The Lodge just completely shuffled the chef deck with some Michelin-adjacent names, and here’s why this matters. Few resorts have kept a steadfast resolve for growing the food culture in San Diego like the Lodge has. Some have given it a shot, gaped at the price of heirloom turnips, and pulled back.
Before it became a branding concept, longtime Lodge chef Jeff Jackson (now a semi-retired advisor/mystic) was farm-to-table. Jackson had a daily box at Chino Farms with his name on it. Fishermen fileted their catch at the tables of AR Valentien, then sat to eat. Ranchers had access to the side door. Winemakers were flown in, put up, brought their rarest and experimental bottles.
The resort gave pretty free reign to its chefs’ passion for growing, cooking, and eating local; management let them bring all their talented weirdo chef friends onto the lawn to cook alongside farmers, winemakers, ranchers, people who grow and ferment and raise things. That event, “Celebrate the Craft,” broke the seal on a lot of the food events we have now.
In summary, the Lodge really helped build this.
When word got out that Kelli Crosson (Jackson’s longtime protégé) was no longer with the group, people who loved food wondered if they’d keep it up. Could find a laurel and rest on it.
Well, it just announced the new executive chef of the resort, Eric Sakai. Sakai went to the Harvard of cookery (CIA, Hyde Park), worked at a few bold-names in San Francisco (Rubicon, Michelin-starred Acquarello). Then he opened his own place, his big risk—Restaurant Marron in Seattle, in the historic-majestic Olivar space in the Loveless Building on Capitol Hill. The concept helped him win Food & Wine’s 2015 People’s Best New Chef for the Northwest and Pacific Region, and Thrillist named him one of the top 8 most exciting chefs in the Pacific Northwest.
Marron was short-lived. (By most accounts, he cooked amazingly well but ran into a sisyphus dilemma—trying to turn one of Seattle’s most historic and stuffy rooms into a welcoming, less cotillion-dinner concept—the forces of stuffiness would not comply). After that, he spent a couple years in Italy honing craft, shifted into hotels (The Ritz, Hall Park Hotel in Frisco, Texas).
Courtesy of The Lodge at Torrey Pines
The Lodge needed someone with deep, classical chops, ideally one who’d launched their own scrappy dream to acclaim, then learned how to translate that spirit across a fairly massive resort. That’s Sakai.
“The opportunity to build on the history was one I couldn’t pass up,” says the chef. “Right now, we’re working on new menus for all the outlets to make sure we’re aligning with the founding principles that’ve made it a landmark for food and wine.”
On the line cooking at AR Valentien is chef de cuisine, Owen Beatty. CDC is the critical role. While the exec chef helps design and create and QC and run the business of the kitchen, the CDC executes every night. They’re the top talent in the trench. Beatty spent three years as sous chef under Ken Frank at La Toque in Napa, then three more as executive sous at three-star Michelin Quince. He came to San Diego a couple years ago as exec chef of Juniper & Ivy, then helped Eric Bost open the Michelin-starred Lilo in Carlsbad.
Finally, a familiar face takes over as chef de cuisine of The Grill—its casual, play-with-fire eatery facing the 18th hole at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Michael Moritz was the executive chef of Communion in Mission Hills.
As far as chef teams go, that’s a hefty one.
“We’re very thoughtful about who we bring into the culinary team at The Lodge,” says Matthew Adams, COO of Evans Hotels and The Lodge. “Each of these chefs brings their own perspective, but more importantly, a real respect for the ingredients, the seasons, and the experience our guests come here for. They build on what we already do well and help us continue to grow in a way that feels true to The Lodge.”
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