At Home With Richard and Jazmin Blais

It had been a few years since I interviewed chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and television personality Richard Blais, who has co-founded such restaurants as Juniper & Ivy, The Crack Shack, Ember & Rye, and California English, among others. I was hungry to hear what he’s been cooking up since then. Plenty, as it turns out, including a cookbook, co-written with wife Jazmin, who is also chief operating officer of their company, Trail Blais, a consulting group that designs and launches restaurants around the country. The couple, who met working in restaurants, has been collaborating both personally and professionally for more than 20 years. “It’s a passion for both of us still,” says Richard. They are currently working on the relaunch of all the food outlets at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa Gainey Ranch in Arizona. 

The Blaises welcomed Ranch & Coast to their casual, family-friendly Rancho Santa Fe home, where the expansive kitchen, of course, is at its heart. The home had already been remodeled when the family, including two daughters, Lucy the dog, and a cat named Bear moved in. (Bear, as the name suggests, was a large one-year-old foster cat from Helen Woodward Animal Center who became a member of the Blais family.)

Interior designer Ashley Haase of Ashley David Design and her team added furnishings and accessories for “an approachable, inviting, warm, casual-chic kind of vibe,” says Haase. “Ashley was great in taking a few key words from us and expanding it into the design of our home,” notes Jazmin. “We wanted neutrals and natural textures, and she came back with unique and fun pieces. It was really important to us that our home be serene and comfortable and provide a nice respite for all of us.” 

Richard’s favorite space is the light-filled kitchen that opens onto a terrace with an outdoor living room and entertainment area, offering views of eucalyptus and palm trees in the expansive backyard below. The kitchen features high-end appliances, ample cabinetry, a large center island, and counters topped with marble. There is no formal dining room in this no-fuss home, so the family eats meals together at a cozy table or at a long, well-loved vintage table where their daughters also do homework. The couple, who often work from home, “love having a multitude of workspaces and tables to choose from,” Jazmin says. The kitchen is also a place to relax. At one end is a fireside nook, “a perfect little spot to sit for a moment to catch up on the day,” she says. “The chairs swivel so you can be in your own world or turn around to face the action in the kitchen.” 

The kitchen is also the perfect setting to talk to the couple about Plant Forward, their cookbook devoted to a more plant-centric diet. Vegetables and whole grains? This from the guy who loves to sizzle big burgers and juicy Tomahawk steaks at Ember & Rye? Had he gone vegan? No, he hasn’t. But Jazmin, who has a master’s degree in public health, has been a vegetarian off and on for years. “So, Richard has had to innovate when cooking at home for the family,” she explains. “That’s one way we have complemented each other as a couple. He hasn’t given up an ounce of his ‘chefy-ness’ but he also understands that for health and longevity, variety is key.” 

The couple points out that even at Ember & Rye (which reopens this month after a kitchen fire), vegetable sides were very much on the menu. But the book makes plant foods the main part of the plate — meat is no longer at its center. “There’s real creativity to be found in vegetables, too,” says Jazmin. Bottom line: The couple wanted to eat better and encourage others to do the same. “This isn’t a health food book,” they insist in the book’s introduction. “This is a healthier cookbook,” showcasing plant foods and limiting oils, gluten, refined sugars, and processed foods. The book also offers healthier substitutes, swapping out avocado oil mayonnaise for traditional mayo, for example, or Stevia for sugars.

So, why not try tomato and watermelon poke, zucchini al pastor, jerk cauliflower “steaks,” charred carrot hot dogs, or cauli-mac ‘n cheese, among the 100 “bold recipes for a mostly health lifestyle” in the book? Shakshuka, a flavorful and versatile egg dish packed with onions, plum tomatoes, bell peppers, chickpeas, and spices, can be served at any meal. A colorful summer vegetable succotash, inspired by the produce at Rancho Santa Fe’s famed Chino Farms, is loaded with fava or lima beans, shallots, red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and cilantro. Richard (who had hoped there was a bit more Italian in his heritage) especially likes to make pasta at home, whether a good cacio e pepe, “cheese and pepper” in Italian, with grated pecorino Romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper, or spaghetti pomodoro with olives, capers, and anchovies. But make no “mis-steak” — Richard hasn’t given up meat. He still loves firing up the backyard grill for a great piece of steak — and vegetables. 

What’s next for this creative couple? Richard, known for Bravo’s Top Chef and Top Chef All Stars, just wrapped the next season of Fox’s Next Level Chef, a culinary reality competition which he co-hosts (and judges) with Gordon Ramsay and Nyesha Arrington. He also continues as culinary director for VIP dining at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. The couple is considering bringing back Starving for Attention, the podcast they hosted about the food industry, which ended during the pandemic. 

There are also personal pursuits: international travel, their daughters’ athletic competitions (basketball, field hockey, soccer, and more), and pickleball  — for Jazmin, that is, not Richard. “Jazmin and I do a lot of life together,” says Richard. “But she plays pickleball without me.” Richard, an avid runner with six marathons (and counting) to his credit, only has “fast food” a few times a year. “Eat good and healthy food is a mantra for me in my life,” he reflects in the book’s introduction. “This doesn’t mean that every once in a while, on a road trip, I’m not pulling off to get a Whopper, but it’s incredibly rare and balanced by the healthy food I eat the other 95 percent of the time.” The chef has come a long way since his first job: at McDonald’s.