La Jolla Salt Company: From the Pier to the Plate

We Americans love our salt. But as we grow more conscious of using it judiciously, the emphasis focuses on the quality and flavor of this powerful mineral. You likely grew up with the idea that salt magically manifested from a blue cardboard cylinder sporting a young girl in a yellow dress with an over-sized umbrella. Morton Salt may still be the go-to for most households and restaurants, but the market for artisan salts--particularly finishing salts--is rising. In San Diego we have several options, now including La Jolla Salt Company.

La Jolla Salt Company's salts are different from some of the "artisan" sea salt brands you may already buy since those often start out coming from a business called SaltWorks. The salts are then mixed with flavor ingredients and repackaged. There's nothing wrong with that. The salts are usually quite good.

But La Jolla Salt Company harvests its salt from the Scripps Pier in La Jolla. Chris Polley, the founder and owner of La Jolla Salt Company, started out in this venture as a chef for Matt Gordon at Urban Solace, where he's been working for three years. Given that the restaurant makes so many of its own condiments, Polley thought it would be a good idea to make their own salt, too.

He admits that the salt at first wasn't all that good, but he continued to make adjustments to perfect it--working on this project at his home during his off time.

So, how does it work? Polley goes to the Scripps Pier, where there's a purified water hose available for public use. Filling buckets of water that he takes to his new space rented from graphic designer Daniel Heffernan of Clove St Press in Barrio Logan, Polley evaporates the water over three induction burners to create sheets of salt that fall and break into crispy flakes. The process takes two days. He keeps some of the salt in its natural state. He also creates several flavors--lime, black truffle, smoked, ghost chili, rosemary, lavender, and bacon. Polley then packages the salts in pouches, jars, and even small tins that you can take with you to a restaurant to use when you eat out.

I've been besotted by the flavor and texture of these salts. I love sprinkling the bacon sea salt on scrambled eggs. You get a smokey crunch that complements the creamy eggs. I've taken to sprinkling the lime salt on salmon and other fish. The black truffle salt is perfection in a baked potato, on popcorn, or blended into a vinaigrette.

I'm not the only fan. Richard Blais uses the salts at Juniper & Ivy. Gordon, of course, uses the salts at his three restaurants. And Matt Richman uses them at his Table 926.

You can buy La Jolla Salt online and at several retailers in San Diego, including The Heart & Trotter Butcher Shop, Geographie Shop, Teter, Urban Beach Girl, Urban Beach House, and Azucar.



Print Page

Brunch is Back in North Pacific Beach--at Table 926

Where do all the cool folks in North PB go to leisurely sip their Bellinis and Mimosas on a Sunday? Poor things have to travel a ways if they're in the mood for brunch. Oh, wait! Not anymore. Table 926 is launching Sunday brunch starting March 2 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Chef/owner Matt Richman has been doing tastings with family, friends, and media--and is now finally ready to debut his seasonal brunch menu.

I got to enjoy a preview this past Sunday, dining to the music of Zach Barnhorst on guitar (who, apparently, also makes very cool bow ties).

Brunch is a mix of flavor profiles. There's south of the border flair, with a couple of dishes featuring a little spice and tortillas. There are the breakfast tacos, accompanied by scrambled eggs, Monterey Jack cheese, and micro cilantro--with a dash of salsa. And the creamy Chilaquiles Verdes with queso fresca, red onion, and corn tortillas topped by a lush poached egg. This was one of my favorite dishes.

Also on the menu is a Breakfast Empanada with applewood bacon, eggs, and pepper jack cheese.

Want a more healthy munch? How about a creamy/crunchy Berry, Greek Yogurt, and Granola Parfait?

Richman plated a sampler dish for us that included four of the menu items: Clockwise from the upper left are a "Bread Pudding" French toast with berry compote, maple syrup, and brown sugar; a breakfast panini on ciabatta filled with ham, slices of breakfast sausage, pecans, mozzarella, and green onion; the breakfast tacos with salsa; and a truly scrumptious Duck Confit Hash with breakfast potatoes, roasted root vegetables, caramelized onions, piquillo peppers, and a beautifully runny poached egg. This would be my other favorite.

All were enjoyable in their own way, although the bread pudding French toast could be a little thicker and the panini a little easier to eat. The flavors are all there but they just need a little more refinement.

I also loved the house-made mini blackberry jam scones served in a basket at the table. Hopefully, that will be accompanied with some creamy whipped butter.

The menu additionally includes a burger, steak and eggs, salad, and frittata. Of course, you'll get a choice of cocktails, from orange juice mimosas and bloody Marys to sangria, a vodka screwdriver, and a variety of bellinis. We had a choice of mango, prickly pear, peach, and lychee. And, Table 926 serves coffee and teas from The Pannikin.

