Jeune et Jolie chef Eric Bost expands role to oversee Campfire kitchen

Eric Bost, the celebrated chef who took over Carlsbad’s Jeune et Jolie fine-dining restaurant last August, has also been appointed executive chef at Jeune’s sister restaurant, Campfire.

Beginning today, diners at Campfire — located just a half-block south of Jeune on State Street — will be able to taste Bost’s new menu, which expands on his fast-growing relationship with San Diego County farms, but in a very different format. Where Jeune et Jolie is a modern French bistro, Campfire is known for its focus on live fire cooking and a more homey, shared plates-style of dining.

Eric Bost, executive chef of Jeune et Jolie restaurant in Carlsbad, takes over the kitchen at sister restaurant Campfire on May 25.

(Courtesy of Elodie Bost)

Both restaurants are owned by John Resnick, who offered the expanded position to Bost after Campfire’s current chef, Andrew Santana, announced plans to relocate this summer to Northern California to be closer to his family.

In addition to the appointment of Bost as executive chef at both restaurants, Jeremy Simpson was recently appointed beverage director at both locations. Simpson, a sommelier and mezcal expert, previously worked at Bestia and Bar Caló in Los Angeles. Bost also moved to the area from Los Angeles last year, where he was chef/owner of the highly acclaimed tasting menu-only restaurant Auburn. It closed permanently during the pandemic.

Bost’s new menu at Campfire will continue to focus on live-fire cookery and seasonal ingredients that celebrate California’s diverse landscapes, including black cod and geoduck from the coast, pine and mushroom flavors from the forest and rural and desert flavors like beeswax, chamomile, sagebrush and date. Bost plans to strip down some of the preparations for the dishes to focus on the balance of acidity and sweetness in dishes.

Some of the dishes Bost is introducing on his new late spring menu are Broken Arrow venison tartare with huckleberry, oysters from Morro Bay warmed over a coal fire and Koji-aged and roasted duck breast with cherry granola. Campfire’s top-selling dessert, s’mores, will still be available, but Bost is adding a house-made smoked vanilla soft serve ice cream with bourbon and cocoa nibs and a charred berry dessert with grilled pickled roses and fluffy mascarpone. Also staying put on the menu are the popular porridge bread and charred broccoli dishes.

A Culinary Institute of America and business school graduate, Bost has worked his way through some of the world’s best restaurants, including Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée and Les Ambassadeurs at the Hôtel de Crillon, both in Paris.

He was chef de cuisine at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Las Vegas when it received 2 Michelin Stars in 2008, and was later appointed executive chef. With the opening of Guy Savoy Singapore in 2010, Bost established a restaurant consistently voted amongst the best in the country.

In 2016, he moved to Los Angeles to become executive chef at République. Then in 2019, he and a partner opened Auburn, which during its 12 months of full operation was named by Los Angeles Times dining critic Bill Addison as “the most exhilarating restaurant to open in Los Angeles so far this year.” It was also named among GQ Magazine’s Best New Restaurants in America 2020.