Toast Kitchen and Bakery gives back to the community and benefits Project Hope Alliance in May

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When the Costa Mesa fixture The Golden Truffle finally closed its doors last year, the vacuum was quickly filled by Toast Kitchen and Bakery. The opening was followed a week later by its sister shop FILL, an exotic ice cream emporium that also features mochi doughnuts and masaladas, a savory Portuguese beignet prepared and served on weekends only. Bakery, ice cream and an inspired dinner menu? What’s happening here?

To answer that, one must also ask what would impel one of the top pastry chefs in Los Angeles – an alumnus of Providence, Water Grill, Lukshon and Father’s Office – to move his young family to Orange County to open a reasonably priced chef-driven concept masquerading as a low-key neighborhood brunch spot.

“You might say we were called to move here,” says chef John Park.

And it didn’t require a cellular data plan. This was a spiritual call suggesting a change that would include a new engagement with a new community. Before the move, Park had owned and operated the high-end ice cream parlor Quenelle, with locations in Burbank and San Marino. He staged a series of “Pie Pop-ups” to benefit a variety of nonprofits. This impulse toward community engagement and service is a primary inspiration for Park and Toast Kitchen Bakery. Park partners with a different local non-profit organization every month and donates 10 percent of his monthly net profit to the cause. For May Toast’s non-profit partner is Project Hope Alliance, an organization that supports homeless children across Orange County. (Its CEO Jennifer Friend, was one of last year’s Women of Coast.)

If that fails to provide sufficient inspiration for a visit, allow us to recommend the food. Avocado toast is now a clichéd emblem of the latest nouvelle-Cali food trends. However, Park’s version is otherworldly.

Festooned with purple kale and cauliflower pickled with rooibos, splayed pale yellow popcorn shoots, shaved radish curls, dotted with crème fraîche and lightly dressed with a lemon turmeric vinaigrette, the dish presents as an exotic alien landscape. The fulsome creaminess of the avocado is neatly matched by the crunchy pickled cauliflower and the tart citrus tease of the vinaigrette. The dish elicits an unusual play of layered texture and flavor if one bothers to notice, before wolfing it down. It’s not an ordinary version of the popular “toast.” Its mindful artfulness reflects the soul of the chef. As Park reminds us, at Toast Kitchen and Bakery, “There’s a greater purpose.”

And don’t forget the ice cream!

 

 

LEMON TURMERIC VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

5 lemons, juiced

¼ cup water

4 tbs sugar

½ tbs honey

½ tbs shallot, minced

½ tsp garlic, minced

¾ tsp turmeric

¾ tsp whole grain mustard

¾ cup canola oil

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Combine all ingredients, except the oil, salt and pepper.

Slowly whisk in the oil until fully emulsified.

Adjust seasoning with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

 

TOAST KITCHEN AND BAKERY1767 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa :: toastkitchenbakery.com

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