After numerous complaints about the quality of the food served
at his new Mexican restaurant, Frank Leal, owner of the
four-month-old Cantina Grill
&
amp; Tequilla Bar in Tres Pinos, decided to get some help.
Hollister – After numerous complaints about the quality of the food served at his new Mexican restaurant, Frank Leal, owner of the four-month-old Cantina Grill & Tequilla Bar in Tres Pinos, decided to get some help.
A month ago, Leal hired Alex Jara as executive chef.
“Customers would complain about the food. News travels fast, people wouldn’t come in because they thought the food was terrible.” Jara said. “I came in and changed everything.”
Among the first of his changes was to clear the kitchen of cooks who just didn’t seem to care about making tasty food. Second, he demanded that everything the restaurant served was made fresh.
“They had pre-made chips and salsa and stuff,” Jara said. “Now we make everything from scratch.”
Next week the Cantina, which is open evenings Wednesday through Sunday, will begin having specials each night: fajita night on Wednesday, tacos on Thursdays, prime rib on Friday, seafood on Sunday – including cioppino and lobster – and barbecue on Sundays.
Also, there are plans to convert the upstairs eating area into a bistro-like setting that will serve things like lobster mashed potatoes and apricot glazed salmon.
“We just want people to come in and give us a try,” he said.
Jara, 30, started cooking at the Deer Park Tavern in Aptos when he was 13 and has cooked at restaurants through out the Central Coast. Though he briefly attended the San Francisco Culinary Academy, he said most of his training occurred on the job.
“I grabbed a lot of experience and ideas,” he said. Now what I do is create my own cuisine.”
For Jara cooking is all about releasing a food’s natural flavor.
“I’m just fascinated by the flavors that the whole entire planet offers you,” he said. “The main goal is to release the real flavors and not overpower the food.”
As executive chef at the Cantina, Jara is doing a lot of teaching, so his new staff makes his recipes just right.
“It’s important for me to be perfect,” he said. “I’m really demanding. It’s got to be good.”
Jara is confident that diners will enjoy the Cantina’s new fare.
“My food is so damn good, so damn fresh and so damn beautiful that there’s just no where else to eat.”
Luke Roney covers business for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected]
