Russell Jackson Subculture Dining

“I’m turning into Homer Simpson…”

LA native Russell Jackson has stealthily been doing his thing with San Francisco’s Sub Culture Dining for two years now. This came about as a response to the overwhelming demand that resulted following a feature  story done on him in the LA Times. For years, the media has known Jackson was on to great things and soon his vision will come to fruition with plans for a bricks and mortar establishment. Plans are currently in the works for a hot new Soma location to showcase his own brand of California cuisine, which is spontaneous and ingredient driven. His celebrated career highlights international education, working with the likes of Wolfgang Puck and other celebrity chefs, and working as a private chef for A-list Hollywood. His L.A. based restaurant Russell’s was the subject of much critical acclaim won a spot on L.A’s top 100. He eventually found his way to San Francisco after being headhunted and then, after growing weary of working for other’s, came up with the concept for Subculture Dining.

His present (underground) set-up has been gone down on the sly about twice a month fro the past year. The single seating event of around 40-50 kicks off with a 30 min cocktail hour and 9-15 courses w a wine pairing option. Why aren’t you there? I don’t know. I recently sat down with this character who has not only been caught eating sandwiches in the shower by loved ones but is also a shameless and self-professed peanut butter slut…..

If you could only have three foods for the rest of your life, what would they be? Original Hollywood Spago Pizza 4 cheese w pepperoni, sandwiches and peanut butter or nutella.

Geez, you are really into the peanut butter nutella thing, what’s up with that? At home if they see the spoon next to the Nutella, they know it’s been a rough night. I don’t sleep, 4 hours is my average so I have to do a lot of grazing through the day to keep my energy up. I eat nonstop.

What is your guilty pleasure? I must confess I eat grapes all day long in or out of season. I simply have to have them even if that means commercially grown or imported. There’s something about the texture….I used to go through bags and bags of salted peanuts.

Junk food of choice? I love In N Out, I can plow through 2 double double animal cheeseburgers and 2 animal protein styles in one sitting at 4 am. Oh and grilled onions, it’s gotta have grilled onions

What do you eat that would shock your mama? As an adult, I enjoy liver and onions. Who would’ve guessed?

What are some indispensable kitchen items in Russel Jacksons kitchen? Hmmm…what could I not live without? My Shun Santoku knife, my thermal circulator, My 1000 watt Cuisinart mixer and……my ice cream machine. I am an ice cream freak.

What are some of todays most over-rated and annoying food trends? The whole gastro-chemical movement is seriously overated. I don’t want to eat my food out of a test tube or suspended in glycerin. In the 80′s it was all about height, these towers of food. When I sit down to eat, I want simplicity and straightforwardness. I want to taste the essence of the food.

Is there something you find grossly underutilized in todays cooking? Poaching

Who’s the hottest celeb chef right now? Gordon Ramsey

Any recomendations for our readers? If you eat meat, once in your life, you should go in with friends and buy a cow. Amazing, simply amazing. I did it last year with a few friends, it was about $3200 after the butcher, my portion was $800. As a bonus, I got the entrails. They didn’t want them, maybe that’s how I got to like the liver and onions….

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