The Main Course

Top-Rated Chefs Take a Flavorful Approach

By Collin Breaux, Breeana Greenberg, and Shawn Raymundo

San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point, and San Clemente certainly have a wealth of restaurants and types of food to choose from if you’re looking to eat out. Readers of Dana Point Times, San Clemente Times and The Capistrano Dispatch recently voted for their favorite chefs during Picket Fence Media’s recent “Best of” Awards. We wanted to learn more about these local culinary gurus, so we spent some time hearing about their stories and approaches to food.

Rob Wilson Of Glasspar In Dana Point

After growing up fishing on his father’s 1965 18-foot Glasspar Seafair Sedan, Rob Wilson paid homage to the vintage boat company when he named his restaurant in Dana Point—Glasspar.

The boat seemed to be “a part of the family,” Wilson says, as he spent most Wednesdays and Saturdays either fishing with his dad out of the Dana Point Harbor or surfing at Doheny State Beach when his father went fishing.

Long before he opened Glasspar, Wilson’s career in the restaurant business started at age 15, when he worked as a dishwasher at the Dana Point Chart House. Wilson worked at the restaurant using a work permit from Dana Hills High School’s culinary department.

“One day, one of the managers came up and said, ‘One of the cooks didn’t show up for work,’ ” Wilson recalls. “And he said, ‘Aren’t you here from a work permit from the culinary department at Dana Hills?’, and I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘Here’s a shirt, here’s a hat, get on the line.’ ”

“And so, I started cooking pretty much a week after I started there, and I just fell in love with it, and I kind of never looked back,” Wilson adds.

From there, Wilson spent 25 years in the luxury hotel sector, working his way to an executive chef position at the Montage in Laguna Beach.

Using his extensive culinary background, Wilson and his wife, Annique Wilson, looked to create a “vintage American seafood hall” when they opened Glasspar in the Dana Marina Plaza in December 2019.

“My wife and I had always wanted to do something of our own, and so we had a couple of concepts we tossed around, and really it was a matter of like our kids were out of the house … and we just wanted to do something in our community that we love,” Wilson says.

Annique Wilson oversees the wine and beverage program, as well as the private dining and catering aspect of Glasspar.

Glasspar offers “creative Californian” cuisine that pulls influences from Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, Italy and Peru.

“I try to pull from my experiences in my life and flavor profiles that will be creative,” Wilson says. “I’ve always said that California is kind of a melting pot for cuisine. People say, ‘What is California cuisine?’ Well, it feels fresh, it’s local, it’s a bit lighter, but it is a melting pot.”

When Wilson’s cooking, he always tries to use the ingredients that are in season.

“I always say that if it’s growing in my backyard, it should probably be on my menu,” Wilson says. “So, in summertime, you should have beautiful tomatoes on your menu, and wintertime, you should have more root vegetables. So, I always try to cook within the season.”

Wilson adds that since California doesn’t have very distinctive seasons, he changes the menu three times a year instead of four, letting the summer-fall menu collide into one another.

“I like to cook fresh,” Wilson says. “I like to make food that is flavorful and within the season, and if I can get it as local as possible, that’s what we try to do.”

Wilson adds that he’s very proud of Glasspar’s accomplishments, noting that it’s nice to be recognized by the local community for his and his staff’s efforts.

“I’m very proud that we made it through the past and that we’re here today,” Wilson says. “It’s been a tumultuous ride. It hasn’t been easy for anyone in the restaurant industry, but I think focusing on the future, we want to continue to get better and be creative with our foods.”

“I feel that with every menu that we put out, we get a little better,” Wilson adds.

Chris Kartchner Of The Cellar And Jane In San Clemente

Growing up in a Las Vegas household in which he was one of six children, Chris Kartchner and his family certainly weren’t going out to eat every night. Though that’s not to say he wasn’t exposed to the fine dining available in Sin City.

“I’m originally from Vegas, and I grew up going to all these nice restaurants and casinos,” he says. “I just grew up eating great food out there.”

Most of the time, though, about four or five nights a week, his mother provided home-cooked meals. When he was still just a child, he found himself in the kitchen beside his mother, helping her cook.

“I would say at age 9, that’s when I kind of started helping her out around the kitchen and stuff,” Kartchner recalls.

Learning how to cook in those formative years, he notes, “I knew I wanted to be a chef at age 11.”

At 27 years old, Kartchner now finds himself in the role of chef at The Cellar and Jane in Downtown San Clemente, achieving that very goal he had set out to accomplish 16 years ago.

And after being in the position for about the past 2½ years, he was recognized this past February as the Best Chef in San Clemente for the annual People’s Choice Ole Awards.

“I was really stoked (to get a Golden Ole), especially with it being a people’s choice thing,” he says, remembering the day he opened the Best of San Clemente issue. “That made me stoked, too, because, I know, I see the numbers here, I know we’re doing well, but it was cool seeing that people really do appreciate it, like notice what I’m doing here. It’s awesome. It’s a great feeling.”

