Culinary catwalk

FIRE Dragon Breathing On Beetroot may not be a martial arts fighting stance, but it kind of describes Joshua Skenes - a nod to his kung fu instructor past and his mastery of a primitive cooking form that is key to the painstakingly crafted compositions that land on the tables of his restaurant Saison in San Francisco.

Case in point: the humble beetroot - cooked and suspended for two days over the perpetually glowing embers of the kitchen hearth until dehydrated, then cooked in beetroot juice until it rehydrates and achieves an amazing, intensely-flavoured chewy, gummy bear-like texture. Paired with roasted bone marrow, sour red berries and fir needles, it's a crimson-hued still life on a plate and an epiphany in the mouth.

Mind you, it was already dish number 10 in a long evening of highs at a restaurant once dissed for serving pricey US$248 menus but which now offers US$398 Discovery menus without a whisper of dissent. Now that Saison has been named 'the one to watch' at this year's World's 50 Best Awards, it's getting a lot more buzz, not that it affects Chef Skenes in any way. Instead, he's much more interested in perfecting his craft and sourcing the best ingredients, whether it's vegetables grown on the restaurant's own farm, or fish and abalone caught and harvested specially for them.