Tijuana's culinary future
From The San Diego Reader
By Ian Pike
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/feast/2013/apr/25/tiju...
"If Juan Plasencia is any indication, the next generation of TJ restaurateurs will continue the dining renaissance south of the border.
Right now, high-school senior Juan Plasencia is living in the shadows of his father and uncle, the big names behind Grupo Plasencia’s family of
restaurants in Tijuana (Caesar’s, Casa Plasencia, etc.) and San Diego. For a young guy just getting his start in the world, those are some big shoes
to fill.
But Juan’s got his own ideas about the future of Tijuana’s food and dining scene, and he’s already starting to think about his role in that future.
Partly to get a good grade in his senior business seminar--partly to demonstrate that he’s worthy of someday playing a big role in his family’s
business--Juan just organized the “Tijuana Makes Me Hungry” event at the San Diego Public Market. Held in conjunction with the Taste of Asia, Tijuana
Makes Me Hungry (a play on the title of a movie) brought some TJ restaurants up to San Diego to showcase the southern city’s culinary style. Proceeds
went to “Just Call Us Volunteers.”
When I talked to young Juan, as he cooked a huge batch of paiella for his event, I got the idea that he doesn’t want to just sit back and quietly work
his way into the family business. He plans to head out to Vegas for school and to learn how the hotels there are run. He wants to bring that kind of
ambition back to TJ with him and work towards building bigger and better things for his city.
He still thinks that TJ, and TJ’s businesses, need promotion. The city’s reputation as a dangerous place needs to go if Tijuana is going to fully
revitalize and become the destination city it was when Caesar’s restaurant (which Juan’s family owns) and other places were serving salads and
c-cktails to Hollywood stars. The best way to make that happen, in Juan’s eyes, is to keep things growing, to keep opening new restaurants and hotels
and to work towards a more vibrant Tijuana.
Juan’s still young and a little shy talking about himself. He doesn’t have the ready answers and sound bites that older restaurateurs often resort to
when they go on the record about things. At the same time, it’s obvious that he’s a smart kid with ideas in his head. If Tijuana’s recent culinary
rebirth is going to continue, it will take a lot of kids like Juan keeping the ball rolling."
“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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