Ludo Lefebvre

Trois Mec Update: Tickets Sold Out Try Again Next Friday

If you were one of the many foodists in this town who set your alarm, made coffee and fired up the laptop in time to score tickets (or try to) for Trois Mec's first round of reservations, congratulations! Or not. We're told that tickets sold out in about two hours -- although since people could "loc ... More >>

Trois Mec Opens for Registration, Reservations Dinner

As you doubtless know by now, chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook (Animal, Son of a Gun) and Ludo Lefebvre (LudoBites, LudoTruck) are opening a restaurant together, kind of like the foodist's ideal mashup of time, place, cuisine and ethos. After much waiting and many rumors, Trois Mec, which means "thr ... More >>

Le Grand Fooding Crush: From Paris to Los Angeles

There is a fine distinction between gourmet and gourmand in French, according to Anna Polonsky, the U.S. Associate Director of Le Fooding. "The whole idea of Le Fooding is to speak with people who like food but are not necessarily foodies. Gourmet is more foodie in a geeky way, whereas gourmand is j ... More >>

Ludo Truck: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

The Taste Debuts Tomorrow with Judges Bourdain, Ludo, Nigella Lawson Brian Malarkey

When a chef sees something he likes, he inevitably wants to make it, but better and with his own twist. Perhaps that was the rationale behind culinary luminaries like L.A. favorite Ludo Lefebvre and Anthony Bourdain of Travel Channel fame, hitching their wagons to The Taste, a new reality competitio ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain Is Not Selling Out, Even if The Taste Is a Little Cheesy

Anthony Bourdain describes himself as an "enthusiast," though strangely, as we watch him globetrot across our televisions eating some of the world's most exotic and delicious foods, living a life many would trade their first born for, his demeanor is rarely all that enthusiastic. Known well for his ... More >>

5 Overlooked L.A. Dining Trends of 2012 (That Will Change the Way You Eat in 2013)

Every year dining trends come and go -- on the suface 2012 might not have looked like the most eventful year, aside from the foie gras ban and some high-profile restaurant closures. But like the Santa Ana's, the winds of change are forever blowing in L.A., and the seeds of what will likely arrive in ... More >>

LudoBites 10: Reservation Lines Open Today at 11 a.m.

Time to find your phone and pretend to be doing something Really Important at work in about two hours. Because instead of having a conference call with your kid's teacher or calling your congressman to register how pissed you are at what's going on in Washington, you'll be making reservations for th ... More >>

Top 10 Los Angeles Chefs to Follow on Instagram

Sure, you can see the beautiful dishes that your favorite chefs spend hours making in real life. When, perhaps you go to their restaurants and actually eat their food. But since we often spend more time looking at pretty pictures of dinner than we do consuming it, the tech gods have given us Instagr ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 10/15 - 10/19

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "In a weak economy, is this the future of keeping businesses open? Move over Kickstarter." Eva Restaurant Rallies for Help to Solve Parking Debacle. "Roy Choi 'broke a lot of laws' when opening Kogi." 6 Things We Learned From ... More >>

The Chef's Library: Ludo Lefebvre Variations Culinaires

Ludo Lefebvre is a busy dude. His restaurant collaboration with Animal chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo is set to open in the next few months, with a possible fried chicken concept to follow. And his new cookbook, LudoBites, hit shelves last week. In celebration of the new book, we thought it would ... More >>

Cookbook Of The Week: LudoBites Is (Almost) Here!

