Angeleno Magazine's Chefs Night Out

On Sunday night, Angeleno Magazine hosted their 8th Annual Chef's Night Out at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica. The setting was the beautiful outdoor courtyard, the centerpiece of which is a large fig tree that is more than a century old. The event was sold out and hundreds of foodies and Angeleno subscribers mingled in the warm afternoon and evening, munching on food from many of the city's best chefs.

Pictured above are Michael Voltaggio, formerly of the Langham, and Ludo Lefebvre of LudoBites. Voltaggio served a market peach and burrata dish that involved dehydrated? peach on top of the creamy burrata. Lefebvre served a gazpacho which was described as an heirloom tomato smoothie, squid ink vodka gelee, seaweed tartar. Voltaggio's dish was the most interesting and unique preparation of the evening.

Below are four of the most talked about dishes of the evening. First is the Loup de Mer "En Ecailles" with heirloom tomatoes and cucumber-basil from chef Josiah Citrin of Melisse restaurant in Santa Monica. This was the best dish I tasted all evening. The skin of the loup de mer was crunchy and the whole dish was bursting with flavor.



The Cauliflower panna cotta with Transmontanus caviar from Chef Ben Bailly of Petrossian was another highlight of the evening. The panna cotta was so light and creamy and the salty roe atop provided a literal pop to the dish. Serving it in the caviar tins was also a visually arresting touch.



The beef tartare crostino from Angelini Osteria had black truffles shaved on it in front of the attendees. There was a large audience in front of the chef generously shaving the black truffles onto the crostini.



Voltaggio's dish was served in tulip shaped glasses that had to be held once picked up because they did not have a base. The "peach" had a nice crunch to it, in contrast to the smoothness of the cheese.



Below is a scene of the party in full force:



Ben Bailly (below left) and Josiah Citrin (below right) both made some of the signature dishes of the evening. Aside from the food provided by restaurants such as Josie, Wilshire, Street, 9:30 at the W Westwood, Fig, Comme Ca, Hatfields and many more, there were signature cocktails from Oxley Gin and a variety of wineries represented. The evening benefited LA's Best, an organization which provides supervised after-school enrichment programs for the youth of Los Angeles.



Don't forget to buy your tickets early next year as this year the tickets sold out!

Do well by eating well - attend these benefits

Two upcoming charity events will offer Los Angeles food aficionados the opportunity to try dishes from a variety of top chefs in the area while benefiting good causes. Helping the community by munching on food from Nobu, the Border Grill, Jar and Starry Kitchen? What a great idea.


Simply diVine
On Saturday, August 21, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Simply divine: A Summer Soirée for the Senses”, is an outdoor evening at the upscale Two Rodeo Drive, home of Tiffany & Co among other luxury retailers. Attendees will sample gourmet food, wine and spirits in the European style street.

Participating restaurants include Lucques, AOC, Ford’s Filling Station, The Bazaar by Jose Andres, The Border Grill, Umami Burger, and Jar among several others. Over a dozen wineries will also be participating in the benefit. Chef Susan Feniger, owner of Street, the Border Grill and Ciudad, is one of the co-chairs of the event.

Tickets to the event are $150 and $500 for VIP tickets which include admission to a VIP reception wine tasting at McCormick & Schmick’s in advance of the party. Proceeds benefit the programs of the Center. The event is from 8 – 10:30 pm, with the VIP tasting beginning at 6:30 pm. Tickets and more information are available here.


Plate by Plate
On Saturday, August 14th, Project by Project will be hosting its 8th Annual Tasting Benefit, Plate by Plate, at the California Science Center. Each year Plate by Plate benefits an organization serving the Asian & Pacific Islander community and this year the beneficiary of the event is the Health Justice Network.

Approximately 25 local chefs including Thi and Nguyen Tran of Starry Kitchen, Eric Greenspan of the Foundry on Melrose, Laurent Quenioux of Bistro LQ and Ricardo Zarate of Mo-Chica will be participating in the event by making small dishes to taste.

In addition to the chefs, several wineries, spirits companies and other beverage purveyors will also be providing samples of their products to sip on. The event is from 7 – 10 pm, with a VIP reception from 6 – 7 pm. Tickets are $125, with VIP tickets at $200. Tickets and more information are available here.

LAX airport restaurants eat-in at Patina

This morning the winning bidder for the largest airport food concession at LAX held an "eat-in" media event with their participating restaurant partners at Patina restaurant at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Pat Murray (pictured below), a Vice President at SSP America, spoke about his winning bid and the local restauranteurs that are participating in the vision for enhanced dining options at the airport.




Partner restaurant chefs/owners such as Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken of the Border Grill, Megan Logan of Nick + Stef's, Rod White of Bertha's Soul Food and Andrew Cherng of Panda Express all spoke about their excitement at participating in the expansion and improvement of the dining options at LAX. Cherng (pictured below) referred to it as a "once in a lifetime transformation."



