Caruso’s Gives Santa Barbara Their Second Ever Michelin Star
Caruso’s is Awarded One Michelin Star and a Green Star, the first in Santa Barbara history, giving the city of Santa Barbara two Michelin starred restaurants total.
Disclaimer: While not part of the full time team- I definitely work here, but tried to keep this story unbiased and sincerely newsy!
Last night, the highly regarded restaurant rating system Michelin, revealed 18 new Michelin stars in California. Caruso’s joins Sushi Bar Montecito as the only Michelin Starred restaurants in Santa Barbara and they also boast a shiny Green Star along with their highly coveted Michelin star. Caruso’s in Montecito and the Restaurant at Justin are among only two California restaurants this year to garner the seldom awarded “Green Star” for sustainability, with only 13 existing in the US- 9 of them in California. Michelin awards Green stars to restaurants that use sustainable practices, work with local farmers, growers, and fishers, utilize seasonal ingredients, avoid waste, reduce or remove entirely single-use plastics, and are working to have a lower environmental impact.
Caruso's, a picturesque seaside restaurant encompassed in the Rosewood Miramar Hotel featuring Italian food with a California focus managed to achieve the coveted Green star (along with their Michelin Star) primarily through sourcing local ingredients and waste recycling. Their compost program, in partnership with the City of Montecito, helps neighboring farmers' soil regeneration. They even have an “enzyme-eater grease program” to eliminate oil impact.
On the ingredient side, Italian-born Chef Massimo Falsini brings sustainability to another level. Take his “chef’s tasting menu” for example; an eight course tasting option ($275 PP) with each course named by the Farmer or Rancher featured in the dish, currently featuring; Tehapachi Grain Project, Mud Creek Ranch, Peacock Farms and Santa Barbara Fish market just to name a few. Falsini created his sustainably sourced menu by partnering with local farmers, harvesting their own honey and vegetables from an estate garden and making sure they are at the farmers market every single Saturday rain or shine.
Caruso’s is serious about their seafood heralding shiny accolades from Fishchoice Partners, Ocean Wise and James Beard Smart Catch Certified. “95% of the seafood at Caruso’s comes directly from the Santa Barbara Chanel. The sea urchins from Stepanie Mutz were actually an invasive species, but through sustainable ranching we are able to enjoy this as well as cultured abalone from a farm in Goleta.” Says Chef Paul Osborne, the Miramar Resort Chef who is on duty tonight while Chef’s Massimo Falsini and Shibani Mone receive their award at Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. They don’t stop at seafood; Osborne continues; “Most of our land based protein comes from the west coast, Central Coast beef, Oregon Lamb and Duck from Napa.”
Under Chef Falsini’s leadership, Chef de Cuisine Shibani Mone, who hails from Mumbai India, is tasked with executing the menu and shopping for many of the locally sourced ingredients, “ We work with local farmers. This means we're changing our menu almost every other week. It’s a lot of pressure, but we are very serious about seasonality. We are at the farmers market, rain or shine at 7am on Saturday in Santa Barbara. We have built relationships with our local farmers. Every single one of them knows us by name, and putting a name to a face is so important, and it’s a good way to find inspiration as well. Our menu is 100% based on what's available at our local Farmers Market. ” She explains.
When asked about the future of fine dining in Santa Barbara it is clear that these pioneers are too busy creating one to think about it. Chef Mone describes, “When I got here, there wasn’t a big emphasis on fine dining in Santa Barbara. But here at Carusos; people are going for the tasting menu, people are going for the wine pairing. It's a lot of hard work, it’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears but once you get to this level, you just want to keep going.”
