Jonathan Whitener, chef and partner at Los Angeles restaurants Here's Looking at You and All Day Baby, died at his home Wednesday night, according to a report from the Los Angeles County medical examiner. He was 36 years old.
A representative from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed that he was pronounced dead Wednesday at 7:38 p.m.
The cause of death is not yet known, pending further investigation.
Here's Looking at You, which Whitener opened in Koreatown in 2016 with his managing partner Lien Ta to instant acclaim, was dark Thursday night. An Instagram post read: “We are very sorry but HLAY will be closed tonight for family reasons.”
At his All Day Baby restaurant in Silver Lake, regular customers hugged staff as they arrived for the night shift.
Jonathan Whitener in March 2020.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Whitener was previously chef de cuisine at Animal and had cooked at restaurants such as Le Louis XV in Monte Carlo and Mirazur in Menton, France. She grew up in unincorporated Midway City, in the heart of Orange County, near Bolsa Avenue in Little Saigon.
“It was simply inspired by the variety of Southern California: from fast food to every variation of a concession stand,” said Patric Kuh, former restaurant critic for Los Angeles Magazine, who wrote the book “Becoming a Restaurateur” based on Whitener and Ta's experiences in Here's Looking at You. Whitener was also a research and development chef for Arthur J in Manhattan Beach, said Kuh, who is the restaurant's assistant general manager.
“He knew Vietnamese food inside and out. He loved the breakfasts and everyday food that motivates Southern Californians,” Kuh said. “He was framed by an incredible respect for technique. He loved flavors, whether in a classic kitchen or on a fast food restaurant flat grill.”
Whitener and Ta met while both working at Animal, chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo's former Fairfax Avenue restaurant, and decided to open a restaurant together. Here's Looking at You immediately drew crowds for its strong cocktails, pie served at the bar, and Whitener's menu of kaleidoscopic flavors that referenced the cuisines of Mexico, Vietnam, Japan, France, and elsewhere.
“Almost every chef in town has flirted with shishito peppers in recent years,” wrote the late LA Times critic Jonathan Gold. “But Jonathan Whitener's version may be the best: well seared and arranged on the side of a large, rustic bowl at the bottom of which pools the sauce normally found drizzled over a summer beef tonnato.”
Here's Looking at You was named Restaurant of the Year by Food & Wine in 2017 and was on the Times' 101 Best Los Angeles Restaurants list. Whitener and Ta opened their second restaurant, All Day Baby, in late 2019.
Times staff writer Gustavo Arellano contributed to this report. This is a developing story.