White of Bertha's Soul Food said, "We intend to make the best of this opportunity and show the world what true diversity looks like and tastes like. He then quoted Bonnie Raitt and said 'Let's give them something to talk about.'" The chefs each prepared a dish or dishes reflective of their restaurants. The offering from Border Grill Taqueria was Yucatan Pork Tacos, which Susan Feniger is pictured holding a tray of below.



Other dishes included Chiles Rellenos from La Serenata de Garibaldi and SweetFire Chicken Breast from Panda Express, both shown below on the table. Nancy Silverton's Sputino offered a spicy focaccia with roasted chilis and tomatoes.

The restaurants represented a diverse array of both cuisines and price points from coffee specialists groundwork and LA Mill Coffee to Asian restaurants such as Park's Korean BBQ, Geisha House and Panda Express.




Chef Tim Goodell from 25 Degrees served mini sirloin burgers and mini chocolate malts, both of which were particularly delicious.


The various chefs shared limited space in the Patina kitchen and the chef below from Panda Express is shown cooking the SweetFire chicken breast.


LA Mill Coffee (shown below) provided coffee and a selection of teas to the attendees, which included members of the media as well as representatives from the fifteen local establishments that are part of the consortium. Other local participants in addition to those mentioned above are Market Cafe, M Cafe de Chaya, Red Mango, Buttercake Bakery and Pete's Coffee.


The winning bid would displace longtime incumbent LAX food service provider Host Marriott. Today's event attracted protesters outside who marched and shouted that the airport needed affordable and flavorful food options. It was strongly hinted that these protesters were organized by Marriott and other news outlets reported that some protesters confirmed this.


Construction should begin at the airport in January 2011 and I look forward to having more options, at different price points when I travel in the future, than the meager options available now.

Dine LA Chefs Roundtable @ REDCAT

Last night six of the most prominent and successful chefs in LA participated in a roundtable discussion organized by DineLA, the team who brings you restaurant week. The participating chefs (from left to right in the photo below) were Wolfgang Puck, Karen Hatfield, Joachim Splichal, Susan Feniger, Josiah Citrin, and Mark Peel and the panel was moderated by local radio personality Lisa Foxx of 104.3 FM.

Food for the event was generously catered by the new local restaurant Starry Kitchen, led by the husband and wife team of Nguyen and Thi Tran. Their signature crispy tofu balls were very much in evidence. Starry Kitchen held an online contest two win tickets to the roundtable and the winning entry was this very cool game.

The event was held in REDCAT, in Walt Disney Concert Hall. The free tickets "sold out" in only 45 minutes according to event organizers. Wolfgang Puck's comments were very personal, speaking about how he got his start in kitchens at the age of 14 and how he overcame being fired from his first apprenticeship to his stepfather's not believing he should be a chef (he wanted him to be a mechanic). Feniger and Peel spoke a lot while Hatfield was mostly silent; it was like pulling teeth for Foxx to get her to say anything. She did say when asked what it takes to open your first restaurant, "Desire alone is not enough. You have to fight for every dollar you make." A group of culinary students sat in the first few rows and listened attentively.




The dining scene has evolved significantly since many of these chefs who are now major players and businesspeople in the dining industry in LA got started. As Puck put it, "when I came to LA it was an open playing field. The high end restaurants were all serving Continental cuisine." He was able to open Chinois without even knowing what fried rice was; something unimaginable now as the broader range of "ethnic" cuisine and flavors has filtered to the general population. Ingredients that were hard for even fine dining restaurants to obtain in the 80s are now readily available in your local supermarket.




Foxx was an unusual choice for a moderator. She is apparently a foodie and an investor in Citrin's Cache, which she brought up way too many times. Her style is perhaps more suited for drive time radio than moderating a panel of culinary heavyweights as she did not display a depth of knowledge about the dining scene in Los Angeles.

One potential grenade did not explode, as over the past week Peel has been in a nasty online imbroglio with a local writer/editor for LAist about a negative review she wrote about his new bar/restaurant The Tar Pit. No questions were asked about bloggers, yelpers or critics, and the author in question chose not to attend the panel.

It was interesting to see how many of the panelists had worked for either Puck, Splichal, or both. They have been godfathers/mentors to the younger generation of chefs that followed in their footsteps. Puck's honest responses were both entertaining and felt very genuine; there was nothing canned or rote about them. I'd happily sit through a Q&A with just him and a host any time, although next time bring in someone from the LA Times, Los Angeles magazine, Jonathan Gold or Ruth Reichl to moderate please.

The entire one hour talk can be viewed online here via streaming video.

Note, I assisted the Starry Kitchen team in their preparation for this event.