Zach Pollack

Meatless Mondays: Sotto Chefs Zach Pollack and Steve Samson A Chickpea Panelle Recipe

The sensibility of Zach Pollack and Steve Samson's Pico-Robertson restaurant Sotto is clearly laid out on their menu. Take the appetizer of chickpea panelle, a traditional Sicilian street food, that's been available at the southern Italian restaurant since it was opened in 2011. "They're basically ... More >>

Top 4 Weekend Events: Food Truck Fest, Top Chef Pig Roast, Wine Dinner Food Truck Beer Dinner

Diamond Plaza Food Truck Fest Waffles de Liege, Slummin Gourmet and Dogzilla are among the food trucks gathering at the Rowland Heights plaza -- a convenient location given nearby options like Ten Ren's Tea Time, Tokyo Shabu Shabu and New Capital Seafood. WHAT: Diamond Plaza Food Truck Fest WHEN: S ... More >>

Sotto: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Porchetta Hits L.A.: The Mysteries of Pigsburgh

Porchetta is the thing to eat right now -- but deep roots belie its current trendiness

Where the Chefs Eat: Sotto's Steve Samson

Where the Chefs Eat is an ongoing series in which we ask a local chef to give us his or her favorite dining options. This week, Steve Samson, chef (along with Zach Pollack) at Sotto, tells us his favorite spots to eat these days. Although he's known for his unflinchingly Italian cooking at Sotto, o ... More >>

11 Great L.A. Chefs Tell Us Their Holiday Food Traditions

For the past couple of weeks, we've been talking to L.A. chefs about their holday food traditions. Here's a roundup of all of those great chefs and what they do for the holidays, food-wise, plus a couple of extras thrown in for good measure.

Chefs Cook At Home, The Holiday Edition: Sotto's Steve Samson A Recipe For Tortellini

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, Sotto's Steve Samson tells us about his family's Christmas tortellini. "My mom is from Bologna so practically every special occasion meal, especially Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, is centered around tortelli ... More >>

Chefs Cook at Home, The Holiday Edition: Border Grill's Mary Sue Milliken

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, we talk to Border Grill's Mary Sue Milliken about her December traditions. "It can't be December without my stollen -- a fantastic buttery yeast dough studded with the best Farmer's Market dry fruit (cognac i ... More >>

Chefs Cook At Home, The Holiday Edition: Providence's Michael Cimarusti

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, Providence's Michael Cimarusti tells us about his Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions. "Thanksgiving is my holiday of choice. This year we had twenty for dinner. The feast began on Tuesday with a pig roast in ... More >>

Chefs Cook At Home, The Holiday Edition: Tar and Roses' Andrew Kirschner A Recipe For Apple Chutney

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, Tar and Roses' Andrew Kirschner tells us about his Hannukah and Thanksgiving traditions. "Being that I am Jewish, I lean to towards Hannukah inspired treats. This year, I made some killer horseradish and leek l ... More >>

Chefs Cook At Home, The Holiday Edition: The Hungry Cat's David Lentz

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, The Hungry Cat's David Lentz tells us about his traditions with his wife, chef Suzanne Goin. "For Christmas eve, Suzanne and I have had a great tradition of going for lunch at Spago. I think we've been doing it ... More >>

Chefs Cook At Home, The Holiday Edition: Sotto's Zach Pollack A Recipe For Brisket

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, Sotto's Zach Pollack tells us about his relationship with brisket. "Growing up a reformed Jew in West Los Angeles, I developed a relationship with brisket around the same time that I developed a relationship wi ... More >>

The Chef's Library: Steve Samson Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi

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 Steve Samson, chef (along with Zach Pollack) of Sotto. It's so surprise that Steve Samson's favorite cookbooks cover the history of the cooking of his greatest muse, Italy. ... More >>

L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade: A Recap of the 2012 Event

L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade Stand is arguably the premier charity auction/food and wine event raising money -- a lot of money -- for pediatric cancer research. Hosted by Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne (Lucques, A.O.C., Tavern) and David Lentz (The Hungry Cat), it was held for the third year in a row ... More >>

10 Best Pizza Restaurants in Los Angeles

From our 2012 Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A. 10. 800 Degrees Not since Bill Walton led the Bruins to a 30-0 record have UCLA students had such good reason to rejoice. Westwood's newest pizzeria, a fast-casual concept dreamed up by Umami guru Adam Fleischman, is open until 2 ... More >>

Cheese, Please: What's the Deal With Mozzarella?

