BACK OF THE HOUSE

BACK OF THE HOUSE NEW CHEFS

OF BIG SUR

The pandemic brought a new crop of high-caliber chefs to the South Coast’s most fabled restaurants and the slower winter season is a perfect time for locals to discover their food

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KODIAK GREENWOOD AND MICHELLE MAGDALENA

CHEF REYLON AGUSTIN

Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn

“I was born at Fort Ord, so this is like coming home,” says Reylon Agustin, who joined the iconic Sierra Mar restaurant at Post Ranch Inn as executive chef last year. As a child, he remembers running up and down sand dunes, watching in amazement as his footprints disappeared. “It was like a giant Etch A Sketch!”

Much of his mother’s Filipino family, including grandfathers and uncles, were in the military. It was his grandmother who fed him daily, inspiring his career. “The fondest part of my childhood was being around a lot of family and tons of food. It’s such a celebrated part of our culture. Food was the way I identified with my culture and tried to preserve it,” he says.

Yearning to cook in the storied kitchens of Europe and learn their secrets, Agustin went to London. “My time at the Savoy Grill was a reckoning,” he says, explaining it was a regimen of exactitude, of strictly following recipes for infallible repeatability. “Auguste Escoffier (the original chef at the Savoy) influenced how the top kitchens in the world are set up. He invented positions like chef de cuisine and chef de partie.”

A complete contrast to the Savoy was the farm-to-table ethos of chef Traci Des Jardins at Jardinière, where Agustin worked in San Francisco. “She was a huge influence,” he says. “We wrote new menus every day, based on what our farmers harvested. I learned not to be afraid to experiment and bring a dish to life.”

Agustin’s most recent culinary canvas was Michelin-starred Madera at Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park, where he brought innovation to a very traditional menu. Then the pandemic shut Silicon Valley down. “I knew it would be a hot minute before anything returned to whatever the new normal was going to look like,” he says. When the Sierra Mar position came his way, he recognized a once-in-alifetime opportunity to work in another fabled kitchen, where executive chefs Craig von Foerster and John Cox had laid down legend.

He also recognized instantly that the coastal terroir dictates the menu.

“The real difference between Madera and here is that I am one level closer to the farmers, fishermen, mushroom foragers, olive oil and honey producers. I am picking avocados at a ranch in Palo Colorado, constantly closing that radius. There’s tons of fennel and cactus. I love diving for bull kelp at Moss Landing. It’s super neat to be rediscovering where I grew up!”

In the Post Ranch garden, he pulled out mealy heirlooms and replanted with intensely

Garden squash agnolotti with saffron, tarragon and Schoch Farmstead cheese from chef Reylon Austin at Sierra Mar (left) and autumn squash soup with garnish of shaved fuyu persimmon, crispy pancetta, dill and dill oil from chef Tim Eelman at Big Sur Bakery (right).

flavored dry-farmed tomatoes. Albion strawberries thrive in the ranch’s soils, as do a cross between purple potatoes and German butterballs. “We get 65% of our produce from the garden. We inoculated tree stumps with mushrooms, like lion’s mane, which are popular with guests for their healing properties. We also make our own seaweed salt for a distinctive umami that captures our terroir.”

Agustin knows he has a lofty tradition to uphold at Sierra Mar. “Guests still talk about dishes von Foerster created. I am lucky enough to have the chance to write my own chapter in the book, but I will do it respectfully. Pride is not synonymous with ego. Be proud of what you do!”

Clearly, he’s not planning on his footprints—or foodprints—disappearing in the sand. —Laura Ness

CHEF TIM EELMAN

Big Sur Bakery

When Edible Monterey Bay asked longtime Big Sur Bakery owner Mike Gilson what might surprise people about his restaurant’s new chef, he had an interesting response.

“No big surprises here,” he said. “Just big flavors.”

Gilson is partly right. The menu with which executive chef Tim Eelman relaunched BSB’s dinner service last month definitely does big flavor—note the beef short rib with purple sweet potato and nasturtium blossoms, the house cured and smoked whitefish and the dry-aged duck breast he seasons with his own Indian-French vadouvan curry.

But there are some surprises at work with Eelman, who comes over after time with Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn and stints at acclaimed San Francisco destination Aster and sustainability pioneer The Perennial.

One surprise might be just how hotly his passion for product runs—he’ll talk at length about how much he loves the fresh-from-theboat black cod he gets from Real Good Fish or the Oaxacan blue heirloom corn he sources from the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project.

