Luce At InterContinental San Francisco Announces New Chef De Cuisine Dennis Efthymiou And Debuts Six-Course Tasting Menu

Located in San Francisco’s InterContinental is fine dining establishment, Luce, a modern American restaurant. Most recently Luce appointed Dennis Efthymiou as their new Chef de Cuisine. Chef Efthymiou brings with him years of restaurant experience, including time spent at three Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck and Nopi, both located in London; Central, located in Lima; as well as Head Chef position at Wicked Jane in New York City.

Chef Efthymiou’s debut six-course tasting menu is inspired by his roots, having grown up in the in the coastal town of Igoumenitsa and in the mountainous region of Ioannina, Greece. With an abundance of fresh fish, ethical farming practices and sustainable ingredients, his upbringing sparked and fueled his passion for cooking, helping to shape his innovative, multi-dimensional style of cooking.

“The tasting menu was inspired by a combination of creativity, experience, seasonality, and sustainability,” says Chef Efthymiou. “Despite the fact that I have a tendency to throw in very random ideas, historical references, a multi-sensory approach, or artistic imagery, the menu items are always evolving. It’s a daily consideration of how we approach each course. The current menu is heavily influenced by history and memories. However, we intend to present a more progressive approach later on.”

Chef Efthymiou’s tasting menu features a selection of inventive, show-stopping courses that highlight simple, fresh ingredients in unique, beautifully presented dishes. The tasting menu starts off with Kampachi Crudo with white chocolate yuzu sauce and Farro Puls with pecorino cream, bacon veil and caramelized onion gel.

For an added price, guests can treat themselves to the Caviar Sunflower, a decadent dish that looks like a sunflower created with golden ossetra caviar, sunchoke tartlett, smoked sturgeon mousse, confit egg yolk, pistachio and dill. Though a supplemental course, it truly is a highlight of the menu.

Entrees includes the inspired Octopus Lasgna with spinach ricotta sauce and garum bechamel; a tender Osso Bucco with prime striploin, smoked risotto milanese, and a bone marrow with crispy oxtail; and a Crispy Chicken Breast with smoked corn and truffle cream. The dinner wraps up with a selection of multi-dimensional desserts that includes a Grape and Yogurt with grilled grapes and grape sorbet; Textures of Chocolate with Rainier cherries and chantilly cream; and Apple Pie Cotton Candy with apple and creme flavored floss.

We chatted with Chef de Cuisine Dennis Efthymiou on his goals at Luce, inspiration, menu highlights and more. Here’s what he had to say.

How have you past experiences led you to Luce? How has this transition been and what are you most excited to do this year in the kitchen?

I believe that my previous experience working in various fine dining establishments around the world helped shape who I am today. I recall spending a few weeks in San Francisco and thinking that the dining scene seemed really interesting, so I decided to look at jobs. Luce appeared in my search results and turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.

I was welcomed from day one, by management, front-of-house and back-of-house teams, and the transition was effortless, very natural and fluid. Luce has a very talented team, which aided me greatly in taking over. I remember observing the first couple of days, and after a small meeting with the team, we decided to change the entire menu on the third day.

The last few months have been the foundation for the trajectory we want to take as a fine dining restaurant, and this year, we hope to create an experience for our guests that is more akin to a European style of dining, with excellence at the forefront of everything we do. We want to create a memorable yet enjoyable experience that will propel Luce back to the top of the San Francisco Bay Area dining scene.

Of course, our mission includes regaining the Michelin star, which Luce held for 10 consecutive years until its 2019 closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I personally hope to earn the Green Michelin star as well, as zero waste and sustainability are central to our philosophy and menus. But, most importantly, we want to create a positive environment for both guests and employees.

Talk about how you created the sunflower caviar tart — that was incredible and so unique!

The sunflower caviar is one of those items that exemplifies our philosophy. I wanted to create a caviar course that is unique while adhering to our core values of sustainability, zero waste, and creativity. The theme was inspired by the origins of caviar and the execution was based on the ingredients.

Caviar originated in ancient Greece, where it was considered a delicacy, and was served in small portions inside flower bouquets at symposiums (banquets) and dinners. I was attempting to recreate the story and decided that the sunflower would be the most appropriate representation for this course.

Then there was sustainability. The dish consists of a sunflower root tartlet (Jerusalem artichoke), olive oil poached egg yolk, smoked sturgeon mousse, pistachio and herbs crumble, sunflower petals, and Golden Ossetra caviar from Greece. The plate it is served on is also part of the story, which is actually stoneware as it used to be back then.

The octopus lasagna and much of the tasting menu was super innovative — what is your creative process when cooking new dishes?

We usually work on the menu items as themes, it needs to be cohesive throughout the experience and unique and most importantly very tasty. There is a number of factors included when creating a tasting menu.

First of all, the team is amazing and always helps me with my ideas. I am not really set on anything and believe in working on the menu with your team is far better than me calling the shots all the time. The one thing that always happens is we take our guests’ feedback very seriously and always work on creating new ways to either reduce even more wastage of food or create something entirely new.

We constaltly improve our dishes and the octopus lasagna might be the one to prove this. It started as a simple mix of memories I had blended with one of the most iconic dishes of Italian cuisine and it ended up being the showstopper of the menu while also being the first course that has 0% waste.

What is in store for the menu going forward and what do you hope guests take away from a dining experience at Luce?

We want to create a tasting menu that is enjoyable, tasty, whimsical, and memorable. We are currently working on a number of projects, with the ultimate goal of creating a menu that is both delicious and theatrical. Personally, I enjoy the multi-sensory approach, and it is one of our major future goals.

It’s a little more challenging than normal restaurant settings because we support three different outlets from the same kitchen (Luce, Bistro 888, In-Room Dining), but we certainly don’t lack in talent or willingness to succeed. We want our guests to have a one-of-a-kind experience!