Chef Hire: Sea & Smoke Brings On Jeff Bonilla

Urban Solace's Matt Gordon is on a chef hiring spree. Just yesterday, he added Ryan Studebaker to the kitchen team at his Encinitas restaurant, Solace and The Moonlight Lounge and today, he begins to build his opening lineup for the new Sea & Smoke in the Flower Hill Promenade.

Eater's learned that Jeff Bonilla, an executive pastry chef who left Kitchen 1450 last November, has signed on as Sea & Smoke's morning chef.

What does that mean? Gordon's planning on all-day meal service in Del Mar, so Bonilla and his considerable pastry skills have been put in charge of breakfast, bread and dessert production for the restaurant. Gordon says that if all goes well, Bonilla may oversee bread and desserts for all three of his restaurants.

Though Sea & Smoke's dinner menu is pretty much put to bed, the breakfast and lunch menus are still developing. One thing's for sure, Bonilla's going to need to become an expert in baking in that wood fired oven... wood fired croissants, anyone?

· Jeff Bonila: Pastry Chef and Free Agent [~ESD~]
· All Anatomy of a Restaurant Coverage [~ESD~]