Celebrity chef Richard Blais, known for leading roles on Bravo's Top Chef and Fox's primetime hit Next Level Chef, has signed on to open two new restaurants in San Diego.
A former winning contestant and frequent guest judge on Bravo's hit cooking competition Top Chef, Chef Richard Blais is a current resident of San Diego and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. The celebrity chef may be most known as the winner of Bravo’s Top Chef All-Stars in 2011 and as a judge on Fox's hit primetime cooking competition Next Level Chef. Blais is also a successful chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and frequent culinary television personality, appearing in such programs as Iron Chef America, Chopped All-Stars, MasterChef, Guy's Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen, and Cooks vs Cons.
Chef Blais has worked in the kitchens at such acclaimed restaurants as The French Laundry, Daniel, Chez Panisse, and el Bulli. He also currently owns and operates Trail Blais, a culinary company that has consulted on, designed, and operated popular eateries including multiple outposts of Flip Burger Boutique located in the Southeast and in San Diego he helped build the Crack Shack brand and launch Juniper & Ivy in Little Italy. Most recently, Chef Blais opened steak and seafood restaurant Ember & Rye in Carlsbad as part of Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, Golf Club & Spa's $50 million renovation
Chef Blais recently partnered with Longfellow Real Estate Partners, a privately held developer of life science buildings, and will bring a pair of new restaurants to the company's two incoming San Diego sites in Sorrento Valley. The first restaurant will install within a 6,000 square-foot indoor/outdoor space at the Biovista Life Science Campus off Mira Mesa Boulevard. Dubbed California English, expect an approachable, all-day menu of "SoCal meets Great Britain" cuisine that will combine British classic dishes with Southern California flare and local ingredients. The restaurant is expected to open in 2023 and will have a full bar, expansive outdoor patio and veranda.
Blais is also working on conceptualizing another restaurant to install at Longfellow's Bioterra science campus in Sorrento Mesa, which is expected to open in 2024. Based on the success of the initial two restaurants, Blais will likely work with Longfellow on other restaurant & bar concepts for its additional "live-work-play" facilities in San Diego and beyond.
For more information about Chef Richard Blais and his restaurants & projects, visit richardblais.net.
