“I’m a person who really likes big flavors”
Photography by Michelle Magdalena
It might have been the mini foie gras hot dogs that chef Jeffrey Weiss served at Big Sur Food & Wine last November that put him over the top in Edible Monterey Bay’s Local Heroes reader poll for Best Chef of the year. Or perhaps it was the light and crispy octopus appetizer with Calabrian chile and lemon mermelada, or the decadently rich chicken liver pâté offered nightly at Jeninni Kitchen + Wine Bar in Pacific Grove, where Weiss has been cooking alongside sommelier/owner Thamin Saleh for the past 15 months.
“We were into foie before it was cool,” laughs Weiss, who added an entire foie section to the menu at Jeninni after the California ban was overturned in January.
“It’s a real honor to have people say, ‘Hey, check that guy out in Pacific Grove.’ We’ve been working really hard to build something in a little town that is not so well known, and word is getting out,” he says of the Local Heroes award.
Weiss is no shrinking violet. He got used to the spotlight as a junior silver medalist in figure skating in his teens, went to Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and has worked with star chefs like José Andrés and April Bloomfield. The day we spoke, he was getting ready to leave on an international tour to promote his book Charcutería: The Soul of Spain and had just received word that his 465-page tribute to Iberian cured meats had been chosen as the United States winner of the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Award in the Foreign/International category. The book has since been nominated to receive the Art of Eating Prize for Best Food Book of the Year.
His love of Spain—and yearlong training there under a government grant—are much in evidence at Jeninni, with dishes like matanza ribs, housemade butifarra sausage, wagyu bullfighter’s steak and the most authentic paella in town—often served as part of Jeninni’s Tuesday Night Dinner series and always available with advance notice.
Weiss also finds inspiration here at home, from the farmers’ market and local fishing boats hauling in Dungeness crab, to the movie theater. In fact, a Mediterranean salad he recently spotted in the film American Sniper is about to make an appearance on the menu.
But before adding a new dish at Jeninni, Weiss has four criteria it must meet: 1. Can the ingredients be found locally? 2. Does the dish fit the restaurant’s concept of southern Mediterranean cuisine? 3. Is it delicious? Would I want to eat it more than once a week? 4. Does it pair well with wine?
“Thamin gives me lots of leeway but knows when to step in,” the chef says. “I’m a person who really likes big flavors, but, after all, we are a wine bar.”
Weiss’ cooking is unique in the Monterey Bay area. He shows off the flavors of Spain, Sicily, Puglia, Greece and the eastern Mediterranean in dishes prepared California style, using locally available ingredients from growers like Borba and Mariquita Farms.
Sustainably raised lamb—for his renowned lamb burger with eggplant fries—comes from Superior Farms in Davis. “We use farms we believe in and want to support,” he says.
“We’re a neighborhood restaurant,” adds Weiss. “Local is our lifeblood.”
Jeninni Kitchen + Wine Bar
542 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove
831.920.2662
jeninni.com
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
