Crustacean: Fusion of Vietnamese, French and Chinese Seafood Traditions (Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, San Francisco) (1/2)

Crustacean,is an upscale Viet namese restaurant featuring Asian-Euro cuisine located in Beverly Hills, with additional locations in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Its success has been guaranteed by the continued presence of usually fickle celebrities and trend setters. The food at Crustacean is reminiscent of the An family’s homeland, and Helene An’s business is equally family driven. Meanwhile, Crustacean also blends both mom-and-pop and corporate management styles, which includes having a business plan and adopting technology. Culinary Secrets Beware, culinary spies, thanks to the Secret Kitchen, the An Family's recipes are well protected! The Secret Kitchen is a completely enclosed kitchen within the main kitchen, off limits to all employees except An Family members. Here, Chef Helene and the Ans prepare their secret family recipes, such as the An's Famous Roasted Crab and Garlic Noodles. These dishes are the key to the restaurants' success. The Cuisine Helene An’s philosophy of cooking is based on the healthy principles of Eastern medicine and the healing properties of herbs, spices, and roots. The balance between the taste factor and its healthy principle follows the "The Yin & Yang Philosophy of Cooking. She prefers tastes that are simple, clean, and refined, nothing heavy, sticky, or overpowering, and definitely not fatty or oily. Complex flavors and textures must always be balanced with freshness and lightness. Most importantly, food must not only taste good, but also be good for customers. Her Secret Kitchen Sauces (which she also sells to the public) are her pantry staples. Because they are so versatile, She uses them in many of her dishes. Naturally, herbs and spices appear in all her sauces. Henceforth, came the flavors Garlic Lime, Orange Ginger, Ginger Balsamic, Mustard Peanut, Soy Miso, and Sweet Spicy Bean. With the vibrant mix of ingredients, her sauces go with Eastern and Western diets, as well as the blend of these styles for contemporary palates. Crustacean takes wine very seriously, and offers a solid 140-selection wine list that any restaurant would be proud to offer. Every single dish on Crustacean’s menu is paired with a recommended wine, available either by the bottle or in a 4-ounce glass. For example, Dungeness crab puffs are paired with Toad Hollow Chardonnay 1997. Colonnara Verdicchio Cru Cuprese 1995 is suggested for the salad of calamari with green papaya, Asian basil and lemongrass vinaigrette. Award Winning Interior Design Hailed as the nations best new restaurant by Esquire Magazine when it opened in January 1997, Crustacean Beverly Hills has been lauded ever since by the press worldwide for its' awarding winning Euro-Vietnamese design featuring the now famous "Walk on Water" entrance - a serpentine aquarium that winds through the cocktail lounge of the restaurant, guiding guests to the French Colonial splendor of the main dining room. Daughter Elizabeth An's interior design, a recreation of her grand-parents French Colonial estate in Hanoi, has been the focus of articles in USA Today, InStyle, E, Style Channel, and CNN. Every customer who enters Crustacean will stop short, staring in awe at the fish-filled stream that meanders across the restaurant floor. Only then do they walk on the glass-topped water. Everything there echoes Saigon circa 1960-and found only in art-house movies or French-colonial novels. There’s an encircled imposing teakwood wine rack, and a bar where beautiful people sip Veuve-Clicquot. Cutting-edge Technology to Improve Service