THE CULTURED COOK
THE EXPERT: Antonio Friscia, Chef/Partner at Don Chido and soon-to-open Rustic Root Antonio Friscia is a humble family man with an incredible passion for the art of food preparation and presentation. Antonio has a lifetime of experience working with food, from his childhood growing up delivering wholesale fish to restaurants, to his oneon-one training with a renowned chef in Italy. He grew up in a large Italian family and said that they were always eating! The wholesale fish delivery was his family’s business, and so being around food constantly was just in the cards for him. While much of his training and experience is with Italian cuisine, he describes himself as a life-long learner. He cannot fathom being interested in only one style of cooking, because there are so many unique and beautiful ways that it could be done differently.
AUTHENTICITY YOU CAN TRUST: Friscia has traveled the world gathering knowledge about tastes that you can be certain come straight from the culture itself. After having studied under a chef in Italy for two years, opening a restaurant in Bali, traveling Asia in search of flavor, and an entire career of collaborating with Latino co-workers in the kitchen; a credible and legitimate taste of culture is what you will find on his Don Chido menu, all from a wood-fire grill!
NATIVE KNOWLEDGE: In addition to their weekday happy hour offered from 3pm - 6pm, Don Chido has an amazing Taco Tuesday featuring $2 tacos, $4 Mexican drafts, and $5 house margaritas and red sangria, with late-night hours extended to 2am to keep the party going!
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Antonio found his second love, after Italian cuisine, when he moved to Bali and opened an Italian restaurant. While he was there, he took every opportunity to learn about the styles in which they prepared food. He finished out his contract working at that Italian restaurant and then took some time to travel around Asia and simply immerse himself in the food culture. A chef to his core, Antonio has a respect for his career that is beyond normal. Now sharing that passion with us San Diegans, it is evident when you step into his restaurant that there is a liveliness and sincerity that cannot be replicated.
Robuchon in Las Vegas because of his amazing French cooking technique. I also follow my old chef from Italy that I studied with. A lot of times I go outside of the United States to see what people are doing differently than us. When I want to learn about Mexican food, for example, I go straight to the source. Q: Customers love the modern interior design of Don Chido. Can you tell us anything about the design of the kitchen? AF: There is a combination of old world and modern design. Old world would be the Santa Maria wood-fire grill. However, the grill is modern at the same time because it appears rustic but is completely one of a kind. Q: Do you experiment with cooking and combining new flavors at home, or do you leave that for work at the restaurant? AF: I’m obsessed (laughs). On my days off, I am always cooking something at home. I have two boys, so they are my little taste testers. I am off on Sundays and spend time with them and am always cooking them a meal. I play around with a lot of cultural food on Sunday nights. Japanese, Mexican, and Italian are some of our most common meals.
Q: If a customer came in from out of town and said that this would be their one and only day in San Diego, what would you tell them to order and why? Q: You have been working in the restaurant business for over 25 AF: I always like to start people with our ceviche. It is a little years. How and where did that all begin? bit different because it is a cross between Mexican and Antonio Friscia: I was born and raised in San Francisco Peruvian styles. Our mojo braised pork is a must try, as “A lot of times and grew up in a family with a wholesale seafood business. well as our chicken mole, because the chickens are wholeI go outside I spent a lot of time going in the back door of all of the roasted in the Caja China. Lastly, our diablo shrimp that of the United restaurants in San Francisco delivering fish. As for is cooked over the grill and mixed with a mojo sauce. And States to see cooking, I was inspired at a young age by my large Sicilian churros for dessert! what people are family who was always eating and preparing food; that doing differently Q: What is the one food item that you find yourself was a big part of our life. Growing up delivering fish, I got than us. When constantly craving these days? excited to see and talk to chefs who were cooking amazing I want to learn AF: Spicy noodle soups and pastas are my comfort food. things around the city. I gravitated towards that career about Mexican Any type of noodle makes me happy. It really depends on immediately. I also spent time cooking cannoli and gnocchi food, for the day and the weather with me. with my grandparents, using old world preparations. One example, I go time, I had gotten home from football practice and was Q: How do you feel your cooking style has developed straight to the extremely hungry. Still in my football pants, I opened up a since you began this career many years ago? source.” gourmet magazine and used one of the recipes to make a AF: It evolves as my life goes on. I have not gotten away Grand Marnier soufflé. My parents were not too happy that from anything completely. I still love all my pastas, risottos I had gotten into the Grand Marnier, but I thought nothing of it and pizza, but I constantly expose myself to other cultural foods. because I was simply following the recipe. If I could just continue to travel and submerse myself in more places, that is really what I would like to to. This is an amazing job Q: Your custom-made, wood-fire grill seems to be your favorite to have if you know that you will never be able to know everything. piece of equipment in the kitchen. What specific features did you want in that grill and how do you use them? Q: Since Don Chido’s opening, what kind of response have you AF: When you cook with wood it is completely different than noticed from the public? cooking on a gas grill. The wood gives it so much more flavor. Caja AF: I think it has been positive. Since we are downtown, we have China cooking seals in the flavor like an oven, but with no air going so many people from around the world walking on 5th Avenue. We back into it to let it breath. I wanted a Santa Maria grill to roast want to welcome people in like it is our home. We want to feed you whole animals sealing in that flavor, but also allowing it to breath. until you are full, happy, satisfied and nourished. If I could touch I created my grill to have a door on the side that seals in the smoke every table, I would! We do our best to give everyone an amazing completely. I also designed it to have drawers on the bottom like a experience. However, the number one thing is making sure that Caja China oven to allow smoke to be pulled through the meat and everything is tasting great. down into the holes in the bottom. Q: Have you noticed any changes in the food culture of San Q: You teamed up with the RMD Group to open up this new Diego over the past several years? restaurant, Don Chido. What had you noticed about RMD AF: There is, of course, lots of dieting going on. The gluten-free Group’s previous endeavors that made you want to go into thing is a big deal. I have also seen people eating crazy amounts business with them? of protein. I think food is going to go in the direction of smaller AF: I was friends with the original chef at Stingaree (where I was a amounts of protein and much more vegetables, or at least more of chef before Don Chido), and he had contacted me after Stingaree a balance like they have in other cultures. The lucky thing for us was sold. We had worked together even before Stingaree, so we had in San Diego is that we have so much to use and utilize during the known one another pretty well. He was the one who started RMD year in terms of produce. Everything in moderation. Group to open FLUXX Nightclub and a variety of other places. We had always stayed in close contact and wanted to do something in Q: Can we expect to see anything new from you on the horizon? the future together. RMD Group decided they wanted the Fred’s AF: Yes, I am helping open Rustic Root, also in San Diego. This property and wanted to keep it Mexican food. They asked me to is going to be progressive American cuisine prepared in an old world style. Everything has come to us from somewhere else, as join, and I gave them one condition: I wanted to be able to cook on far as cooking technique is concerned. We are so lucky to have a wood-fire grill, and they agreed. so many organic farmers and such that do artisan-style farming. Q: Tell us about a chef whom you have always admired. Was This allows us to have all different types of things on our menu all their cooking style similar to yours? the time. For Rustic Root, we are going to use local ingredients as AF: I follow everybody. I respect the job that we do, and I can learn much as possible. from anybody. There are so many talented chefs in the bay area, San Diego and New York. I don’t get out of my own kitchen very often, but I do take a look at their menus. One guy I love is Joel
| MARCH 2015