"Suzanne's Cuisine", Ojai, California, USA

Despite a wealthy population, Ojai has not had a notable success in providing fine dining for its inhabitants and visitors in this singularly special spot on the world map until Suzanne Roll established ber restaurant in 1992. For some time, Chef Suzanne Roll with her restaurant "Suzanne's Cuisine" has helped to turn the tide.

Unlike most Ojai restaurants that have come and gone after a notable but brief flair, Suzanne, who opened her restaurant in 1992, really hit her stride in 2000. The food has influences of Italy, France and the Mediterranean blended nicely with California styles and American trends. The ambience of the interior is a relaxed formality while the terrace is covered with a view of the lovely garden at the back.

© 2001 photos Peter D'Aprix

A term we like to use to describe Suzanne's style is "Haute Rustique"". Her menu is well balanced with some rich dishes, others lighter but no less tasty for it and others that will make vegetarians (and the rest of us) swoon - like her Roasted Garlic Salad with Romaine and Feta, tomatoes, red onion and roasted garlic cloves. Lunch is a lighter menu than dinner.

The restaurant itself reflects Suzanne's talent from her former métier as an interior decorator. Understated, in calm tones of wood, soft, light sands and dusky greens, the interior offers a peaceful and harmonious environment in which to enjoy her food. But most patrons prefer to eat in the covered patio with its view of the charming Mediterranean garden in the back. A wall fountain add a background water noise.

In common with most fine chefs, freshness of ingredients is paramount and madame chef utilizes three different local farmers markets as well as individual suppliers who put their focus on her restaurant above other customers. She considers herself fortunate in having a fresh fish purveyor who delivers to Ojai (85 miles north of Los Angeles) four or five days a week.

Suzanne's charming and friendly daughter Sandra runs the business side of the enterprise. Equipped with an MBA in finance and marketing she is the perfect partner and they appear to work seamlessly together. Sandra tends to be at the restaurant lunch times while her mother is at the restaurant in the evenings.

Dining at Suzanne's several times over the weeks prior to interviewing the chef and her daughter gave us the opportunity to sample a number of dishes. The steamed mussels are perfectly executed, the grilled vegetable salad an amazingly good blend and all of the salads are crisp and beautifully dressed. There are always two or more soups available between the menu and the daily specials. The soups are completely satisfying and the great breads which are baked locally to Suzanne's own recipes are moist on the inside and crusty on the out. Great with butter or the olive oil she provides in a small carafe on each table.

Like many of the better chefs today, Suzanne has a vineyard at her ranch in Ojai where her grapes are used by the award winning "The Ojai Vineyard" to make wines that bear her ranch name "Roll Ranch Vineyard."

Her fish is as fresh as possible. The seafood sampler is a nice blend of three fish whose tastes complement each other. The grilled Mahi Mahi with chipotle beurre blanc was excellent as was the pan-roasted Escolar with Cajun spices, citrus Ponzu and caramelized onions. We could eat the sautéed jumbo shrimp with goat cheese stuffed pasta shells every day!

We truly did not have a dish that did not work. All provided a harmonious balance of tastes. None of the riot of conflicting tastes that so many young chefs created in California today. Some dishes are smooth and subtle like the three smoked and roasted quail with shiitake mushroom sauce served with an inviting array of fresh steamed vegetables. Some are fun and make your taste buds stand up and sing such as the pan roasted Escolar with Cajun spices or the Poblano Chile stuffed with goat cheese and corn.

Suzanne's red meats are excellent cuts and tender. Her grilled New York strip steak with blue cheese, grilled onions and sautéed mushrooms probably would delight most diners, but my husband who is partial to garlic mashed potatoes and Suzanne's vegetables found that the kitchen was perfectly happy to serve it however his heart desired. He said the steak was cooked to perfection. He loves them really rare. A carry over from France.

Suzanne's Cuisine is truly a place where you can dine frequently in a casual and convivial atmosphere. We noticed clientele arriving in anything from T-shirts and shorts (linen shorts, silk T-shirt) to suits and ties and everything in between. Her lunch crowd are 95% locals who inevitably see friends not seen for a while at the Post Office, the usual meeting place. Dinner is usually 25% local and 75% out of towners mainly from Ventura and Santa Barbara and guest of the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa but many making the drive from Los Angeles. The word is getting out.

After people watching while finishing off the last of the wine after the main course, we plunged into the dessert menu. Suzanne shines as a pastry chef and baker as well. Her desserts are appropriately sinful to satisfy the most demanding chocoholic. My husband far prefers her deep, dark chocolate sorbet to any chocolate ice-cream made since the percentage of chocolate is much higher since no room needs to be used up with milk products. Just rich, black chocolate! Her banana and her coconut ice creams are excellent although my husband claims that Suzanne's coconut sorbet is better. Her lemon berry tart is indeed tart, a nice counterpart to the sweetness of the ripe, fresh berries. Her warm chocolate tart is rich and satisfying and served with white coffee sauce and a ball of chocolate sorbet.

Between her main menu and the specials you can eat with her for a week and never have the same thing twice, but I guarantee that you will develop several favorites that will bring you back many times.

What is most amazing to us is that not only is this restaurant polished and professional with a good balance between friendliness and appropriate distance while the food stands out (as noted at the beginning, this is no longer true) for it's quality and balance but that Suzanne has never worked in a professional kitchen before opening "Suzanne's Cuisine". Prior to opening in 1992, Suzanne had enjoyed cooking for her friends at home and had been a regular at the farmer's markets in the area. She lived in Paris for many years and enjoyed the French involvement with food. She is Italian-American by descent so France and Italy are quite naturally the strongest influences on her cooking. Because her son lived in Mexico for years, she has also dabbled in contemporary Mexican tastes.

When she opened there was much learning to do. Knowing she lacked professional experience, she brought over a French trained chef to manage the kitchen. She has amusing stories to tell of the exploits of this colorful character. Today her chef de cuisine is a young man who has come up through the ranks of her kitchen and excelled. She can focus on developing new recipes and refining existing ones. But she insists on being present at least four or five days a week to make sure that her dishes are arriving to her patrons and are up to the demanding standards she has set for herself. Her food has been good right from the start, but there have been times when there were problems as well. But today, the restaurant has evolved with a menu that will have something for most tastes and provides a soothing environment in which to enjoy it.

For directions to Ojai and her restaurant visit her web site linked below.