These are the people of San Diego food + drink. SDM’s guide to favorite things. This fall, we’re gathering them all at The Del Mar Wine + Food Festival. You should come.
The Dish You Gotta Eat
Sticky Toffee Cake at George’s. Amaretto toffee sauce, salted-candied almonds, almond ice cream. Like a more interesting riff on the chocolate lava cake legend. Same rich-moist-almost-wet idea. The perfect dessert for the generation whose blood is part almond milk.
The Chef: Aly Lyng
Born and raised in east San Diego. As a kid, baked simple things with grandma, her dad. “I lived part time with my dad on a 30-foot sailboat named in the San Diego Bay,” she says, looking at the water out the window at George’s with a nod that says ‘that’s why I’m back.’ Got her pastry degree from Grossmont College, her professor helped land her a job at George’s. Been here 11 years now, head pastry chef for seven. Met her husband in this kitchen. Her first head chef role, a marriage, a pandemic gotten through. Huge parts of her life run through this place.
That’s George’s. When it comes to restaurants, U.S. culture has a pretty nasty new-now-next habit. And, really, we’re just hurting ourselves. Because 40 years later, George’s is still one of the best. Chef Trey Foshee’s been one of the top chefs in the country for decades. If he’s got laurels, he doesn’t use them for resting. Pays for staff to go see sustainable fishing documentaries. Sends staff to work in famous kitchens. A large portion of the city’s best young talents have come through George’s. It’s part restaurant, part culinary school. An icon.
See you in Del Mar.
