A little over two years ago, the Sea Island Co. opened its new Cloister building at the reputed cost of half a billion dollars. Gone was the old Cloister, which I remember as a dark and serious English manor house. In its place was a Mediterranean stone palace for sun worshippers. The spa — where bath-robed elite lounge among pink marble pillars — offered a vision of the sybarite’s life not seen since the Roman Empire.

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William Torrillo/ Sea Island

Georgian Room chef Scott Crawford has earned the coveted five-star award from the Mobil Travel Guide.

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William Torrillo, Sea Island

With its crystal chandeliers and sumptuous decor, a dinner at the Georgian Room says ‘grand.’

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John Kessler writes food features and a column about food and more for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution E-mail John Kessler Recent Kessler columns Your fool-proof checklist for Thanksgiving  Hours of low-temperature cooking yield tender, juicy meat  Different things to sample on my new dining menu         More John Kessler Related: John Kessler's blog: Food & More John Kessler's recipes Meridith Ford Goldman's Table Talk Jeanne Besser's Feeding Frenzy Evening Edge Atlanta Restaurant reviews and search Recipes from Atlanta restaurants Favorite Atlanta recipes

As part of the renovation, the Cloister introduced a new destination restaurant — the Georgian Room — with a mandate to appeal to food-savvy travelers and local diners. It was as grand as any dining room in America. From its coffered gold-and-white ceiling hung gilded chandeliers over a room decorated in pink and green, in carved marble and bas-relief, in flowers and silver and money, money, money.

The resort hired chef Scott Crawford away from the top-rated Woodlands Inn near Charleston, S.C., and left him to invent his vision of Georgia coastal cuisine. The chef found himself with a dream assignment: Shoot for the stars.

Yet it was also a bit of a shot in the dark. People didn’t buy property on the gated sub-island, by and large, for the local dining scene. They like to go out for crab cakes and good beach food. They enjoy the area’s upscale bistros, such as Halyard’s on St. Simons or Cargo Portside Grill in Brunswick. And they certainly support the “dinner at the club” aspect of dining at the Cloister. But Crawford’s four-course seasonal menu was a whole new bag for the Golden Isles.

Crawford also found himself swimming against national dining currents. The most successful top-tier rooms today, such as Per Se in New York, keep diners’ attention with a parade of two-bite masterpieces. Most name chefs either want to startle their guests or give them an effervescent moment of bliss. But this chef serves relatively few courses in portions large enough for guests to perhaps notice the kitchen’s finesse.

I first cottoned to it about a year ago when we ate at the Georgian Room. My wife ordered what sounded like the most boring item on the menu — a green salad. What came was a taut bundle of butter crunch lettuce (grown for the restaurant at nearby Sapelo Farms) encased in a pliant Vietnamese rice paper. The greens were just dressed in a vinaigrette with just enough tarragon and compressed to the exact point where you became hyper-aware of their freshness through texture. I have yet to experience a better argument for farm-to-table cooking.

We returned this summer and knew to look for salads. A colorful wheel of beet wedges, free of their tiresome union with goat cheese, offered a surprise with each mouthful. One pickled, the next poached, each a unique treat.

Crawford does two things as a chef that I really admire yet experience rarely in restaurants. The first is that he builds flavors that invite you in rather than beg for notice. His foie gras tortellini with sherry vinegar jam and butternut squash puree does the expected — setting the rich, livery, blooming taste of foie gras teetering on the axis of sweet and sour. But since you’re biting into sheer pasta rather than seared fat, he can turn down the intensity and give the complex back flavors room to breathe. You swipe, you chew, you notice how the squash is vegetal and sugary.

The second is that he hangs his flavors on something other than fat. His version of shrimp and grits (gotta have it) sets a sauté of plump coins of cut shrimp and tomato around a soft round of white cheddar grits soufflé in a smoked tomato jus. I’m guessing that eggs, butter and cheese all play a role in this recipe. Yet what you first notice is the brine of the shrimp, the nuttiness of the grits and the tang of the aged cheese. Fat serves the flavors rather than carries them.

On a more intangible level, there’s a spirit of generosity to the food that I find tonic in light of all the showmanship in other restaurants. Crawford might serve a small amuse bouche, but he doesn’t barrage you with mini-appetizers, pre-desserts, intermezzi and other assorted dining doodads. Yet after entrees, the waiter wheels up an unannounced cheese trolley featuring the full line from nearby Sweet Grass Dairy. It is a “gift from the chef” to take or leave as you see fit.

Yes! This is what a cheese course should be, folks. A little something to wash down the last of your wine or fill that last empty pocket in your stomach before dessert. Not an expensive object of adoration.

Crawford seems unusually concerned about giving you enough to eat but not overloading you, to making sure you leave the table sated but still ambulatory. In an age where restaurants turn up the wow factor with pork belly, this attitude is all the more welcome.

By the way, Crawford got those stars he was aiming for — five of them from the Mobil Travel Guide.

Regardless of what the Mobil people say, here’s what I think: Scott Crawford is the best chef in Georgia.

Three courses, $95; four courses, $110; chef’s five-course tasting $125. For information on the Georgian Room, call 1-800-732-4752, Ext. 4347, or go to www.seaisland.com.

Your turn: Have you been to the Cloister? Do you agree with John Kessler that it deserves its five-star rating?