The Modern Hotelier #156: How Culture & Creativity Influence Quixote's Menu | with Chef Jose Cepeda
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Jose Cepeda: Like I tell everybody, this is my art put into a plate and it's a art that goes fast really quick because you finish, you eat it, and that's it. Yeah. But that's, I feel like that's my way to grow because everybody tastes a little bit of me.
Steve Carran: Now we are joined by Jose Ella, the executive chef at Otte. Thanks for sitting down with us. Jose. Hello. Thank you for coming. Absolutely. Sure. We appreciate it. We appreciate it. So we were able to come here last night, have dinner. It was incredible. Thank you. One of the first kind of questions we had was, what is your backstory and where did you get the passion to be a chef?
Jose Cepeda: So, I'm from Mexico. I'm from Awa Camp Pela. I grew up in a small family. My parents, they used to have a buttress in Mexico. Like that was like my main, their main thing. And then my grandmother, she go a restaurant for like. Over 30 years in Oaxaca. So literally, I grew up in the kitchen, so that's where I'm coming from.
I, I grew up with a really good ingredients and all this, like animals growing close to my house. I used to have like ponies and chickens at my house. So like, yeah, I grew up like eating fresh eggs and fresh, fresh meat. 
David Millili: Yeah. And so besides you, who's the best cook in your family? 
Jose Cepeda: I think it was my grandmothers.
Everybody says that I like. Got her talent for the kitchen. Like I'm the only one that cooks like her because she teach me. Um, she already passed away like a couple years ago, but, uh, I, I think she was the best cook in their family. 
David Millili: Yeah. Last night you spoke about the rice pudding. Oh yeah. So can you please tell us that story and not only tell us the story, but.
Tell us how you've now kind of made it, you know, part of your menu and always trying to incorporate it. 
Jose Cepeda: So the rice pudding, friers is a, I mean, they're, they have a special place in my heart. When I was 14, um, my father passed away and then at that time it was like a very dark times for me and my family.
It's just one more brother, my mother, and my, it was my grandmother then, and. I mean, we passed from having everything because my father, he provided, and then from the night to the other, we didn't have anything. Uh, there were like some family problems and stuff, so it was like very challenging. And at that time we did, we need to like support and provide all pay bills and all that stuff.
So my grandmother did cook a pot of rice pudding. Uh, she put it in like. Plastic cups. And then she was like, well, let wait. Let's go to sell rice pudding to the streets, like do the different business and all that stuff. It was a really bad start for me. I, I, I mean, I was used to like having everything and then going to the streets, it was like really, I, I was ashamed of it, but then I took that as an opportunity for learning and that's how I learned to cook and like.
I fall in love more with the, with the cooking. So every time I create a menu, I try to put rice pudding in different ways, like the rice pudding, the friers, because that reminds me where I'm coming from and that makes me, um, ground my feet on the floor and don't be like crazy as a lot of people. I mean, you start to get recognized and being on magazines and so I like to like.
Keep myself in the, on the floor is the rice putting the only dish that you have here at K OTI that's inspired by your family. I mean, it is that one. Uh, the majority of the recipes are inspired in my grandmother's, uh, recipes. So we have the mole, the ppn, uh, even the flan. It's part of her recipe, the flan.
After she made it or she teach me how to make it, I've been like trying to perfection it every, every time. So we got named like one of the best floss in San Diego last year because it's super creamy and it has, I mean, it's different. It has like the ca cow soil and everything. But yeah, I mean, I have a couple of different, uh, recipes integrated here to the menu that comes from my family.
That's great. So how did you end up coming to the Lafayette Hotel? So, I wa I came to the US 10 years ago, about 11 years ago now. I was living in LA for eight years and then I got an opportunity to come to San Diego with, uh, different company. I came and it was very corporate. It was, um, I mean, I wanted to learn the numbers.
I think that's what I was needing to, to learn because as a chef you need to know business and cooking. And it was good for me, but I was feeling. Not inspired. I was, I was not getting creative and that was a big thing for me because I consider myself an artist. Mm-hmm. So I was looking for. Jobs and I was like kind of desperate because Sandy was smaller than LA and I was like, well, there's not that much opportunities for me.
Like until I maybe opened my own restaurant or whatever. So I was looking and then I found ch, which is like a very cool place and they have like all these crazy restaurants, all this ambience, and they was like, wow, this is for me. I mean, I love this. And then they let me. Be myself. And that's how I came here.
Like I made a tasting, then I made another tasting and I got the job. So I came as an executive chef of uh, Cote, and now I'm overseeing some other venues here. 
David Millili: How is being the executive chef here at Chiyote and with the Lafayette Hotel San Diego, how is that different than other positions you've had in the past?
Jose Cepeda: I mean, this was my first opportunity as executive chef. I was working as a executive sous chef in la. I was working in Beverly Hills and as a executive sous chef, you are the one that runs the restaurant. and You don't have the title So like, I knew how to do everything. And once I came here, it's been different because like for me, this has been an opportunity to grow a lot, to like show myself outside and like, I mean, now it's a big thing for me.
