Destination LA, The Taste Maker: Chef MelissaPerello

DESTINATION L A

THE TASTE MAKER Chef Melissa Perello, a talented restaurateur with an equally visionary design sense, ventures south from San Francisco to Los Angeles to open her third, and most ambitious, restaurant yet.

meet us for dinner at

LOS

ANGELES,

M. GEORGINA

CALIFORNIA

DESTINATION L A

THE TASTE MAKER Chef Melissa Perello, a talented restaurateur with an equally visionary design sense, ventures south from San Francisco to Los Angeles to open her third, and most ambitious, restaurant yet.

meet us for dinner at

LOS

ANGELES,

M. GEORGINA

CALIFORNIA

M. Georgina is a 4500-square-foot shrine to culinary

ingenuity and not an inch of space is wasted. Whole beasts

her career trajectory now, the road to LA was paved slowly.

smoke and sizzle on hot coals over here. Dry goods stand

Very slowly. “Los Angeles was never part of the plan,” she

at attention on rows of open shelves over there. There

says. “I had no thoughts of leaving San Francisco. At all.”

are stations for prepping the housemade ricotta cheese,

yogurt and other from-scratch ingredients that populate

behind ROW DTLA had been courting Melissa from afar,

at the ready and an open-air pick-up window called The

checking in every so often in an effort to convince her

Slip for lunch on the go. Everything about this restaurant,

that LA—and their complex—was the place for her next

right down to its slick glass-and-metal construction, exists

restaurant. In their minds, she was integral to the project

for one reason: to bring chef-owner Melissa Perello’s brand

and they wanted her as an anchor.

of elevated yet accessible market-driven food to delicious

life in the biggest and best possible way.

“That’s when I started thinking, this might be

worth considering,” Melissa says. “Then I started getting

Situated prominently within ROW DTLA, a sprawling

interested and it all snowballed from there. The food

mixed-use development in Los Angeles’ burgeoning Arts

scene in LA has changed so dramatically over the past few

District, M. Georgina feels like a secret discovery—at once

years, and I was struck by how exciting it all felt. I wasn’t

unique within the landscape of LA’s evolving food scene

expecting it, but I also couldn’t deny it. It just felt right.”

and also completely at home among the new tastemaker-

led restaurants propelling the city’s palate forward. Like

To understand the influences behind Melissa’s

culinary vision, it’s crucial to go back in time. Before she

its location, M. Georgina manages a delicate balancing

became the darling of the food world for reinvigorating

act; it is historic yet experimental, old-school with a new

San Francisco’s fabled Charles Nob Hill restaurant at

vision, foundational in technique yet fluid in expression,

the tender age of twenty-four, before she became one of

serious and unsentimental but with a whiff of whimsy.

But other forces were at work behind the scenes.

For the better part of the past eight years, the developers

the menu, plus uncommonly delicious bread and butter

But while the move feels like the natural next step in

Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs at twenty-seven,

It’s a bigger, bolder, glitzier twist on the kind of high-

before the accolades and the Michelin star she earned at

quality, unpretentious flavor that has become Melissa’s

Fifth Floor restaurant, before she opened two restaurants

signature over the past decade, and propelled both of her

of her own and earned two additional Michelin stars for

San Francisco restaurants, Frances and Octavia, from

those, too, and long before this LA venture ever presented

dining spots to destinations.

itself, Melissa Perello was a little girl toggling between two

seemingly disparate destinations that heavily shaped the kind of chef she would become: New Jersey and Texas.

“When I was younger, we lived in Hackensack, New

Jersey, where my father’s family was from,” she says, “so

in the summers, my parents would ship us off to Texas,

"THE FOOD SCENE IN LA HAS

where my mother’s family was from, for six to eight weeks.

We’d be in the middle of nowhere, in northern Texas, the

CHANGED SO DRAMATICALLY

panhandle, with nothing to do.” To stave off boredom,

OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, AND I

Melissa watched cooking shows on PBS. Soon, she was

spellbound by the dishes she saw chefs like Nathalie

WAS STRUCK BY HOW EXCITING IT

Dupree, Jacques Pépin and Julia Child conjuring on

ALL FELT. I WASN’T EXPECTING IT,

the screen. “I’d go home to New Jersey with this whole

repertoire of things to cook,” she says. “I remember being

BUT I ALSO COULDN’T DENY IT.

about seven or eight years old telling my mom that I

IT JUST FELT RIGHT."

just had to cook this leg of lamb dish I had seen and she was like, ‘Alright.’ So we went and got two legs of lamb

and bound them and stuffed them with thyme and dijon

mustard and then roasted them on the grill just like I had

THE CURRENT VOL. 2 50

Chef Melissa Perello preps a tasting menu in the weeks leading up to M. Georgina’s opening.

THE CURRENT VOL. 2 51

A moment of calm in the dining room.

Melissa's second San Francisco restaurant, Octavia.

seen. I was very fortunate that my parents always gave

her culinary credibility in San Francisco, instilled in her

kitchen.” It helped that her grandmother, Frances, for

enduring success: the first, a deeply rooted appreciation

me the opportunity and space to just play around in the

three things that, in hindsight, likely contributed to that

whom Melissa named her first restaurant, was also a

for food inherited from older generations; the second,

proficient and enthusiastic home cook who nurtured the

a love of the energy of restaurant dining, along with an

passion she saw budding in her granddaughter.

awareness of the sense of pageantry that goes along with

Later, when the family moved from New Jersey to

it and a keen ability to separate artistry from artifice; the

Texas, the lure of restaurants continued to tug on her. “I

third, an intuitive understanding that a meal is meant to

can’t remember my first restaurant experience, but I do

savor as well as sustain.

remember dragging my parents out to a lot of fine dining

spots in my younger years, which is kind of strange for a

kid growing up in Texas,” she says. “I was obsessed with

when combined, have the power to create real culinary

the level of service and the way the plates were executed

alchemy—but the magic extends beyond just the food. As a

so artfully.”

