Posts in Category "Seasonal Notes"
ChuckEats calls California Modern 'Of the Place'
Chuck, one of the most respected food bloggers (ChuckEats.com), was in recently and allowed us to cook for him. Here's a bit of what he had to say.
Read MoreSuckling Pig Dinners at California Modern
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.
Read MoreAvocado Explosion
Chef Trey Foshee of George's At The Cove in La Jolla was cooking and celebrating California Avocados today with Kerri Sargent of KUSI.
Read MoreTo Market: George’s California Modern is Chez Trey
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.
Read MoreGreat food comes from great ingredients.
I was asked to contribute a recipe to the Niman Ranch Cookbook. Having had a long and productive relationship with Bill Niman and his company, I was honored and sent over the requested recipe without hesitation. At George's at the Cove, we share the same values of sustainability, support for family farms and proper animal husbandry as the Niman's. We use their pork exclusively and a good portion of our beef also comes from Niman Ranch.
Read MoreStar Chefs Congress
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.
Read MoreRunning a green kitchen: at work, at home.
Videos of sick and downed cattle at the slaughterhouse, people getting sick on poisoned spinach, increases in all our food costs. As our society gets larger and more complicated, the safety and health of our planet becomes more important, complicated and confusing.
There are so many buzzwords, information…
Read MoreGreen with hope.
This past week my wife, Paula, and I took a long walk along the ocean near our house in La Jolla. Once we reached the water’s edge, we saw that the sea that looked so beautiful from afar revealed itself as a floating garbage dump. We could not walk five feet without coming upon pieces of plastic, metal or trash. Those of us who have been around for a few years can stretch our memories to a time when the effects of carelessness, ignorance or worse were not so evident.
Reimagining George's at the Cove
Flashback to 1984, the year George’s at the Cove opened. I had just purchased my first VCR. Computers were not an integral tool in business or personal use. Cell phones were not the omnipresent reality of our lives. The Internet did not even exist! Boy, how the world has changed, and we, the dining public, have changed along with it. Dining is no longer “fine” as it was defined 20 years ago. Special occasion-oriented formal service, coats and ties, and highly structured menus were the rule. Today’s restaurant guest is more discerning and more targeted in their…
Read MoreReimagining California Cuisine
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.
The Art of Bar Food
Remember the days when going to bars meant full-on drinking with little or no regard to consuming anything but your next cocktail? Thankfully, this past approach has yielded to a more sensible and no less entertaining alternative. For my wife Paula and I, the focus has shifted to actually going to bars for the express purpose of having an informal but tasty dinner. Our decision is usually governed by a number of key attributes. First, is the food any good? We are not interested in nachos and stuffed potato skins. Instead, we look to the restaurateur to provide a full compliment of…
Read MoreJust Try It!
I recently flew to Oakland to take part in Oliveto Restaurant’s Oceanic dinner, a weekend-long sustainable seafood fest. The event is a big draw – Oliveto was sold out with 280 reservations all three days of the event. Items on the menu included geoduck clams, sea urchin, mackerel, skate, periwinkles, sardines, octopus, cuttlefish, sea robin, eel, sturgeon, sand dabs and Petrale sole, all purchased from the same seafood purveyor we use at George’s at the Cove, Monterey Seafood in San Francisco. We’ve tried to sell most of these items on our menu over the years with…
Read MoreA Look Inside Chino Farms
When people ask me what sets San Diego dining apart from other cities, my answer is always “Chino Farms.” Other cities have more restaurants, or perhaps better restaurants – New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles all come to mind. But Chino Farms, arguably the best family farm in the U.S., is in my backyard, not theirs. And Chino Farms will not deliver or ship, no matter who you are.
Now, I can’t say that…
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