chefs table
REDEFINING GREEK CUISINE
Jimmy’s Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe shakes up tradition.
WRITTEN BY SANDRA MACIAS
PHOTOS BY JEFF ROSS
If all you know about Greek food is stuffed grape leaves and baklava, then follow me to South Lake Tahoe and Jimmy’s Restaurant, where Greek cuisine is turned upside down.
Jimmy’s Restaurant is in The Landing Resort and Spa, across the street from Stateline’s public beach. Modern in architecture and tastefully appointed, the boutique resort offers a high-class experience in lodging and dining.
From its atmosphere to its food, Jimmy’s is full of “wow” factors. The first eye-catcher is the dramatic 40-by-15-foot illuminated onyx wall, the backdrop for an onyx-and-marble bar. While the bar area is all about stonework, the dining area — a palette of white, gray, and black — is cool elegance. Seating at banquettes and tables, dressed in white tablecloths and black napkins, is comfortably social without feeling crowded.
Meet Maria Elia
Jimmy’s creative executive chef, Maria Elia, calls her cuisine “contemporary Greek — I like to mix it up, be crazy.” Dishes include tomato baklava, moussaka pizza, and Greek beer-battered fish and chips.
Elia is British born of Greek heritage on her father’s side, a successful chef in London and Spain, a BBC Food TV personality, and the author of three cookbooks (available at Jimmy’s). And her culinary style? Picasso-esque. What the famous Cubist did in his painting, she does in her cooking. She deconstructs the elements of a classic Greek dish and reassembles them into a new form.
One of her signature dishes, tomato-feta-almond baklava, is a good example. Mixing it up, thinking savory instead of sweet, she layers phyllo with tomatoes, intensely flavored after hours of braising in olive oil, cinnamon, and dill. A smear of fennel seed tzatziki and a drizzle of honey finish this superbly savory dish.
“If a Greek ate it with his eyes closed,” Elia says, “he still would recognize the flavors and ingredients. I’ve just taken some liberties.”
Each dish is photo-worthy. The roasted beet and apple salad, a tasty composition of color, texture, and flavor, is so beautiful, you hate to put a fork to it. It is a still life of edible flowers; red, white, and gold beets, prepared three ways — roasted, fried, and raw; and apples, cinnamon spiced and sautéed. And every bite, delicious.
Small plates, big flavor
The seasonal menu offers small and large plates, designed to be shared. It’s a challenge of choices, such as pulled lamb burger with beet tzatziki feta and watercress; wood-grilled octopus with smoked paprika aioli and preserved lemons; and wood-grilled chili and Clementine-marinated prawns. Add a wine list, an international tour de force, and your horizon stretches from Greece, Lebanon, and beyond to California and its wine-producing neighbors.
Meanwhile, Elia is “cozying things up” for fall. “[C]hestnuts and fig leaves soaked in goat and cow milk to flavor cream for panna cotta,” she says. “Or a dish such as buttermilk chicken sprinkled with pine salt and served on pine needles.”
In her kitchen — a busy, hot spot with a wood-fired oven, a wood-fired grill, a char-grill, and rotisserie — the food is cooked to order. From yogurt to bread, pizza dough, and desserts, everything is made in-house.
Fresh and local
Elia’s commitment to fresh, organic, and locally sourced ingredients, whenever possible, is solid.
“To me, this is how it should be,” she says. “You should care about your food and where it comes from.”
Providers include Produce Plus (based in North Lake Tahoe), Glorious Garlic Farm in Minden, and South Lake Tahoe’s Overland Meat & Seafood Co., where Elia gets freshly made breakfast sausages. Honey, important in Greek cuisine, comes from a local beekeeper as well as from Greece.
Oh, and yes, those pine needles for fall’s chicken dish? From the Sierra forest, of course. You can’t get more local than that.
Sandra Macias, a veteran Reno food writer, is ready for a food adventure in Greece — and she’s thinking of kidnapping Jimmy’s executive chef, Maria Elia, to go with her.
Jimmy’s Restaurant at The Landing Resort and Spa
4104 Lakeshore Blvd., South Lake Tahoe
855-700-5263, http://www.Thelandingtahoe.com
Open daily for breakfast 7 – 11:30 a.m., lunch 12:30 – 3:30 p.m., dinner 5:30 – 9:30 p.m. Reservations suggested for dinner
Extras
A class act
The brightest star in South Lake Tahoe’s constellation is The Landing Resort and Spa. Opened in December 2013, the upscale resort is a shining light of Tahoe hospitality and luxurious style.
