San Diego-based hotel company Consortium Holdings appoints new culinary director

February 13, 2023

Spanish chef Perfecte Roche has been appointed culinary director of San Diego-based Consortium Holdings, a hospitality company that operates more than 20 bars and restaurants in America’s premier city. Roche was closer to Valencia, Spain, and honed his craft at some of the best restaurants around the world, including the Michelin-starred El Bulli in Spain and Gary Danko in San Francisco. Most recently, Roche ran his own restaurant, Tarsan i Jane, in Seattle, and sold the highly regarded eatery in March 2021.

“Chef Perfecte Rocher is our new culinary director at CH Projects and already feels at home in our steakhouse,” Consortium Holdings wrote on the company’s social media. “Thanks to years of culinary training (which may or may not have included pan-throwing) at some of the world’s most elite Michelin-starred restaurants, Chef Perfecte has already received praise from Jonathan Gold and GQ. As CH Culinary Leader, Perfecte hopes to create a nutritious (read: no-pan-throwing) environment in which chefs can experiment, develop, and embrace modern techniques. Look in the meat locker and look in the queue to find out what’s next.”

Chef Rocher will oversee a team of multi-chefs to develop and implement new ideas and techniques across many of the Consortium’s restaurants, including half a dozen new concepts currently being rolled out at The Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club in North Park, which is due to reopen. open on this day. summer. Once Lafayette is completed, CH will look to the opening of Leila, a new Mediterranean style restaurant at 3956 30th Street in the heart of North Park. Chef Roche’s iconic paella, which the late LA Times food critic Jonathan Gold once called the best version of a dish he’s ever tasted, should be on the menu once Layla introduces it later this year.

Perfect Rocher replaces longtime chef and Consortium Holdings partner Jason McLeod, who left the company in early 2022 after more than a decade leading the hospitality team. Kat Humphuss, longtime director of kitchen development, also left the company last year, leaving another glaring void in the group’s kitchen leadership team. Consortium Holdings founder Arsalun Tafazoli met chef Roche last September when he joined chef Travis Swicard’s Callie restaurant in San Diego’s East Village for a special dinner for one night only.

Consortium Holdings has over 20 San Diego bar and restaurant concepts including Neighborhood, Noble Experiment, Youngblood, Polite Provisions, Craft & Commerce, False Idol, three Underbelly locations, contemporary Dover Honing Co. (which has remained closed since the start of the pandemic), Ironside Fish & Oyster, Born & Raised, Raised By Wolves, Morning Glory, Fortunate Son, J & Tony’s Discount Coil Meats and Negroni Warehouse, Seneca Trattoria, The Reading Club Private Lounge, Lover Part Time , European style La Pensione Hotel, La Avenida Inn in Coronado and The Lafayette Hotel. The company also owns a mall at 3401 Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, which is across the street from Blind Lady AleHouse and about a half mile from CH’s Polite Provisions. The space is currently being used as a workshop and warehouse, and no additional plans for the complex have been announced.