Los Angeles Times — Travel Section

December 1998

By [Travel Columnist], Los Angeles Times

“The Best Appetizer in California”

MAMMOTH LAKES — Every so often, a dish interrupts conversation. Forks pause. Eyes lift. There’s a moment of quiet recalibration and the realization that something unexpected has just happened. At The Lakefront Restaurant at Tamarack Lodge, that moment arrived in the form of a three-mushroom pastry. In a state known for culinary innovation from San Diego to Sonoma, a small lakeside restaurant in the Eastern Sierra quietly served what may be the best appetizer this travel writer has ever encountered.

Golden and delicately layered, the pastry gave way to a filling that was at once earthy, aromatic, and startlingly alive with flavor. It was the kind of appetizer that didn’t merely precede a meal: it defined it.

Then came the detail that explained everything. Chef Frédéric Pierrel had personally foraged some of the mushrooms in the surrounding Sierra forests. The revelation reframed the dish entirely. This was not simply classical French technique applied in a mountain town. It was a direct conversation between landscape and plate. The mushrooms carried the depth of the alpine soil, layered into a pastry executed with disciplined European precision.

Pierrel brings formidable technique to the kitchen, yes, but it is his willingness to step into the woods, to seek ingredients at their source, that elevates this dish from excellent to extraordinary. In a state crowded with celebrated restaurants and headline chefs, it is remarkable that one of the most unforgettable bites might be found beside Twin Lakes in a quiet lodge dining room, where a simple appetizer delivers an undeniable culinary epiphany.