TRUCKEE, CA — In my youth, trips to Lake Tahoe didn’t involve sophisticated fare. Instead, it was all about burgers, pastas and Mexican food — hearty and inexpensive eats that filled you up after a hard day on the slopes.

But truth be told, it was also because those simple dishes were all that could be found then.

Not anymore.

Imagine my delight to find Trokay in Truckee, a fine-dining establishment versed in molecular gastronomy and true attention to detail that would be right at home in San Francisco or New York.

In fact, owners John and Nyna Weatherson are from New York. She was the head cheesemonger of the landmark Murray’s Cheese in the West Village. He is a Culinary Institute of America graduate, who was the top-ranked student in his class, and went on to be chef de partie at Restaurant Daniel.

What lured the the couple from the bright lights and kinetic energy of the big city to this quaint and quiet little mountain town in 2011? Apparently, a love of skiing.

Located on the main drag of historic downtown Truckee, Trokay is relaxed and inviting inside with a soaring ceiling reinforced with industrial-chic wooden beams and a tansu-like wood divider that separates the bar from the dining room.

Enjoy a la carte dishes, an $85 seasonal prix fixe or a $145 chef’s tasting menu. With the latter two options, you can add on a wine-beer pairing, a non-alcoholic pairing, or a cheese course for an additional fee.

And you can enjoy all that dressed down in jeans, a flannel shirt and boots without anyone batting an eye, because this is laid-back Truckee.

My husband and I opted for the chef’s tasting menu. We paid our own tab, but the chef added on a few extra dishes he wanted us to try.

The tasting menu is an investment of not only dollars, but hours. But we were so glad we chose that option. Because if you’re from out of town, and probably won’t get to Trokay often, the tasting menu really offers a great introduction to the breadth and depth of what the restaurant offers. In fact, some of our most favorite dishes turned out to be items we wouldn’t have enjoyed had we ordered a la carte or prix fixe.

You get a sense of the care that goes into this restaurant right from the get-go, when a stacked metal Indian tiffin is brought to the table. The two layers hold tiny little treasures: gougeres with a dab of gooey cheese in the centers, vadouvan bread sticks, and two perfect teeny buttermilk biscuits. Alongside is a mason jar of green tomato marmalade. How’s that for a bread course?

A server then comes by to place a small doughnut-shaped ceramic plate at your setting. Its gaping hole in the center leaves you wondering just what in the world could this be for. The answer arrives when the server returns to nestle the bowl of a silver spoon in it. Atop the spoon is a wiggly sphere the color of jade, flecked with gold leaf. It’s an amuse of cucumber gazpacho. You’re instructed to take it in all in one bite. When you do and bite down, it gushes with an intense grassy, cucumber-dill flavor.

Next, a charred Manzanita tree branch is laid on the table, its branches balancing black Forbidden rice crisps that have been dusted with dried plankton. They are crisp, light as air, and with a toasty sea flavor.

Then comes heirloom tomatoes with pickled red onion and blue cheese bavarois — sweet, fresh tasting, and with a lively sharpness.

Hiramasa (Japanese yellowtail) was presented crudo-style with candied Meyer lemon rind, horseradish cream and marinated fennel acting in concert to make this a dazzling mouthful.

After all that, we are on to the official first course of the tasting menu: “Snow and Ice.” Citrusy, grassy lamb’s sorrel was made into a pureed soup with buttermilk and poured at the table.

“Fire and Smoke, ” a domed dish arrives next. When the cover is lifted, there is indeed smoke. When it dissipates, you spy the Mt. Lassen trout that’s been smoked in-house. The silky flecks of flesh are contrasted by the crunch of dehydrated pecan meringues.

Reminiscent of a hike through the seasons, you’ve experienced snow, smoke, and now comes “A Walk in the Woods.” Of course, it highlights wild mushrooms that are strewn with artichoke hearts and enlivened with black garlic and a sous vide egg yolk the texture of soft pudding.

That’s followed by what might very well be my favorite dish, a true show-stopper. Indeed, you get a show at your table when the chef walks to your table carrying a slab of granite from the Desolation Wilderness area of the Lake Tahoe Basin. It has been heated to a mind-blowing temperature. How high? The chef’s infrared thermometer maxes out at 1,200 degrees and this thing is well beyond that.

This is the cooking medium for the plump Kaui shrimp for the next course. They sizzle on the scorching granite, turning deep orange and so crisp on the outside in a minute. When they are ready, the chef removes them to your plate that is already prepped with garnishes of pickled ramps, nori dust, miso, and crunchy popped rice.

You get one shrimp apiece. Cut it up into little bites, then add a garnish here and there to play up the umami flavor. It’s one of those dishes that you wish would never end.

How to follow that? With Alaskan halibut. It’s a beautiful dish with the snowy white flesh paired with sweet pear, and nutty parsnips done in a puree, tender cubes and crunchy curled chips.

My husband is a sucker for seared foie gras. So when he spied it on the a la carte menu, he asked that it be added as a course the two of us could split. A big slab of La Belle Farms foie gras from New York was served with house-made brioche, hearts of palm, tiny balls of papaya and papaya jam. I’ve had plenty of foie with fruit, but never papaya. It not only played nicely with the richness of the foie but added an unexpected tropical sweetness that made this dish stand out from the usual pack.

A perfect square of Berkshire pork belly arrived after that with crackling skin. Its fatty juiciness filled your mouth as you ate it. Leeks get so wonderfully melty when cooked low and slow. Even more so with these, which were cooked in pork fat.

If we had realized that the elk dish that followed came topped with foie gras, we probably wouldn’t have added the seared foie gras to our dinner. But if you’re going to make a night of foie, you might as go all the way. The rack of elk was tender with the meat having a lovely natural sweetness to it. Accompanying it were artichokes three ways: creamed, braised and fried into thin frizzles.

Then, it was on to the sweet side with “Sweet Corn in Variation,” which consisted of a chewy-sweet polenta cake, smooth corn panna cotta, corn ice cream, and caramel corn — with a single corn flower on top. It made you realize just how versatile corn can be, not to mention delicious in so many ways.

A lighter bite followed — coconut meringue kiss with tropical accents of kiwi, passion fruit, papaya, pineapple and lemongrass. A coconut milk foam gave it all an ethereal quality. The flavors made you think of a balmy Asian tropical island.

The last official dessert was an elegant yet homey tasting apricot clafoutis. The moist, custardy cake was arranged alongside a quenelle of cardamom ice cream and cardamom foam.

Just as the meal started, it ended, with the tiffin brought back to the table. Inside this time were doll-size coconut macarons, passion fruit-strawberry pate de fruits, shortbread, and oatmeal-raisin and chocolate-chunk cookies.

I left beyond satiated and in a daze that I enjoyed this caliber of cooking in small-town Truckee.

It sure beat a burrito. Boy, did it ever.

Yesterday: S’Mores and More at the Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe