Jorge Meraz: Today on "Crossing South," we experience a French-Baja connection from a master food craftsman, and we visit a cool, hip spot where you learn to paint as you munch, coming to you now.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jorge: You know, one of the things that we do is we look for those young, new chefs that are spearheading the culinary movement in Baja, making it what it is, but sometimes, every once in a while, you need to stop and think and not look to the future but look to the past.

There's some accomplished people in Baja that have made it what it is, who set the groundwork, and we met a chef who's been in the Cali-Baja region for a long time now, and he's allegedly the creator of the Tijuana-Baja crepe cake, the crepe cake in Tijuana, the original one.

We're gonna meet him right now.

Stay with us, folks.

"Crossing South."

Jorge: Martin, how long have you been cooking for the region?

Chef Martin San Roman: Well, since 1989.

Jorge: '89.

Chef Martin: '89.

Well, no, '87, because '87 is when I used to be the executive sous chef at the Westgate Hotel and also Le Meridien, which right now is the Marriott in Coronado.

Jorge: Oh, really?

Chef Martin: And then, in '89, is when I opened my first restaurant, Tour de France.

That was a restaurant that changed the scenery of the food in Baja California.

Jorge: So, after Tour de France, in Tijuana, the, one of the, you know, fancy restaurants in the city, right, Tour de France, Boccaccio's-- Chef Martin: Yeah, Matteotti-- Jorge: Right, those were the nice restaurants in TJ, right?

Chef Martin: Yeah, uh-huh.

Jorge: Okay, so it closes down.

You do some ventures in the states, California, Nevada, and so on.

When do you come back and open a new place in Tijuana?

Chef Martin: Well, I decide to open this place at the pandemic.

Jorge: Really?

Chef Martin: It comes to the point that, we end up some.

We have to close down the restaurant, and I said, "Well, I wait some months," and I said, "No, I'm gonna do something in Tijuana.

I'm coming back to Tijuana," because I have a lot of customers say, "Martin, where are you?"

You know?

Jorge: And you see that the city is just exploding with, like-- Chef Martin: With a lot of restaurants and everything.

Jorge: You gotta be part of it.

You're part of the-- Chef Martin: Yeah, and it was the worst time ever to open a restaurant, but then, you know, I start to rebuild the place, you know, build it, decorate it, you know, very nice, and then I opened in July 2020.

You know, when all the restaurants shut down, when the government say, "Go ahead, you can open," that's when I opened.

What's gonna help me?

It helped me that I had been in the area for over 30 years.

Jorge: You know it.

Chef Martin: So my customers, you know, start to come down.

Jorge: "Hey, Martin's comin' back to TJ--" Chef Martin: So that's what had happened.

Jorge: --"whatever he's selling, we're buying."

Chef Martin: Yeah, so that's what happened, and then I did a little bit influence of what I used to have in Tour de France.

Jorge: That's what I was gonna ask you that.

Tour de France, French restaurant, did you bring any of those dishes over here?

Chef Martin: Yeah, of course, because they, some of the customers, request it, you know?

Said, "Martin, you gotta have the Pernod Shrimp.

You gotta have the Garlic and Honey Duck," you know, and then the onion soup and the patetes, and the--are very Frenchy.

So now I do a lot of Baja because we have great ingredients here, you know?

Jorge: Right, great produce.

Chef Martin: The best in the world.

It has been amazing, you know?

We have a lot of customers come from San Diego, former customers, you know?

They used to go to Tour de France.

Jorge: Amazing.

Chef Martin: So that is great.

Jorge: Martin is literally French-trained in the fleur-de-lys cuisine, and what is more French than escargot?

Oh, man, my legs were startin' to get weak.

Jorge: If you know what this is for, you know why I'm suffering right now.

It's a French restaurant.

Back of my head, I knew I wasn't gonna be able to escape it, but now that it's in front of me, I'm not too crazy about this.

Yes, we're talking about escargot.

Oh my goodness.

So, these are prepared with garlic, with butter, parsley, salt-- lots of garlic, lots of butter.

Folks, uh, I'm Mexican, you know?

