Daniel Patterson is MIA. He won’t be found in the kitchen of his Michelin-starred restaurant, Coi, or in any of his other five eateries that have helped to put California cuisine on the map in the past decade. In fact, he won’t be found running a restaurant anywhere. So, where the hell is the man whom L.A. taco king Roy Choi recently dubbed (in a conversation with Time Out) “a poetic genius”? The 49-year-old has hung up his apron in order to accept a new role: He wants to mentor the next generation of California chefs in the hope of filling the cultural gaps in San Francisco’s dining scene. As Patterson says, “San Francisco is full of great French and Italian restaurants, but what if there were 15 great Palestinian fine-dining restaurants? Or 15 amazing Caribbean-inspired restaurants?”
Patterson, whose nonprofit Cooking Project teaches culinary skills to at-risk L.A. youth, is putting his money where his mouth is by partnering with four young chefs of color. Arab chef Reem Assil serves family-style meze dishes and tasty pastries in Oakland; Mumbai-born chef Heena Patel delves into vegetable-heavy, upscale Indian cuisine at the Dogpatch; Jamaican chef Nigel Jones brings jerk chicken and island cocktails to Mid-Market; and Mexican-American chef Erik Anderson trucks in classic French fare with an emphasis on game birds at Coi.
“I tried Nigel’s cooking, and there was nothing like it in the city,” notes Patterson, recalling the moment of his epiphany. “Then I thought, We can use our knowledge and our team in support of people and concepts that are maybe outside of our expertise. We’ll do something fun, and we’ll support someone to get to a place they maybe wouldn’t otherwise get to.”
For diners, it’s a chance to sample underrepresented cuisines concocted in modern, fresh ways. For the chefs, it introduces their cooking and heritage to a broader audience. And for Patterson, it’s a chance to even the playing field. “When you talk about equity, unless there’s representation at the ownership level, it is really incomplete,” he says. “Restaurants are not going to the solve the massive, deeply entrenched problems [this country has had since its founding], but it doesn’t mean that we can’t do whatever we can do.” That includes developing a whole system to address racial and gender inequality in the kitchen. “You need to minimize the gap between your lowest-paid worker and your highest-paid worker,” says Patterson. “Treat people well and create an environment where they feel respected, where they treat each other with genuine human empathy.”
Will he return to the kitchen at some point? He insists that the swinging door is always open. But, for now, here are the young, talented chefs you should support (as he does) and their up-and-coming hot spots.
All photographs by Clara Rice
