By Summer Sewell
There’s a soft-spoken dude named Ko Son who turns his house on Valencia Street into an underground supper club at least twice a month. He calls it Naked Kitchen because the whole point is transparent dining, with the kitchen’s swinging doors kept open. I was lucky enough to snag a seat to his last dinner, which took place on Sunday, Oct. 21.
Ko lives in a pretty, purple Victorian. From outside, it looks pretty regular. Inside, it’s highly enviable, floor to ceiling. But it’s the kitchen set up — a temperature-regulated wine cellar, marble kitchen island, and eight-eyed stainless steel stove — that lets you know Ko is serious about dinner. He “cashed out” after a tech career in Silicon Valley, and now shares his passion for superb dining by inviting guests into his home.
Naked Kitchen started in April 2012 as a place for restaurant chefs to try out new menu items and throw parties for friends. Various local chefs have cooked for Ko’s parties, but cooking for us Sunday night were Naked veterans Ian Mullen (Per Se, Fifth Floor) and Ryan Baker (Coi, Quince, Delfina). They cooked for the very first dinner and have seen Ko’s endeavor grow from 10 guests seated in the kitchen to a waiting list for one of 32 seats in Ko’s dining room.
That’s Ko on the left, food expediting, which is his dinner party night gig. The guy in the cowboy hat and the lady with a neon orange jacket caught my attention early on and turned out to be Mark and Myriam Pasternak, the owners of Marin’s Devil’s Gulch Ranch, who supplied the incredibly tender rabbit meat for two of the night’s five dishes. If you’ve eaten bunny at a noted local restaurant (like, Chez Panisse, Jardiniere, French Laundry, and the dreamy rabbit cannelloni I had at Rich Table), it was probably from their ranch.
As Mark talked to us about his sustainable farming practices, my nose was having an affair with the smell of slow cooked pig billowing from the kitchen.
Look at the layers on that pork belly! That’s what happens when you cook it at 60 degrees for 36 hours. It was served with rabbit confit, fennel branch, buttermilk and, wait for it…watermelon. Amazing. Giving the pork belly a run for its money for best dish of the night was the agnolotti of quail (basically, quail ravioli), which I made disappear … twice. Sometimes I have no shame in asking for seconds at a dinner party, especially when my liquid courage is up. Naked Kitchen is BYOB (“B” for bottles, as in wine, not beer), and it seemed guests definitely got that memo. Three hours after we started (courses at these dinners are paced slow), most everyone was feeling loose. Guests started flowing into the kitchen, passionately thanking Ian and Ryan.
Naked Kitchen feels like dining at a friend’s house, if your friends have mini-mansions and charge $95 a seat, that is. For five courses of five star food, it’s not so much to ask.
All photos by Summer Sewell
