Winter 2024

162 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 4 I n spring 2022, Klaus Georis opened Maligne (pronounce it Mah- leen—it’s French for clever or sly) on Broadway in Seaside. It was a huge foray, not only for him, but for the community. A scion of the well- known Carmel Valley wine and hospitality family, Georis knew from his early teens that cooking was in his blood and bones. His father, he says, once told him that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to get really good at something, and for Klaus, that something was to be found in kitchens. After a decade spent cooking in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world (including Quince in San Francisco; San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn, owned by Dominque Crenn, the only woman in the U.S. to hold three Michelin stars; an internship-turned-staff gig at Michelin-starred De Wulf in Belgium; and stages at Maaemo in Norway and Chez L’Ami Jean in Paris) he was bringing all that experience and refinement to the penin- sula.To Seaside. People were gonna love it. Weren’t they? Sort of. It became a go-to for special occasions—a high-quali- ty and spendy place for an anniversary or birthday din- ner—but it didn’t become a go- to for regulars, because there weren’t many. Seaside locals would walk in, look at the menu, consider the prices and they might order (but never return) or they might leave right then. And that’s why in spring 2023, Georis took a hard look at himself, his restaurant, what the community wanted and how it could meld with what he wanted to accomplish. He shut down for a few weeks and re-opened something far more accessible, with a trim menu of maybe eight starters, eight mains and four desserts.That menu changes regularly, with only two insane things always there. (More about that later, but here’s a tease: He never expected to be making so much chicken Parm.) He also never expected to earn a Michelin Bib Gourmand nod for the reconceptualizing either. This interview has been edited for length and clarity: Q: I don’t want to focus on the past, but in 2023 you made a radical decision to close and retool.Tell me what that was like for you. A: It’s everything we needed to do, to be honest with you. It was a little difficult, if you will, to swallow that thought of “what we did in the begin- ning didn’t work.”When I look back, it’s not so much that it didn’t work, but the area we’re in didn’t need or want it. It was a daunting switch in the beginning and it allowed us to look at, “what do I want out of this restaurant, what do I want out of this business, and do I want to find myself in the position of just working all the time?” Cooking at that level requires a lot of hours and a lot of people. Q: You have worked at many Michelin-starred places.What’s the differ- ence between cooking at that level and the pivot you made? A: It still requires a lot of time but we can have more fun.We still order from the same people and buy the same product, but we can enjoy our- selves now. The big thing with the Michelin star or tasting menus, there’s always an investor there with an immense amount of money they’re willing to lose, someone with a check- book saying,“How much do you need?” I am not that person and after six or seven months of running this machine, once you start seeing the finances, you say, “This doesn’t make sense to run at such a high labor cost,” especially in an industry already difficult to make money. Q: How did you change your menu to meet the real demand of what local people want? A: We have one or two items that stay on. Chicken parm always stays. After ten years of fine dining, I never thought I’d be cooking chicken parm, and we sell an immense amount of it. The Royale with Cheese—that’s another thing. I never thought I’d be cooking burgers, but it’s a really good burger and it’s always on the menu. And we always have a pasta, but it changes. People relate to pasta. It’s a very accessible dish. Other than that, we change it every week. The majority of the rest of the changes depend on what the market has, or the local farmers we deal with in the area. I may get a call and they’re saying, “the broccoli or tomatoes you wanted, we don’t have it today but will bring x, y, z,” so sometimes we’re figuring out what we’re going to cook today on that day. The Big Pivot Af ter a Decade in Fine Dining, Klaus Geor i s Has Gone Casual , Wi th a Refined and Clever Edge B Y R ENE E M I G I E L His father, he says, once told him that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to get really good at something, and for Klaus, that something was to be found in kitchens.