August 31, 2021 – To some, Chef Cal Stamenov’s new home might seem a surprise, at least at first, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.
Whatever the case, suddenly one of the area’s singular culinary composers has a fresh page to script his symphonies.
In the saturated culinary scene that is Carmel-by-the-Sea, Grasing’s Restaurant—ironically—flies under the radar because it soars so steadily.
It’s the kind of place that draws satisfaction from unflashy excellence, and has grown consistently while deepening a striking wine list and massive wine cellar, and while adding an award-winning (but still underrated) bar program steered by some of the better barkeeps in the area. It helps when employees stay for long tenures and a veteran GM in Darryl Brewer directs traffic.
What might make the most sense about the pairing is the restaurant’s fixation on the best seasonal and local product, which matches Stamenov’s.
That’s a big part of the chemistry chef-owner Kurt Grasing and Stamenov share after decades as colleagues, friends and occasional collaborators.
They both grew up obsessed with the produce around them, grasshopper Grasing saving up to buy raspberry bushes as a kid, young Stamenov foraging citrus around his neighborhood.
Both trained long and hard in classic French techniques, worked their way up in world class kitchens, and have gone on to lead their own.
Both once had kids on the same Carmel soccer team.
Both are masters of the holistic approach to hospitality, where attention is customized and table side check-ins from the chef often completes the experience.
Both have range to do simple to wildly complex, but ultimately circle back to the foundation of any great chef: ideal ingredients.
“In a lot of ways our paths are similar, but he went up his tree and I went up my tree,” Grasing says. “We both have a love of the Earth, a love of product and we both bring that to our dishes.”
Both have reached a position of renown in their careers where they can be selective about what, with whom and how they ply their trade.
What might surprise people is that what both want most is to keep taking chances.
“It’s the opposite of us reaching some level of achievement,” Grasing says. “We haven’t accomplished all we want to.
“[We] want to say, ‘We’re still reaching.’ That we’re not finished yet. He could go off into retirement but he still wants to do things he hasn’t. The safe thing would be to be safe. I don’t think either one of us has taken that road in our career. There’s no reason to start down that road now.”
Stamenov laughs when he hears that. “That’s about right,” he says. “There’s a lot I want to do. I am still aspiring for a Michelin star before I die.”
Some quick specifics on what else he has in mind as he starts the day after this publishes (Sept. 1, 2021):
• Developing a chef table experience with, to cite one possibility, a corner of the dining room that’s curtained off and accompanied by personalized chef interaction and big-flavor, low-allocation wine finds from the lengthy wine list curated by Wine Director Eric Ewers.
• Working on memorable vegetable-driven items for lunch time. “There’s not a lot of places to go, especially in Carmel, where you can guarantee a nice organic lunch,” Stamenov says.
• Building out festive and uncommon holiday menus featuring things like rabbit, venison, pheasant, sweet potato and huckleberry.
• Embracing the chance to work in a true restaurant kitchen for the first time in more than a quarter century spent at resort destinations. “That’s what I’m really looking forward to: Less demands pulling me in different directions, more forward-thinking.”
Edible Monterey Bay checked in with a few area epicurean authorities on the import of the novel Stamenov-Grasing partnership.
Hyper-connected Glenn Hammer is one such individual after launching local restaurant projects and helping lead local gourmand groups across a half-century that include both chefs. He also happens to be a major fan of both Grasing’s and Stamenov and has two visits and a group event in the works for the Stamenov era.
“They both respect each other, they both like each other, and they’ve known each other a long time,” Hammer says. “If you can add a Cal Stamenov, why wouldn’t you want to? I think it’s a marriage of two true hospitality pros. A lot of people want to be in the restaurant business, but not many people give true hospitality like they do.”
Dorothy Maras represents another such perspective after her own decades-long run opening, running and closing restaurants. That led to writing and consulting on them and wrangling the myriad chefs at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, which earned her the nickname “chef whisperer.”
“Everybody has another chapter in them, and it’s good to turn the page: You have to continue to grow,” she says. “The time [Stamenov] spent at Bernardus was great for the area and I’m glad he stayed.
“But at the same time, what people don’t understand is when you’re working in the kitchen, the non-glamorous side, to do that in the same location in the same surroundings for prolonged periods of time, it becomes mind-numbing. I’ve seen it happen to so many chefs, myself included, and you need to stop what you’re doing, look at yourself, ask, ‘Do I want to keep doing this or turn the page?’”
Like many she’s happy she won’t have to drive as far for Stamenov’s uniquely Central Coast-inspired cuisine.
“I would love to see what Cal has in mind,” she says. “What Kurt does is already wonderful. It’s a win-win.”
It’s also an indicator that the true masters of a trade as tricky as this one—especially the masters—are the ones who recognize how little they know in the big scheme of things, and how much there is to better understand.
“It’ll be our work in progress,” Grasing says. “We’ll continue to paint the masterpiece.”
More at (831) 624-6562 or grasings.com.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