Kartchner’s yearslong journey to become a chef started that year he turned 11. That was when he and the family moved near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where his parents—who had careers in real estate— began to sell timeshares for some of the major hotels following the stock market crash.

“I lived in Mexico for three years, and I was just cooking constantly down there and learning how to make Mexican cuisine and Latin cuisine, and that was like a big inspiration for me in the kitchen,” Kartchner says.

When he was 12, he applied to attend a magnet school where he could receive formal training to become a chef.

“I didn’t get in, but that didn’t really deter me going forward,” Kartchner recalls of his determination.

Years later and back in the U.S., he notes, he would land his first job in a professional kitchen—by accident.

“I took the first job I could find as a

Oscar Ramirez Of Five Vines Wine Bar In San Juan Capistrano

When Five Vines Wine Bar co-owner Suzy Fairchild was looking for someone to handle the food, she decided to call her longtime friend, Oscar Ramirez, in 2018. The two had worked together in the service industry before, and she needed someone she knew and trusted for her Orange County venture.

“She said, ‘I need a chef at my place. Are you interested?’ ” Ramirez recalls.

He accepted her offer and has been practicing his craft alongside his longtime colleague ever since, including through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had new ideas for this place, and I think that’s worked,” Ramirez says.

Five Vines offers finger foods that go well with its main calling card of wine. Current menu items include a hummus dip with carrot and cucumber slices, sal- dishwasher at Nordstrom Café over at Mission Viejo. And within a month, even still as a dishwasher, I learned how to make everything on their menu, just make it myself like making my lunches when I go on break every day,” he says, adding: “From there, I kind of just kept climbing up the ladder.” kitchen since I was 17, so I’ve been in the kitchen about 10 years—most of which I was working 60-, 70-hour weeks, because that’s just how you move up,” he explains. “There’s really no other way to do it. especially without schooling.”

While on that climb, he’s ascended to a variety of roles in restaurant kitchens around South Orange County, including Olamendi’s and Panera Bread, where he was a baker; BJ’s Restaurants and Brewhouse; and Trevor’s at the Tracks in Downtown San Juan Capistrano, where he worked as a fry cook and then kitchen manager.

For Kartchner, though, who needs schooling when you have practical, real-world kitchen experience? The recipes and lessons he picked up from his first teacher—his mother—also came in handy.

“When we went to Mexico, that’s when I started cooking often,” he says. “I made some of her recipes. And then, I would say around 18, 19, that’s when I started writing my own recipes, making my own stuff.”

Now as a professional chef, he’s used some of his mom’s recipes, while putting his own unique touch on them. He even incorporated her recipe for a potato and cheese chowder she used to make for the family into the menu at The Cellar.

“That was my favorite growing up. … That’s the recipe I took from her, and now it’s kind of completely different. I just gave it some flair,” he says, adding: “I’ve had it on the menu here, and people loved it.”

Recognizing her son’s talents, Kartchner’s mother will sometimes ask him for help seasoning her homemade soups.

“Having learned to cook and growing up cooking with her, it’s pretty rad now that I can kind of give something back to her after she gave me that livelihood besides raising me,” he says. “She pretty much gave me my career now, which is rad.”

As for his ongoing climb up the ladder, Kartchner acknowledges that he’s in a good place right now professionally, but at some point, after he turns 30, he plans to open his own restaurant.

“I plan to start my own business eventually; I have had people offer to invest,” he says. “But I don’t know, I’m only 27. I’m thinking maybe once I’m 30, I’ll start looking at something like that more seriously. I feel like I still have a lot to learn.”

“I just kind of worked my way up over the years. I’m 27, and I’ve been in the says. “The only thing, maybe, I don’t like is dessert … but I try.” ads, soup cups, and flatbreads. The food is minimalist but delectable and is also frequently highly rated by readers when the “Best of” contest rolls around.

Five Vines is a popular spot with visitors and locals alike and has come to establish itself as an anchor in the Downtown San Juan business scene.

Ramirez says he can prepare any type of food. On a given weekday, before the nighttime and weekend influx of customers, he can be found diligently chopping lettuce and other ingredients.

“Honestly, I never follow recipes,” Ramirez says. “I make my own.”

He started cooking in 2001 and feels drawn to the kitchen—which, in Five Vines’ case, is upstairs and away from the downstairs bar, and therefore not near the milieu of patrons and other winery employees.

“I like to cook everything,” Ramirez

He offers a laugh when discussing his handling of dessert, underscoring his amiable and laid-back personality.

Ramirez enjoys the family feel of working at Five Vines, which is run by the Fairchild family.

“I like everyone,” he says. “We work so hard together to keep this place going.”

Though not from the area, Ramirez has grown to enjoy working in San Juan.

“The first thing I say, ‘Are you guys really busy? I don’t see many people around here,’ ” he says when recalling his initial conversation with Suzy about coming to work at Five Vines. “She said San Juan Capistrano is a really good area. I agree now, after five years of working here. San Juan Capistrano is a really good city.”