<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Last year, even when she was at a dreary, now-defunct restaurant in Santa Monica, it was evident that Dominique Crenn&amp;#039;s food possessed a stylishness and precision that place her among California&amp;#039;s greatest chefs. Her new place, Luce, is a big restaurant (130 seats), but with its tall windows, mosaics, and metallic accents in the curtains and banquettes, it has the kind of welcoming lightness that makes you forget it is in a hotel.  If you meet Crenn--and there&amp;#039;s a good chance she&amp;#039;ll come out of the kitchen to ask how you enjoyed your evening--you&amp;#039;ll realize her refined, elegant menu is a reflection of the woman herself. You taste it in her lovely &amp;quot;surf and turf carpaccio&amp;quot; of translucent slices of beef and Arctic char with a spicy black-olive gelato, and in her sumptuous roast guinea fowl with smoked pancetta and a ragout of escarole, white beans, and wild mushrooms, and, in a triumph of simplicity, two golden fillets of sea bass with an artichoke stew, kumquat escabeche, and the welcome addition of peppery purslane. Her six-course menu at seventy-five dollars and the eight-course menu at ninety-five dollars are astounding bargains for a quality of cuisine that in Paris would cost you three times as much. I have never doubted that women cook with more wholesomeness than most men, and I doubt there is a better woman cooking in America right now than Dominique Crenn. InterContinental Hotel, 888 Howard Street; 415-616-6566. For more stories related to &amp;quot;Esquire&amp;#039;s Best New Restaurants, 2008,&amp;quot; including our chef, hostess, and tables of the year, please click this link. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/reviews/a5260/chef-of-the-year-2008/>