Gustavo Torres

Executive Chef

All American Grill

At All American Grill, Chef Gustavo Torres has accomplished something many chefs strive for, and others would never think to consider: he emphasizes the unique value of classic American cuisine by presenting it in its simplest form, fresh and slow. By ‘slow’ I don’t mean that plates arrive at a snail’s pace, but that Chef Torres has distanced his food from the freezer-to-table movement propelled by many popular American eateries throughout the country. The All American Grill menu not only connects the dots between dishes and their origins with location-inspired names; it distinguishes the direct link between source and product, ensuring that only American grown and supported products are used. Having taken the reins from Chef Timothy Au, Chef Torres continues the tradition of offering guests quality American cuisine beaming with both flavor and pride.

After delighting over each bite of every dish I tried on the night of my visit to All American Grill, I had the opportunity to speak with Chef Torres. He was kind enough to sit down with me and offer some insight into his culinary past, present, and future.

Do you mind telling us a bit about your experience working with food?

Sure, my past is mostly here in San Diego. In fact, I graduated from the culinary school down the street, The Art Institute. I’ve mostly worked in high-end restaurants in San Diego, starting out at Loews Coronado Bay Resort… After that, I worked at Urban Solace and learned a lot from the chef. But unfortunately, there was no room for growth as it is a small restaurant. So I moved on to another great restaurant that you may have known, Crescent Heights. It was a Los Angeles-based restaurant with a Wolfgang Puck-trained chef… the idea was to bring in very fancy food – everything was made from scratch. We pickled our own veggies, we preserved our own lemons. It was the only restaurant that I knew of at the time that had its own artisan cheese plate with charcuterie and things like that. San Diego didn’t have anything like that. And I don’t think the city, being the flip-flop wearing beach town that we are, was ready for that. People want to get in and out, and quickly.

That place did not last, sadly. So I came here and took over for Chef Timothy Au, a well-known San Diego chef. He entrusted me and showed me everything he knows, and I’m taking everything I learned and am making it my own.

Presenting American food may seem simple enough, but everything here is very sophisticated and elegant. How do you elevate dishes like the meatloaf and take them to that next level?

Specifically, the meatloaf is a dish Chef Au first introduced, but I’ve made it larger. I make the sauce much thicker – we make our own demi [glace] here. I start by making one demi that can be used in many of our sauces. So, I think it starts from there, from the beginning of the process. Other things I’ve done involve attention to detail; I’m brining our chicken now, which is something we didn’t do before. First and foremost, it makes a difference when it’s fresh chicken, and the brine brings out more of the fresh flavor. I also changed the cooking procedure of the ribs. I cook them in their own steam now, whereas before we used to do a four-hour braising process. They always tasted good, but I think they’re tastier now. They’re right on the money!

Does it pose any unique challenges to only use locally sourced produce?

Actually, not at all! As you know, the Unites States is a melting pot of everything, so basically you can’t go wrong. All of our produce is local, and I want to try to use more of our local farmers markets’ produce.

Are there any ingredients or dishes you’d like to try out in the future?

Oh yeah! There are a lot of things: we’re missing out on things like Sloppy Joe’s and Boston Cream Pie. There’s an apple tart I’m actually working on now, so there’s plenty of room for growth. And that’s why I like San Diego; we’re up for it.

People are used to the whole franchise thing and they are getting conned, I think. These restaurants are just dumping things out of bags and re-warming them to serve to the public, which is good for the business at their end; but as a chef, I like to notice that something is home-cooked rather than coming out of a bag. That’s unattractive and unappealing. So I’m basically going to poke fun at that – we make things like our potato skins from scratch and it really doesn’t take that long.

What impression would you like your customers to leave with?

A happy face does it for me.