Chef Jan Jorgensen (Author Of A Cook’s Table and Co-Owner of Two Chefs Restaurant)
Jan Jorgensen came to his vocation much earlier than most. He specifically pegs it to a visit to the bustling hotel kitchen owned by his paternal grandparents in his native Denmark. He was five. Instantly attracted to the clattering of pots and pans, the smells, flames shooting from the 32-burner stove, chatter and organized chaos, Jan was then forever hooked once he tried the first of many perfectly deep-fried French fries made in that kitchen. For him, this professional kitchen, the first of many he would spend time in, seemed to embody Thor, the Norse god of thunder, lightning and storms.
As any chef – Jan has always referred to himself simply as a cook – well knows, there is also much beauty to be found in paying tribute to pristine ingredients, perfectly formed sauces and satisfied customers. Jan took the traditional European path of one who wants to cook as a professional, securing a four-year apprenticeship at the Hotel Troense on the island of Tåsinge immediately to the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula. There he underwent classical Continental training which essentially means following the guidance of Escoffier as thousands of cooks have before and since while being rotated through each station in a hotel’s kitchen. In 1984, Jan made his way to Miami where he worked at two restaurants while acclimating himself to a very different culture, not to mention climate. Four years later, he continued his westward migration arriving in San Francisco. Jan’s timing was more than fortuitous. He managed to secure a position mere weeks after Jeremiah Tower opened Speedo 690, reputedly the first East/West “fusion” (a term not yet applied to what would become one of the dominant and fastest-growing cuisines of the 1980s and ‘90s) restaurant. After the 1989 earthquake, and with Speedo 690 struggling, Tower brought Jan to Stars, his encore after leaving Chez Panisse. Stars may have been the first celebrity chef-driven restaurant when it opened in 1984. Tower’s influence on scores of chefs and literally thousands upon thousands of foodies (another term that didn’t yet exist) is the stuff of legend. He was arguably the reason that Chez Panisse became the incubator of farm-to-table California (and yet another term that didn’t exist at the time) cuisine. Jan was present at the crossroads where fresh, hyperlocal ingredients and the advent of the chef as celebrity met. His biggest takeaway from this whirlwind experience was Tower’s insistence that at the end of the day, the only thing that truly mattered was the food. In the face of all the fanfare, press clippings and media appearances, Tower insisted that his brigade always execute.
Jan’s time in San Francisco was both formative and stormy, given the constant intrigue surrounding Tower, his past and then-current partners and the growing food-obsessed media and public, so armed with a deepened understanding and appreciation for wine and its place on the table in addition to his culinary development, he headed back to Miami, actually Coconut Grove, where he opened his first restaurant, Janjo’s, in 1992. Despite being on John Mariani’s Esquire 20 Best New Restaurants list, Janjo’s couldn’t overcome Hurricane Andrew which touched down in South Florida that same year. By then, Jan and a number of other local chefs had begun putting their spin on another still- unnamed farm-to-table movement. This Mango Gang, the name coined to reflect the use of exotic ingredients native to or easily found in Miami and its environs, included Allen Susser, Norman Van Aken, Mark Militello, Douglas Rodriguez and the late Robbin Haas, among others.
Many of them found fame on the national and even international level. Jan, for his part, figuratively and literally, kept his focus on the restaurant he opened with a partner (who was bought out years ago) in 1996. With Two Chefs, Jan has managed to do something that few in the restaurant business ever do, much less in a market as finicky as Miami: continuously operate for nearly 30 years. He has done so outside of the glare of celebrity by simply focusing on applying exacting classical technique to recipes that are deeply satisfying even as he continues to evolve, tweak and adjust to changing tastes.
Wine remains an integral part of the Two Chefs experience. So much so that Jan is asked to host winemakers and collectors on nearly a weekly basis. Winemakers appreciate his nuanced sense of what dishes will work best with the fruits of their labors. Collectors know that he will create menus that befit their treasures without show or pretension. Jan continues to reside in Coconut Grove, with his wife, teenage son and a big German Shepherd named Odin, of course.
