Posts by Trey Foshee

I’ve never done a “stage.” Well…maybe as part of interviewing for a new position, but never to just hang out and learn or absorb what another chef is doing. About six months ago I started thinking about staging with Dan Barber at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. I’m not sure what prompted the thought, but I believe it had something to do with the creation of our TBL3 concept. My relationship with the farms we use, especially Chino Farms, has shown me the responsibility I have to use their produce with the utmost respect and I knew Dan was living this same reality, although on a grander scale. I wanted to go not just to see the food, but also to get a sense of how the relationship between a chef and the ingredients translated into a clear and personal culinary vision.

It’s cool how attention comes in waves. The last couple of years I’ve been participating in many local culinary events, but not much on the national scale. Then, within the same week, I’m invited to participate in two New York City events with a lineup of chefs that humbles me. The first event was put on by blogger/author Steve Plotnicki of Opinionated About Dining and the excellent Opinionated About U.S. Restaurants guidebook on September 14th at Craft, Tom Colicchio’s restaurant that just received three stars from the New York Times.

I just got back from a very quick eating trip to Los Gatos and San Francisco with Jason Knibb (of Nine-Ten). We flew up Friday afternoon and drove straight to Los Gatos for dinner at Manresa. I have wanted to eat year for a couple years and finally made it. The following day we started out at the Ferry Plaza Marketplace and ate our way through many stops, including a new favorite, Saison. What is interesting about San Francisco, a truly great food city, is how it is branching away from its predominantly Mediterranean/Italian vibe to a city with many different inspirations.

When I got a call from my old cook Christopher Kostow to join him at Meadowood resort in Napa for their 12 Days of Christmas event it was an honor, and all for a great cause – Share Our Strength. But being invited as a guest chef for an event is always a bit nerve-racking. What’s the right menu? Where is the event? What are the kitchen and the staff like? Who are we cooking for…what is the expectation? If you have the wrong answer to any of these questions, your experience can be anything from disappointing to disastrous.

I wanted to take a minute and note the significant accomplishment of Christopher Kostow, chef at The Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena which just received three stars from the prestigious Michelin Guide.

Roast suckling pig has been a delicacy since ancient times, and is usually prepared for special occasions and gatherings. We’re now offering whole suckling pig dinners for groups of eight to 10 people in California Modern.

Chef Trey Foshee of George's At The Cove in La Jolla was cooking and celebrating California Avocados today with Kerri Sargent of KUSI.

The last five years has seen a huge increase in the "casual" sector and a significant loss in the "high end/fine dining" sector. I use quotations because the definitions are getting blurred and maybe that is what I most appreciated about this trip to the Big Apple.

This is the third time I have gone to Star Chefs, which is a three-day event of demonstrations and speakers from the culinary world. The last two times had some great topics and I came away with a head full of ideas. Not food ideas, but ideas and thoughts about the restaurant industry as a whole and how we fit into it. You can check out last year's posts in the October 2008 Archive.

This is a recent review by local food writer Caron Golden for San Diego News Network. I was really excited to see how she represented what we're doing at California Modern, which is exposing flavor combinations in new ways and having fun. Her closing words sum up exactly what we hope everyone has when they come in for dinner—a blast.

Last year I took some of the mixology classes and thought they were very interesting, with modern interpretations and twists on old cocktails, as well as some new ways of looking at this exciting field. I decided to bring Frankie along this year to help in his development as one of the most exciting mixologists in San Diego. As you will read in Frankie's article, I think he found some new inspiration for our Modern Bar cocktail menu.

As a chef, I have become adept at molding my cuisine into what is right for the locations and environments in which I find myself. My signature style, if I had one, was founded on a respect for the culture I found myself in. Cooking has given me the fortunate opportunity to live in some great places – Ojai, Santa Barbara, Switzerland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Maui and the Big Island, Sundance (Utah), and now La Jolla. These are all very different places with different clienteles, local ingredients and styles of cooking.