Justin was arriving back from Chicago and was coming to the alley to celebrate a little with friends and family.
My partner at Astrea LOVES Basque Cheesecake with Caviar so she had Intercrew make a huge one for the celebration and we put 200grams of Schrenckii caviar on it and then zested it with lime.
I’ll tell ya, before I had it, I always thought it seemed like an odd combination. She kept telling me to try it for the past year or so but I just never paid attention to it. But man it was good. That slight hint of savory in the Basque Cheesecake and the richness of a cake that large intermingled with the savory fish oil of the caviar was delicious.
I’m not trying to advertise, but I really feel our caviar does a great job enhancing well done dishes, especially enhancing savoriness in dishes. Something about the intensity of the fish oil really pulls thing along the finish.
Also we can spend days arguing about what “Best Chef: IN X REGION” means and who deserves it the most but There’s an honesty to who he is and diners gravitate toward what he makes and the environment he cultivates. I’ll leave it to everyone to decide amongst themselves who is the best chef, but Justin is one of my favorite people in the industry (and not just because he’s an Astrea client) and to me one of the best representations of what LA dining is all about.
This picture I took last night encapsulates why so many people love what Justin does.
The pride and love the team has for each other at the restaurant is genuine.
Pre covid the restaurant was 1-2 servers, a very small kitchen staff. Now in the same space he has 7 cooks, 3 somms, a whole host of servers, and his mom and aunt still working the floor. And that only happened because of all the accolades he received.