California husband-and-wife team Jim and Nancy Demetriades, owners and developers of the property, gutted a run-down motel, circa 1950s, to its bones, transforming it into a boutique hotel of architectural beauty. Built of wood, stone, and steel, it faces Lake Tahoe, a mere few steps across the street.
Each of its 77 rooms (with more to come as the property expands) has a fireplace and a lakeside view with a deck. And each is appointed with such amenities as high-thread-count bed linens and fluffy towels, heated marble bathroom floors, Jacuzzi tubs, and waterfall showers. In every nook and corner of public and private spaces, there is something to admire, such as books, art objects, and intricate stonework.
From lodging to service, The Landing offers a first-class stay in South Lake Tahoe. Add Jimmy’s Restaurant and its delicious fare, and you’ll be right at home.
For details, visit http://www.Thelandingtahoe.com
Recipes
Beet, Apple, and Feta Curd Salad
(courtesy of executive chef Maria Elia from her cookbook, Smashing Plates: Greek Ingredients Redefined. It’s a signature dish at Jimmy’s Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. Serves 6)
This beet salad stars colorful beets in three forms: roasted, raw, and fried. The challenge? Making it look as beautiful as the photographed original! But, however you present it, this salad is delicious.
For roasted beets
2 medium-sized beets (red, gold, or Chioggia, aka candy cane)
For raw beets
2 small beets (red, gold, or Chioggia)
For beet crisps
2 small beets (red, gold, or Chioggia)
For roasted apples
2 cooking apples
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
For feta curd
1 cup feta, crumbled
4 heaping tablespoons Greek yogurt
For salad
1 curly endive or frisée
1 packet pea shoots
3 tablespoons roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1 packet edible flowers (optional)
For hazelnut-apple dressing
7 tablespoons hazelnut oil
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
¾ cup unfiltered apple juice, reduced to ¼ or a little less
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
For roasted beets: Wash and wrap beets individually in foil and place in roasting pan. Cook for 30 to 60 minutes (depending on size) until tender. Cool a little before gently slipping off skins. Cut in rough wedges.
For apples: Preheat large frying pan, peel apple, and cut in half; cut each half into four wedges and remove core. Toss with sugar and place in hot pan. The apples will immediately caramelize. Cook until golden and slightly soft, then set aside.
For curd: Place feta in blender, and add yogurt and pinch of black pepper. Pulse, blending until smooth.
For dressing: Whisk ingredients together, season with sea salt, and set aside.
For fried beet chips: Peel and slice on mandoline (or slice, wafer thin, with sharp knife). Blanch in deep fryer at 160 degrees F for 1 minute, then refry at 175 degrees F until crisp. (Lacking deep fryer, fry in deep, hot oil in frying pan until crisp.)
For raw chips: Peel and slice on mandoline (or slice, wafer thin, with sharp knife). Wrap together to re-form in plastic so they don’t brown.
To assemble salad: Smear feta curd over plate, scatter with a little frisée, and top with apples and equal variety of roasted beets. Scatter with pea shoots, hazelnuts, and raw beet slices. Drizzle with dressing before scattering with beet chips and flowers.
Zucchini, Caper, and Herb Linguine
(courtesy of executive chef Maria Elia at Jimmy’s Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. Serves 4 to 6)
Maria Elia says this dish is “full of flavors and takes no time to make.”
1 pound fresh linguine, or dried if it’s all you have
Good glug olive oil
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and dried
2 medium-sized zucchinis
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Pinch chili flakes, optional
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
¼ cup butter, diced
4 tablespoons reserved pasta cooking water
¼ to ⅓ cup freshly grated Kefalotyri, Parmesan, or Pecorino
Slice zucchinis lengthwise, as thin as possible, and cut into long shreds. Cook pasta in boiling, salted water according to pasta instructions. Drain in colander, reserving 4 tablespoons cooking water.
While pasta cooks, heat olive oil in large pan, add capers, and fry until crisp. Set aside, heat a little more oil, and cook zucchini, garlic, and chili over medium heat until they are just tender. (You may need to cook zucchini in two batches, depending on size of your frying pan.)
Turn off heat, toss zucchini with pasta, capers, and herbs. Season with sea salt and pepper; add butter, reserved cooking water, and half the cheese. Mix well and serve immediately, sprinkling with remaining cheese.
Chef’s Note: A lovely variation would be to fry some peeled prawns in olive oil with capers, set aside, and toss together at the end. A little freshly grated lemon zest would add lightness
