Having spent the better part of the last few years building up her global profile, participating in culinary events in far-flung destinations like Australia, North Africa, and India and making frequent appearances on food television shows, Claudette Zepeda is ready to re-root herself in her hometown of San Diego with a new restaurant.
Born in Imperial Beach, Zepeda grew up between San Diego, Tijuana, and Guadalajara and started cooking professionally in her late teens, working steadily in San Diego kitchens and training with James Beard Award winner Gavin Kaysen before her breakout turn as chef de cuisine at Javier Plascencia’s James Beard Award-nominated Bracero during its thrilling but all-too-short tenure in Little Italy.
As her star ascended, Zepeda landed on season two of “Top Chef Mexico” and competed on the 15th edition of the U.S. “Top Chef” as she prepared to open her first venture, El Jardin in Liberty Station, as its executive chef and partner. Before the regional Mexican restaurant ultimately shuttered, she earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination in the Best Chef: West category.
Since she started running her own kitchens, the mother of two has emphasized her matriarchal perspective, citing the generations of women in her own culture and family that she’s cooked with and been inspired by, including an aunt who had a restaurant in Guadalajara.
This month, the chef is opening a 60-seat lounge in Leucadia with a decidedly feminine, “girl dinner” vibe. Called Leu Leu by Claudette Zepeda, its culinary team is made up of all women of Mexican heritage. Reservations for the restaurant will open on Sunday.
Zepeda has only been attached to this project for a few months, having first connected with co-owner Jason Janecek, a partner in North County’s Corner Pizza, at a Padres playoff game last fall. When agreeing to the ownership team, which includes Janecek and his wife, Jaime, along with Brittany and Michael Corrales-Schmitt, one of of Zepeda’s requirements was to add her name to the sign that hangs over the restaurant, which occupies one end of a low-slung building that was once a roadside motel along Highway 101.
The gesture has dual significance: it’s an indication of her commitment to Leu Leu (Zepeda says she plans to be in the kitchen full time to start and then anytime she’s in town between out-of-town gigs). More importantly, it represents an equal footing with her male chef counterparts who are more often given top billing on a marquee.
Zepeda was also the founding chef at Vaga, which debuted four years ago at the Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas. She feels comfortable cooking in North County, where she has found kinship in its laid-back coastal towns, sharing, “Every restaurant you open meets you where you are at in your life. Leu Leu is meeting me in a very soft and intentional chapter. I want to cook the food that inspires me, in a community that first embraced me back in 2021.”
The chef, whose cookbook “Borderlands” comes out next year, says the lounge’s shared plates-based menu — served on vintage Pyrex and locally-made ceramic dishes in the fashion-obsessed chef’s signature pink hue — is programmed for cocktail party mode, including finger foods like honey-mustard Fritos and bread with savory dips, an edible Fabergé egg molded from sushi rice and wagyu beef tartare, and “super sexy sundaes” featuring the ice cream stylings of Oceanside’s Little Fox Cups + Cones.
With a wine program focused on female winemakers or owners — Zepeda says a champagne and caviar program is coming soon — other Leu Leu dishes will be a reflection of her past culinary experiences and more recent travels. A Baja yellowtail crudo combines a carrot aguachile she created at Bracero with a starter from Vaga that featured Thai flavors of lemongrass and coconut . And her “masa ball soup,” seasoned with a Yemeni spice blend, holds a hybrid dumpling made of masa harina (dried corn dough) and matzo meal.
Co-owner Brittany Carrales-Schmitt, a Leucadia native, said the restaurant’s look, designed by Design 4 Corners, is eclectic, cozy and community-centered.
“We wanted to create a locally-focused space that honors Leucadia past and present where it feels like you’re in one of your most interesting friends’ living rooms — a place that you’re always welcome to connect, dream, and stay a while,” she said.
Leu Leu by Claudette Zepeda
Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays; reservations officially open on Sunday
Where: 466 N. Coast Hwy 101, Encinitas
Online: leuleuleucadia.com, instagram.com/leu.leu.leucadia
