Chef’s Dinner with Best Quality Daughter

Jennifer Dobbertin is the chef/owner of Best Quality Daughter and a third-generation restauranteur. Spending summers at her uncle’s noodle shop in Taiwan and working after school every day in her parent’s restaurant gave her a deep understanding of both food and the hospitality industry. Returning to her hometown of San Antonio in 2011 after six years living and traveling throughout Asia, Dobbertin opened a soup delivery company, We Both Love Soup, and a catering business, Hot Mess Food. In 2017 she partnered in opening Tenko Ramen, the first fast casual ramen shop in San Antonio. The following year, Dobbertin, wanting to address the sparsity of Asian-American female chefs in South Texas, developed a new concept through a series of pop-up dinners called Best Quality Daughter with fellow chef Anne Ng and artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk.  As the pop-ups evolved into plans for a brick and mortar, she moved forward with the test kitchen and menu development.  Best Quality Daughter opened inside the historic Mueller House, at The Pearl Brewery, in November 2020. Best Quality Daughter has since earned three James Beard Award nominations and remains a favorite local haunt in San Antonio.

Alan Nelson is currently the Chef de Cuisine for Best Quality Daughter and Jue Let. Over the course of a 20-year career as a self-taught chef, he has worked in kitchens across Alaska, California, and San Antonio, creating menus that range from greasy-spoon diner fare to seafood-focused fine dining. One of his most unique culinary experiences was cooking aboard a passenger train traveling from Anchorage to Denali National Park in Alaska. Outside the kitchen, Alan is an experienced backpacker, amateur fly fisher, cyclist, and ultramarathon runner. A former trumpet player, he is a lifelong jazz fan, though his favorite band remains to be The Strokes.