January 11, 2022 – Monterey’s landmark Montrio restaurant is getting ready to reopen with an acclaimed new executive chef. Meet Sascha Lyon—a chef with deep appreciation for French cuisine and respect for restaurants as institutions. Perhaps that’s because he has worked at many of them—beginning his career at L’Ermitage and Citrus in Los Angeles and as part of star chef Daniel Boulud’s opening team at Daniel in New York.
“Chef Lyon’s pedigree is absolutely phenomenal,” says Ken Donkersloot, whose Coastal Roots Hospitality Group owns Montrio, along with Rio Grill and Tarpy’s Roadhouse. “But what I’m really impressed by is his adaptability.
“We serve business, tourist and local diners and can’t go to tweezer food, but he understands how to elevate the cuisine and adapt to the expectations of the clientele.”
Montrio has been closed for about a year due to the pandemic and has undergone an interior makeover. They hope to reopen by mid-February.
Sascha Lyon, 49, is a native of Los Angeles and has been cooking since he was a teenager. He and his wife Margarita had been dreaming of raising their two children in a smaller town along the California coast, when the previously hired chef left and the Montrio position became available.
“We found a house out past Carmel Valley Village and can see hawks and horses, cows, deer. It’s so epic and beautiful, I can’t believe we get to live here!” he says.
Lyon’s culinary career started as a child. “When I was growing up, my Dad figured out a way that the family could spend 6 months of the year in Europe, so that set the tone for my appreciation of fine dining.”
In a stoke of amazing luck, he ended up helping in the kitchen of LA’s temple of French cuisine, L’Ermitage, at age 15, and still recalls being awestuck.
“It was like walking into the Ratatouille kitchen, everything was gleaming copper and in the dining room it was all sterling silver, crystal and Villeroy & Boch china,” he says.
He went on to work at Citrus under the tutelage of renowned chef Michel Richard and chef de cuisine Alain Giraud, then attended the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York.
After graduation he was chosen to be one of the 12 young chefs on the opening team at Daniel Boulud’s namesake restaurant in Manhattan.
“It was a time when these great chefs only had one restaurant and we would all hang out together,” he recalls. “It was an intense environment, but I just fell in love with the romance of the kitchen and the restaurant world.”
Lyon went on to work at prestigious New York restaurants Balthazar and Pastis, known for their French cuisine, and to start his own restaurant SASCHA. Then he returned to work on a number of projects in LA. Most recently, he was executive chef at the farm-to-table King Estate Winery in Eugene, Ore. with access to a 200-acre vegetable garden.
All of these experiences inform the food his kitchen will be serving once Montrio reopens.
“I’m very excited to be able to take over a restaurant that has an iconic status,” Lyon says. “It’s a 27-year-old restaurant in a 100-year old building, its history is something to appreciate. You can’t get better than that.”
While respecting the past is important and some customer favorites, like braised short ribs, will remain on the menu, changes are in store.
For instance, he hopes to use Montrio’s wood burning oven to make flatbreads or pizettes, and will add housemade pastas to the menu beginning with agnolotti with foraged mushrooms.
He’s also dreaming of a melty French onion soup, browned in the wood oven.
“I don’t want the show to stop when my food hits the table, I just want it to make good memories,” he says.
Lyon plans an abundance of seafood dishes, which he says is something visitors are looking for. Pacific sea bass over creamed leeks in a sauce vin rouge with potatoes Maxim is on the opening menu and he hopes to offer a Provençal garbure stew made with sustainably-farmed steelhead trout.
Seared scallops with crispy artichokes and watermelon radish on peppery arugula with black truffle vinaigrette will also be on the opening menu, along with pan roasted duck and steak. Cioppino and bouillabaisse will make regular appearances.
“It has to feel like the same restaurant, but fixed up a little. It will be accessible, but we will be refining the service and making it more enjoyable,” he promises.
For example, he is considering adding steak tartare to the menu, prepared tableside. “The goal is to expand tableside service to enhance the experience, even if it is just a sauce that is poured on at the table.”
Later this year, when it’s in season, the chef promises to put the dish that got him the job on the menu. It’s Alaskan halibut with crushed Yukon gold potatoes and Niçoise olives over diced tomatoes with sweet and sour shallots, and Donkersloot calls it “out of this world.”
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
