The Brooklyn Papers / Gregory Cross

In the raw: Chance Chef Kfir Ben-Ari offers a sneak peek at his beef carpaccio (foreground), which has not yet been added to the menu. It's served with wasabi, shallots, black truffle oil, ginger, Indonesian

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The word "fusion" is overused in food writing and employed, sometimes with disastrous effects, by chefs. But for the last couple of years, fusion had been leaving diners’ vocabularies as kitchen professionals took global ingredient mixing as a natural evolution in their cooking and stopped using the fusion label.

Then along came Chance on Smith Street, the third Brooklyn restaurant of owner Ken Li, whose other eateries are Yamato (Park Slope) and Osaka (Cobble Hill). Opened in August, Chance’s name - and menu - are a fusion of ingredients from Ch(ina) and (Fr)ance. The word and concept seemed like a throwback. Add a decor that looks chilly from the outside, and I doubted Chance had one.

After a slow start and change of executive chefs, Chance is catching on. Much of its success can be attributed to the new man in the kitchen, Kfir Ben-Ari, who trained in Lyon, France before working at Manhattan’s Daniel. Ben-Ari revamped the menu, blending the two cuisines subtly - think of a chic Asian woman wearing French perfume. His dishes are light, intensely flavored and simply elegant on the plate.

Get past the tinted-glass exterior, and the room leans to the East with a gray, black and crimson color scheme, and a sleek bar illuminated with red lanterns. Behind the bar, where a fish tank would have stood 20 years ago, is a "bubble wall" that resembles a gurgling undersea disco. The room is more polished than some of the homey bistros along Smith Street, but there’s a sense of irony to the furnishings that makes the interior playful, not cold.

Chance offers diners dim sum in two combinations: the ocean box or the land box. We chose the ocean box of plump dumplings filled with savory mixtures of sweet shrimp; tangy and garlicky chopped lobster meat; and a blend of sea bass sweetened with carrots and deepened with an herbal note of sage. Each dumpling was tender and steaming hot.

Our waiter, a funny guy with hip black glasses and hair like "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken, recommended the seared foie gras appetizer.

"It’s one of the best things on the menu," he said.

It was.

The wine-enhanced wedge was crackling crisp on the exterior, like a slice of warm butter within. It sat beside a caramelized pear, sliced and fanned like a flower. Both pieces were napped with a Zinfandel sauce enhanced with Chinese five-spice powder that cut the richness of the liver and added a smoky note.

An entree, the unfortunately named "Miss Piggy," featured a pork shank, its meat falling off the chunky bone. Around the shank was a mound of wild mushrooms, scented with garlic, that turned every bite into a woodsy, autumnal feast.

A special black sea bass was a heart-thumper. Ben-Ari bakes the fish so that its dense flesh yields to a fork in moist slices. Instead of masking the fish’s flavor with an intense sauce, he drizzled it with melted butter that made the delicate pieces dizzyingly rich. He curls the fillets around red cabbage, cooked down to an aromatic sweetness, then adds a mound of perfectly cooked jasmine rice.

Desserts follow the same inspired crossbreeding. Housemade ice cream sounds commonplace, but two ice creams joined by a sorbet were superb. One, a vanilla like rich custard, gave a one-two punch to the palate - first a hit of clean vanilla followed by a whisper of lemongrass. A denser mixture of bitter chocolate was flavored with Chinese five-spice powder that left delicate notes of cinnamon and cloves and the heat of black pepper on the tongue. Icy sorbet played the perfume of star anise against the nuttiness of coconut.

Compared to the ice cream, the moist, bittersweet chocolate souffle with strawberry compote seemed safe.

Get past the restaurant’s slick exterior and walk through the door. This Chance is a risk worth taking.

Chance (223 Smith St. at Butler Street in Boerum Hill) accepts American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Entrees: $12-$20. Closed Mondays. Dim Sum brunch is served from 10 am until closing on Saturdays and Sundays. For reservations, call (718) 242-1515.

©2004 Community Newspaper Group