"Everything tasted like the place it was grown. Among his best meals was one on the Greek island of Corfu, where the chef picked lettuce from his garden and mixed it with homemade olive oil and feta. He left soon after for Europe to study the wine and food of Italy, France, Germany and Greece. I've been chasing after that ever since." "That was my lightbulb, my aha moment," he said. It was there that Fink had his first sip of fine wine, a 1959 Chateau Lafite.
He was hired to bus tables at the best French restaurant in town, where current La Folie owner Roland Passot was the sous chef. Wine revelationĪfter graduating, he went to the family summer home in San Diego. He decided to learn everything he could about the restaurant business. But he quickly discovered he loved talking to diners, and strived to take care of his customers. While at Roanoke College in Virginia, he took a job as a waiter at a steak house, not to learn about food but to earn money so he could take girls on dates. Hospitality is in his blood, he said, because of his Southern upbringing and his mother's love of home decor with a history. His menu includes a Kobe beef burger cooked on a custom-made cast iron griddle, and topped with pickled onions, smoked cheddar and potato chips.įink grew up in a 19th century former plantation home in Virginia, raised by a mother who liked to collect antiques and a father who was a senior buyer for Marshall Fields and Macy's. "I've since seen a lot of those naysayers eating in here," Fink said recently, over a burger lunch at 400 Degrees. 1, Fink opened a gourmet burger joint this year, prevailing over those who said fast food would ruin Carmel's iconoclastic charm. The Salumeria offers homemade mozzarella, salumi and gelato.Īnd although some Carmel residents considered him McEnemy No. Last year Fink opened an Italian deli next door to Cantinetta Luca. (After a legal battle, Cyrus restaurant will leave Hotel Les Mars this fall.) Fink then partnered with wine estate owner William Foley in 2010 to buy Hotel Les Mars, another Relais & Chateaux member, in Healdsburg. Hotel Luca, a luxury spa and resort in Yountville, was next, in 2009. We wanted it engaging, like an Italian kitchen." "We put the wine rack on a wall of the dining room so the sommelier is near the tables all night getting bottles out. Zagat, Gourmet magazine and Gayot have praised Aubergine as one of the best restaurants in America.įink's management company, Mirabel Hotel & Restaurant Group, in 2006 opened Cantinetta Luca (named after his 17-year-old son), an Italian restaurant in Carmel with a wood-fired oven and an open kitchen so diners can watch the chefs. You had to leave your hotel to get a world-class meal." "There was no luxury hotel in Carmel that also had fine dining. When Fink opened L'Auberge in 2004, it included Aubergine, where top-flight chefs prepare each dish from scratch using local produce, meats and seafood. His showpiece is L'Auberge Carmel, a luxury inn within the Relais & Chateaux empire - a collection of hundreds of the world's most acclaimed independent resorts and restaurants, including the French Laundry and Gary Danko. Since opening his first restaurant - Bouchée - in Carmel in 2002, Fink has expanded his inventory of luxury hotels and restaurants on the Monterey Peninsula and in Sonoma County. "Sometimes people don't find the bath salts until they get home, but the surprise, and fragrance which is tied to memories, is what lasts," Fink said.
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