How you can experience food from two Michelin star chefs in one meal in San Diego
William Bradley, the chef-director of Addison, San Diego’s only two-star Michelin restaurant, will conclude his 2022 California Collaborations dinner series next month with a fellow chef whose name may ring a bell with longtime San Diego diners.
Chef-owner Chris Bleidorn of Michelin two-star Birdsong in San Francisco will alternate dishes with Bradley on an eight-course, $425 dinner menu that will be served from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 2 and 3 at Addison in Carmel Valley. Bleidorn started his culinary career in 2001 at Nine-Ten restaurant in La Jolla, cooking for seven years under the leadership of executive chef Jason Knibb.
Reservations for the December dinners open at 9 a.m. Nov. 15 at opentable.com/addison-restaurant. All seats for the past two California Collaboration dinners sold out within hours.
During Bleidorn’s years at Nine-Ten, where he rose to the level of sous chef, he developed direct relationships with San Diego farmers and purveyors and cooked with the goal of preserving the integrity of the ingredients. That approach is similar to Bradley’s California Gastronomy menu, which spotlights Southern California micro-seasonal ingredients and diverse culinary influences.
After leaving San Diego in 2008, Bleidorn spent a year in Chicago as chef de partie at Grant Achatz’s Michelin three-star Alinea, then moved to San Francisco where he worked his way up at the Michelin three-star restaurants Benu and Atelier Crenn and at Michelin two-star Saison. Bleidorn launched Birdsong in San Francisco’s theater district in 2018 with his partner Aarti Shetty. Its menu is inspired by ancient cooking traditions, sustainable practices and food preparations that spotlight the use of whole, hyper-seasonal ingredients.
The menu Bradley and Bleidorn will prepare will highlight seasonal fall ingredients, including caviar, white truffles and California produce. Some of Bleidorn’s signature Birdsong dishes — caviar & cornbread, sea urchin cream puff and BBQ carrot with Chantenay carrots from Tierra Farms in Santa Rosa — will be served.
This is the third and final California Collaborations menu that Bradley will present this year with like-minded chefs. In August, he cooked with Michael Kammerer of Michelin two-star Harbor House Inn in Mendocino County and earlier this month, he cooked with Val M. Cantú of Michelin two-star Californios in San Francisco.
Bradley opened Addison in 2006. Over the years, the restaurant has racked up numerous accolades, including being one of just 80 Relais & Châteaux restaurants worldwide. In 2019, Addison earned San Diego’s first Michelin star, and last year Addison picked up its second star. Michelin Guide will announce its 2022 Star, Bib Gourmand and Plate additions on Dec. 5 in Los Angeles.
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