A graduate of the California Culinary Academy, Jeffrey San Diego, 33, has cooked at some of the Bay Area's finest restaurants. He was sous chef at San Mateo, CA based Viognier, where he worked with Gary Danko, Viognier's opening consulting chef. San Diego also cooked at 231 Ellsworth in San Mateo and alongside Yoshi Kojima at MC2 in San Francisco. Red Lantern is San Diego's first venture as a restaurant owner, and it represents the first step toward his long-term goal of building a portfolio of restaurant properties.
San Diego has a tremendous amount of catering experience, including significant projects for the film industry in Hollywood. He worked on the set of “We Were Soldiers” with Mel Gibson and Greg Kinnear, which involved serving breakfast, lunch and dinner for up to 500 people daily. He also provided food and beverage services for “Scary Movie.”
Most recently, San Diego was an executive chef for Aramark, where he supervised a 15-member team responsible for all the food service operations at the Santa Clara Convention Center, frequently planning and managing banquets for up to 4,000 guests.
“My background managing large-scale events certainly helped me hone my organizational skills,” said San Diego. “It will pay off at Red Lantern, but I'm excited to return to a more intimate dining environment, where I can focus on optimizing the experience of each guest.” |
