The French Laundryin Napa Valley. Fraser then followed the path of many acclaimed chefs before him and headed to Paris. With stints at lauded eateries Maison Blanche and two-Michelin-starred Le Taillevent under his belt, the LA-born chef returned stateside and opened Compass in New York’s Upper East Side.
However, it wasn’t until Fraser opened one-Michelin-star Dovetail in 2007, followed by Nix in 2016, that he really landed on the US culinary map. Both veg-focused eateries are now closed with Nix, like so many,
But, despite the closure of Nix, Fraser’s culinary empire remains solid. As well as Ardor at the West Hollywood Edition, the chef’s portfolio boasts The Loyal in New York’s West Village, four restaurants and bars inside The Times Square Edition hotel and the North Fork Table & Inn in Long Island.
SAN MARCOS, Calif.
Hidden inside greenhouses up a dirt road in San Marcos’ Twin Oaks Valley are plants with leaves that taste like raw oysters, chocolate-flavored mint, lime and pineapple varieties of basil, snow-white strawberries, pink blueberries and full-grown tomatoes as tiny as currants.
Launched in 2016 by Aaron Choi and his wife, Emily Chen Choi, Girl & Dug Farm’s unusual crops have attracted some of the nation’s pickiest customers: Michelin-starred restaurant chefs.
Before the pandemic, the farm’s 60 restaurant customers included all but one of the Michelin-starred chefs in Los Angeles, as well as some of the most acclaimed restaurants in San Diego, New York and Chicago.
SAN MARCOS
Hidden inside greenhouses up a dirt road in San Marcos’s Twin Oaks Valley there are plants with leaves that taste like raw oysters, chocolate-flavored mint, lime and pineapple varieties of basil, snow-white strawberries, pink blueberries and full-grown tomatoes as tiny as currants.
Launched in 2016 by Aaron Choi and his wife, Emily Chen Choi, Girl & Dug Farm’s unusual crops have attracted some of the nation’s pickiest customers: Michelin-starred restaurant chefs.
Before the pandemic, the farm’s 60 restaurant customers included all but one of the Michelin-starred chefs in Los Angeles, as well as some of the most acclaimed restaurants in San Diego, New York and Chicago.
There is a sort of intrepid enthusiasm verging on irreverence in the way Choi speaks about farming that challenges not only how we grow food, but also how we eat it.
When Choi first began developing the unique selection of greens that came to be Girl & Dug Farm s KinderGreens as an alternative to more commonplace microgreens, he wanted to create what he calls a functional garnish, which is not just about looking good. It s got to have flavor. Aaron Choi picks a perilla crop, a traditional Korean green that his parents grew in the early days of the farm. | Lauren di Matteo
Print
For many years, celebrity chef Richard Blais has been dogged by the nickname of “the guy with the liquid nitrogen tank.”
During two seasons on Bravo’s “Top Chef” series, the Del Mar resident became well-known for using molecular gastronomy techniques like the freezing liquid in his season-winning dishes. But that was a decade ago and Blais hopes that his latest local restaurant project, Ember & Rye at the Park Hyatt Aviara, better reflects where he is as a chef today.
Slated to open in March, if public health orders allow outdoor dining by then, Ember & Rye is replacing the resort’s 30-year-old Argyle Steakhouse, which overlooks the 18th hole of the resort’s golf course on the north shore of Batiquitos Lagoon.