Like, this ain't part of our culture, but I cannot believe that, after all this time, I will be eating my first--my first escargot.

This is an exclusive.

Not even my family has seen me do this.

For all the kids out there, we're gonna see if the preconceptions of things that, you know, don't seem as appealing, 'cause they're not part of your culture, and you say, "I'll never taste this in my life," you know, if it's all in your head or, you know, if it's real, we're gonna try it.

Heh-heh-heh.

The taste is good.

I don't know if I was supposed to taste the snail, the escargot.

I couldn't tell the difference.

I mean, I couldn't tell the taste.

We're gonna try just one more.

I'm tasting a lot of the garlic and the butter.

I don't know if I'm supposed to taste the escargot, but here it is.

I mean, you can see it right there, right, with all that buttery goodness, all that garlicky, buttery goodness.

It's quite good, hoo-hoo-hoo.

Didn't think I had it in me, but it was quite good, surprisingly good.

Telling you, folks.

What's out there that you've never tried and you thought you'd never try before?

If this lowly Mexican can have escargot, somethin' that I probably uttered, at one time in my life, I would never try, and I did, and it's good, think of what opportunities you might be missing out on.

Jorge: Tell me about your story, your origins.

How did you get started, you know, as a chef?

Where'd you get your schooling?

Or how did you even start all of this?

Chef Martin: About 14 years old, that's when I decided and said, "I want to be a chef."

Jorge: Really?

Chef Martin: So I want to be a chef.

I start, you know, 15 years old, working in a restaurant.

You know, they teach me how to cook.

Jorge: You became an apprentice at a restaurant?

Chef Martin: An apprentice before going to school.

Jorge: Wow.

Chef Martin: And then, when I was 17, is when I decided to go to France.

I went to culinary school in France, you know?

So I spent some years in France.

Then I spent some time in London, and then she said, you know, my training was European.

Then I got married.

I used to live in Michigan, so we're there.

You know, I start to make a name, you know?

I'm working for the nicest restaurants, then I was doing French cuisine, you know, small, little town, you know, where everything was steak and potato, and then this guy come and do escargot and-- Jorge: You give it a little flavor to-- Chef Martin: It was different, so I got my experience in Europe and United States, and then I came to San Diego, Westgate, Meridien, until finally I was in Tour de France, you know?

Jorge: Okay, please, tell me we're gonna get to try a Tour de France all-time French classic, onion soup.

Oh, boy, this is exciting, folks.

You probably have no idea, but during the '80s and '90s, the Tour de France Restaurant was one of the fanciest places in TJ.

Maybe even into the early 2000s, it was a perennial, quintessential, fancy Tijuana dinner place.

Whatever dishes made the transition to his new restaurant are gonna be classics now.

Jorge: This is an onion soup, melted cheese on top.

The broth is a beef base and a jumbo crouton in there.

So I wanna grab more onion than bread.

Let me just break it up so you can see the onions.

This is so tasty.

The broth has a beefy flavor.

Look at that cheese, those strands of cheese.

And the little bread crouton in there just adds to the heftiness of the dish.

Jorge: Is there anything that you've done, like, with the produce that wouldn't be typically French, but it has a Baja fusion with French cuisine?

Chef Martin: Yeah, of course, yeah, in fact, I have a sope with fried black beans and chorizo on the top, and then I put a poached egg, hollandaise sauce, and then I put tomatillo and red salsa.

They're the Mexican Benedict.

They're amazing, you know?

So I like to create, you know, different things.

Jorge: Of course, why wouldn't you?

Chef Martin: That's something that I have to create two dishes per day, you know?

That's my goal.

Jorge: That's your goal.

Chef Martin: That's my goal.

Jorge: Next up, I knew a bird was coming.

I was excited to get some protein prepared in the style of the French culinary arts.

Jorge: So this, right here, is a butter-garlic-honey- roasted duck.

The honey, when you bake it, it gets this dark tone.

It's mixed with butter and a lot of garlic.

That's the base of the, you know, most of the French cooking.

You have here some shaved cabbage which is roasted, ornamented with some flowers and, you know, potatoes and carrots.

Jorge: So we're gonna try here a little bit of the duck.

