Chef Jair Téllez takes 'Amerexican' to North Park
Leaves behind his celebrated Mexican kitchens (Laja; MeroToro) for a pop-up dinner
From The San Diego Union Tribune
Written by Keli Dailey
"In August Mark Bittman called this chef's food "super," and perhaps best labeled "Amerexican."
That New York Times piece was about Jair Téllez, who grew up on both sides of the border.
I've eaten at his Baja restaurant Laja, set on a quiet stretch of dirt road in the heart of Mexico's wine country. And I've been swept up by the fresh
scallops and the hyper-local story behind Laja's menu: Produce is pulled that morning from the garden out front. Sea life is driven in from Ensenada,
20 miles away.
Pop-up dinner with Jair Téllez 7:15 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24 at El Take It Easy. 3926 30th St. North Park. (619) 291-1859 or
eltakeiteasy.com/laja-in-san-diego. $70 with wine. Reservations: laja@eltakeiteasy.com
So when I heard Téllez was doing a pop-up dinner at North Park's El Take It Easy next Monday - and spotlighting SAN DIEGO ingredients - I wanted to
know why he wasn't smuggling Mexican materials across the border in a backpack.
"San Diego, Tijuana and Ensenada share many of the same geographic and climatic conditions. Therefore we have access to many of the same ingredients,"
Téllez, who also runs MeroToro restaurant in Mexico City, schooled me in an email.
"Most of the differences come from the cultural, economic and political side of the equation."
Of course cooking with San Diego ingredients is in line with Téllez's philosophies about restricting ingredients to his immediate area. Ensenada and
San Diego are 70 miles apart: You're considered a locavore if you source food within a 100-mile radius.
On the menu
The pop-up dinner with Jair Téllez advertises the following menu:
beet ceviche, avocado, salt cured Sierra mackerel
heirloom tomatoes, green tomatoes, cucumber, fish roe, herbal tonic of sorrel, nopal, basil and lemon verbena.
broccoli, romanesco, butternut squash, charred onions, radishes, ¨caldo de queso¨ broth, quail egg
rosa bianca eggplant, lardo, powdered acorns
lamb, carrots, Swiss chard, burnt star anise
fermented goat´s milk panna cotta, hibiscus-sage infusion, lemon balm granita
"It wouldn´t make any sense to me to bring in ingredients ... because I already have them here in San Diego. (Well, I might sneak in a thing or two,
just possibly)."
Téllez joins a list of bright Baja lights who have guest-cooked in El Take It Easy's kitchen, including chefs Benito Molina, Solange Muris, Javier
Plascencia and Diego Hernández.
The $70 dinner, which starts at 7:15 p.m., features communal seating and wine pairings.
It's a six-course menu, and what Téllez called a chance to "illustrate that despite the great evident differences between both sides of the border,
there are much more meaningful things that bring us together, like ingredients, history, climate... However and must of all, the greatest coincidence
is that around great food there´s always great people."
keli.dailey@utsandiego.com (619) 293-1541 Twitter @kelidailey
[Edited on 9-22-2012 by Gypsy Jan]
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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