Cafe Rolls Out Tortillas for TV Cameras

Sandy Smith, owner and chef of Rosarito Beach Cafe in Ventura, recently opted to close his gourmet Mexican restaurant for lunch. Last week, however, he made an exception.

On Friday, Smith played midday host to Nicholas Sita II, a field producer for the TV Food Network. Sita and his two-person crew were in town to film a segment of “Dining Around,” a Food Network show highlighting unique restaurants around the country. In this instance, Rosarito Beach.

“The show goes around the country sampling eclectic restaurants, the kinds of restaurants that have something special about them,” said Lisa Sumja, the Food Network’s vice president of western region affiliate sales and marketing.

“Rosarito Beach makes homemade tortillas. We thought that was different than what we see in Los Angeles,” Sumja said. “It helped that they had indoor and outdoor dining and their bartender [Mark Brockway] has a great reputation and more personality than anybody I’ve ever met. . . . Sandy has more personality than anybody I’ve met too.”

Friday’s filming began with Smith in the kitchen, explaining to the camera how he goes about preparing certain dishes. The segment ended with an extensive interview with Smith.

Between segments, the camera focused on the dining room which, for the occasion, was filled with lunchtime diners--a combination of Smith’s friends, local cable television representatives and Food Network employees.

Smith’s menu for the show was a choice of four entrees: fresh salmon filet with a light chile crust and flambeed with sherry, chiles and cream; boneless, mesquite-grilled pork loin, marinated in pasilla chile paste and served with an avocado sauce; boneless mesquite-grilled chicken breast served with fresh pineapple and macadamia nut salsa; and ahi tuna, marinated in spices and served on greens in a red pepper vinaigrette and topped with toasted pumpkin seeds.

“This will be my first national exposure,” Smith said. “As Ventura becomes more of a tourist destination, it can’t hurt. You try to do the best you can. It’s gratifying for somebody to think you’re doing a good job.”

The Food Network reaches 16 million households across the country. Locally it is carried by TCI of Ventura County (formerly Ventura County Cablevision), which has about 92,000 subscribers in Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Camarillo, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru and Ojai, as well as in Calabasas and Agoura Hills.

No date has been set for the airing of the Rosarito Beach show.

Smith, who will mark his restaurant’s 10th anniversary later this year, said Rosarito Beach, at 692 E. Main St., has come a long way since its early days.

“Ten years is a long, long time to be doing high-end Mexican food anywhere, and in Ventura in particular,” said Smith, whose restaurant was originally located in the 200 block of East Main Street.

“The first couple of years people would just get up and walk out because we didn’t serve chips, even though we had high-end flour tortillas,” he said. “At least now we don’t have people asking where the chips are.”

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Chips have also factored heavily in the life of Oxnard chef Terry Foster. But it was a surfeit rather than an absence of chips at a fraternity party back in 1969 that prompted Foster to start messing with salsa.

“I made the salsa as a joke,” said Foster, who at the time was attending San Jacinto College in Houston, Texas. “All the other times we had parties I’d just bring chips. This was Parent’s Day and everyone said, ‘Terry, you’ve got to bring more than chips.’ So I brought salsa and chips.”

Foster’s salsa survived those ominous beginnings and much tinkering along the way. Last year he began marketing the product as Chef Terry’s Tex-Mex Salsa.

He’ll put that recipe to the test this weekend when he takes part in the professional competition at the Salsa Festival in Oxnard’s Plaza Park.

“Originally, I was looking through a magazine and there was a recipe that had tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapenos,” said Foster, organizer of the salsa competition. “I kind of added my own personality from there. I added salt, a little tomato sauce and this, that and the other.”

Foster, who owns the No-Bull Enterprises catering-consulting firm, said there is no set rule on what makes a good salsa.

“Some people don’t like it hot at all, some people can’t get it hot enough. There are so many different hot sauces out there,” he said. “There are several fruit salsas out that people like. Every now and then I add an avocado to my salsa.”

The Salsa Festival will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free. The professional salsa competition will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Plaza Park is between C and B streets and 5th and 6th streets. Call 483-4542 for more information.