“My father always told me, do what you love and you will be happy,” says Roberto Alcocer, executive chef of Oceanside’s lauded Valle. When the modern Baja-Mexican restaurant was awarded a coveted Michelin star last month — the first and only restaurant in the sleepy beach enclave to receive the honor — the 39-year-old chef was euphoric, saying, “I’m super excited if a little overwhelmed.”
Born in Mexico City and raised in Ensenada, Baja, Alcocer dove headfirst into the culinary world shortly after high school, moving to France for cooking school, and later toiling away inside prestigious kitchens in France (including Le Patio) and Spain (Madrid’s La Broche). “I couldn’t see myself in a suit or tie, or in law school,” he explains. “I like the rush of the kitchen.”
After immersing himself in Western European’s gastronomic world for over a decade, he returned to North America and landed a gig as corporate chef at San Diego Gas and Electric. While it didn’t allow him to flex as much of his creative side as he would’ve liked, the corporate machinations helped him learn the ins-and-outs of business while cooking dishes for the utility company’s executive team and the occasional bigwig, like former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After spending time in the corporate world — many great chefs have honed their craft inside the walls of big business, à la Jacques Pepin and Howard Johnson — Alcocer opened his first restaurant: Malva, the noted culinary destination in Valle de Guadalupe where he acts as both owner and executive chef. Seven years and heaps of praise later, he had the chance to lead another farm-to-table eatery at the behest of a restaurant industry consultant, this time north of the border in San Diego County. While he had anticipated the new venue to be located in La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, or downtown San Diego, Oceanside wasn’t what he had envisioned for his next effort — at least not at first. “For Mexicans, Oceanside was a gas stop before going to Disneyland,” he says.
In the spring of 2021, Alcocer opened Valle (named after Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe, where the chef operates Malva) to acclaim at the oceanfront Mission Pacific Hotel. The hotel, run by the Hyatt Corporation, was able to give Alcocer the time and money he needed to perfect his menu. Compared to Malva, which offers a rustic dining experience in an outdoor setting, the 155-seat Valle offers a more formal but by no means stuffy affair. Nightly, he prepares a prix-fixe eight-course tasting menu paired with varied wines from Baja Mexico’s Guadalupe Valley wine region.
Describing his food as farm-to-table Mexican contemporary, Alcocer features dishes like a borrego birrioso featuring braised Niman lamb in birria broth, frijoles puercos and corn aligot; a chancla con corte de wagyu with salsa verde and avocado; and the tamal de quelites with mole coloradito.
“People think Mexican food is spicy food. We don’t use chilis just to give heat; we use it for flavor as any other spice,” he explains, brushing aside the myth that good Mexican food should sear the tongue. “That’s why we have salsas. If you want to blow up your tongue, add more salsa. But a good mole or a good guisado shouldn’t be too spicy.”
Another highlight at Valle is the onyx-colored onion tart topped with black sturgeon caviar on a black plate. As former Orange County Register food critic Brad Johnson raved in 2021, “The onion tart is easily one of the most beautiful things I’ve eaten this year,” calling it “a wink and nod to Alcocer’s charcoal oven.”
His two-year effort paid off spectacularly: Valle, along with Heritage in Long Beach, were the only two California restaurants awarded new stars in 2023.
Speaking about other preconceived notions of his native cuisine, he says good Mexican food takes time. “To make a good tortilla, you need to cook your corn, you need to grind your corn.” He also adds that everything at Valle is made from scratch at the restaurant. “People often think it’s what goes inside a taco makes great tacos. For me, it’s the tortilla and the salsa — the base and the cover.”
While his food is unequivocally refined, he has made it a point to make Valle guests feel not only comfortable but welcome. For starters, after seeing an initial rough-draft of Valle blueprints, he requested the restaurant’s entrance to face the sidewalk and the street, not exclusively accessible through the hotel. “I want people no matter who they are to feel invited to come in.”
And while Michelin stars often make less sartorially inclined diners worry about securing tux and tails, guests should feel a sense of ease when it comes to standards of dress at Valle. “The refinement and finesse is coming from me to you my guests. I do this food and this type of service because it’s what I know and love, but that doesn’t mean you need to dress up to come dine with me.” Noting that Oceanside is a beach town, he says that it’s not unusual to see guests sporting casual threads. “Do I appreciate it when a guest dresses well to visit me? Yes. But if you want to wear flip-flops because that’s your style, then that’s OK too.”
When asked about his influences and how they can be found in his work, he says that with time and practice, chefs find their own voice. “We are humans and are sponges to everything around us. In the early days, when you start your own restaurant, you tend to copy. My first menu at Malva, I played it safe and offered reinterpretations of places I work at until I found my own style. It takes time, but it happens.”
Find it: Valle, 222 N Pacific Street, Oceanside