It's, it's been a big step stone for me for, my career. So like being one of the hottest spots in Southern California, it's like great. And I feel like that's a big opportunity for me. 
Steve Carran: Absolutely Quixote is one of the most unique restaurants I've been in. Can you explain the vibe of Quixote? 
Jose Cepeda: So, in Mexico we have, all these churches, we were, um, we got dominated by the Spaniards and like all the Mexican histories.
So we have all this Catholic, um. Religious thing over there in Puebla. Just in Puebla where I'm from, like we have 365 chapels because it's one per day. So it's a lot of that influence there, like all the Barak and, and all this, um, influences. So this, this restaurant was built with parts of an old church in Oaxaca.
They brought it and they like con reconstructed, it um, which is a pretty cool vibe I think. I mean, it matches with my. The what I think and what, I believe. Mm-hmm. Which is, I believe in energies and I believe you can heal with food and like all these mystic, esoteric things. So like the vibe is that it's a dark mood.
It's like you come, you enjoy, you celebrate life. So that's, the vibe here. So it's inspiring Oaxaca. In Oaxacan food, I always tell everybody that it's not traditional Oaxacan food because it is not, but it's, uh, it's inspired into the, the techniques we use, techniques we use ingredients, we cre recreate plates, and that's a modern touch that I'm doing to my, to my cuisine present.
David Millili: So, as Steve said, the food we had was amazing. Uh, wasn't a huge menu as you explained it to us. So what other, uh, inspirations went into kind of narrowing it down to such a tight. 
Jose Cepeda: Well, it is, it is inspiring also into my trips, my own living experiences. Like, um, last year I went to Thailand and then I got all this crazy flavor, like all the ma the sticky rice and mango and the Thai basil and all these flavors.
You go to the streets and you smell the food, the, fish sauce, and all these amazing flavors. So I like to recreate or Mexican food and adding some of these Asian ingredients or. I use Lebanese ingredients or from different part parts of the world. I like to like mix them and that's how it is inspiring into all my trips and all my living experiences.
You bet. So I gotta ask, 
Steve Carran: what is your favorite dish on the menu? 
Jose Cepeda: My favorite dish on the menu, it's gonna be the whole nCino. I'm diabetic and I feel like that's the healthiest, um, food in the menu, but also it's very tasty. It's like super, it's smoky. We do it on the grill, the put fire. So it is like super rich and healthy, and the fish is like super greasy and creamy.
So like that's, that's my favorite thing with the, with the kale salad. That is very like limey and garlicy. Yeah, that's like really good. Like that's my favorite thing. 
Steve Carran: Yeah. David, what was your favorite dish from last night? 
David Millili: It, it really was, the fish was amazing. Benzino was, that's my go-to fish. Whenever I'm out on the menu, I always get it.
And that was the best one I've ever had. Uh, thank you. In my life. It was, it was, it was amazing. It was, um, we, we probably could have, we would probably would've been happy if we just had the fish. It was great to have everything else, but the fish was amazing. Absolutely. I The flon 
Steve Carran: yeah. Was the best flan I've ever had in my life.
Thank you. It was. Absolutely delicious. The, the fish was gone and the flan were gone in, in seconds on our table just because they were, they both were delicious. Thank and also. I was shocked. I was a big fan of the crickets as well. Really? Oh yeah. I was, I even, uh, they gave me a little to-go cup. Yeah. To uh, take some, uh, take some home to snack out as well.
So since 
Jose Cepeda: I was a kid, I was like kind of obsessed with, uh, bug, like, yeah, how you can eat bug. And like, I was probably like five, six years old and in Mexico you go to the streets and there's like these ladies, or these guys like selling agave worms or the crickets or like all these, uh, kind of bugs. And I mean, it is a really good pound of protein.
So like I grew up with that and I ate it all the time. So when, when I came here, I tried to add that to the menu. I, I mean, I like to, I like that here. I mean, we don't have like the egg ants. But like, those are really good. The escamoles, those are like super good with a little bit of butter and pa you make your own tacos and that's amazing.
So like, I love, I like boxing to the, into the food. Also the, the fish, it came with a red sauce that's made with chips. I. 
Steve Carran: Delicious, delicious. If you add any more bugs to the menu, you'll have to let me know 'cause I I will definitely be back to try '
Jose Cepeda: em. I think we, we gonna try to do, I mean, we're being super busy, but at some point we want to do like a dinner and maybe a special box dinner or something like that.
Yeah, 
David Millili: that's that's awesome. Jose, the food was delicious. Thank you. You and your team are special people. The hospitality that you sh you showed us last night was amazing. We enjoyed it and we, we really appreciate you taking some time to talk to us. 
Jose Cepeda: Thank you. No, thank you very much. I appreciate you guys coming and trying the food and I mean, like I tell everybody, this is my art.
Put into a plate and it's, uh, art that goes fast really quick because you finish, you eat it, and that's it. Yeah. But that's, I feel like that's my way to grow because everybody tastes a little bit of me, myself. Well, I grew a little bit last 
Steve Carran: night too, so it was very good. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Great. Appreciate it. Thank 
Jose Cepeda: you. Thank you. 
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