Kris Morningstar Resurfaces at Ray's @ LACMA

Kris Morningstar has been a highly regarded chef for over half a decade in Los Angeles, but he may have been better known for his itinerant ways than for the food on his plates; until now.  In the past few years Morningstar was the chef at District, CASA and Blue Velvet but he has finally found a match between chef and restaurant where each is perfectly suited for the other at Ray's, the restaurant part of the new Ray's and Stark Bar at LACMA.  The restaurant has achieved acclaim including a coveted spot on Esquire Magazine's Best New Restaurants list.

I was recently invited to try the tasting menu, paired with wine by sommelier Paul Sanguinetti.  The setting is comfortable modern, a cross between the Jetson's and something out of 2001 A Space Odyssey.  The meal begins on a fun note as the placesettings are hidden in a drawer under the table in front of each diner.  

The meal started with an amuse of Cauliflower with caper and raisin puree and Italian flat leaf parsley. The combination of sweet and savory welcomed our taste buds to the food and wine that was to follow.

The first course was Kanpachi with pineapple guava, serrano chiles and mint.  I found the fish to be on the bland side with the only flavor coming from the salt and the chiles.  The sashimi was accompanied by a Habit Wine Company chenin blanc, a New World chenin blanc from Santa Barbara.

The second course was a Foie Gras and Pheasant Terrine with apple and onion compote and  frisee, roasted pecan and sunchoke salad.  The  foie and pheasant was a luxurious winter game terrine that packed the flavor I had missed in the prior course.  The rich terrine paired well with the sweet compote and the salad served as a suitable palate cleanser in between bites.  This dish was paired with an Old World chenin blanc, which was an interesting "pendant" to the New World wine served with the sashimi.

The third course was Sweet Corn Agnolotti with hen of the woods mushrooms and pine nuts.  This was the most successful dish of the evening, a really delicious combination of savory mushrooms and sweet corn.  If you see Agnolotti on the menu, order them.  The pasta was paired with Bouregard chardonnay from Santa Cruz hills which was aged in oak barrels which gave it a deep flavor which played off the mushrooms.

The fourth course was Wild Salmon, served with elephant mushrooms and a roasted beet puree.  The salmon had a delightfully crispy skin that added a pleasing textural element to the dish.  The wine paired with the fish was a Dolcetto de Dogliani , a smoky Italian red.

For our fifth course and final savory course, Morningstar prepared a Dry Aged Hanger Steak served with forest mushrooms, black vinegar sauce and cream of leek.  The intense black vinegar sauce brought the dish together and again the mushrooms were outstanding.  The paired negrette was earthy and a good match to the well aged steak and the mushrooms.

The meal concluded with two dessert courses: Chocolate Mousse (above) and the Sticky Toffee Pudding (below) with seared figs, goats milk ice cream and English toffee.  The toffee pudding was the winner, a sweet and salty conclusion to the meal that sent us out into the night on a high note.

LACMA finally has a worthy dining destination and Morningstar has a kitchen where he can execute his artistic vision. I look forward to seeing how this marriage evolves.  I have a feeling we'll be seeing Morningstar's menus at Ray's for years to come.  After you have finished up your dinner, where better to walk off your meal than Urban Light, Chris Burden's sculpture of two hundred cast-iron lampposts?  Take advantage of Ray's LACMA setting to truly make an evening of it.  There are few such dramatic restaurant settings in the whole city.

All photos courtesy of TreasureLA

Ray's & Stark Bar: 5905 Wilshire Blvd (LACMA), Mid City.  323.857.6180. | Website

District: the home of Duck Fat Yorkshire Pudding in the heart of Hollywood

District is the new Hollywood spot from George Abou-Daoud, who owns spots including Mission Cantina, Delancey, the Bowery and the Mercantile (next door to District). The chef is Kris Morningstar who most recently was the opening chef at Casa (in California Plaza, across from Starry Kitchen), and prior to that was at 750 ml, Blue Velvet, Meson G, AOC, Grace and Patina. I guess you could say that Morningstar gets around.

