▼ Café French Reconnection Revisiting the legendary Christopher’s. BY CHRIS MALLOY T here was a time French cuisine was the pinnacle of American cooking. But the generations have changed, and now we eat more widely and casually. The idea of French food today has taken on an air, almost like that of classical poetry, me- dieval history, or black-and-white photog- raphy. It feels like it belongs to the past. One of the Valley’s most celebrated chefs for decades, Christopher Gross, win- ner of a James Beard Award, now 65 years old, has cooked at restaurants in Paris and Chablis. He was trained the old way. He prepares dishes like foie gras terrine, pate, and souffle. He cooks French food. After two years of construction, Gross just opened a new restaurant, Christo- pher’s. It’s a sleek, expensive-looking space adjoining Wrigley Mansion, a dark jewel box with floor-to-ceiling glass walls that give diners a panoramic view south over the sprawl and towers of downtown Phoe- nix. Gross says this restaurant will likely be his last. Heading into Christopher’s, I had this drama on my mind: old-school French- trained chef, new world of eating. How would it taste, feel, and be? There are two lanes you can take at Christopher’s for dinner: classics on week- nights or the tasting menu on weekends. The tasting menu is an imaginative flight so unconventional that Gross uses dinnerware tailored to each artful course, including a Cosanti bell. At $250 a pop be- fore booze, though, the tasting menu is out of my price league. Instead, I went classics. They are retrieved from significant points in Gross’s career and aren’t cheap either: $100 for a three-course prix fixe with added touches like amuse-bouche and Scotch-infused chocolate truffles to close. Even the classics menu has a dreamlike quality. You lose track of the number of servers that come to your table. The sun sets over the city. The wine list feels infi- nite. After an amuse bouche, there is bread service. Baguette and sourdough, both baked here, are so good that it will be a challenge to refrain from stuffing down too many slices as the night deepens. So, too, is the decadent butter produced in-house us- Above: Chef Christopher Gross. Below: Duck two ways. Jacob Tyler Dunn Jacob Tyler Dunn ing Fond du Lac Farms dairy. Starters lean rustic. A country pate brings irony, meat-creamy thunder and is an excellent reason to launch a second at- tack on the bread. It might seem simple, but I did enjoy the house-smoked salmon served with simply dressed greens. To re- duce this bad boy from fresh fish to smoke- touched pink folds that dissolve on your tongue, Gross employs a method he learned at a restaurant near Versailles. He rigs sheet pans and a baker’s box drilled with a hole, using this makeshift vessel to smoke a salt-and-sugar-cured, high-fat Norwegian salmon for 24 hours at no warmer than 94 degrees. Great food and great dining experiences demand great attention to detail. In the bright twilight of his career, Gross deals in microscopic details. From the placement of the silverware (in a drawer that pulls out from the table) to the thoughtful- >> p 26 25 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES JAN 6TH– JAN 12TH, 2022
