If food was a language, Chef Dominique Crenn would, without a doubt, be fluent in many tongues. Through cuisine, Crenn wishes to initiate a sort-of dialogue between herself and the diner, taking them on a culinary expedition which is reflective of her own journey through life. With each and every dish that is placed before you at Michelin Star restaurant Atelier Crenn, a piece of Dominique Crenn’s soul is being served along with it.

Located on a steep hillside in Cow Hollow, San Francisco, the esteemed Atelier Crenn embodies the calmness of nature and the beauty of the arts. Within the confines of this modest, intimate setting, Chef Propriétaire Dominique Crenn serves up a poetry-led collection of modern French cuisine. Here, it’s all about a holistic, multi-sensory fine dining experience, and such can only be achieved with immaculate attention to detail. The cuisine is as flavorsome and delectable as it is visually exquisite. In the fall of 2019, Crenn announced that Atelier Crenn would be meat-free moving forward. However, a strong seafood focus remains.

Originally from France, Dominique Crenn grew up in Versailles and spent her summers in Brittany – a picturesque region well-known for its dramatic coastline and vast forests further inland. In 1988, Crenn moved to San Francisco. Even with no formal cookery training, she managed to secure a position at Stars under Jeremiah Tower. After a couple of years jumping from one establishment to the next in California and Indonesia, Crenn’s final role prior to the founding of Atelier Crenn was as executive chef at Luce – which earned its first Michelin star in 2009 under her guidance.

Crenn embarked on a more personal project when she opened Atelier Crenn in 2011. The restaurant may bear her name, but it is not herself to which she refers. The title which adorns the restaurant’s doors pays homage to Crenn’s late father, Allain. Both a politician and a painter, Crenn’s father was instrumental in fostering her passion for the arts and for fine food. He took her to her first Michelin-starred restaurant when she was just 9-years old. Utterly fascinated by the artistry of food, Crenn returned from the experience with a goal in mind, telling her mother with surety: “I want to be a chef.” Inspired by her upbringing in France and the surrounding energy in her newfound home in San Francisco, Crenn exhibits pure works of art using her medium of choice – a diverse variety of seasonal, sustainable ingredients sourced from her very own Bleu Belle Farm in Sanoma County.

Crenn is a talented and charismatic chef, and neither traits have gone unnoticed. Atelier Crenn has been awarded not one, not two, but three Michelin Stars – making Crenn the first female chef in the United States to have such a culinary honor bestowed upon her. Other accolades include Atelier Crenn’s featuring as one of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and the James Beard award for Best Chef: West. Even amid such coveted achievements, Crenn remains humble and down-to-earth, weaving between the tables of her restaurant with the desire to form lifelong connections to the people who are there to appreciate her craft.

A sense of elegant simplicity is at the forefront of the restaurant’s inviting interior. The explosive, over-the-top creativity is left rather to the cuisine – the true focal point of the Atelier Crenn experience. The minimalistic, 24-seat dining room features a neutral and earthy colour palette of charcoal, grey, brown, cream and sage green. Elements such as the room’s  handful of wooden tables and chairs are nods to the appreciation of the natural world, which further add to the restaurant’s calm, organic atmosphere. Adorning the walls are paintings by Dominique Crenn’s father, and marble slats etched with the words of a poem that Crenn wrote on the day of his passing.

Atelier Crenn is open for dinner from Tuesday through Saturday. There is a choice of a 14-course tasting menu, and a 14-plus-course menu that begins just next door in Bar Crenn before moving into Atelier Crenn for the main tasting affair. We’d recommend the latter. If you’re going to dine at Atelier Crenn, you may as well go all out. The 3-4 hour experience begins in style with a bubbling glass of Dom Perignon. Next, guests are presented with the menu, which rests on a tree trunk stand decorated with flowers.

Except, this is where it gets interesting: it’s not quite a menu, but a poem. Each course corresponds with a line of poetry. This is what Crenn has labelled “Poetic Culinaria.” Diners are left to ponder; to play a guessing game before each dish is inevitably placed before them. By choosing to introduce the cuisine in such a way, Dominique Crenn maintains her vision of taking her guests on a journey. Each dish has its own story, and by the end of the 14-plus-course extravaganza, one has uncovered a full-fledged narrative of some of Crenn’s nearest and dearest memories. The first line reads: “Winter has come with its cool breeze.” This introduces the restaurant’s signature amuse-bouche, Kir Breton – a paper-thin cocoa shell packed with apple cider vinegar and topped with crème de cassis jam. This pops in the mouth as soon as it is set down on the tongue, cleansing one’s palate in preparation for the remaining courses.

Another dish on the Grand Tasting menu which reflects the seafood focus is the iconic geoduck, sea urchin and citrus, served in a glass dome with misty liquid nitrogen to create a “food in motion” effect. The dish is also garnished with florals, as are most of the plates at Atelier Crenn. Crenn’s plating technique is a prime example of the merging of natural elements with modern culinary creativity. Many of the dishes are served on quirky surfaces such as slabs of bark and branches. Other notable menu items at Atelier Crenn include the white sturgeon caviar, and the delightful fresh-baked brioche and butter.

As for dessert, pastry chef Juan Contreras’s creations maintain Crenn’s vision for telling a story and doing so through the details. “Walk in the Forest” is one of the restaurant’s desserts which does exactly that. The dessert is enchanting, and has “the texture, sweetness, and bitterness of what the forest is about.” Even the bowl itself in which the dessert is housed has been custom-made to mimic the bark of the trees in Brittany – where Crenn spent a large portion of her childhood.

Although Atelier Crenn is situated in California, hints of France are evident throughout the dining experience – even when one glances over the wine list, which features a fabulous selection of champagne. The list also includes a variety of carefully selected wines from around the globe, each with its own unique allure based on the region from which it has been sourced. For a full Atelier Crenn experience, we suggest adding the wine pairing along with the exceptional Grand Tasting menu.

Atelier Crenn is so much more than a dining experience, it’s about being told a story through gastronomy. Translated, “Atelier” means workshop. While her father Allain Crenn had “Atelier Papa Crenn” as his own workshop to display his paintings, Atelier Crenn is Dominique Crenn’s workshop, where she displays her poetry-led art on a plate rather than a canvas.