District is a bistro / gastropub going for a classic old Hollywood look, as if it had been there forever, although it just opened two months ago at the end of March. The website touts its nearly 100 year old bar. I found myself there this past Sunday for a light bite before heading to the Mutineer Magazine party at Falcon nearby.


The meal began with an amuse of burrata cheese with blueberry and hazelnut. It was a pleasant and unexpected way to begin the meal. At a restaurant where almost all the entrees hover just over the $20 mark, an amuse bouche is surprising. A nice touch but I am not sure it fits with the casual vibe of the restaurant. Perhaps it is a sign of Morningstar's ambitions.




The first section on the menu is labeled breads and had duck fat yorkshire pudding, house made dinner rolls, and biscuits, each for $3. I ordered the dinner rolls with truffle butter and the yorkshire pudding.

The dinner rolls with truffle butter (first picture above) came in an order of four connected rolls with both the truffle butter and the garlic chive butter. The flavor of the garlic chive butter was very strong, so much as to be unappetizing. However, the truffle butter was delicious and had large chunks of mushroom in it (no simple truffle oil here). I enjoyed the butter so much I kept it to use on the pudding.

Nearly all the opening press mentioned the Duck Fat popovers, called Duck Fat Yorkshire Pudding w Thyme on the menu. They come six to an order and arrive in a napkin. (Bottom of the two pictures above.) It is a variation of the classic English dish of Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. The puddings were eggy, warm, and rich, like a savory French Toast. Note that the menu warns to expect this dish to take 15 minutes as it is cooked to order.


I followed up my cavalcade of breads with an order of "Bone Marrow in the Style of Fergus Henderson with Parsley Salad, Pickled Pearl Onions, Fried Capers and Bread." ($9) It was a bold move to pay homage to Fergus Henderson, the chef/proprietor of St. John restaurant in London and one of the leading proponents of nose to tail dining. The bone marrow is one of his signature dishes and one I tried last year at a dinner at St. John. This version was not nearly as good and had too little parsley to evoke Henderson's dish. It was served with a dish of gray salt, in addition to the accompaniments mentioned above. There were two cylinders of bone with marrow and two toasts; as the bones contained a lot of marrow, two toasts is not enough. I recommend that they serve three toasts with this dish or proactively ask if more is needed. The dish was tasty but it wasn't special in the way the title led me to believe it might be, although it is a very good value.



The entree of dry aged chop steak comes with a side of aged beef fat fries. I was curious about these fries but was not up to ordering an entree as I had eaten a lot and was about to go to an event where food was being served. The chef came out of the kitchen while I was eating the marrow and I asked him if I could have the beef fat fries as a side. He said they don't usually do that but was willing to do so this time. The fries had a beefy assertive flavor: these were not shy potatoes but spuds cooked in beef fat and smelled of it. They were served with a dipping sauce and came with herbs (green onions?) on them. Not something I would order again but I was glad for the opportunity to try them.



The restaurant is attractive but was almost completely empty when I was there from 6:15 - 7:15 on a Sunday evening. Despite the fact that only one table was occupied and I was the only patron at the bar, service was poor. I had to ask several times to get a glass of water and it was never refilled. The bartender/waiter did not know how to use the POS system to input my order. His delay meant the 15 minute wait for the popovers turned into a 25 minute wait, which was annoying. It would have been much faster if he had walked the 20 feet to the kitchen to input my order while he tried to figure out the complicated technology.

This same bartender/waiter also refused to ask the kitchen if they would make me the fries a la carte, instead as part of the steak entree. He said, "we don't do that here. It's part of the meal." If he had gone into the kitchen and they refused, that is their prerogative. I found it frustrating that he wouldn't even ask, especially considering that when the chef came out to the front of the house, he was willing to do so. I wouldn't have gotten to try the fries otherwise. In short customer service is lacking, although the staff is cheerful.

Surprisingly for a restaurant of this type, there is no beer on tap, only 9 bottles that range in price from $6 to $12. I had a Weihenstephaner Weiss Bier ($6) which was refreshing. There are several wines by the glass in each category, although many of the bottles are quite expensive relative to the price point of the menu.