Geoffrey Yahn

Executive Chef


Currant


Chef Geoffrey Yahn sees himself as a culinary educator. A Seattle émigré, he strives to expand the palates and culinary consciousness of San Diego diners as Chef de Cuisine at Currant Brasserie. His eclectic, European-influenced menu emphasizes the freshness of his ingredients, using the quality of carefully selected meat and produce as a vehicle for introducing San Diegans to unfamiliar flavors. The result is an imaginative and inspired cuisine that is both comfortingly familiar and surprising in its innovation.

Chef Yahn’s own culinary education began early in life. His mother worked as a chef, and as a result, Chef Yahn grew up surrounded by the bustling activity of restaurant kitchens. In his early 20’s he began his instruction in earnest, learning from such culinary giants as Jan Birnbaum and Jeremiah Towers. It was under their tutelage that he learned to make “fun stuff” like caviar and cheese, and cultivated his love of farm-fresh ingredients. In Seattle, Yahn gained experience at Kai’s Bistro and the restaurant at the Alexis Hotel, and made frequent excursions to Seattle farms and farmer’s markets.

Chef Yahn moved to San Diego, enticed by the weather, the “nice people” who live here, and his wife’s graduate work at Loyola Marymount. A stint at the chic Jsix preceded his hiring at Currant Brasserie as sous-chef, under then-Executive Chef Jonathan Pflueger. Yahn has since risen in the ranks to Chef de Cuisine after Chef Pflueger’s departure, infusing the menu and restaurant with his social conscience, his passion for fresh ingredients, and his playful gastronomic imagination.

A proponent of local, organic, and sustainable cultivation, Chef Yahn has constructed Currant Brasserie’s menu around the seasons and the accessibility of ingredients. The farm-to-table philosophy he cultivated through his culinary education and foundation in Seattle has found an excellent outlet in San Diego County, which boasts 317 organic farms, more than any other county in the state. The produce used by the restaurant is predominantly locally produced, and, as Chef Yahn emphasizes with pride, “from people we know. I know where that farm is, I know who that man is. I can stand behind it as truthful and honest.” His emphasis on farm-fresh ingredients not only enlightens his diners about the accessibility of quality produce, but, in a region that sees little visual evidence of seasonal changes, also serves as a reminder of seasonal difference. At the moment, he favors squash blossoms and stinging nettles, two ingredients unfamiliar to San Diego palates that give locals a more varied understanding of the botanical diversity in the region.

Chef Yahn’s emphasis on fresh, local produce is not only governed by taste preference, but is firmly grounded in his sense of morality. According to Chef Yahn, “chefs so often get caught up in making food and don’t get involved in their communities.” For Chef Yahn, the word “community” not only denotes his surrounding San Diego dining population, but the greater global and environmental community in which we all live.

All of the seafood on the menu comes from sustainable fisheries that raise animals in close proximity to their natural ecology. The Scottish salmon company that provides the restaurant with fresh salmon uses a natural stream as its farm, allowing the salmon to swim upstream to spawn as they do in the wild rather than enclosing them in crowded, man-made ponds. This not only makes the salmon taste better, like wild-caught fish, but also more closely mimics their natural habitat. He supports industries that approach their trade from a global ecological perspective, doing as little harm as possible to the environment and its species. The shrimp on the menu, for example, come from Sonoran fishers who use special nets that prevent turtle ensnarement, thereby preserving other species, in addition to humanely harvesting the shrimp. Through the use of these products, Chef Yahn’s cuisine acts as a bridge between the producer and the consumer, facilitating culinary activism by bringing socially-minded people together through food.

While his cuisine is strongly influenced by the gravity of food politics, Chef Geoffrey Yahn’s ultimate goal at Currant Brasserie is to connect with his diners on a more personal level: “I want diners to have really great memories” and to return “to create more good memories.” He wants his food to resonate like “that one great Thanksgiving,” a meal that embodies the comfort of home and the extravagance and novelty of a special occasion. It is this desire for a more unifying experience that is at the heart of Chef Yahn’s philosophy for Currant Brasserie, bringing farmers, diners, and chefs closer together through the common thread of fresh food and a shared knowledge of where that food comes from.


Restaurant Info

  • 140 West Broadway
    San Diego CA 92101
  • Restaurant: Currant
  • Address: 140 West Broadway, San Diego CA 92101
  • Cross Street: 1st Avenue
  • Location: Downtown | Gaslamp Quarter
  • Cuisine: American | French | California | International |
  • Cost: $$ | Inexpensive | $25 - $50
  • Category: Fine Dining
  • Reservations: Recommended
  • Dress Code: Casual
  • Meals Served: Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
  • Parking: Valet Parking |
  • Payment Options: VISA | Amex | MasterCard | Discover |
  • Corkage Fee: N/A
  • Phone: 619-702-6309