When the LudoBites cookbook landed with a thud on our desk, our reaction was the same as when the Ludo Truck is parked less than a block away. Other Cookbooks Of The Week can wait -- there is duck fat fried chicken to eat. Ludo Lefebvre's wife and business partner extraordinaire, Krissy, and food ... More >>

LudoBites, The Cookbook: Pre-Order Now A Recipe For Ludo's Foie Gras Miso Soup

For all of you who constantly check Los Angeles chef Ludo Lefebvre's Twitter feed and LudoBites website for updates on his latest pop-up, who surf the Sundance Channel and drive by Gram & Papa's to check for rooster paraphernalia, who DM the chef and his wife offers of babysitting, soon you can thum ... More >>

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

Flavour Gallery T-Shirts: "I Don't SCREAM I Express Myself" Chef-Inspired Fashion

If it's already one of those "Say YES CHEF and that's it" or "I don't SCREAM I express myself" sort of weeks, you're in luck. Flavour Gallery, the L.A. based t-shirt designer with an eye for dining-inspired designs, has expanded recently beyond their typical "swirl and sip" logos. The company began ... More >>

California C.H.E.F.S. Host Foie Gras Super Dinner

In protest of California's rapidly approaching foie gras ban, C.H.E.F.S. (the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards), an organization that sounds like an maniacal conglomerate out of a James Bond film, or perhaps a culinary-slanted take on the Avengers, announced yesterday that it will ... More >>

Foie Gras-loving Chefs Fight Ban With Last-ditch Petition

When the ban on foie gras takes effect on July 1, Californians with a taste for foie will be reduced to copping the creamy tan stuff in little, perfect slugs squeezed into wax paper packets like opium. They'll slip from hand-to-hand on public transportation. Liver-laden trucks will trundle from ne ... More >>

Best of LudoBites, the Foie Gras Edition: Lottery Starts Today at 10 a.m.

It's time for the lottery, again -- no, not that $640 million jackpot, though those mega millions certainly would help paying for this one: Chef Ludo Lefebvre will be cooking a 5-course, $105 per person "Best of LudoBites: Foie Gras Night" on Tuesday, April 17 at Gram & Papa's, the Downtown eatery t ... More >>

5X5 Collaborative Chef Dinners Begin April 29

From late April to September, a few of L.A.'s most acclaimed restaurants will offer a six-course tasting menu at $150 per person, not including wine pairings. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Special Olympics. If you're so inclined, stop reading and sigh. What else could be so bo-ring and ... More >>

LudoBites 8: Starting This Month at Lemon Moon Lottery Reservations

​Ah, you know the drill. Set your alarm for X minutes before the reservation lines open (caffeine, Prozac). If you're successful, go off to dream your foie gras cupcake dreams. If you are not, start tweeting Krissy offers of free babysitting. Then get ready to put on your Ludo groupie t-shirt ... More >>

Chef Ludo Animal Flaunt Impending Foie Gras Ban

With a state law that bans the sale of foie gras coming down the pipeline like so much corn meal down a duck's throat, trust a Frenchman to lead the chefs' rebellion against the impending foie gras ban. Chef Ludo Lefebvre has teamed with Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo to host a foie gras feast at Anima ... More >>

Chefs to Defy Foie Gras Ban?

Guzzle & NoshRabbit albondigas, teriyaki foie gras, green garlic tempura, miso broth by chef Laurent Quenioux at Starry Kitchen.​Foie gras, the delicacy beloved by gourmands and protested by animal rights activists, may be off California menus by next summer. SB 1520, which bans force-feeding ... More >>

The LudoBites 7.0 Slideshow: Dept. of Vicarious Pleasures

Colin Young-WolffLudoBites recipe book​ If you, like the zillion people who tried and failed to get reservations for LudoBites 7.0 opening night, which sold out in about the time it took to find your cell phone, were not able to witness much less consume Ludo Lefebvre's salt cod panna cotta an ... More >>

Cookbook Review: Intoxicated Cupcakes: 41 Tipsy Treats

​Intoxicated Cupcakes: 41 Tipsy Treats, the latest in the recent onslaught of booze-drenched cake cookbooks, certainly isn't going after any James Beard awards. But it's summer. And so it's perfectly acceptable to have a strawberry daiquiri cupcake (p. 40) followed by a piña colada cupcake ch ... More >>

