Mistral Kitchen Snags Pastry Chef Neil Robertson

Seattle Magazine has just gotten word that Pastry Chef Neil Robertson, formerly of Canlis, Guy Savoy (Las Vegas) and Joel Robuchon (Las Vegas) will be joining chef William Belickis on the Mistral Kitchen team.

“We are excited to have Neil, and look forward to his special touch in the Pastry Kitchen,” says Belickis. “My wife and I ate at Canlis in January 2009, and we were both very impressed by his desserts. After ordering most of the menu, what struck me most was his use of herbs, the freshest of the ingredients, and the little additions like tableside service.” His favorite of the items he ate that night? “The browned butter hazelnut cake with poached pears, and thyme ice-cream,” he said without hesitation.

Currently, Belickis is working with Robertson, largely considered to be one of the best pastry chefs working in Seattle, to design the pastry menu. “What I know is that I want Neil to be super creative, and I’m going to let him have free reign. I want him to use ingredients that aren’t the typical “sweet” ingredients we think of when we think of dessert—eggs, sugar, flour, butter, etc. I want to see him pushing the envelope with vegetable elements, more traditional ‘savory’ ingredients.” Diners will also have the chance to interact directly with Robertson, and watch him work—the Pastry kitchen will be one of three kitchens with counter seating.

And what can Mistral Kitchen offer Robertson in return? “I do think that this is something Neil’s been working towards in his career—a restaurant that’s willing to let him showcase his talents to his fullest abilities,” says Belickis.

In the kitchen, Belickis is also allowing his production chef, Skye Swett, play a major role in not only menu design, but with the restaurant philosophy. Swett first worked for Belickis at Mistral in Belltown. From then on, she cooked at famed Thomas Keller restaurant Per Se in New York. Swett continued to hone her skills as personal chef for the demanding Jack Welch (former CEO of GE). Her philosophy of utilizing the freshest produce, with minimal animals fats, will result in a lighter, healthier menu at Mistral Kitchen.

“This is going to be an organic, sustainable, freshness-driven menu. We want to do things differently; we don’t want to have produce sitting around in the kitchen for a couple days before we use it. That’s why we put a farmer’s entrance leading directly into the main kitchen, so we can receive deliveries at any time,” Belickis explains. Swett also believes in doing as much as she can from scratch.  “We will be making our own mozzarella, not from purchased cultures, but cultures we grow ourselves. We will be making our own yogurt, and eventually, our own breads. We will be offering pizza—dough, sauce, cheese, everything from scratch. We want to be as self-sufficient a restaurant as possible.”

One of Swett’s goals is to have the diner leave Mistral Kitchen feeling better than when they stepped in. “So many restaurants nowadays are using massive amounts of pork fat, foie gras fat, in portions that are too large to be healthy. We want our customers leaving feeling sustained, and nourished.”

But healthful fare needn’t be dismal—far from it. Lunch offerings will include dishes such as soft polenta with housemade mascarpone, a poached egg, and truffles, roasted shellfish from the wood-burning oven, a few vegetarian options, and roast leg of lamb with white beans, mint, housemade yogurt and cauliflower. “The key is bright, clean flavors. More olive oil, less butter,” he says.

Belickis seems to have put his faith in his all-star team, and extolled the talents of each member during our interview. (Another notable figure in the technical kitchen? Chef Yutaka Saito, who will be manning the technical kitchen, responsible for the amusé bouche and other small bites for the entire restaurant.)

In two major ways, Mistral Kitchen will be departure for Belickis, who cooked with a very small team at his former high-end restaurant, Mistral. Mistral Kitchen is a bigger restaurant, with a bigger network of cooks and employees, and higher stakes. Perhaps most glaring of all: there’s a printed menu. (Criticism about the now-closed Mistral in Belltown often centered on how diners were not given much choice as to what they were served, apart from food allergies or aversions.) How will Belickis fare on December 1^st, when Mistral Kitchen opens its doors to the public? Watch for Dining Editor Allison Scheff’s review in Seattle Magazine in the new year.