We'd love to recommend the delicious meal of goat cheese fritters, truffle tagliatelle, and roasted sugar plum squash ravioli recently served at a new Oakland eatery, but by the time you get this email, the elegant rustic menu sampled—as well as the chef who crafted it from local ingredients—will probably be long gone. That’s because the dinner was created at Guest Chef, a new eatery that’s equal parts Top Chef, pop-up boutique, and recession-era resume-builder.
Guest Chef is the brainchild of Bay Area real estate developer Scott Cameron. Simply put, it is a permanent space without permanent cooks. The way Cameron sees it, starting a new cafe shouldn't be a precarious recession career move for aspiring chefs. So the 20-seat restaurant changes hands every two weeks as a new emerging or established chef takes over with access to a fully stocked kitchen, wine reserve, and three-person base staff. The two-week window ostensibly gives the chefs a chance to find out if they are confident and skilled enough to impress area crowds with their adventurous long-term ideas.
So far, it’s working. Cooks have ranged from a grandmother from Zacatecas, Mexico with no industrial kitchen experience, to Michelin-Star-winning Joseph Humphrey, to everyone in between.
The effort began with an empty kitchen. Last year, chef Mark Valentine—a friend of Cameron’s—suggested that they find a creative use for an unused space along a gentrifying Oakland neighborhood’s main drag. With no previous restaurant management experience, Cameron wasn’t entirely sure how the experiment would turn out. But the restaurant now boasts a small stable of regulars that show up to try every new menu. And Cameron is already fielding calls from entrepreneurs in other cities. “People in New York and Chicago want to know when we’re coming to their towns,” he says. He’s also filmed a possible reality show pilot, but notes that in order to be TV-ready, “I might have to bring in some assholes,” he says. “Everyone who has cooked here has been wonderful … that doesn’t necessarily make great television.”
Photo courtesy Greg Lutes
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