If there is a Mt Rushmore of San Diego dishes—iconically delicious things carved for eternity on Cowles Mountain—this man’s Jamaican jerk pork belly is on it. He can’t escape it. It’s his “Free Bird.” Even though he’s made multiple albums worth of great dang food, a good portion of San Diegans stand at his door and yell “DO THE PORK BELLY!”
He is Jason Knibb of Nine-Ten in La Jolla. For years, San Diego Mag has asked the city’s top chefs who their favorite chef is. And for years, a bulk of them have pointed to Jay.
Jay is Jamaican born, raised in SoCal. Studied under Wolfgang Puck, Roy Yamaguchi, and San Diego’s own Trey Foshee. He cooked at the Beard House, went up against Bobby Flay on Iron Chef (he wasn’t victorious, but whatever—he got the call and he was there because he makes remarkable things).
“It’s really bizarre. I never really set out to be a chef—but I love the family of the kitchen,” he says. “All of my best memories are about food and family, that’s what cooking is all about.”
“Farm to table” may have been tainted and soiled into a meaningless marketing slogan (drive-thru mascot food even seems to have a “farm burger” now), but Jay is what the term was meant for. At the markets, farms, on decks where the fish boats moor. Ogling ingredients is what keeps chef fires alive. After 20 years, he’s still firing.
“Every day is a new day,” he says. “You get up and you see those products, whether it’s Chino Farms or the farmers market, and you get excited, your brain starts thinking, you get all giddy about it. Those are the moments we live for—clean slate, you come in, let’s do this.”
About that Jamaican jerk pork belly. Brined in those island spices for days. Cold-smoked four hours. Braised overnight, served with Jamaican staples like black eyed peas, plantain chips.
Rushmore food from a pretty revered SD talent.