It was good, folks.

It was good.

Oh man, this is tasty.

We're three dishes in, right?

Some appetizers, of course, but, so far, they're all winners.

Mm, the honey definitely gives it a very unique flavor, honey with your garlic and your butter.

This duck is in my top five ducks that I've tried, so I know that, on this show, I've tried other ducks that were good, and those along with this, it's definitely on my top five ducks ever.

Mm, oh, yeah, so good.

Chef Martin: You know, when I opened this place, we started, you know, doing the crepe cake here, and then we do the baguettes and the croissants.

Everything is made here from scratch, and I have a very small kitchen, so then, after seven months, I have to get another space.

We do all the crepe cakes and the eclairs and the croissants, and we do all kinds of jellies, marmalades, you know, like lemon curd, the Scottish lemon curd-- Jorge: Marmalades, jams.

Chef Martin: --jams and the pates, and all the stuff, we do in the kitchen, you know?

I have a great croissant that I stuff it with mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar, and believe me, you'll go nuts with it, you know?

It's amazing.

Jorge: Time for the last dish.

Once again, Chef Martin had something quite special in mind for me.

This place is definitely gonna go into the logbook where I draw from when I wanna take friends.

Jorge: So, as you can see, nighttime is upon us.

This is how long we've been here, just savoring, marinating, and tasting these dishes, and we're closing with, at least the food part, with this filet mignon with a beef base and escargot sauce.

You know, we were talkin' about the escargot 'cause I've never tried 'em before--my first time.

Well, he's, like, beating a dead horse here.

He's like, doing it all over to me again.

This filet mignon with escargot sauce-cream.

Oh, look at that.

Look at that pinkness cooked to perfection.

This is the only way to do it.

We need to add an escargot there.

Escargots will be part of this day.

Let it be known-- mark the calendar.

Mr. Calame, for the log, this is the day Jorge had escargots twice.

Mm, this is the champion.

This is the dish that won the night, at least for the salty part of the competition.

Look at this, folks.

Look at that.

He knows what he's doing.

It's Mr. Martin Saint Roman, Martin San Roman, making his presence felt amidst the young lads, all the young chefs, thinking that he was, like, gone from the city.

He's come back, and he's brought one of the favorite Tour de France dishes from his old Tour de France Restaurant.

He brought it over.

It merged.

It survived.

Like the phoenix, it has emerged to be consumed by yours truly.

Chef Martin: When I opened this place, even the, you know, the main dish or the popular was a crepe cake, of course.

Jorge: Tell me about that, because a crepe cake is pretty common, right?

I mean, it's not from Tijuana, is it?

Chef Martin: Yeah, it is from--I create it.

So I create the cake.

Even it has the name of Pastel de Crepas Tijuana.

That's the trademark, you know?

And that cake, I have been serving over 25 countries, you know, in different countries.

Jorge: So wherever in the world they serve a crepe cake, it's your creation?

Chef Martin: It was my creation.

Jorge: Come on.

When I knew I was gonna interview you, I'm like, "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this 'cause he must mean that he's the creator of Tijuana's original crepe cake, not the creator of the crepe cake--period.

I mean, that's what you're saying you are?

Chef Martin: I mean, the crepes, they come from France.

The chocolate mousse is French or Belgium, you know, through European.

But that cake was invented here, you know?

Jorge: Hey, I'm not arguing with him.

You folks could do the research and send me a message on social media if it's so, but I wasn't gonna risk my portion of the crepe cake by fact-checking him.

I was just happy to be here.

I mean, look at it.

This looks like something you would serve the Rockefellers, right?

Complete with gold shavings.

It was spectacular, an edible invention, courtesy of Chef Martin.

Jorge: And we're just gonna call it.

He is the inventor of the Tijuana Crepe Cake.

He's the man, right?

So after an enjoyable evening with this experienced artisan, we moved to a more modern place where art is being facilitated, and talent is being nurtured.

It's a snack bar with a unique twist.

Jorge: Aldo and Junuen, you guys are like the partners in crime in this venture, right?

both: Yes.

Jorge: How did you guys even think about it?

Like, is there anything like it?

