Bernard Guillas: Hands-on chef serves up seafood at tennis club

Nation's Restaurant News, July 30, 2001 by Ron Ruggless

Bernard Guillas has been at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club since 1994, when he became executive chef de cuisine. He oversees the clubs private dining room as well as food and beverage at the open-to-the-public Marine Room and the Sea Lodge Hotel. Raised in France, specifically Brittany, Guillas is accustomed to seafood, which is the inspiration for the three restaurants. He has been traveling throughout the nation to help promote San Diego restaurants for the city. Before joining the Beach & Tennis Club, Guillas was chef de cuisine for five years at the Grant Grill of the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego historic district. He also worked as chef at Le Dolmen in French Guyana, where he was influenced by South Amen can flavors.

Title: executive chef de cuisine, Marine Room, La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, Sea Lodge Hotel, La Jolla, Calif.

Birth date: Sept. 6, 1962

Hometown: Island of Jersey, British Channel Islands

Education: apprenticeship with chef Georges Paineu at La Bretagne in Questembert, France.

Career highlights: being named one of Food & Wine magazine's Rising Star Chefs in 1996; winning the 2001 Best Chef in San Diego Award from the San Diego chapter of the California Restaurant Association.

What led you to the United States?

Pierre Chambrin, who later became chef at the White House, was then working at the restaurant Maison Blanch in Washington, D.C. I was chef tournant, chef saucier and sous chef there. I later worked at the White House many times.

What was that experience like?

Fantastic. It was very impressive when you went to that kitchen. You had to pass through so many screenings and checkpoints. Everybody thinks the kitchen in the White House is huge. Forget about it! It's a medium-sized kitchen but very well equipped. What was interesting was that the pastry chef is separated from the kitchen on another level.

Why did you leave The Grant Grill in San Diego?

It was small, and I knew I needed to grow. I was shopping. My general manager was moving to the club. The cooking was the easy part, but I needed to learn all the aspects of food and beverage. He was a great teacher.

What challenges do you find in operating three different kinds of restaurants?

When I took the position, I needed to separate the three entities and make sure they had their own identities. The Marine Room was the easiest transition; the kitchen needed to be restructured. I needed to take some very big chances. The Marine Room cuisine was like the old guard and was not very creative: a scoop of vegetables, a scoop of rice, swordfish, a little sauce and bye-bye. But we had potential.

The Marine room has 160 seats. What was the food like at the 90-seat Beach & Tennis Club?

The food was classic American cuisine. The little Frenchman really didn't study American cuisine like ribs, cheese soup. This was so different. We needed a high standard.

And the 140-seat Sea Lodge?

The Sea Lodge was in a crisis, big time. It didn't know whether it was Mexican, American, Italian or European. We decided to do Coastal American fare with a lot of seafood and American-rooted cuisine. It's very family-and local-oriented, with great value. We started the "Coastal Sunset," which has three items at $9.95 and a sliding scale upward. It's from 5 o'clock to 6:30 during the week. That helped me build a good customer base. We do a minimum of 100 covers every night.

What are the major differences between the private club and public restaurant?

The private club is a very close relationship with your members. As the chef, you are part of the family. You have to listen to what the members really like and don't like.

What are the biggest challenges?

When you have a clientele of mixed ages and your base is on the older side, it's an ever-changing expectation. It's very exciting and stimulating. I work only about three hours in my office and seven hours between the three kitchens. I always try to be hands-on, preparing, butchering, cooking and making sauces.

What do you like about the private club?

The relationship with the members is very rewarding. I have one member who calls my style of food "healing" -- the presentation, the style, the taste, the ambience on the ocean. What really gets me going, gets me excited, is to be working closely with the city of San Diego.

What dishes are you especially proud of on your menus?

We do diver scallops with a hazelnut-truffle-potato pie, and it's served with Baja giant prawns and a salad in the center. With that there is a plum wine reduction and three little sticks of lemon grass. It really is a neat dish.

What techniques do you use when creating dishes?

Some people take pictures; I draw. I always have my pencil and scratch out what the dishes will look like.

Where do you get your creative inspiration?

A lot of it is due to my travels. When I was 20,1 lived in Brazil with the people in the jungle of the Amazon. I also spent time in Argentina, Ecuador, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and America. Everybody has a path, and I started to understand a lot of things about food. If you have a passionate love for ingredients, it can be incredible. I've been in the kitchen 24 years, and I'm still learning things about ingredients, herbs, spices and sauces.