The meals that Robert Krause specializes in aren’t the kind of dishes you’d throw together for company at the last moment, nor could they qualify as mere comfort food.

Rather, Krause goes for drama and flair, turning out painstakingly crafted mini masterpieces for the dinner plate. His jewel-like creations are almost too beautiful to eat, with the presentation of the food every bit as important as the flavor.

But his style of cooking is anything but easy.

“It’s very involved, very intricate. It’s complex food. There are no dishes that we do that are simple,” says Krause, 43.

For proof of that, consider the dishes he’s preparing for a dinner party of eight people, featuring a tasting menu of small courses.

The meal will begin with several appetizers: peppery seared scallops surrounded by a carrot puree, vanilla-coconut cream and a Pinot Noir reduction sauce; braised salmon with smoked New Zealand mussels in a lobster-saffron broth on sticky rice; and a pistachio-raspberry watercress frisee (a member of the chicory family) with oranges, Peeky Toe crab cakes, lemon-wasabi aioli (a strongly-flavored mayonnaise) and crushed macadamia nuts.

Then comes prime tenderloin in potato gratin and fresh asparagus with a red-wine reduction, roasted garlic-chive oil, red pepper juice, veal stock and pistachio butter.

And for dessert, there’s a strawberry-red wine sorbet with creme fraiche souffle glace, in a pool of raspberry soup with edible flowers, topped with seasonal fruit in a sugar nest, and also a white chocolate croissant bread pudding with homemade caramel ice cream, a tuille cookie, caramel, raspberry and guava sauces and creme anglais.

It’s a menu that’s sure to send you scrambling for your culinary reference books to figure out precisely what it is that you’re eating — and enjoying — so much.

Robert Krause blanches fresh asparagus as one component of a dish that will be served at a dinner party. Krause and his wife, Molly, operate Robert Krause Catering & Dining out of their Lawrence home.

Krause’s food is nothing if not glamorous, and those who attend dinner parties at which he caters must feel like sophisticates at a New York power restaurant, or guests at a glitzy Hollywood benefit.

Krause, owner and chef of Robert Krause Catering & Dining, is wowing his Lawrence clientele, who are lining up to engage his services for dinner parties and receptions.

“The response has been very good. So good that, even though it’s expensive, they feel gratified that this experience is available here,” he says.

Talent honed in restaurants

Things look to only get busier for Krause in the near future.

He and his wife, Molly, operate the catering company — started two and a half years ago — out of their 1850s-era stone house in east Lawrence.

The house is in the midst of a major construction project, with Dan Rockhill, professor of architecture at Kansas University, serving as architect and builder.

Rockhill is creating a modernistic, glassed-in addition to the home that will make space for an expanded kitchen and a dining room. There also will be a smaller, detached dining area made of metal and glass with a sod roof.

The work should be complete in June. The Krauses currently cater dinner parties in the homes of clients and events such as wedding receptions. When the construction is done, they’ll be able to cater in a facility of their own.

Robert and Molly Krause specialize in intricate, complex dishes like this strawberry-red wine sorbet with creme fraiche souffle glace. It is served in a pool of raspberry soup with edible flowers and topped with seasonal fruit in a sugar nest.

“We’re working hard to create an atmosphere that will be unique not just to Lawrence, but to anywhere, here in our home,” Krause says.

Krause has had years of experience in the restaurant and catering business. He earned his culinary arts degree in 1983 from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

His first job was in the kitchen at The Breakers, a famous old hotel and restaurant in Palm Beach, Fla. Krause stayed there about a year.

He then took a job working as assistant manager of the Top of the Tower in Topeka, an upscale restaurant in a bank building downtown. He was there about a year and a half.

Krause then took a position working for hotel magnate John Q. Hammonds, who was opening a new hotel and private club in Springfield, Mo., and wanted Krause to run its restaurant. He stayed with Hammonds for two years.

Returning to Topeka in 1987, Krause and a business partner opened The Heritage House, a bed-and-breakfast in the rambling old home that had once served as the original Menninger’s Clinic.

Krause ran the kitchen there for about a year and a half, before deciding to launch a small catering business that over time turned into Gourmet to Go, a larger catering operation and carry-out restaurant in Topeka’s Gage Shopping Center.

A fresh scallop prepared by Robert Krause quickly sears. The scallop will be paired with a carrot puree, vanilla-coconut cream and Pinot Noir reduction sauce.

In 1995, Krause opened New City Cafe, a stylish bar and restaurant featuring fine wines and an eclectic menu. It quickly earned a stellar reputation among Topekans and out-of-town visitors as a destination restaurant.

The Krauses lived in Lawrence from 1995 to 1999, when they sold New City Cafe to their former sous chef.

Expensive, but worth it

After selling the Topeka restaurant, the Krauses took a sabbatical from the kitchen, doing missionary work in Africa and traveling in Europe.

But before long, the lure of catering and restaurants beckoned them back to the United States.

“All I did in Europe was eat. I was just dying to get into the food business again. That’s part of the reason we moved to the San Francisco area. It’s where we’ve had some of our greatest food experiences,” Krause says.

The couple ended up living in San Francisco a little more than a year.

“When we went to California, I had a pretty clear objective of what I wanted to do. I wanted to work in some of the best restaurants in San Francisco and have a greater exposure to ethnic foods — Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese.”

Krause worked in the kitchens of the dining room of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Aqua and Gary Danko, one of the city’s hottest upscale restaurants.

Then the couple decided to return to Kansas. Molly Krause’s mother lives in Topeka, and Robert Krause has a daughter living in Wichita.

There was another incentive to move, too.

“When Molly got pregnant, she decided that she didn’t want to live in a small, one-bedroom apartment a block from Chinatown and raise a kid,” Krause says.

Robert Krause says presentation is important to the appeal of the dish. Here is a seared scallop with carrot puree, vanilla-coconut cream and Pinot Noir reduction sauce.

The Krauses returned to Lawrence in October 2001 and decided to start catering on a small scale.

“We really wanted to open a restaurant, but we felt like the timing wasn’t good, with PrairieFire and The BleuJacket opening and clearly having a lot more money to do it than we did,” he says.

The Krauses — Molly Krause does all the desserts — will cater dinner parties of six people or more. The average cost per person is $50 to $75 just for the food. When wine, gratuity and tax are added in, that price rises to $100 to $125 per person.

“We have a very small clientele right now, and we try to give them an approximate cost per person. We don’t want people to be surprised when they get their bill,” Krause says.

“One of my main motivators for being creative is to give people a lot of value for their dollar. The meals end up being very expensive, so it’s up to me to give them a lot for their money.”

So far, it seems to be working.

“If you give people the greatest food and a fair price, you’ll have repeat customers,” he says.