful varieties of Mandalo and Ruby Red grapefruit, Kalpi lime, Kishu mandarin, Vangassay lemon, calamondin, yuzu, Mexican lime, and Indio Mandarinquat. Two wine pairings selected by Wine Director Jeff Bareilles will be available. Open seating begins at 5:00 p.m., with the last seating at 8:30 p.m. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $160 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Please note that the regular menus will not be offered on this evening. Reservations are available by calling Manresa at 408.354.4330, or visit OpenTable.

The Citrus Modernista Dinner

We wind our way into the mountains nearby to find Gene Lester, the man who supplies Kinch with his many mandarins. Lester, 71, a retired I.B.M. software-development manager, has taken his interest in rare citrus to the extreme. There is no lawn outside his ridgetop home, just 12 acres of random plantings. Some trees droop with fruit, while others are just sprouting their first leaves. ''See this?'' he says, pointing to what looks like a serrano chili. ''That's an Australian finger lime. It looks like caviar inside.'' He then shows us a sudachi and a yuzu, Japan's lemon and lime. And then a kaffir lime. ''That one was hard to get,'' he says of the plant, whose leaves can no longer be legally imported. Kinch rubs the leaves and inhales, his eyes registering future recipes. On a slope dotted with mandarin-orange trees, we collect fruit, and Lester cuts sections of each orb: acidless Palestine sweet lime, puckering pomelo, sassy kumquat. Then we enter Dr. Seuss territory, sampling a Eustis limequat, an Indio mandarinquat and, finally, a chironja orangelo, each a shocking hybrid of flavors that few people will ever taste. Lester doesn't sell to restaurants or to any of the local farmers' markets; his fruit is for his friends, who now include Kinch. If Kinch wants to play with ginger limes, he has to come pick them himself. —Christine Muhlke, The New York Times

On Friday, February 20, David Kinch presents the Citrus Modernista Dinner, a once-a-year celebration of local, California Coast citrus. Chef Kinch will cook a special six-course dinner with hard-to-find varieties of citrus grown in the sunlight and clean air of the Santa Cruz Mountains, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Two wine pairings selected by wine director Jeff Bareilles will be available. Open seating begins at 5:30 p.m., with the last seating at 9:00 p.m. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $140 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Reservations are available by calling 408.354.4330 or click on OpenTable.

Citrus Modernista Dinner

On Friday, February 20, David Kinch presents the Citrus Modernista Dinner, a once-a-year celebration of local, California Coast citrus. Chef Kinch will cook a special five-course dinner with hard-to-find varieties of citrus including Mandalo and Ruby Red grapefruit, Kalpi lime, Kishu mandarin, Vangassay lemon, calamondin, yuzu, Mexican lime, and Indio Mandarinquat. This extraordinary citrus is grown in the sunlight and clean air of the Santa Cruz Mountains, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Two wine pairings selected by sommelier Jeff Bareilles will be available. Open seating begins at 5:30 p.m., with the last seating at 9:00 p.m. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $140 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Reservations are available by calling 408.354.4330 or click on OpenTable.

The Citrus Modernista Dinner

David Kinch presents the Citrus Modernista Dinner, a once-a-year celebration of local, California Coast citrus. Chef Kinch harvests extraordinary varieties of citrus including Mandalo and Ruby Red grapefruit, Kalpi lime, Kishu mandarin, Vangassay lemon, calamondin, yuzu, Mexican lime, and Indio Mandarinquat from a private citrus farm, where they are grown in the sunlight and clean air of the Santa Cruz Mountains, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Please join us for this special six-course dinner on the evening of Tuesday, February 26. Open seating begins at 5:30 p.m., with the last seating at 9:00 p.m. Two wine pairings selected by sommelier Jeff Bareilles will be available. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $140 per person, exclusive of wine, tax, and gratuity. Reservations are available now by calling 408.354.4330.

The Citrus Modernista Dinner

An Indio Mandarinquat isn’t a yoga pose, but a bell-shaped fruit that’s a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin. The sweet peel is eaten with the tart flesh. At the Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos, California, Chef David Kinch features them in a six-course Citrus Modernista dinner. Only in California. —In Style magazine, UK

David Kinch has a unique relationship with a farmer who grows rare and unusual citrus at a hidden location in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Watsonville. David drives the winding mountain roads to arrive at the place where the citrus enthusiast grows citrus on a rather large plot of land, which enjoys a microclimate perfect for citrus. He grows hundreds of varieties; some from Australia that look spiky and menacing and others that are nearly impossible to find growing outside of Asia. David walks the hills with the grower, tasting every flavor of citrus imaginable, and takes his citrus harvest back to Manresa to prepare the Citrus Modernista Dinner.

Please join us on Tuesday, February 27 for the Citrus Modernista Dinner. Tangelo, mandarin, sevilla orange, yuzu, Mexican lime, blood orange, and indio mandarinquat are transformed into a multi-course dinner for one evening only. Open seating begins at 5:30. Reservations are available by calling Manresa at 408-354-4330 today. The citrus dinner is $125 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity.

The Citrus Modernista Dinner

Please join Manresa for the season's best kishu mandarin, mandalo, kalpi lime, calamondin, Mexican lime, vangassay lemon, yuzu, and kieffer lime plucked fresh from the tree. On Tuesday, February 27, David Kinch will create a five-course menu featuring exotic varieties of citrus grown on the sunny hilltops of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Open seating begins at 5:30. Reservations are now available by calling Manresa at 408-354-4330. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
David Kinch's local citrus has not been affected by the recent freeze in California.

The Citrus Modernista Dinner

Experience the season's best tangelo, mandarin, sevilla orange, yuzu, Mexican lime, blood orange, and indio mandarinquat plucked fresh from the tree. On Tuesday, February 27, David Kinch will create a five-course menu featuring exotic varieties of citrus grown on the sunny hilltops of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Open seating begins at 5:30. For reservations call Manresa at 408-354-4330. The Citrus Modernista Dinner is $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity.