Forget the hackneyed term “farm-to-table” for describing local, seasonal cuisine. The new executive chef at JRDN in Tower23 Hotel lives up to a catchier, more modern slogan he calls “in-the-moment cooking.” Since revising practically the entire lunch and dinner menus at the stylish oceanfront restaurant, Danilo “DJ” Tangalin demonstrates his spontaneity in a subcategory of supper dishes titled “pure sizzle.” It features about 10 fleeting appetizers and entrees driven by the freshest ingredients available on any given day.
Today’s slow-roasted lamb belly, for example, can be replaced tomorrow by grilled spot prawns. Or those coiled asparagus-like fiddleheads gracing salads and stir-fries in early summer will surely vanish in a flash as other short-season produce make their cameos.
“I sell out of the ingredients and then move on to other dishes,” says Tangalin, who was promoted last month to executive chef after serving as the restaurant’s sous chef since September. The ‘pure sizzle’ dishes can last for a day or a month, while others graduate to the permanent menu based on customer feedback and market availability.
One of the recent carryovers is charred octopus and seasonal veggies comprising a panzanella-style bread salad with red bell pepper coulis. Tangalin says the medley generated raves during its short introduction last month.
Already on the regular menu since he began helming the kitchen is a cheeky, savory twist on PB&J sandwiches. They’re constructed with house-made buttermilk biscuits, toasted-candied peanuts and strawberry jam. The surprise is a lobe of foie gras in the middle.
In another dish, grilled asparagus is matched shrewdly to plums, burrata cheese, salami and balsamic drizzle. And because of a close working relationship he developed with locally based Pacific Stone Crab, species such as halibut, corvina and vermilion rock cod now grace the menu, arriving to the kitchen usually the same day they are trawled from Baja waters.
Tangalin’s culinary experience stretches back to childhood while growing up in the Philippines. His mother ran a cantina and he’d help her cook popular street foods such as pork belly with ginger and soy sauce (adobo) and tamarind broth with pork or shrimp (sinigang). He also manned the grill for cooking chicken feet and blood sausage.
At the age of 16, he moved with his family to Hawaii and then to New Jersey, where he completed a two-year culinary program at a community college. To the likely envy of his colleagues, he ended up working under famed chef Eric Ripert at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia as well as for notable toques in San Francisco, such as Daniel Patterson of Coi and Douglas Keane of Cyrus.
After moving to San Diego he was hired by Whisknladle Hospitality and last served as chef de cuisine for the company’s PrepKitchen in Little Italy.
Though when offered a position at JRDN, it was the restaurant’s “lack of a complete culinary identity” that attracted him.
“It’s a gorgeous place and I knew it was the perfect platform for the super-seasonal cooking I do.”
Such breadth of experience hasn’t excluded him from the frequent grilling of prized Nebraska-sourced steaks listed on the menu’s “burning up” page.
Tangalin recently changed the cuts, adding bone-in rib eye and hangar steak to the lineup as well as a half chicken from Mary’s Farm and a catch-of-the-day seafood option. Their rubs and sauces are also new. They include everything from ground peppercorns and foie gras butter to mustard chimichurri and classic béarnaise.
The proteins come with two side dishes, which currently extend to smoked potato puree, corn-spinach au gratin, crispy Brussels sprouts and more.
“I use a lot of cooking techniques, having learned from chefs that are French, Asian and Italian.” Tangalin oversees the pastry department as well.
“It’s a team effort with four creative pastry girls. We taste-test new creations all the time,” he adds, revealing that they will soon roll out an ideal summer swooner.
By mid-July the dessert menu will feature gourmet S’mores made with 70 percent dark chocolate and marshmallows that are torched tableside. Tangalin describes them as “bringing the campfire to your table.”
In the meantime, the cocktail list has conformed to hotter days with re-engineered versions of mai tais, fizzes and boozy lemonades highlighting fresh-squeezed juices and premium spirits.
Aside from its lauded sleek design and unobstructed view of the Pacific, a visit to JRDN suddenly feels and tastes as though everything is new again.