Animae chef Tara Monsod and Lilo chef Eric Bost, who were both recently named 2026 James Beard Award semifinalists for Best Chef: California, have announced collaboration dinner events in the coming weeks.
Monsod, who is the first San Diego chef to have made it to the final round of the Beard Awards in 2024 and 2025, will be collaborating with a fellow San Diego Asian-American chef on two Lunar New Year menus this month. And Bost, who oversees the Michelin-starred restaurants Lilo and Jeune et Jolie in Carlsbad, has invited an acclaimed Danish chef to join him for a one-night-only tasting menu at Lilo next month.
Executive chef David Sim at Kingfisher Cocktail Bar & Eatery in Golden Hill. (Kingfisher)
Monsod, who is the executive chef of both Animae in downtown San Diego and Le Coq in La Jolla, is collaborating with Kingfisher Cocktail Bar & Eatery executive chef David Sim on a pair of Lunar New Year menus at each other’s restaurants. Monsod is Filipino-American and Sim is Cambodian-American.
From Feb. 17-21 at Animae in downtown San Diego, Sim will create menu specials that include Hokkaido scallop crudo with passionfruit nước chấm, black radish and extra virgin olive oil, beef laab with Thai chili vinaigrette, Easter egg radish, toasted rice powder, Thai eggplant and fresh herbs and roasted squab with crispy leg confit, nước chấm chimichurri, mắm nêm, rice noodles and lettuce wrap.
And from Feb. 23-28 at Kingfisher in Golden Hill, Monsod will create menu specials that includes egg salad with youtiao, bơ, maggi, tomato and satay, steamed mussels with herb butter, rau răm, thai chili and a baguette and chả cá with turmeric dill beurre monte, green onion, dill and fried rice noodles. Reservations can be made at animaesd.com and kingfishersd.com.
Chef Nick Curti of Michelin-starred Alouette in Copenhagen, Denmark, will collaborate on a nine-course tasting menu with James Beard Award nominated chef Eric Bost at Michelin-starred Lilo restaurant in Carlsbad on March 3. (Camilla Hansen)
Bost has invited chef Nick Curtin of Michelin-starred Alouette in Copenhagen, for a collaborative nine-course dinner on March 3 at Lilo, the 24-seat progressive tasting-menu restaurant that opened last spring and earned a Michelin star less than two months later.
The two chefs will each create dishes independently and collaborate on others for a meal that will combine the cuisines of Copenhagen and Southern California. The dinner will be priced at $365 plus tax, tip and optional beverage pairings. Reservations will open on Friday on OpenTable.com.