A couple decades ago, San Diego’s food scene had too much ho in its hum. A handful of standalone restaurants and chefs were doing good work (like Bertrand Hug at Mister A’s, Michael Stebner with Region, Trey Foshee of Georges at the Cove, and Jeffrey Strauss of Pamplemousse Grille), but most world-class food was being made at hotels and resorts—especially at The Lodge at Torrey Pines’ A.R. Valentien.
That’s where Bocuse d’Or USA winner Jeff Jackson was one of just a few people doing tip-to-tail and farm-to-table cooking, essentially becoming the test kitchen for famed Chino Farm. In many ways, the restaurant was ground zero for San Diego’s modern food ascent, laying the groundwork for the French-trained, Mediterranean-ish, market-driven style now called California cuisine. Kelli Crosson trained under Jackson for over a decade, taking the reins two years ago.
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One problem: The kitchen she inherited was 23 years old, cramped, wilfully un-modernized. So, for eight months starting last year, A.R. Valentien’s dining room shut down. Crosson and chef de cuisine Tiffany Tran cooked in trailers while The Lodge built their dream kitchen: a massive pastry operation, a whole-animal butchery outpost, all new gadgets and toys (including combi ovens, which most chefs will tell you is the single most crucial restaurant invention).
Now fully equipped, the kitchen—a new engine for the place that kickstarted a city’s food movement—reopened this May. This is the year to see what Crosson can do with a full arsenal of tools. “It may not be the sexiest story, but we’re over the moon and counted down the minutes until we could get back there,” she says.
