While being hosted at Partake Collective, Chef Jason Winters (of Speak Cheezy, one of the most lauded pizzerias) defeated Chef Michael Ryan (of the equally lauded Marlena) in the final round of Bracket One of the Long Beach Grand Prix Fixe. Two chefs whose proper Long Beach presence started roughly the same time with the start of their restaurant endeavors, this round was a true Californian-versus-Californian cuisine battle.
“My menu was really just about connections through my culinary roots,” Chef Jason said. “A mentor of mine, Chef Suzanne Goin, played a role in the menu. My times in kitchens throughout SoCal are all in there. My pizzeria is in there. And the farmers market. For every chef, the farmers market is where the inspiration really sits—and I would be remiss to ignore that, especially for this menu. Connections.”
For Chef Michael, though at a loss, the experience itself was worth it.
“I can tell you one thing: my team and I had a blast,” Chef Michael said. “There was so much of my mentor, Chef Evan Funke, that came in and, of course, my time here in Long Beach. I’m proud of what we put out. And the concept itself is just fun.”
Bracket 1 is all about formation: What formed the chef’s culinary identity?
Chef Michael came with a menu that feels curated from his closet of culinary crafts. His menu would not have shocked a single diner at Marlena. After all, his amuse-bouche was a single bite of his much-loved butternut squash cappelletti with amaretti cookie crumbs and sage. It was, since the competition, the warmest of welcomes into the dinner and, as cheesy as it sounds, a big, warm, fall welcome for patrons.
His second dish—one of his most witty if not outright playful creations yet—was a savory cannoli. A masterfully crafted Parmesan cannoli shell—perforated with purposefully created Swiss cheese-like holes—was stuffed with beef tartare and sweet Spanish guindilla peppers and set atop Parmigiano foam that one guest said she would happily “accept a bowl of on the side.” This was met with one of chef’s personally favorite dishes—a stuffed turbot with pickled chanterelles and celery root puree—and finished off with a tiramisu entremet that was as gorgeous as it was layered.
But the overall winner of the night was Chef Jason’s menu…
Largely Mediterranean with pops of Latin American and Asian flavors, Chef Jason Winters’s menu wins the night.
What most diners were intently curious to see was how Chef Jason Winters was outside of his pizzeria. While the space has come to define his culinary presence in Long Beach, if not outright catapulting it, the walls of a pizzeria are confining culinarily. (And likely explain the chef’s impressive array of collaboration pies.)
I was very honest with diners in saying that Chef Jason, though absolutely a wonderful spirit, “induced anxiety within me with his last-minute menu changes and sudden shift in wine pairings.” And those feelings were—full transparency—genuine. In this sense, there was perhaps some underestimation on my part in just how strongly Chef Jason would perform. And I proudly admit that because his menu was stellar.
California-tinged Levantine flavors: a fava bean hummus topped with lamb chorizo there. A dry-aged ocean trout crudo with dapples of labne and pomegranate seeds and a fermented, calamansi-soaked pepper paste. California flavors layered gorgeously: citrus and whole fava beans layered with bits of green harissa across a wonderfully cooked black bass.
And an incredibly complex dessert, where anilla soft serve and a honeynut squash sorbet were set atop in molded rings above a pepita dacquoise before its topped was piped with meringue and drizzled with Whistle Pig-aged maple syrup.
If there was any question to what Chef Jason can do outside a pizzeria, last night was your answer.
A few personal words on the Long Beach Grand Prix Fixe.
As someone who has known the majority of these chefs rather intimately, I cannot say on a personal level how proud I am of what was accomplished on night two. Just as with night one: Nerve-wracking. Excitement-inducing. Definitely worth every ounce of effort put into it, what makes this competition so wildly fulfilling is witnessing the evolution of these chefs as the competition continues.
As someone involved in the very gregarious group text we have, they are not just proud of themselves and their culinary purveyors. They are also proud of the city they represent. Ultimately, Long Beach is worth such a competition. And the chefs themselves are honoring their belief in that ideal through these ambitious menus.
Also, it was such a pleasure to see the patrons come out in support and, in what could only feel like a community confident that their city isn’t culinary-adjacent, but culinary in and of itself.
Next up? Chef Luis Navarro of Lola’s and The Social List and Chef Jason Witzl of Ellie’s compete in the first semifinal on Monday, Oct. 6.