“On a weekly and daily basis, the available product changes,” he says. “That’s just nature.

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310 Harvest Drive, Watsonville, CA | 831.761.2041 x121 We need to adapt our techniques and menu to that, not the other way around. That’s why we keep the menu vague, so we can adapt. What doesn’t change is the flavor, attention to detail and intent that upholds the integrity of the product.”

The sheer depth of new developments at work with Eelman and BSB certainly feel surprising. Rolling out dinner while teaming with pastry chef Raquel Bagatini on a popular lunch service—that features everything from seasonal tuna belly melts to duck confit cassoulet—would be enough to keep most chefs over-occupied.

But Eelman et al are also building out a hot sauce program (soon available for retail sale), a fermentation program (think tomato vinegars and salt-preserved spicy mustard greens), a pizza program (for Sundays), new breakfast service (with an eye on full service mornings come spring) and even a vinyl program (featuring staff and guest record selections alike, with Eelman leaning heavily toward Springsteen).

Chef insists that progress happens only one way. “It’s the team,” he says. “We fuel each other. We can’t sustain having one person excited about things. It’s about making this together. That’s what drives it. When everyone’s rowing and deciding where to go, it makes things much more a joy to be a part of.”

If Gilson has his way, any additional surprises can come from other places than the kitchen. “Big Sur and life in general offer plenty of surprises,” he says.

He’s got a point. While the bakery hasn’t been around nearly as long as the surrounding redwoods, it’s certainly survived wildly eventful times. Its relatively brief existence has already included catastrophic wildfires, mudslides, a months-long shutdown of Highway 1 in both directions and, oh, a global pandemic.

That gets back to other Eelman abilities. When COVID sent shockwaves of closures and uncertainty through the restaurant sphere and beyond, Eelman’s gifts provided a steadying force at Sierra Mar, where Jonathan Rodriguez is chef de cuisine.

“Tim’s strength lies in his versatility,” Rodriguez says. “He was one of the more creative fellas in the bunch, he did a lot to incorporate seasonality and his background as a baker really helped us with fundamental recipes…but more than anything he met every challenge head on with a positive attitude.”

In other words, whether the surprise is a seasonal ingredient or an inevitable South Coast curveball, this chef’s up to the task. —Mark C. Anderson

CHEF NICK BALLA

Coast Big Sur

Deep down in Big Sur, tucked in a series of cylindrical redwood towers, next to a cliff, under a mountain range, without a public water system or cell service, surrounded by poison oak, original art, sunsets, wild beauty and social distance to spare, Nick Balla found a dreamy place to spend the pandemic.

The award-winning chef, author and master bread maker liked it so much he stayed, and he now helms Coast Big Sur’s kitchen.

That wasn’t the plan. But as he started making pilgrimages to consult on Coast’s opening, Big Sur imprinted on his taste buds and his heart. Suddenly plans to return to San Francisco—where he ran a number of restaurants, most famously Bar Tartine, and co-wrote a James Beard award-winning book on the techniques and recipes they developed there—weren’t so appetizing.

“I got hooked,” he says. “Especially during COVID, it was the best place to be. I fell in love.”

He moved south permanently in fall 2020. Under his care, Coast provides Big Sur another destination place to eat.

The tiny menu delivers flavors as expansive as the views. Recent items include a farmer’s cheese tart with king trumpet mushrooms and saag; a Sofia spoon salad with local tomatoes, fava beans, olives, squash and herbs; and a sweet corn and mung bean soup. Those come reinforced by stylish shrubs (note the blackberry and thyme with cider vinegar), seasonal lemonades, local wines, fancy coffee, craft beers and five soft serve ice cream flavors like vanilla bay laurel and chocolate landslide.

The food is driven by plunder that locals unload and the preservation game that populates his book. One autumn day 400 pounds of quince landed in his lap. Other days it’s dragonfruit and avocado, sometimes it’s apple and citrus. While scrambling to preserve the produce, Balla and his nuclear team of

Chef Nick Balla of Coast Big Sur and a table of his salads and picnic fare.

Veronica Ramirez, Angel Vasquez and Natalie Gamboa are also baking like crazy—from rustic Tartine-inspired sourdough to harissa chicken pizza to “everything” cookies—while at the same time fermenting their own koji, miso and soy sauce.

“We’re cooking with what’s around,” he says. “We’re a hub for everyone’s gardens and farms, which sometimes involves getting huge batches. I process things so it doesn’t go to waste, which has always been my shtick.”