Q & A with Chef Ludo and Krissy Lefebvre: Ludo Bites America, and It's Delicious

Photo by Colin Young-Wolff.​If you're one of the many who scorned OpenTable (or maybe just your slow connection?) last week for not letting you snag one of the coveted spots at LudoBites 007, take heart. There's a smidge of a consolation prize we can all enjoy in the form of Ludo Bites America ... More >>

Paul Thek at the Hammer Museum and the History of Meat Art

LudoBites 7.0 The LudoBites Cookbook

​ Ludo Lefebvre is back in town, after a few months traveling with and filming for the Sundance Channel -- LudoBites America airs July 19th -- and thus anther incarnation of LudoBites has now been finalized. This is LudoBites 7.0 if you and Sam Sifton are counting, and no, you won't have to br ... More >>

LA Weekly Flickr Pool Reader Photo of the Day: Ludo's Octopus

LA Weekly Flickr pool/MyLastBiteLudoBites octopus​ This LA Weekly Flickr pool photo comes to you from MyLastBite, a lovely shot of the crispy octopus, smokey chipotle and piquillo pepper polenta dish that Ludo Lefebvre served at his most recent LudoBites. It was a one night only event, very we ... More >>

Joseph Mahon's Burger Parlor: His Permanent Fullerton Burger Pop-up

A. ScattergoodJoseph Mahon in the Bastide kitchen​ The trajectory of a fine dining chef these days is circuitous -- see: Ludo Lefebvre -- more often than not encompassing pit-stops, pop-ups, food trucks, food festivals, fried chicken epiphanies, grilled cheese sandwich trophies, then back to b ... More >>

And Now, A Brief Message From Ludo Lefebvre

Screenshot of Ludo Lefebvre's Twitter page​

And Now, A Brief Message From Ludo Lefebvre

Screenshot of Ludo Lefebvre's Twitter page​

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 3/21-3/25

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "While waiting for Pho Minh to resurface (please, please, let it resurface), try Pho Filet, a couple of blocks away, which also has a delicious pho bac, highlighted by a slab of filet mignon that l ... More >>

And Now, A Brief Message From Ludo Lefebvre

screenshot of Ludo Lefebvre's Twitter page​

Bastide (Officially) Names Sydney Hunter III New Chef

Bastidechef Sydney Hunter III​For those of you who keep a running tally of the chefs at Bastide, Joe Pytka's Melrose Place restaurant, you can now officially put Sydney Hunter III's name up next to the Michelin inspector's Post-it jigsaw of Joseph Mahon, Paul Shoemaker, Walter Manzke, Ludo Lef ... More >>

And Now, A Brief Message From Ludo Lefebvre

screenshot of Ludo Lefebvre's Twitter page​

Cookbook Review: When You Want (Almost) Everything Vegan

​There was a time, not so long ago, when the word "vegan" meant complicated-to-source ingredients, fussy dishes and resolute advice from the occasional celebrity-driven or self-published vegan cookbook. Today it seems that every other new cookbook seems to tout one or more vegan characteristic ... More >>

Breadbar's Black and Gold Bread Back for the Holidays

K. Robbins​ What's black and gold and bread all over? Breadbar's seasonal Black and Gold bread, available now through December. While we'll admit to being partial to the squid ink that gives the classic pain de mie its shocking ebony color, we're equally won over by the loaf's glistening meta ... More >>

Sweet Butter Kitchen: Market, Café, Kitchen A Ludo-approved Croque Monsieur

A. ScattergoodSweet Butter Kitchen ​ For those of you who only head over to the San Fernando Valley when Ludo Lefebvre pops up on that side of the hill, there is another reason to actually go to Sherman Oaks. Open now for only six days, Sweet Butter Kitchen on Ventura Boulevard -- that's a fe ... More >>

Let's Meat: 2nd Annual Korean BBQ Cook-Off

​It's still summer, and that means you should probably be standing near a grill on a Saturday afternoon. But this coming Saturday, you can ignore the hot dogs and head over The Korean American Coalition's 2nd Annual Korean BBQ Cook-Off, at 3600 Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown. Entrance is free ... More >>

