There is an interesting tale to relate about how George\u2019s at the Cove\u2019s executive chef, Masafumi \u201cMasa\u201d Kojima, got his start at the La Jolla restaurant in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cKojima\u2019s dad, Yoshinori, tricked him into a full-time job under Trey Foshee at the restaurant (Yoshinori was previously Trey\u2019s executive chef at R\u00f6ckenwagner in Santa Monica and had known Trey for years),\u201d said Mark Rogoff of Alternative Strategies, which handles public relations for George\u2019s, a multi-level eatery at 1250 Prospect St.<\/p>\n
\u201cKojima\u2019s dad told him George\u2019s need some part-time help. Kojima applied for a job expecting to just help out a few days a week. He then showed up to work on his first day and was surprised to learn he had accepted a full-time position.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad told me, \u2018Hey, my friend Trey, he owns a restaurant in La Jolla, would you be able to help him out, he just needs help for three days?\u2019 said Kojima adding he then asked, \u2018Three days a week, or just for three days in general?\u2019 His dad then replied, \u2018Just for three days, and then you\u2019re done.\u2019 So I came in and started to do the paperwork and I asked the sous chef, \u201cIs this full-time?\u2019 And she said, \u2018Yeah.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Kojima, who was already employed at another restaurant at the time, then began working for about a year from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at his other job, before coming to George\u2019s to work a second shift from 3 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. or midnight.<\/p>\n
In April, Kojima will be celebrating his second anniversary at the helm of George\u2019s kitchen. He started out there as a pastry-plater and eventually moved up to pantry, raw bar, hot appetizers, hotline, grill, and then to sous chef in 2013.<\/p>\n
Kojima served as sous chef for three years, then left for Juniper & Ivy to become its chef de cuisine. He was there for nearly five years before returning to George\u2019s in April 2021 to become an executive chef.<\/p>\n
The son of a chef, Kojima never went to school to learn his craft, but rather picked up all the tools of the trade starting from the bottom as a dishwasher and prep cook, gradually working his way up the culinary ladder.<\/p>\n
About his role at George\u2019s now, Kojima said, \u201cI run the day-to-day operations, menu development, and hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
George\u2019s menu has undergone numerous changes over the years including some recent adjustments. \u201cIt\u2019s now called California modern,\u201d explained Kojima of the cuisine. \u201cIt used to be a fine-dining restaurant. But with COVID and staffing issues, we decided to turn (part of George\u2019s) into a banquet hall or private event space. We also have another kitchen (on the upper level) where we do lunch and dinner service from 11 a.m. to close. In the very top kitchen, we serve a seasonal bistro menu. Down here we have a banquet menu that we change seasonally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kojima noted George\u2019s menus tend to be seafood-driven being located right on the ocean. He added they try to use locally sourced fish from the tuna harbor dockside in Point Loma.<\/p>\n
Of the mainstays of George\u2019s cuisine, Kojima said one is George\u2019s Smoked Chicken Soup, which has been on the menu for years. Regarding the upcoming spring menu at George\u2019s, Kojima noted, \u201cWe might do a take on scampi shrimp but use creamed garlic and a snap pea dish. We used to do this tuna with cherry ponzu sauce with avocado on the menu and it was very popular. A lot of the staff are asking to bring it back. So maybe we\u2019ll do a rendition of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The restaurant business is known for being extremely time- and labor-intensive. While that is true, Kojima pointed out it is all worth it. \u201cThis profession has ups and downs,\u201d he concluded. \u201cBut at the end of the day, working with the people here you become family almost because you spend time with them more than you do with your actual family. So you have friends wherever you go, whether it is a different city or a different place in the world.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is an interesting tale to relate about how George\u2019s at the Cove\u2019s executive chef, Masafumi \u201cMasa\u201d Kojima, got his start at the La Jolla restaurant in 2009. \u201cKojima\u2019s dad, Yoshinori, tricked him into a full-time job under Trey Foshee at the restaurant (Yoshinori was previously Trey\u2019s executive chef at R\u00f6ckenwagner in Santa Monica and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":321528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"There is an interesting tale to relate about how George\u2019s at the Cove\u2019s executive chef, Masafumi \u201cMasa\u201d Kojima, got his start at the La Jolla restaurant in 2009.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15574,15576,12537,15575],"class_list":["post-321527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-executive-chef","tag-georges-at-the-cove","tag-la-jolla","tag-masafumi-masa-kojima"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321529,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321527\/revisions\/321529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}