Randall Selland enjoying center stage
Twenty years ago, Sacramento didn’t have much of a culinary scene. But these days, not only do we have Biba, for the last 15 years we’ve also played host to Randall Selland’s The Kitchen Restaurant. Fellow foodie and food blogger Brendon of the wonderful Something in Season blog accompanied me for an indulgent evening at The Kitchen recently. Neither of us had been there before. Both of us had been longing to go. But neither of us knew too many people who were willing to pop the steep set price per person just to go enjoy a fabulous 4-5 hour meal.
The Kitchen Restaurant offers an experience not found at any other restaurant I know. The diner is practically in the kitchen itself. In fact, the whole theme of the restaurant is one of a “demonstration”. There is as much pleasure in the entertainment from the chefs discussing the food and cooking it in front of us as there is in the food itself. Brendon and I sat around a “Bar” of sorts, seats lined directly around the main cooking and plating area for the restaurant. We had front and center seats to the ramblings and rantings of Randall Selland, the head chef and proprietor, and Noah Zonca, Chef de Cuisine.
The food was amazing – explosions of flavor, or “layers” as Randall explains it, in every course. What follows is our menu for the evening, each even better than we could have imagined. Brendon has written up his thoughts of the evening along with photos as well.