Sergio Jimenez has traveled to Denmark and Iceland. He’s made his way to the outskirts of Copenhagen and Reykjavik and buried himself in the culinary art of one of some of the world’s most acclaimed chefs. He’s trekked up and down the California coast delving into the origins of America’s farm-to-table movement. Jimenez has basked in the flavors of the globe’s freshest menus, absorbed the experience around him. He’s taken notes. And he’s taken those notes home to San Diego.
Jimenez starts most mornings with a stroll to the chef’s garden at Rancho Bernardo Inn about 30 minutes north of downtown San Diego. He browses aisles of tomatillo, rosemary, fennel and fig. He pilfers through plants, picking ingredients for the night’s menu the way an artist might carefully blend oils on a palette. Flavors are his colors. His canvas—the kitchen and tables at AVANT—is just steps away from the garden.
Here, the 28-year-old chef de cuisine lets his culinary creativity run wild.
The tables take some time to get to: a bit of a drive from downtown San Diego, out into the rolling hills of its suburbs, through a residential neighborhood, onto the refined grounds of the Rancho Bernardo Inn and up to a terrance with sublime sunset views of the valley below.
Increasingly, it’s a drive that patrons seem delighted to make.
The Rancho Bernardo Inn opened its doors in 1963 as a 30-room retreat tucked neatly beside a golf course designed by Torrey Pines architect William Bell. In the ensuing decades, a residential community sprang up around the course which busied itself hosting PGA and LPGA events while building a devoted following and adding 250 more guest rooms.
Along the way, a dedicated group of diners began frequenting the inn’s former on-site restaurant, El Bizcocho, which underwent a $2.5 million transformation in 2013 to become AVANT. A decade into AVANT’s life, Jimenez is guiding the restaurant into a farm-to-table destination built around Southern California’s endless growing seasons.
The on-site chefs garden located beside the golf course illustrates Jimenez’s inspiration. “I usually come out to the garden once a day,” Jimenez says. “I spend a couple of minutes look at what we have, picking our garnishes for the night. Then, I collaborate with our gardener and my crew to pick out things for our mixology program and culinary pieces.”
As Jimenez browses the garden, he pauses to point out burgeoning ideas: infant grapes that could one day become a signature wine, grape leaves that can become a flavorful ash, ghost apples with a sweet and sour tang, eggplant grown specifically for a single event, and lime leaves whose oil smells “like Fruity Pebbles.” Each is destined for a unique twist on Californian cuisine inspired by
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