While he’s fallen hard for Big Sur, Big Sur has fallen harder for him. Elsa Rivera observes ringside as Big Sur Food & Wine events director and part of the Big Share community food pantry project that shielded hundreds from hunger amid COVID.

“He’s quietly a powerhouse in the community,” she says. “He just says ‘yes’ to every collaboration, asking, ‘What can I do? How can I help?’ He’s one of those people who will look at the possibilities rather than the impossibilities.”

That meant taking surplus food bank flour to make breads and pizzas, using overflow garbanzos to make hummus and transforming expiring produce into pickles, all of it going to those in need.

“He’s super open and creative but also has a business acumen that brings structure,” Rivera says. “We got really lucky that he lives and breathes zero waste and sustainability.”

According to Balla, the view might be nice, but it’s these types of connections that keep him in his COVID home.

“The biggest draw is being part of the community,” he says. Which gets at the best part of this particular love story: The more Balla and his Coast team contribute to the community, the stronger, better tasting and less wasting the community becomes. —Mark C. Anderson

CHEF JOHN GARCIA

The Sur House and Big Sur Smokehouse at Alila Ventana Big Sur

Chef John Garcia is used to living in far-flung locales over his two decades long cooking career. Eight years working for Ritz-Carlton landed him in both California and Puerto Rico, a stint at the Bellagio Hotel took him to Las Vegas then more recently he was at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas. But his current position as executive chef at the iconic Alila Ventana Big Sur, overseeing both The Sur House and the newly reopened Big Sur Smokehouse, is placing him at a once-in-a-lifetime post on this remarkable coastline we call home. “Big Sur is an absolutely gorgeous location and the property is truly breathtaking,” he says. “The team is eager to learn, hungry to be the best and the natural resources make it incomparable.”

That team that chef Garcia is quick to honor and this area’s abundance are, in fact, the two main tenets that drive his cooking. “My inspiration comes from everywhere, an ingredient at its peak, a whiff of fresh lavender on the property, my team. My team inspires me, I truly enjoy asking them to cook what they would have at home, especially my interns because they come from different backgrounds, plus it gives them a chance to cook from their heart. That’s when you see what they love, and the conversations that come from that is what makes this job fun,” he says.

Garcia has been having fun in restaurants most of his life, while also appreciating rural living. He grew up on a former walnut orchard in Chino, when that part of San Bernardino County was still mostly farmland. His father, a mechanical engineer for the U.S. Postal Service, had a dream to raise his kids on a farm, so he started one with about 30 black angus cattle, ducks, chickens, pigs, sheep and a huge vegetable garden.

“Around this time my father also decided he wanted to open a restaurant,” recalls Garcia, “so we opened Joey’s Bar-B-Q in Anaheim serving original Texan recipes. That’s where I actually got the itch to be in the kitchen. I spent every free moment helping make sausage, chili, beef ribs and being the dishwasher.” Side note: Big Sur Smokehouse recently picked up honors at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Chili Cook-Off, so it seems Garcia knows a thing or two about that dish. The main turning point for Garcia’s culinary career came right after high school. His grandfather, who was executive chef at The US Grant Hotel in San Diego for 28 years, always had an influence on him, teaching him how to break down whole fish, tenderloins, rib roasts, lamb and whole chickens. After a brief interlude when Garcia studied to become a corporate lawyer, he took a day job at a hotel restaurant and realized that’s where he was most happy. “Of course my grandfather tried to talk me out of it, telling me my hands will hurt, my feet will hurt, I'll never see my family on holidays...the more he told me no, the more I told myself I can do this!” Fast forward to today and Garcia is continuing in those familial kitchen footsteps, using the seasonal bounty that surrounds Big Sur. As the restaurants transition from fall into winter, menu items like butternut squash soup with duck confit and lavenderinfused Fogline Farm chicken with truffle jus are a few favorites. He is also working on an anise-rubbed venison dish with a traditional mole, pepper chutney and sweet potato.

What he loves to eat most when he isn’t working is something simple, but filled with nostalgia. “I enjoy braised items because you build on the flavor, you can taste the depth of ingredients and it just feels like home and brings back memories from when my mother cooked. I think food does that to everyone, or at least should. It should transport you to a memory or time in your life.” —Amber Turpin

Chef John Garcia grew up on a farm and has been working in restaurants since he was a kid.

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