French Food and Cooking

The Chef's Library: Corina Weibel Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking

The Chef's Library is a series in which we ask chefs around town to tell us about their favorite cookbooks. Today, we talk to Corina Weibel, chef and owner at Canele in Atwater Village. "For all around cooking, I still really love my Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells" Weibel says. "It was one of t ... More >>

Chef Tony Esnault and Yassmin Sarmadi Join Forces to Open Spring: Between French Bistro and Fine Dining

When Church & State owner Yassmin Sarmadi and then Patina executive chef Tony Esnault got to chatting at the March of Dimes charity event in Los Angeles last year, and then again at the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival, who knew that a new French restaurant would be the result? Yet that is the happy ... More >>

Maison Giraud in the Pacific Palisades Is an Homage to Classic French Cuisine — for Better, and Sometimes for Worse

Summer Reading List: New Food Beverage Books For The Family

The upside of June gloom: It's the perfect excuse to check a few titles off the kids' summer reading list and to get started on your own. After all, the sunburns and 100 degree days will be waiting in July and August. Here are some of our favorite recently released food and drink book recommendati ... More >>

California's Foie Gras Ban Will Leave Chefs and Diners Wanting. But There May Be an Upside, Too

Roy Choi of A-Frame and Kogi on How Cookbooks Changed His Life

Bocuse d'Or USA Winners Announced

​The Bocuse d'Or USA competition was held yesterday at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., to determine who will represent America in the next annual International Bocuse d'Or, held in France a year from now. The winner? Richard Rosendale, executive chef of the Greenbrier i ... More >>

Best Wine Book Of The Year: The Food Lover's Guide To Wine

Not because Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg co-authored it, though that would be reason enough. But because their latest book is good. Very good. And it's organized like their books Culinary Artistry and What to Drink with What You Eat -- classics for every thoughtful cookbook shelf. Like those ... More >>

Epicerie Fine: Chef Guy Martin Takes Us Back to Basic Ingredients

Food television already has a Guy in Guy Fieri, but we'll soon have another Guy (pronounced "gee" as in "oui") starting Sunday, Oct. 16th, when French chef Guy Martin and his show Epicerie Fine premiere on American TV. Less of a cooking show and more of an exploration of ingredients, Epicerie Fine ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Recommends Book Club Eats

Jonathan Gold Recommends Next Door by Josie

Next Door by Josie, In Free Verse

F. FriesemaJonagold apples​ I saw the best chefs of my generation employed by gastropubs; Racer 5, wild game chili, dry-rubbed riblets with their calico slaw dragging themselves through the steel seats at dawn looking for artisanal grits, molasses-glazed bacon, with New Orleans spiced shrimp, ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Starry Kitchen

Perch: Downtown's New Rooftop Bar [Photo Gallery]

Guzzle & NoshPerch: a view of the lower patio from the upper patio.​ Though its planned May debut was delayed by a couple months, Perch, downtown L.A.'s newest rooftop bar is finally open. The rooftop bar takes up three floors near the corner of Fourth and Hill streets, offering lovely views ... More >>

Robuchon's $18 Algerian Egg Roll Two Easy Recipes

Chong B. OoiRobuchon's Langoustine Wrapped in Brick Pastry​ Paula Wolfert introduced North African pastry leaves to Americans using the Moroccan name for them: warka. Over the years we've received a lot of emails from people who had trouble finding warka pastry leaves in the U.S. However, most ... More >>

Vertical: Having Your Food and Hearing, Too

Pasadena restaurant offers Quenioux-shaped menu

Ask Mr. Gold: Having Your Food & Hearing It Too at Vertical Wine Bistro

Anne FishbeinMr. Gold, with dim sum menu​Dear Mr. Gold: Do you have any recommendations for a restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley where six people can have dinner and actually, really hear each other talk?? We need a variety of suggestions to meet varying dietary needs (gluten-free options, n ... More >>

TourEiffel Replaces Fins Creekside in Calabasas

TourEiffelescargot​ Fins, an Old Town Calabasas staple for over 16 years, closed on October 10, 2010. "It just got too expensive to stay there," said Fins' owner Moez Megji (Fins Seafood Grill and Buddha Lounge), who also closed Zin Bistro in September. After husband-and-wife team Hubert and E ... More >>

An Evolved Cafe

Thierry Perez boosts Culver City's French flavor with L'Epicerie

First Bite: l'Epicerie, An Evolved Cafe

​Los Angeles, as is well-known, is where everybody eats Italian food in restaurants, where trattorias open on every corner, and where it is easier to find well-made Sardinian flatbread than a decent baguette. Downtown Culver City has somehow become the exception to this rule: bistros outnumber ... More >>

Q & A With Joan Nathan: Her New Book, Jewdar The Secret French Matzo Society

​Tonight's sundown is the sixth night of Chanukah. To celebrate this occasion, we check in with Joan Nathan, award-winning author of ten cookbooks about Jewish cuisine, the latest being Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France (Knopf). It's part cookbook, part inve ... More >>

Gastropub Sans the Pub

Xiomara Reconsidered

First Bite: Gastropub Sans the Pub, or Xiomara Reconsidered

Jonagold apple, portions missing​Before it became a reconstructionist Cuban restaurant, before it moved to Melrose from Pasadena, Xiomara began as a sleekly modern California bistro, firmly grounded in modern French cooking. Now that Nuevo Latino cuisine has transformed into whatever John Sedl ... More >>

