Chef Jennifer Biesty. Photo credit: Cris Molina
Chef Jennifer Biesty rocketed to national fame when she was a cheftestant on Season 4 of Top Chef and a Star Chefs Rising Star in 2007. She is currently the Executive Chef of Scala's Bistro and the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco. Biesty’s Bay Area culinary career developed under Loretta Keller, the Chef/Owner of the now shuttered Bizou Restaurant and current COCO500. Biesty cooked with Keller at benefit dinner events for The James Beard House, The Master’s of Food & Wine and Taste of the Nation. She also worked at Jardinière, with Chef Traci des Jardins. Biesty trained at the CIA Hyde Park at the young age of eighteen, and worked at NYC’s Aquavit and March restaurants, respectively. She worked in London at the River Café, alongside uber-talent chefs Ruth Rodgers, Rose Gray and Jamie Oliver. The Brooklyn native (“where the food is all about the ingredients”) lives in San Francisco with her girlfriend, Sara Delman. Biesty and Delman met at COCO500. Bay Area Bites caught up with Biesty to talk about her favorite food and drink spots.
Where do you live?
We live in the Potrero foothills, which is a nice way of saying “on the wrong side of the mission tracks.” Sara and I have been together for more than three years and love living in the Mission. There are so many great restaurants and shops. And it’s such a colorful neighborhood!
Where do you like to shop for food?
Rainbow Grocery: The produce there far surpasses any other market, and to stay eco-friendly, you can refill oil, vinegar, soap, lotions, honey, sugar, pasta, you name it. It’s great.
But Rainbow doesn’t offer meat, so for that I go to Avedano’s meats in Bernal Heights. It’s a beloved neighborhood butcher shop that has great tacos and Ryan Farr’s hot dogs! I like that is more Euro-style and you create a relationship with your shopkeepers and merchants.