A Night Out at Juniper & Ivy

I'm so proud of my cousin Tara


I use her story as an example often when doing college and career counseling. Out of high school, Tara went to California State University Northridge to study Art. Art is a passion and a talent of hers. Succumbing to life's financial pressures, she left CSUN for a technical school to study nursing. Tara's mom, my aunt, encouraged the study of nursing. It was after all, what she believed, a good paying job and pretty much guaranteed job security. Half way through the program, Tara realized she didn't want to do nursing. She didn't like it at all. It wasn't a passion of hers and she couldn't see herself in the career of nursing. This is when she followed her heart and decided to study Culinary Arts. She loves food. She grew up trying all kinds of different kinds of food. The study of culinary arts still allowed her to be in the field of the arts and explore her creativity.

She's now a few years out of culinary school and has worked for some pretty awesome people! She's worked at Herringbone and Searsucker, restaurants of Brian Malarkey, from TV's Top Chef and The Taste.


She's works at the up and coming restaurant chain Tender Greens which fresh, healthy, chef-inspired, farmer's market sensible dishes at an affordable price. Here is one of the Filipino dishes she grew up eating, Tinola, that been a menu highlight at Tender Greens a few times! Tinola is a chicken ginger soup, that has spinach and papaya in it. Perfect for a cold day.

She currently works at the hot new San Diego restaurant Juniper & Ivy with Top Chef season 8 winner, Richard Blais.

She's been able to meet some other pretty famous chefs too!
Tyler Florence from the Food Network:

Guy Fieri from the Food Network:

It's always such a treat when Tara takes us to the restaurant where she works. It's neat to hear the ins and outs of the restaurant, not to mention meeting the cool chefs at the same time! Last week, hubby and I were Tara's guests at Juniper & Ivy. The restaurant is beautiful, so much so it got kudos from Architectural Digest!

I was enjoying my food and drinks so much, I didn't get to take many pictures so I'm going to share pictures from my social media friends! Here is a few of the dishes we shared during our meal:

BERKSHIRE PORK PORTERHOUSE
14 OZ / WHITE CORN PUREE / PEACH / SMOKED ALMOND / DANDELION CHIMICHURRI

DONUT PEACH 
BURRATA / BLOOD WALNUT / WILD ROCKET / ICE WINE

YODEL 
DEVIL'S CAKE / WHITE CHOCOLATE / HAZELNUT BRITTLE / HOT CHOCOLATE

CARNE CRUDA ASADA
QUAIL EGG / COTIJA / JALAPENO

DRUNK IN LOVE
GIN / WATERMELON / TARRAGON / CILANTRO / CITRUS

And here is the actual video and pictures taken by yours truly at the end of our meal where I had the:
LOCAL CORN
JALAPENO / GARLIC / LIME
SAN DIEGO CHICKEN
HARISSA BBQ / YOGURT / BULGAR WHEAT TABOULI:


I'm so proud of all you've done Tara! I can't wait until you are on TV too like all these cool chefs you work with!



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