Kitchen’s menu is not an attempt to be gimmicky. It is a menu, like any other restaurant’s, that attempts to create a cuisine based on something. The North End of Boston, like many older Italian establishments, recreated Italian cuisine to the point that it was no longer Italian; hence the term American Italian.
The same can be said for almost all immigrant style cuisines in the United States.
Kitchen’s menu is my attempt to highlight dishes that have a culinary significance for whatever the reason. Cuisine, dining, cooking and recipes are part of what makes us human. The art of cooking and sharing recipes is key to our survival and helps create a culture. Recipes have been passed down from the beginning of society and it is those recipes that have sustained us through the years.
A cookbook is novel in the fact that it represents a snapshot in the culinary timetable. It shows what people wanted and often times had available to eat. A cookbook in many ways was the first form of a self-help book, because to eat is one thing, but to create a meal that tastes good and utilizes the abundance of available ingredients, is another. To transform that into a dining experience is truly part of what again makes us human.
The menu at Kitchen, in truest form, is nothing but our interpretation of recipes, dishes, and cooking techniques. In essence, the same as any menu at any restaurant, but Kitchen states on the menu with a circa date the point of reference of that dish.
Kitchen is an American restaurant because it is in America. A restaurant that attempts to make the diner feel like they are in France by wording the restroom signs in French and putting miniature statues of the Eiffel Tower on display with vintage French posters is creating a gimmick. In the end, gimmick or no gimmick, a restaurant will be graded by its service and its food. Kitchen is designed to be a comfortable setting where diners can enjoy good service with well prepared and presented drinks and food…nothing more nothing less.