May 17, 2016 – Carmel Valley’s beloved Corkscrew Café has a brand-new executive chef, and with that a new, more contemporary menu that he aims to keep dynamic and evolving.
Before taking over from former Corkscrew chef Anna Marie Bayonito in early May, Nash Rook had spent brief stints this spring as a sous chef at both Corkscrew and its sister restaurant in Carmel, Casanova—where he was able to work with Casanova executive chef David Baron.
Previously, Rook was executive chef at M.R. Slims, a gastrobar in Morgan Hill. Since entering the restaurant world at 18, Rook has also cooked at the high-end Bay Area steakhouse group Alexander’s Steakhouse and Morgan Hill’s Odeum, among other restaurants.
“It’s going to be very similar to what we’ve been doing but more progressive,” says Walter Georis, who with his wife Sylvia, owns Corkscrew and Casanova as well as Georis Winery. “He’s a very talented young man with a passion for food, a good artistic eye for presentation and a real sense of taste.”
For his part, Rook, 28, says his plan is to hold price points where they are, but elevate the restaurant’s offerings with a menu that is constantly changing according to what ingredients are freshest and most inspiring
“I just want to make simple, good food with a modern approach and focus on local ingredients as well as pairing with Georis wines, Rook says, adding that the idea is to “push the limits on the food a little bit while keeping it grounded in fresh local, organic and sustainable.”
Rook has been growing his own microgreens and shitake and tree oyster mushrooms, and his kitchen is provided with organic eggs and produce from the Georis Winery. He’s especially excited to work with our region’s farmers, fishermen and foragers, as well as MEarth, the Carmel nonprofit which Corkscrew and Casanova collaborate with to stage fundraising events and teach children about food and the environment.
“I feel really in love with the Monterey area,” says the San Jose native, whose father was born in Monterey.
On a recent evening, Rook’s enthusiasm for our area’s bounty and his creativity were clearly evident.
New items on the menu included a complex and beautiful dish of cauliflower of varied colors that had been roasted and seasoned with wine-poached cranberries, toasted coriander and a fermented Fresno chile and sherry emulsion.
A thai chile gazpacho containing watermelon, cucumbers, honeydew melon and coconut milk as well as Thai chiles delivered a delicious balance of heat and coolness for a warm night.
But for those afraid of losing their favorite Corkscrew standards, Rook says not to fear, that popular items like the wood-fired Sweet ‘N Salty Sausage Pizza and Pear Salad would remain on the menu.
Under the direction of dining room manager Christen Jones, the restaurant is also enhancing the service in the beautiful mission-style dining room and Provençal courtyard designed by Georis, who is also a painter.
As part of that effort, Corkscrew recently recreated the position of maître d’, which had not been filled for a couple of years. Cristian Pinel, who is studying for his first level sommelier certification, was promoted to the position. And the restaurant is sending its wait staff to the new wine courses being offered to the pubic by Casanova’s beverage director Jeff Birkemeier.
Going forward, the plan is for the kitchens of Corkscrew and Casanova (where Rook’s brother, Sanders, works as a line cook) to collaborate more.
Rook also plans to offer more light, sharable plates like the tuna tartar he recently added to the menu, as well as a lot of wild game, and perhaps a burger of the month, featuring such meats as bison and lamb burger.
But whatever he dreams up, you can be sure he’ll keep it changing.
“My philosophy is if a menu changes often, customers only have to come to one place,” says Georis.
About the author
SARAH WOOD—founding editor and publisher of Edible Monterey Bay—has had a life-long passion for food, cooking, people and our planet.
She planted her first organic garden and cared for her first chicken when she was in elementary school in a farming region of Upstate New York.
Wood spent the early part of her career based in Ottawa, Canada, working in international development and international education. After considering culinary school, she opted to pursue her loves for writing, learning about the world and helping make it a better place by obtaining a fellowship and an MA in Journalism from New York University.
While working for a daily newspaper in New Jersey, she wrote stories that helped farmers fend off development and won a state-wide public service award from the New Jersey Press Association for an investigative series of articles about a slumlord who had hoodwinked ratings agencies and investment banks into propping him up with some early commercial mortgage securitizations. The series led Wood to spend several years in financial journalism, most recently, as editor-in-chief of the leading magazine covering the U.S. hedge-fund industry.
Wood now lives with her family in Washington, DC, where she is a freelance writer and manages communications for Samaritan Ministry, an antipoverty and antiracist nonprofit that provides struggling Greater Washington residents with highly personalized and compassionate life counseling and coaching.
