Celebrated Chef Returns With No-Fuss French Cooking in Quiet Setting

Just as most of us can recognize a Picasso without glancing at the signature on the canvas, nearly anyone who dined at Sheppard’s in its early days could read a menu that mentions sauteed duck liver salad in Calvados cream sauce and conclude that Cindy Black must be in the kitchen.

After wandering at length in the culinary desert, Black is back. Black gained national notice in 1983 when she took command of the batterie de cuisine at the Sheraton Harbor Island hotel’s haute and haughty entry in the local restaurant sweepstakes and molded Sheppard’s kitchen into one of the three or four best in town. Her marriage to Sheraton executive chef Bob Brody, another powerhouse in San Diego cooking, eventually prompted her to leave the hotel, and Black spent several years designing menus for the Paragon Restaurant Group, owner of the Boathouse, Rusty Pelican and Carlos Murphy chains. The birth of their son, Philip, in late 1988 completed Black’s withdrawal from serious cooking until early this month when she returned in high style by opening Cindy Black’s.

Black has remodeled the La Jolla Boulevard premises that long housed DiCanti’s into a comfortable, quietly chic showcase for the unfussy French cooking that she performs with panache. A menu that includes barbecued eggplant salad, Provencal chicken stew, braised veal breast and grilled oysters shows a definite slant toward rustic and regional French fare rather than the more refined but sometimes contrived creations of haute cuisine . The presence of dishes that speak with the accent of southwestern France is explained by the training Black received in that land of garlic, goose fat and hearty eating.

The dish that perhaps best defines Black’s approach is neither appetizer nor entree, but the side dish that accompanies main courses. The menu notes “all entrees served with house gratin,” an item that changes daily, taking the form of a buttery combo of parsnips and turnips or of a lovely casserole of polenta and kohlrabi. While American cooking interprets gratin as solely signifying potatoes au gratin, or spuds in a cheese (or, too frequently, cheesy) sauce, the term actually refers to a low-sided baking dish in which nearly anything can be baked under a coverlet of white sauce and crumbs or grated cheese until it takes on a rich and thoroughly worldly complexion. Because the sauces on Black’s entrees tend to avoid heavy butter and cream enrichments, her gratins bring to the table the happy, creamy richness that seems so necessary in a French meal.

Little of the menu is available elsewhere locally. For starters, Black offers such things as mussels steamed in hard cider, a typical Norman preparation; a heady shellfish soup topped with a froth of sherried whipped cream; grilled oysters finished with spinach and Pernod butter, and Comice pear draped with prosciutto, a combination from southwestern France, where the local Bayonne ham replaces prosciutto.

The simplest of the appetizers--poached leeks vinaigrette--is carried out with a fine hand. Stalks of “poor man’s asparagus” are simmered in veal stock, which gentles their flavor while allowing them to retain their earthiness. A band of chopped egg decorates the leeks, and if the vinaigrette coating seems almost demure in its mildness, it lets the leeks to be the stars of their own show.

The starter of choice, however, would unquestionably be the pan-seared duck livers bedded on wilted Belgian endive and spinach. This arrangement of rare livers, agreeably bitter greens and a simple sauce (made by washing the saute pan with cream and apple brandy) is, in a word, delicious--another of Black’s graceful bows to the fine cooking of Normandy.

Those bows continue with such entrees as the whole Dover sole meuniere, but the attention here focuses much more strongly on the French Southwest. Roast leg of lamb with pan juices and creamed garlic is emblematic of this cooking style, as is the grilled marinated swordfish sprinkled with a finely chopped blend of coriander, lemon peel and garlic. The parentage of the grilled-in-shell shrimp with hot spices and bourbon is more problematic, although, if the bourbon were replaced by Armagnac, the dish could be Basque. Provencal chicken stew shares some characteristics with bouillabaisse, the famous fish soup of the Riviera, in that it is garnished with garlic croutons, grated Gruyere and rouille , a creamy mayonnaise seasoned with crushed red peppers. The chief attraction of the New York steak in shallot sauce seems to be the homemade french fries. A request for a sampling of fries results in a side dish large enough for the table, and, while fried potatoes may seem rather banal, they are not when done properly--cooked into crisp but melting strands. Black prepares them that way.

Rack of lamb roasted under a coating of parsleyed bread crumbs is succulent and pleasant, but the cleverest of Black’s entrees is duck grilled “two ways.” The plate contains the usual leg-thigh-breast combination, but the leg and thigh is treated to the confit process while the fresh breast is simply grilled rare, sliced and spread in a fan. The breast is excellent, but the confit-- duck simmered in fat and left to absorb seasonings--is exquisitely moist and very deeply flavored. A pungent and aromatic toss of shredded leeks and ginger root centers the plate and unites the highly distinct duck preparations.

The dessert list includes a buttery Basque cake with preserves and an orange cake soaked in juice and liqueur, and becomes quite elegant with a complicated Charlotte of lady fingers layered with almond cream. The dark chocolate brownie cake with caramel ice cream is the one identifiably American dish, and it’s something of a braggart under its cloak of dark, smooth chocolate sauce.

Classifying Cindy Black’s is difficult because it seems to occupy its own niche. Black herself has described it as a “cozy neighborhood restaurant with moderate prices,” a description that seems modest on both counts. It is informal but not really casual, and, while the chicken stew costs $10.50, most entrees are considerably higher. Dinner for two, with a moderately priced bottle of wine, tax and tip, should cost about $60 to $100.

CINDY BLACK’S

5721 La Jolla Blvd.

456-6299

Dinner served Tuesday through Sunday; closed Monday.

Credit cards accepted.