Texas Chef John Vasquez Takes Reins at Finch & Fork

Both of John Vasquez’s parents worked in hospitality when he was growing up in Texas, so sometimes his mom would pick him up from school with a bag of clothes and whisk him away to a fancy hotel, where they’d be on-duty for the weekend. 

“I have memories of being 8 years old, walking with my dad as he does his rounds, having staycations on the property,” said Vasquez, who took over as the head chef at Finch & Fork inside Santa Barbara’s Kimpton Canary Hotel a few months ago. “I’d stay at a resort for the weekend, eating my club sandwich by the pool.”

But that wasn’t the life they envisioned for their son, who was born in Houston but finished high school in Austin. “They tried to get me to stay out of the hospitality industry,” he explained through his soft-spoken twang. “But for me, it was a calling. This is all I’ve known. This is what I’m comfortable with.”

Not that he figured that out right away. Instead, thinking that cheffing would be his Plan B, he went through three majors at Texas State in San Marcos. Only then did he realize that “culinary school was Plan A all along. I was just too scared.” 

He’d enjoyed cooking since childhood visits to his grandmother’s ranch in Zacatecas, Mexico, where he’d watch his aunt make fresh tortillas. “I’d pull out masa the size of a penny to make baby tortillas,” said Vasquez. “I’d put one bean in there and have my own amuse-bouche.” He also made cakes and pastries with his mom from a beloved Disney cookbook. “Looking back, it was usually a four-ingredient recipe,” he said. “But for me as a kid, it was this high-end dish.”

He enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, learning to cook from 6 to 10 p.m. while working 9-to-5 for a telecom company. Then he flew the coop. “The day after culinary school, I drove to San Diego,” said Vasquez, who moved in with buddies for a taste of Cali life. 

He helped open the Hilton in Carlsbad and then worked at Avant inside the Rancho Bernardo Inn. But a couple years in, he was homesick and not taking good care of himself, so he headed back to Texas. Vasquez regretted the move three weeks later, pledging, “Ever since then, my end game has been to try to end up in California.” 

After nearly a decade cooking for restaurants, country clubs, and hotels in Austin and San Antonio, his last job there was opening the InterContinental Hotel, whose parent company, IHG, also owns the Kimpton brand. When Vasquez saw that Kimpton was looking for a chef to run its restaurant in S.B.’s Canary Hotel, he applied. 

“The moment I got off the plane, feeling that crisp California air, seeing the mountains, and feeling the sun beaming down on me, it felt great being back,” said Vasquez of the first time he ever visited Santa Barbara, which was to present the tasting part of his application. He was hired in April, and has been readjusting to California since. 

It had been more than a year since Finch & Fork was led by an executive chef, but Vasquez believes it still sports a good pedigree. “I’m making sure to keep Finch & Fork up to its standards,” said Vasquez. “And I’m trying to bring people in and get back to what the restaurant was pre-COVID.”

One of the first things he did was enhance the popular fried chicken by treating the birds to a confit bath — they’re cooked in fat at a low heat — before they’re dredged and fried to order. “That’s a staple here, so I didn’t want to change it,” he said. “But I changed the preparation.” The result is chicken that tastes, well, more chicken-y, but retains all the succulent-while-crunchy appeal of the original dish, drizzled in jalapeño honey and served with mashed potatoes and broccolini.

The shrimp and polenta is another steady seller, as is, for lunch, the grilled chicken sandwich, with brie, prosciutto, arugula, apple, and pesto aioli. “I’ve already had multiple people call me out to talk about that one,” he said. In my recent visits, I’ve also enjoyed the embered ramp Caesar, the deviled eggs with pickled shallots and Cajun maple pork belly, the kung pao cauliflower, the charred broccolini, and the expertly executed salmon on wilted spinach and potato velouté.

There’s a special menu for the bar, where the happy hour crowds ebb and flow, though they surge on Thursdays, when oysters are just $2 a pop. The monthly Sip & Swirls remain one of the only ways to experience the hotel’s epic rooftop views, and there are a number of events to choose from, both weekly affairs and one-offs, like the sunset ska party on August 29 and Southern brunch on August 31. 

“I just want to make the food fun and approachable, and be a place where people can have a date night Tuesday dinner, or come in on Friday and have a huge celebration,’ said Vasquez. “I want to help people create these memories, these moments, these experiences.”

Finch & Fork in the Canary Hotel, 31 W. Carrillo St.; finchandforkrestaurant.com.