You're the first ones, probably, right?

Aldo Portillo: In the area, yes.

Jorge: Yeah, yeah, it's like painting, and I see in full, and people are, like, completely invested in their activities.

How did you guys think about this?

Junuen Navarrete: All my life, I've been painting since I was, like, 12 years old.

So Unika started four years ago, and when we first started, we start to do paint nights in different restaurants and bars around TJ, around, like, ten sessions per month, and then we started to think about we need a space with more light and all the dishes to be small because, when you're painting, you need something you can grab with your fingers.

Jorge: For sure.

Junuen: Yes.

Jorge: Now, Aldo, I know that you were-- you are a doctor, right?

Aldo: I am, I am.

Jorge: How do you go from doctor to partnering with an architect to opening-- Aldo: To opening this?

Jorge: --a painting cafe?

Talk to me about your story.

Aldo: Well, you know, before the pandemic, I was her client.

Junuen: Yes, he was.

Aldo: And I was sitting down there with the clients, and, you know, I was painting and having a good time.

Jorge: You were an Unika client?

Aldo: I was an Unika client, and I was de-stressing, you know?

And so we became friends, and then 2020 rolled around, and she was doing her thing, even with everything that was going on in the world.

I had another, you know, business going, and that failed horribly, and so I needed a-- Jorge: Don't worry.

Many did.

Aldo: Yeah, and so instead of going into bankruptcy, I sold my house-- Jorge: Noooo.

Aldo: --and that is how we started this.

We sat down one day at a cafe, and we, just, you know, we were, like, thinking, "Can we do this?"

You know, "Is this possible?

Is this something that can happen?"

And we were like, "Well, let's give it a shot."

Jorge: You rolled the dice.

Aldo: We rolled the dice, and we decided to, you know, look for some places and maybe find venues that could, you know, apply to what we needed: the light, the parking, et cetera.

This just kind of fell in our laps.

Jorge: Oh, wow, and what kind of people are you getting?

Like, is it just artists?

Is it professionals?

Aldo: Oh, no.

Jorge: Who do you get?

Who do you get?

Aldo: Oh, we get first-timers.

We get people that have never painted in their lives before.

But the idea, like she said, is that anybody can paint, okay?

So you come in, and we have artists at the front, and they will guide you.

Jorge: Really?

Aldo: Now, this isn't a painting class, per se, because we consider everybody that walks through that door an artist already 'cause each-- Jorge: Have their own gifts, right?

Aldo: Exactly.

Everybody has a talent.

That's the idea.

You come in, you learn something new, and you maybe develop a talent that you didn't know that you had.

Jorge: Have you found someone who, as a walk-in, never painted before, and "boom," just like-- Aldo: All the time.

Junuen: Yes.

Jorge: No way.

Aldo: All the time.

Jorge: Really?

Aldo: Yeah.

Jorge: That must be cool, right?

Aldo: And then we'll walk around, and we'll be looking at people's painting, and we're like, "Oh my god, that is amazing.

How long have you been painting?"

And they're like-- both: "This was my first time."

Junuen: Yes.

Jorge: Wow, that is so cool.

Aldo: We have the bar, and we have the restaurant, and so, obviously, like Junuen said, finger food, food that you can eat while you paint-- Junuen: And craft beer.

Aldo: --and craft beer.

Jorge: That's always good.

Aldo: And mixology.

Jorge: Always good.

Aldo: And every drink has an artistic name, too.

Jorge: Oh, really?

"Vincent Mangogh."

That's funny, heh.

"Michelada Picasso," "Michelada Dali," "Mescal Arte."

That's a good one too.

Yeah, I wanna try one of these.

I'm thirsty.

It's a little bit hot.

Aldo: Try all of 'em.

Jorge: I like how this man thinks, heh-heh, heh-heh-hah-hah-ha.

"Try all of them."

Aldo: Try all of them.

Jorge: Very nice.

Well, that's "Crossing South," folks.

We're gonna have a little spirits, and we're gonna try some painting, don't go anywhere.

This is "Crossing South."

Thank you, guys.

Really cool project you got goin' here.