LudoBites 5.0: If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It, or Gram & Papa's, Part 2

Max WangerLudo Lefebvre feeding a rooster​ Ludovic Lefebvre is reopening his traveling restaurant, LudoBites, again next month, which would make this incarnation number 5.0 of the chef's pop-up culinary show. From July 21st to September 3rd, LudoBites will again be taking over the downtown san ... More >>

More Fun With Fried Chicken: Ludo Pops Up at Akasha

LA Weekly Flickr pool/djjewelzLudo Lefebvre's fried chicken​ At the rate he's going, chef Ludo Lefebvre (LudoBites) may never need to open his own restaurant: he can just guest chef at this friends' restaurants. After Akasha Richmond went to the fried chicken dinner that Lefebvre and Eric Gree ... More >>

There Will Be Belly: The 2nd Annual Gold Standard Food and Wine Event

If you happened to be looking for Octavio Becerra, Ludo Lefebvre, Leo Bulgarini or Susan Feniger yesterday, they were all at the Petersen Automotive Museum, and no, they weren't ogling over the Hot Wheels Hall of Fame. Ludo was busy churning cornichon sorbet out of his Pacojet to adorn cups of cold ... More >>

Playing Chicken at The Foundry: Chefs Ludo and Greenspan Cook a Chicken Dinner

​If two chefs feel like cooking together, maybe matching their different versions of a dish up for an evening of good food, they do not necessarily need a glitzy Kitchen Stadium and a bunch of Food Network TV cameras to do so. Sometimes one chef can just drop into another's restaurant, cook, h ... More >>

LA Chefs' New Year's Resolutions

As the final hours of 2009 tick away, Angelenos dash off their New Year's resolutions like grocery lists. Food lovers are known to promise eating better and exercising more, but what to do the food makers of our city decree on New Years? We checked in with some of our city's top chefs to find out ... More >>

The Vicissitudes of Guerilla Cuisine: A La Carte to Prix Fixe at LudoBites

Pop-up restaurants can be challenging for many reasons, not least being the difficulty of adapting to a new space that is by definition temporary. Ludo Lefebvre knew that running LudoBites out of Royal/T's Japanese-style cosplay café in Culver City would be difficult, particularly as the space does ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 11/30 - 12/04

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "There's a lightness to them in just about every aspect--the shade of brown, the breading and the weight, as if a particularly large one could keep you buoyant after a boating disaster.'" Squid Ink Food Fight: Falafel O ... More >>

Web Surfing: A Roundup of Posts from LA Food Blogs

-- Where local chefs eat, like in real life. [EAT: Los Angeles] -- Cookbook gifts for cooks (David Chang's Momofuku, etc.). [Daily Dish] -- Vote for the sexiest chef in Los Angeles. (Okay, Govind Armstrong. But actually being in LA is sexy too.) [Eater LA] -- Making mole with Ludo Lefebvre. Or, M ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 11/2 - 11/6

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "My friend called me distraught. 'I just ate Iggy!'" Straight Outta Chocolate's Rock N' Roll Cakes: Joy Division & Iggy Pop, In Chocolate. "Cooking for me is a game. My life isn't boring, trust me!" LudoBites Re ... More >>

Sans Lease, Ludo Lefebvre Denies Restaurant Rumors

Though Ludo Lefebvre may appreciate the swarm of attention surrounding his bid to find a permanent home for his transitory restaurant, Ludo Bites, the chef is less than happy with Eater LA's "confirmed tip" that he has taken over the vacant Rita Flora space. "It's a rumor," Lefebvre says. "I haven't ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "So you're just going to have to go with me on this: I was a baby bulimic." NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni. "I'm dabbling in it and looking at becoming a chef." Keanu Reeves on molecular gastronomy. "There, ... More >>