Brunch at Table 926 is a great addition to a neighborhood lately bereft of a brunch destination. The food is lovely and Barnhorst's music adds to the relaxed Sunday ambiance. And, hey, you can park in the lot in front of the restaurant!

Table 926 is located at 926 Turquoise St. in North Pacific Beach.





Print Page

Cauliflower and Salsify Bisque from Table 926

I've probably said it before, but one of my favorite pastimes is spending time with chefs in their kitchens. So, I consider it a huge streak of good fortune that I've been invited to a number of kitchens this summer--which means that this space will be covering a lot of culinary territory in the weeks to come from the likes of Matt Richman of Table 926, Catherine Perez of Con Pane, Miguel Valdez of The Red Door, and several others.

Last week I spent an afternoon with Matt Richman, his sous chef Molly Johnson, and pastry chef Katie Jenkins. The three have an easy rapport and Richman, the restaurant's chef/owner, purposely keeps the atmosphere light and relaxed. Richman describes the intimate north Pacific Beach restaurant as serving California cuisine, and his local and seasonal dinner menu points to numerous influences, from Latin and Asian, to Italian and French.

"Simpler is my style," he says. "I just want to find good ingredients and then let them shine."

The 36-year-old Richman is a San Diego native, attending La Jolla Country Day before heading off to college in New Mexico--only to realize that he really wanted to be a chef. So, he attended culinary school in San Francisco, and then did a series of stints at restaurants in San Francisco and Miami before returning to San Diego, where he worked at Sbicca, Wine Vault & Bistro, Pacifica Del Mar, Ilume Bistro, and The Cosmopolitan, where he worked under chef Amy DiBiase. He opened Table 926 a year and a half ago.

I got to the restaurant about 11:30 and Richman was focused on prepping three dishes for the evening's menu: a rich Calabrese and smoked tomato sauce to be served with his lamb sausage penne, tossed with artichoke hearts, olives, arugula, and pecorino; a minty nepitella chimichurri sauce; and cauliflower and salsify bisque. Each of these has a key commonality: Richman is taking what might otherwise be a lovely but often-made dish--including some his mom taught him to make--and changing it up with a unique ingredient or technique. Or both.

The tomato sauce is a version of his mom's, but he's made it his own with the sausage and smoked tomatoes. The Calebrese sausage is wonderfully fatty and spicy (if you can't find it, just substitute sopressata) and smoking half of the tomatoes adds a smoky complexity to the flavor, which is intensified by simmering for four hours.

Chimichurri is a delightfully herbaceous sauce that's designed to be served with meat. Adding nepitella, a popular Tuscan herb in the mint family (grown at Suzie's Farm), to traditional flat leaf parsley marries the flavors of Argentina with Italy--a mean accompaniment to lamb sirloin. He has a second chimichurri that melds oregano with the parsley, which he serves with chorizo empanadas. In both sauces, he includes apple cider vinegar for mellowness.

And then there's the salsify. This otherwise homely brown root, once peeled and added to the soup, lends a sweet silkiness to the cauliflower. You'll notice that Richman doesn't use a stock in this soup. By design, he likes to keep his soups vegetarian, so he lets the vegetables develop into stock. The result is a creamy cloud of sweetness. He says his customers can't get enough of this soup. It's easy to see why.

Cauliflower and Salsify Bisque
from Matt Richman of Table 926
Serves 4 to 6
(printable recipe)

1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup onion
1/4 cup combination of shallots and garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 medium to large heads of cauliflower
4 salsify roots (can substitute 4 medium sunchokes)
1/4 cup dry white wine
enough water to cover ingredients
salt and pepper to taste
1 2/ cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sherry or champagne vinegar

1. Peel salsify and soak in a bowl of water to keep it from oxidizing.

2. Chop the celery, onion, shallots, and garlic. Add olive oil to a large pot, heat, and add the chopped vegetables and flavor with salt. You can be a little aggressive with the salt here, since the cream added later will mellow the flavors. Let sweat.
3. Add the white wine.
4. Separate the cauliflower heads into small florets. Slice the salsify. Add to the pot. Then add enough water to cover.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

6. In the last 15 minutes, add the cream and season with salt and pepper. The soup is done done cooking when both the cauliflower and salsify are soft.

7. In small batches, add the soup to a blender and puree. Then press through a chinois to strain.

8. Plate the soup with a swirl of avocado oil and a sprinkling of micro greens.

Table 926 is located at 926 Turquoise St. in north Pacific Beach.


Print Page