There is a very specific difference between a chef who is constantly doing things and a chef who is constantly working on their craft. Over the past year, Chef Carlos Jurado has firmly become the latter—and that is only further proved by his incredible Fridays-and-Saturdays-only prix fixe menu.
At $65 per person (with a $35 wine pairing if desired), the menu highlights what has made Selva Selva while also allowing Chef Carlos to freely explore with potential.
After all, Selva has always been one of Long Beach’s more exciting restaurants, but what has been happening there since 2024—led by evolving FOH operations and guest relations with the hiring of Monica Canelos and kitchen efficiency with Kitchen Manager Mark Roman—feels less like reinvention for reinvention’s sake and more like a chef deliberately honing his talent. And, perhaps more importantly, figuring out exactly what he wants his restaurant to be.
Chef Carlos Jurado of Selva has helped shift the paradigm of what a chef’s participation in a community looks like.
Tasting menus became laboratories. Testing grounds were courted by biweekly tasting menus. Colombian barbecue flooded the weekends. Collaborations and pop-ups became opportunities to stretch. And eventually, all that R&D coalesced into Selva’s biggest structural shift yet: abandoning the static-menu model for seasonal menus that allow Chef Carlos to continually refine his cooking rather than simply repeat it. The result is a Selva that feels more mature and elegant without sacrificing the warmth, color, and deeply Colombian soul that made people fall in love with it in the first place.
But perhaps the most important evolution has been Carlos’s realization that honing his own craft doesn’t require closing himself off from everyone else. Quite the opposite: He has increasingly become one of Long Beach’s great culinary collaborators. Chef Michael Flores perhaps put it most succinctly when discussing the Selva-smoked pastrami used at Marlena: “There is no one more willing to open his doors for collaboration than Carlos.”
How collaboration and openness to explore have made Selva a better stand-alone restaurant.
And that willingness has taken nearly every conceivable form.
He has cooked alongside Chef Saw Naing of Joplin’s and The Dutchess. And partnered with Chef Waldo Stout for a pizza-and-pasta night. He tapped Nonna Mercato’s Cameron Slaugh to make the pasta for his Fuego Lento dinners rather than pretending every element has to be produced beneath Selva’s own roof. And, quite literally, handed over that roof on Selva’s dark nights so Got Your Back could turn the restaurant into its own residency.
Even outside Selva, his influence is spreading: He has stepped in to help evolve the food at The Vintage LBC while respecting the cheese shop’s existing identity. Collaboration, for Chef Carlos, has become less about putting two chefs’ names on a flier than recognizing where someone else’s talent can make his work—and Long Beach’s food culture—stronger.
The past year has unquestionably been about making Chef Carlos a sharper, more thoughtful cook and Selva a better restaurant. But it has simultaneously been about opening the doors wider. To other chefs. And pop-ups. And ideas that aren’t his. To events that celebrate the city rather than solely his restaurant. And there is something wonderfully paradoxical about that: The more Chef Carlos has opened himself and Selva to everyone around him, the more distinctly Chef Carlos the restaurant—and his cooking—has become.
But what about this prix fixe menu at Selva?
Selva’s pre-fixed supper feels less like a prix fixe in the traditional sense and more like an invitation to let Chef Carlos cook the way he wants. Communal. Deeply Colombian and, simultaneously, proudly Californian. And driven by a constant push between comfort and refinement.
The meal opens with a trio of bocaditos—scallop crudo, smoked wings, and mushroom croquettes—before moving into a choose-your-own centerpiece. There is oak-grilled picanha atop his much-loved salsa criolla. Or a slow-roasted lechon piled over rice with pickles and crispy chicharrones. (And yes, this was a personal favorite from Long Beach Food Scene Week that made it onto the prix fixe menu.) His rightfully famous smoked pollo, this time atop a creamy mazamorra. Or, one of his finest dishes, a wild Spanish octopus paired with fermented market vegetables, chlorophyll aioli, and red chimi oil. Each arrives with five arepas and Caesar salad-gone-Colombian.
Arepas and a salad accompany your entrees at Selva’s new, Friday-and-Saturday-only prix fixe menu. Photos by Brian Addison.
All in all, the menu quietly shows just how much Selva has matured without sanding away what made it exciting in the first place. Jurado is still unapologetically playing with Colombian flavors—panela, hogao, aji, mazamorra, arepas—but they now sit comfortably alongside the language and techniques of a chef increasingly interested in precision: crudo, fermentation, carefully sourced seafood, oak grilling, and thoughtful wine pairings.
Even dessert keeps things rooted, closing with natilla and oblea alongside a chilled semi-sweet Peruvian wine. At $65 per person, with a $35 drink pairing, it is a compact snapshot of what Selva does particularly well: taking the flavors and memories of Colombia and giving them room to move, evolve, and converse with Southern California.
Starting with the bocaditos, included for the whole table…
Though each are dish-worthy enough on their own—and they are offered as appetizers on the regular menu—there is something magical when they’re put together as a starter to a larger meal.
Scallop Crudo: Housemade red wine vinegar espuma | fermented Amazonian chili
Smoked Wings: Oak & mesquite smoked and fried | achiote panela vinegar | fermented Amazonian chili
Mushroom Croquettes: Long Beach mushrooms | chili jam | prosciutto
Wine pairing: Art de Andes Sparkling Brut, Argentina, 2024
And onto the entrees for Selva’s weekend prix fixe menu…
Served with arepas and a Latin play on a Caesar salad, these dishes most strongly represent Chef Carlos’s evolution.
Picanha: 8–10 oz oak-grilled steak | roasted chanterelle mushrooms | aji Colombiano | heirloom tomato salsa criolla
Lechon: slow-roasted whole hog | hogao | citrus | Colombian spices | rice | pickles | crispy chicharrones
Pollo: smoked chicken | charred corn | creamy mazamorra | blistered market onions | aji frito | Make it spicy +$3
Pulpo: wild Spanish octopus, braised & grilled | fermented market vegetables | chlorophyll aioli | red chimi oil
Wine pairing: Domaine de l’Ecu Classic Melon de Bourgogne, Loire Valley, 2022
And for the sweets…
Chef Carlos has made a tradition out of including natilla—a Colombian-style custard—and oblea—giant wafer rounds filled with dulce de leche—for his dessert offerings. This weekend prix fixe is no exception.
Natilla: Colombian custard | Passionfruit | Guava | Fig
Oblea: Horchata whipped cream | Blueberry compote
Wine pairing: Magdalena Chilled Semi-Sweet, Ica Valley, Peru, 2025
Selva is located at 4137 E. Anaheim St. Their prix fixe menu is available on Fridays and Saturdays only.