M. Georgina, named for Melissa’s father’s mother

this time, is a reflection of how all of those attributes,

chef, Melissa has always thrived on the sense of community

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of

a restaurant naturally creates, from the chemistry of the

America in Hyde Park, New York, in the mid 1990s, Melissa

staff to the vibe of the people in the dining room. As a

moved to San Francisco, cutting her teeth under the toque

restaurateur, she applies that spirit of connection to the

of chef Michael Mina at Aqua. From there, she went on

non-culinary aspects of the business, as well, especially

to Charles Nob Hill, where her star began to rise after she

when it comes to design. “It is extremely important to

took over the head chef reins following her mentor Ron

me to collaborate with people who share my sensibility

Siegel’s departure. “Ron was the first person who showed

and commitment to quality,” she says, “which is why I’m

me the way the front and back of a restaurant could and

involved in every decision that goes into creating and

should work together,” she says. “He was always out in

sustaining my restaurants.”

the dining room, selecting linens and certain types of glassware. He was very exacting, and it made me realize

that a restaurant is more than just its kitchen and I could impact diners beyond just the food I was serving. I could

give them an experience.” A subsequent stint at Fifth Floor, another lauded but now shuttered San Francisco restaurant, earned Melissa her first Michelin star. But she

"I REMEMBER BEING ABOUT SEVEN

was tired.

OR EIGHT YEARS OLD TELLING MY

At the end of 2006, she decided to take a break and

reassess her path. The time away was therapeutic and

MOM THAT I JUST HAD TO COOK

cathartic and by 2009, she had returned to the food world,

THIS LEG OF LAMB DISH THAT I

this time with a restaurant all her own.

Frances was an instant success and a reminder

HAD SEEN ON PBS, AND SHE WAS

soulful flavor didn’t have to be fussy or uptight. Its sister

LIKE, ‘ALRIGHT.’ SO WE WENT AND

that refined food with market-fresh ingredients and restaurant, Octavia, channeled that same message when

GOT TWO LEGS OF LAMB, BOUND

it opened in 2015. By 2017, Melissa had earned two more

THEM, STUFFED THEM WITH THYME

Michelin stars.

In today’s food-obsessed world, where chefs are

AND DIJON MUSTARD AND THEN

influencers whose profiles rise and fall as spectacularly

ROASTED THEM ON THE GRILL."

as those of film stars and reality show celebrities, Melissa’s longevity and steadfast resolve are no small accomplishment.

Those early years and that nascent

spark for cooking, combined with time spent burnishing

THE CURRENT VOL. 2 54

At M. Georgina the details matter, from the type of wood to the tableware.

Evidence of her exacting eye is everywhere: She

personally sourced the water glasses for their superior

hand feel, and worked with Bay Area antiques dealer Laurie Furber at Elsie Green to find culinary collectibles.

“Relationships are very important to me,” Melissa

says. “When we opened Frances, I worked with a ceramicist named Akiko Graham out of Seattle to make a lot of special

things. Then, with Octavia, I met Sarah Kersten, who’s

EVERYTHING ABOUT M. GEORGINA RIGHT DOWN TO ITS SLICK GLASSAND-METAL CONSTRUCTION

another ceramicist out of Berkeley, and really loved her

work. She’s most known for these fermentation crocks,

EXISTS FOR ONE REASON: TO

which are really beautiful. After we collaborated on the

BRING MELISSA'S BRAND OF

dishes for Octavia, everyone wanted them. Now they’re

part of her full line. Most recently, we worked together to

ELEVATED YET ACCESSIBLE

create a whole new set of special plates for M. Georgina.

MARKET-DRIVEN FOOD TO

So in a lot of ways we kind of grew together.”

To build the wood-burning oven and hearth that

sits center stage at M. Georgina, Melissa enlisted the

DELICIOUS LIFE IN THE BIGGEST

Oregon-based specialist, Jeremiah Thorndike Church.

For lighting, she scoured magazines and antiques auctions for inspiration before discovering some Urban Electric

fixtures, which now boost the restaurant’s glow. Her

father, a hobbyist carpenter with near-professional skills,

contributed to the woodworking by building some of the restaurant’s banquette seating—a tradition continued from the days in San Francisco, when he and Melissa supervised

most of the design and build-out of Frances and Octavia.

“I inherited my drive and pluck from my dad,” she says.

Indeed, there isn’t much that escapes Melissa Perello’s watchful eye and uncompromising standards.

Just months into M. Georgina’s run, the restaurant

is already garnering rave reviews from critics and diners,

further cementing Melissa’s place in the firmament of star

chefs. For her part, though, fame is beside the point. The glory of a restaurant, she feels, firmly rests in two things:

the dishes and the details. “It’s about being thoughtful with every element of the experience, whether it’s the cooking or the design. Precision is everything,” she says, “and precision pays off.”

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AND BEST POSSIBLE WAY.

ROW DTLA LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA T H U R S D AY, N O V E M B E R 7 , 2 0 1 9 4:03PM