BajaNomad

Tijuana chef gains international prominence

mtgoat666 - 2-3-2012 at 12:14 PM

from Union Tribune

TIJUANA — It has been a heady few weeks for Javier Plascencia, the Tijuana chef whose Mision 19 restaurant in Tijuana's Rio Zone has just celebrated its first anniversary .

Last month, Plascencia was serving his trademark yellow fin tuna parfait and Tijuana border churros in Park City, Utah at ChefDance, one of five chefs featured at the annual culinary festival that is timed to coincide with the Sundance Film Festival.

Also last month, the Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain dropped by the restaurant in Tijuana’s Rio Zone, filming Plascencia for his show, No Reservations.

The Jan. 30th edition of The New Yorker included a 10-page profile by Dana Goodyear, entitled, “The Missionary: Can an adventurous chef remake his city’s image?”

“It’s overwhelming, but it pleases me very much for the city, for all the good things that will be happening through this,” Plascencia said in an interview.

Plascencia is now preparing for the second Baja Culinary Fest in October, an event promoting the region's cusine through local and invited chefs. This year’s festival will be connected to Tijuana Innovadora, an event that highlights the city’s potential through a series of talks by prominent speakers.

The recent attention has brought more diners to Mision 19, located in the city’s only environmentally certified building. “We’ve had a lot more people than normal, people that didn’t know us before,” Plascencia said.

wessongroup - 2-3-2012 at 01:24 PM

Way cool... as there is some great food in TJ... just saying