Bacara Resort & Spa's New Chef Revamps Spa Café Menu

Last year, Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara  welcomed a new executive chef, Vincent Lesage, who will oversee the resort's six restaurants and dining areas, including a brand new restaurant opening in spring 2016.

Recently, chef Lesage revamped the menu at one of the existing eateries, the Spa Café, with new offerings that focus on low-fat, Asian-inspired, healthy dishes featuring local Goleta and Santa Barbara ingredients. Overlooking the spa's tranquility pool, the Spa Café offers casual indoor and patio dining in an open, airy setting. Lunch dishes on the new Spa Café menu include edamame dumplings with wasabi dipping sauce; sweet potato chips with avocado and cashew sauce; rice noodle and bok choy pho; spaghetti squash, pesto, and kale veggie balls; kaniwa tofu lettuce cups; seared Ahi tuna with nappa cabbage, mango, avocado, and wasabi vinaigrette; and a raw blueblerry tartlet with vanilla yogurt.

The breakfast menu features an acai breakfast bowl with acai and berry purée, gojiberries, and granola, oatmeal brûlée with apricot raisin chutney, and banana cinnamon buckwheat waffles. For specialty drinks, guests can choose from wheatgrass shots, a variety of fruit smoothies, and wine and beer choices. Specialty cocktails include a Bacara Acai with Absolut Berry Acai and an Anacapa Ginger with pineapple vodka, mint, ginger, and lemon and lime juice.

After graduating from the Institut Paul Bocuse in France, chef Lesage trained at The Ritz Paris, as well as Michelin three-star restaurants L'Astrance and Bras, before serving as executive chef at the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach, California.