Chef brings a new aura to the Seaport Hotel
 Steak & Melon with a sweet & spicy red pepper confit makes a flavorful dish at Aura. (Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff) |
When chef Rachel Klein was at Om in Cambridge, her food polarized diners. Some (like me) loved it for its originality, whimsy, and bold flavor combinations: the classic duo of grilled cheese and tomato soup tweaked, with tapioca and Asian herbs in spicy broth; a Caesar salad deconstructed, with anchovies, asparagus, and a poached egg laid out separately in a row. Some did not love it, finding it pretentious or unsatisfying - the portions, they complained, were too small.
So take Klein and drop her into the kitchen of a hotel, one complete with breakfast buffet and out-of-town conference-goers, and the results are bound to be interesting. Klein took the reins at Aura in the Seaport Hotel at the end of March, after leaving Om in December. How would the individualist and the institution fit together? Aura is so much a hotel restaurant it doesn't even have a street entrance.
But the good service at Aura and the new, neighboring Tamo Bar show that Seaport H.R. has a knack for hiring - they are staffed by a congenial and competent international crew. (This is the World Trade Center, after all.) From the menus, it's clear Aura brought in Klein to utilize her strengths, not to squelch them. Some of her dishes from Om (and Lot 401, her previous restaurant in Providence) live on here - steak and eggs, for example, filet mignon with potato puree, asparagus, and a poached, bread-crumbed, and fried egg. There are heirloom lettuces and funky mushrooms on the menu. There are arty condiment smears galore on the plates.
And there are compromises.
Some come in the form of food for conservative diners. They're here for the convention, not the unconventional. So a steakhouse-style section of the menu offers meat or fish with traditional sauces and traditional steakhouse sides. "You have to do grilled cheese for room service," Klein says later by phone. "You have to have pizza in the lounge - things I never thought I'd be doing."
Some come in the form of execution. Aura's kitchen staff still seems to be adjusting to a new set of expectations and skills (though Klein brought two sous chefs with her). On one visit, that steak and eggs reflects this. The asparagus is perfectly cooked and stacked neatly like a cord of wood. The poached egg is nicely fried in its panko crust, though the yolk isn't quite as runny as it could be. But the steak, a lovely piece of meat - 8 ounces of grilled, all-natural Brandt filet mignon - is raw in spots. The server insists we send it back; when the new steak arrives an unrealistically short period of time later, it's even more underdone than the first. We're the only diners in the restaurant, so this can't be chalked up to kitchen stress.
A duet of Berkshire pork, loin vs. belly on the plate, is a study in point-counterpoint. The belly sits on a mound of sweet and sour purple cabbage that jousts with its richness. Smears of hot Chinese mustard shoot across the plate like comets, intersecting with trails of sweet beet syrup. But the fat of the belly isn't rendered enough to become luscious - it still reads in the mouth like fat, rather than mouth-filling pleasure. The loin comes with a complementary piquant apple mostarda, an Italian fruit and mustard condiment. But the meat is dry and overcooked, despite the server's suggestion of ordering it medium-rare.
Kampachi crudo sounds like a beautiful dish. Raw fish accented by pineapple-red jalapeno confit, vanilla bean, ginger, basil, and fleur de sel, it was the first thing to catch everyone's eye on the menu. But on the plate, the fish and the spicy elements are overwhelmed by the sweet elements. Balance is a difficult thing to teach and learn, on the plate as in life.
When it's achieved, Aura's dishes sing. Steak & Melon is a summer cookout in one dish, albeit a black-tie cookout. Squares of sirloin from Painted Hills are edged in chili; the meat is paper-thin and so rare it's almost the color of bresaola. It's fantastically flavorful. The meat lies atop a salad of peppery greens, thin-sliced cucumbers, and red onion slivers, piled on a square of watermelon. Before it on the plate is a thick curlicue of sweet and spicy red pepper confit with bits of cashews sprinkled over it.
A soft-shell crab appetizer is heightened by the presence of tender smoked potatoes. Tiny cubes of meat lend a further layer of smoke; they're Chinese sausage, not bacon as they first appear. Chicken is served with white beans, tarragon pesto, hearts of romaine, and radish salad. White meat and dark meat are both juicy, with skin so crisp it practically shatters between your teeth. But the plate is a mess, with all the ingredients piled on top of each other and the romaine unattractively brown in places.
Black cod comes in an arresting presentation, the fish in a white pool that turns out to be a pureed ginger "rice pudding." The fish is on the greasy side, but it's served with clumps of flavorful maitake mushrooms. Emperor Tamo tofu is a disappointment for vegetarians; evidently this emperor wrested power from General Tso after smacking him down in a deep-frying contest. The tofu nuggets are so hard and crunchy you can barely cut through them. A dessert of rose-flavored oeufs a la neige makes up for it. It's perfect, lightly floral, the meringue melting in your mouth beside tiny cubes of gelee, the confection further perfumed by lychee sorbet.
On the night of the steak debacle, our server comps us a chocolate dessert, a flight of little cakes and candies. It's a nice gesture. Though the kitchen staff's efforts don't always succeed, the servers are spot on. They have plenty of time for personalized attention on those nights when only one or two parties are eating. At a conference-oriented hotel, Saturdays can be dead while Mondays are busy. It's unpredictable, Klein says.
Kind of like the food at Aura. With time, one hopes, comes consistency. And an improved atmosphere - the decor is currently classic hotel restaurant, but new crystal, lighting, and banquettes are on their way. As Klein says later, Aura is a work in progress.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
