John Griffiths quietly left his post as the executive chef at the highly-acclaimed, theatrical restaurant The Kitchen last year, and we haven’t heard much from him since.

It felt sudden at the time. Remember? “John decided to do something else, so he left last week,” owner Randall Selland told the Sacramento Bee in October.

Today, we learn about that “something else.” The San Francisco Chronicle reveals that Griffiths will be the executive chef The Advocate, a hotly-anticipated restaurant coming to Berkeley from the same owners as obscenely popular Mexican restaurant Comal. There, instead of the jokes-infused, farm-to-fork fare of the Kitchen, Griffiths will prepare Mediterranean- and North African-influenced cuisine. 

Griffiths lasted a little more than a year at The Kitchen and suffered a less-than-enthusiastic review from former Bee dining critic Blair Anthony Robertson, who mostly docked Griffiths’ performance as entertainer, not as chef.

Now Griffiths can go back to being scrutinized just for his food.