Michel Blanchet Smoked Fish: Why Joel Robuchon Digs It A Lunchtime Factory Tour

J. GarbeeMichel Blanchet In The Midst Of His Favorite Work Diversion: Making Lunch​When Joël Robuchon decides not to make something from scratch in his multi-million dollar Las Vegas kitchen, there must be a very compelling reason. Were Robuchon to discover, for instance, a former French chef ... More >>

Q & A With Evan Kleiman, Part 2: L.A.'s Italian Scene, Food Trucks The Radio Hell of Swedish Cookbook Authors

In the first part of our interview with Evan Kleiman, chef-owner of Angeli Caffé and host of KCRW's Good Food, she was considering the somewhat disconcerting fact that her Melrose Avenue restaurant recently celebrated its quarter century anniversary. In the second part of the interview, Kleiman dis ... More >>

Q & A With Dan Aykroyd: Why He's Making Crystal Head Vodka, Tomorrow's Bottle Signing A Cocktail Recipe

Crystal Head vodkaDan Aykroyd, with head​If you're the sort of person who has lost count of the number of times you've watched Dan Aykroyd's Julia Child SNL skit on YouTube, find yourself lurking at House of Blues to try and catch a glimpse of the actor, have seen Driving Miss Daisy an otherwi ... More >>

James Beard Semifinalists Announced: The L.A. Edition

James Beard​This morning the James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for its 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards. Judges will vote to determine the final 5 nominees in each category, which will be announced on March 22nd. The winners will be announced at the Foundation's award party, ... More >>

Q & A With Joël Robuchon: "Los Angeles Is Somewhere That I am Extremely Interested In"

Joël-Robuchon.comJoël Robuchon​If you truly love food, Joël Robuchon is a man who likely needs no introduction. His restaurants span the globe, with locations in Paris, Monaco, Londres, Las Vegas, New York, Tokyo, Nagoya, Hong Kong, Macao and Taipei. In 1989, the prestigious French restaura ... More >>

Who's Topping the Cookbook Charts? Alicia Silverstone

AmazonThe Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone ​Move over Mario, Giada, Rachael, et. al. Guess whose book is on the top of Amazon's cookbook best seller list? Alicia Silverstone's. Perhaps she's not as clueless in the kitchen as she was in that movie. Silverstone's cookbook, The Kind Life: A Simpl ... More >>

Q & A With Remi Lauvand, Part 2: French Cafeteria Food, Getting to New York Cooking Backwards

Fran CollinCafe Pierre chef Remi Lauvand​Yesterday in the first part of our interview with Café Pierre's Rémi Lauvand, the chef talked to us about how he got to the Manhattan Beach restaurant from, ultimately, his native France. It was a journey that took him from New York to Santa Barbara a ... More >>

Food & Wine's World's Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants: How About L.A.'s? Nominations Open

Food & Wine Magazine just came out with their list of the World's Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants. Proving once again that we all seem to fantasize about the same restaurants, and that all narrative should now just be written in list format. F&W's Top 10? ElBulli, The Fat Duck, Pierre Gagnaire, The ... More >>

Q & A With Church and State's Walter Manzke, Part 2: The Family Business, Life at Bastide & The Future of The Bistro

In which we continue our interview with Walter Manzke of Church & State. The chef talks about what he would have done if he hadn't been a chef and gives his take on the bistro trend. Oh, and he weighs in (a little) on life at Bastide, which is set to reopen soon in yet another incarnation. And check ... More >>

Q & A With Thomas Keller, Part 2: The Best Meal He Ever Cooked, The Importance of Fernand Point Lightbulb Moments

Deborah JonesChef Thomas Keller​Thomas Keller's Los Angeles Bouchon Bistro, which opens a week from tonight, will serve the same menu, more or less, as his other two Bouchons, in Yountville and Las Vegas. But Keller says that even though the menu has stayed pretty much the same, the space has ... More >>

Squid Ink (Shore Leave)

Notes on Eating and Drinking in L.A.

Josiah Citrin's Shows Off New Cache, Celebrates Older Creds During Melisse Anniversary

Here's a case of auspicious Fourth of July/Bastille Day holiday season timing. Last Friday, Caché Restaurant and Lounge began serving French and American, fresh market-oriented dishes.

Silk Purse: AT CHURCH & STATE, CHEF WALTER MANZKE TRANSFORMS A PIG’S EAR

Lofty Ideals: Bistro Ambitions at Steven Arroyo's Church & State

A new art-world restaurant on downtown's Industrial Street

Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood

Heck's kitchen

Noriyuki Sugie guest stars at Breadbar

But hurry ... Crudobar lasts just until May 15

Breaking Free: L.A. Wine Culture

Shattering the stereotypes

I Can has Cheezburger?

Comme Ça - finally, a brasserie Made for L.A.

Where To Eat Now

Where To Eat Now

The Manhattan Project

The Revolutionary: Ludovic Lefebvre at Bastide

Joe Pytka's restaurant under Lefebvre has all the bells and whistles you’d expect in a Michelin-starred French restaurant, and then some

Santa Monica

Dangerous Liaison

My Favorite Things, Part 2

Imports and adaptations