Chef won the Gilroy Garlic Festival’s 2011 Masters Chef Showdown
Published in the April 30 – May 13, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Executive Chef Jonathan Toste in the kitchen at 88 Keys. Toste began his career at 16 washing dishes then trained at Le Cordon Bleu California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.
Music comes with the menu at 88 Keys, the new jazz bar restaurant that opened in the Harvest Plaza Shopping Center in February and has steadily grown in reputation for its unique dishes cooked up by Jonathan Toste.
“My style is American cuisine, but I like to put a twist on it,” the 30-year-old executive chef said. “I like to bring other cuisines into play such as Mediterranean, a little bit of Spanish, a little bit of French and a little bit of Thai. If you look at our menu, you’ll see some of those influences on our dishes.”
Toste started his career at 16 washing dishes at a restaurant managed by his uncle in Willow Glen. When he started attending Gilroy High School, he got a job at J.R. Brewski’s, a popular Garlic Town hangout and soon found himself at 18 in the kitchen. He discovered his passion for cooking and realized his career path was in restaurants. He trained at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu California Culinary Academy. Three years ago, he won the Gilroy Garlic Festival’s 2011 Masters Chef Showdown with his serrano ham-wrapped sea scallop on a crab polenta dish, and made a name for himself.
After closing down their Upstairs Jazz Cafe restaurant in downtown Morgan Hill last year, Susan and Mark Gaetano decided to open up a new eatery called 88 Keys just east of U.S. 101 in the former Harvest Coffee House location. After three in-depth interviews with Toste, the Gaetano’s realized that he possessed the creative culinary skills to provide restaurant guests with memorable dining experiences.
“People have reacted pretty good to 88 Keys,” Toste said. “I’m excited about what we’re doing here. We change our menu every season, four times a year, so I think that kind of gives a good flare for good food to Morgan Hill. There’s always something new.”
The chef’s favorite dish to prepare is fresh sea food provided by a local provider of ocean-caught fish. Toste’s grilled lobster tail comes with Fresno peppers, a curly scallion and cilantro salad and a lemon beurre blanc sauce. He’s especially proud of his house-smoked duck which is served with baby carrots, a saffron cauliflower puree, and spicy orange mango chutney.
Toste likes to get creative with the desserts 88 Keys tempts its customers with. His house-made strawberry habanero sorbet has been a big hit with patrons. “That’s a strawberry sorbet infused with habanero,” he said. “We have nice strawberry crumble we put on that’s made of shortbread and a strawberry compote. It’s kind of a deconstructed strawberry shortcake with a kick to it.”
The restaurant also offers a crème brulee for dessert. With this spring season’s menu Toste serves espresso crème brulee with fresh raspberries.
88 Keys will soon be open for lunch, starting at 11 a.m. Fridays, and later opening seven days a week as it builds its base. Toste is planning on putting on the menu for lunch-time guests fried green tomato sandwiches as well as “super juicy” half-pound burgers.
“They have a lot of different flavors going on,” he said of the burgers. “They really are good-sized and we have a house aioli that we put on them.”
The lunch menu will also offer fresh-cut French fries tossed with fresh herbs, salt and pepper and drizzled with a balsamic reduction.
The Gaetanos are pleased with how customers have responded to Toste’s variety and quality in his menu offers. “They absolutely love it,” Mark said. “Our food is totally top-notch, equally as good as the best restaurants around.”
People also enjoy the variety of music that entertains patrons, he said, adding that the restaurant is named for 88 keys on the piano keyboard.
“The music caters to a middle age or older crowd,” he said. “It is jazz, it’s R&B, its vocalists, it’s guitar players, it’s ‘60, ‘70’s and ‘80’s music, so it does kind of cater to the baby-boomer crowd.”