Jorge: So now that I gotta know Junuen and Aldo a little, it was time for me to get my hands into the paint.

I wanna see if I can find that artist deep, deep, deep, deep, deep down inside of me.

I started off a little hesitant, yes, but once I had an appointed, personal guide, things started to look a little better.

Yeah, right, heh-heh.

Aaron: Just simple strokes.

Jorge: Okay.

Aaron: Simple strokes, up and down.

Jorge: I like it.

I like it, Aaron.

Aaron: That's good, that's good.

With long strokes, you'll feel the movement of the paint, and you can get a feeling of how the water will become because, you see, there's a lot of flow and a lot of weight, so with a bigger brush, you can see the strokes.

You can see where the paint was moving, and that's okay because it's water, and water doesn't have a solid form.

It's always flowin' differently.

Jorge: Thank you for being patient with me and for sharing your profound wisdom.

I was too careful, and you kind of freed me.

Aaron: Whenever we're starting a painting, especially if it's your first time, we are very stiff.

We're starting very slow, very methodical.

Once we're starting to feel the paint and the brush, you become more comfortable.

It's all about relaxing.

It's all about feeling loose.

It's all about being happy, after all.

If you feel good about it, if you feel it's right, then it's right.

The paint will reflect that whenever it's finished.

Jorge: I do feel happy, Aaron, and I do feel it's right.

So Aaron freed me from the stress of staying in the line.

You guys at home can judge how bad I'm slaughtering this or not, but I'm telling ya, I'm flowing now, and I'm not stressed.

It's so freeing.

I need to do this more often.

I need to find time to do this.

Jorge: This was just amazing, but before continuing, I wanted to check out the food they serve here as well.

They did talk about small finger foods--didn't they?--that you could just munch on while you're engaging your inner artist.

Jorge: You're painting, you're feeding the soul, you're being creative-- you're gonna get hungry, right?

So this is the spread.

These are the options they have.

We're gonna try the first one.

This is like their arrachera taco.

They wanna promote, you know, a little bit of a healthy lifestyle, so everything is done in an air fryer or, you know, those George Foreman grills, and we're gonna try it with some avocado, which is, you know, part of the thing that's goin' on here.

This sauce, it looks like habanero, but he was telling me that all their sauce, they're their own creations.

They're not only homemade here, but they're actually, you know, their own secret recipes, their secret sauce.

So, mm, this is very good.

I could just eat a bunch of these tacos for the day, and I'd be very happy.

Let's try their fries.

They seem to be air-fried fries, home fries with some paprika.

This is basic finger food, right?

But that's what you want.

You're painting, and you can't have, like, a full plate, you know, of filet mignon around.

Mm, mm, very, very, very good fries.

They have this little, you know, mini deep-dish house pizza.

Picture the scene like the movement is right there, right?

Nothin' intrude, you know?

So we're gonna try, you know, if I'm doin' the painting, I'm doin' the stroke, and I go to the side, and-- mm, mm, oh, this is good.

This is very good.

A little slider burger here.

You've had your cheese plate, you've got your cold cuts, even pretzels.

So this is ate.

From what I've been told, it's a fruit which, in English, is called "quince," and it's a very common fruit in Mexico that is consumed as a paste.

You want somethin' sweet and salty combination, right?

Some ate and cheese--there you go.

That's what you want.

Okay, look at this baby.

This looks phenomenal.

So this is a watermelon mango.

It has Chamoy, it has Tajin, it has beer.

That's why it's a Michelada.

It's called the Michelada Picasso, and even the gummies are made of mango, so I'm gonna try this 'cause this looks phenomenal.

And it is phenomenal.

Oh my goodness.

This is fantastic.

It's a great drink.

Off to more painting.

Jorge: It was hard, it was tough, but with a lot of persistence and a few of those amazing cocktails, I managed to do the job.

I was inspired, lifted, and with a bit of hand-holding, I was able to finish my painting.

It was obviously not as great as the original, but, hey, it was not bad for a first-time amateur, I think.

So after getting to know this culinary master's French-Baja fusion and having my inner artist nurtured by the Unika people, we leave wondering what other things we'll experience the next time we get to cross south.

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