Changes are taking place at La Jolla’s La Valencia Hotel, with seemingly more to come.
Earlier this month, the “Pink Lady” welcomed executive chef Alex Pailles to lead its culinary program. In that role, he’s reimagining the California coastal cuisine in the hotel’s Mediterranean Room, Med Patio and La Sala lobby bar.
Pailles, a San Diego native with parents from Mexico City, said he lives by the words of his mentors: “Stay hungry and stay curious.”
“I’m really looking forward to the change La Valencia could have,” he said. “It’s odd to say that, but a lot of things have stayed the same the last few years, so any bit of change is going to excite those that have been here awhile. That’s why I’m still a chef — I want to keep that spark and ensure we’re always staying curious.”
The one-time mechanical engineer decided early on that he wanted to be more hands-on in his profession. Having been introduced to cooking in his mother’s kitchen, Pailles took a job at a yacht club and worked his way through the kitchen stations.
He soon moved to Los Angeles to study at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, where he “built up my culinary background and got everything I needed for success,” he said.
After graduating, Pailles took a job at a ramen restaurant that served 500 tables worth of meals on a slow day.
“I had to be ready all the time,” he said.
When presented with a new opportunity to continue his education — and make a change of pace — Pailles moved to Spain to work in a restaurant that at the time had a Michelin star. It went on to earn a second star.
“It was an experience like no other,” he said. “It taught me to slow down and focus on the food. The dishes showed honor to the food. Dishes could be really basic or super elaborate. If you learn to take it back a little bit, you can show true art by showing what [the ingredients] are. That’s the beauty of the culinary industry right now — we’re moving in a direction where you don’t have to have 20 ingredients on the plate for it to taste good.”
With family still in San Diego, he soon felt the need to come home. He got a job at The Marine Room restaurant in La Jolla, under the leadership of Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver.
“They showed me refinement and application for a lot of things,” Pailles said. “It was a good teaching experience. It molded me to what I am today. I feel good about what I do and the vision for the future, and I’m eager to share that with the [diners at] La Valencia.”
In his kitchens, Pailles said, “it’s all about the team.” As dishes are created, they have to be tasted by multiple chefs for quality, he said.
“No one voice is louder than the others,” Pailles said. “I may be the final say, [but] I will always go to them, too. We taste everything together. I want them to be more involved in our kitchen because in the end, no one likes to stand at the top alone. …
“I’m not cooking for myself, we are cooking for others, so it doesn’t make sense for one person to like it. It has to make people want to come back and try it again.”
Pailles said he looks forward to presenting “a finer touch” on the Mediterranean Room menu, reflective of his fine-dining background.
“It has to be what you are expecting and what you are not,” he said. “I want to take that thing most people wouldn’t try and make it intriguing.”
An example, he said, is huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn.
It’s “an ingredient that provides bitterness and earthiness to a dish but can be a star on its own,” Pailles said.
“There are also some Peruvian peppers that are popular now but can be used differently to make things pop,” he added. “There is so much opportunity with this being a Mediterranean restaurant. There is no reason the food cannot be better than other places around them. We have to do justice to La Jolla and the history of La Valencia by elevating service and quality.”
The Mediterranean Room at La Valencia, 1132 Prospect St., is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with brunch served on weekends. Reservations are available via OpenTable.
Next week, the La Jolla Light will feature new La Valencia General Manager Troy Longwith. ♦