From our 2012 Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A. In L.A.'s not-so-distant pie past, family pizza night meant Friday evening quibbles over thick versus thin crust, debates over the proportion of marinara sauce to other ingredients and, inevitably, a few irreconcilable topping dif ... More >>

Life of Pie: L.A. Celebrates Its Pizza Moment

From our 2012 Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A. On a Wednesday evening, 10 students sit along the counter at the Scuola di Pizza, the, yes, "School of Pizza" at L.A.'s premier pizza joint, Mozza. I'd like to say we're a varied lot, but that wouldn't be true -- we're uniformly w ... More >>

Vendors Announced for 2012 L.A. Street Food Fest

One of the year's biggest food festival has gotten even larger this year. The L.A. Street Food Fest, which takes place on July 21 inside the Rose Bowl, just announced that it has upped its vendor counts to a staggering 100 participants, far exceeding the count from last year. The cast includes man ... More >>

David LeFevre Hosts 7-Chef Birthday Dinner at Manhattan Beach Post

Most people celebrate their 40th birthday with a night out their favorite restaurant. Chef David LeFevre is doing his a bit differently -- he's hosting a 7-chef, 5-course meal at his own Manhattan Beach restaurant Manhattan Beach Post on July 16. Alongside him will be Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook of A ... More >>

Lou Amdur and Sotto Celebrate Sicily This Thursday

What has wine guru Lou Amdur been up to since selling his wine bar earlier this year? Quite a bit, apparently. Fresh off a recent trip to Sicily (Vittoria and Etna, for those keeping score), Amdur will be hosting a one-night Sicilian wine dinner at Sotto on June 21, at 7 p.m., focusing on natural It ... More >>

Sotto's One Year Anniversary Party: Discounted Drinks Free Bar Bites

Before they opened Sotto last year, Steve Samson and Zach Pollack went direct to Naples and hauled in all the raw materials to build a proper pizza oven -- that would be 15,000 pounds worth of cement, bricks and Vesuvian sand. So heavy were these building blocks that the delivery truck nearly topple ... More >>

Food GPS' Lamb Showdown: In Which Walter Manzke, Steve Samson & Zach Pollack Cook You a Lamb Dinner

If you love lamb more than, well, other very tasty farm animals, then you probably have someplace to be on Monday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. And no, we do not mean volunteering your services to the folks at Windrose Farm, although that's not a bad idea. Food GPS is presenting the first (hopefully of man ... More >>

Clean Plates Los Angeles 2012: Attempts Healthy L.A. Dining Guide

Clean Plates Los Angeles 2012: A Guide to the Healthiest Tastiest and Most Sustainable Restaurants for Vegetarians and Carnivores, released last week by New York City-based "health coach" Jared Koch, is more than another list of restaurant recommendations. First, the book's 52-page "Design Your Ow ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Giant Rabbits, Making Cider in Burgundy, Holiday Roasts The Glutton in Winter

Anne FishbeinSotto chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack​Forbes: 30 mover-and-shakers under 30 in the food and wine industry. (Congrats Jordan Kahn and Zach Pollack.) The Salt, NPR's Food Blog: Why Are We More Hungry In The Winter? Los Angeles Magazine: This year's top 10 restaurants in L.A. ... More >>

Test Kitchen Alumni Return for Anniversary

Guzzle & NoshSotto's boscaiola pizza; the exterior of the two restaurants; Picca's mollejita.​Next Monday, the former Test Kitchen space celebrates its 1-year anniversary with the return of several high-profile TK alumni to the kitchens. Upstairs at Picca, chef Ricardo Zarate will host Kogi im ... More >>

Top 5 Weekend Food Events: Ribfest, Soda Tasting, Food For Thought, Live & Dine LA ColLAboration Beer Garden

ColLAboration Beer Garden Forget Bastille Day. In honor of Belgian Independence Day (actually celebrated on July 21st), ColLAboration will theoretically have Belgian brews on tap at its third summer beer garden. Technically, ColLAboration is a members-only club. For members, admission is free f; f ... More >>

L.A.'s Top 10 Sunday Suppers Tender Greens Kicks Off Sunday Beer Garden

Photos by Anne FishbeinMeals from Lucques (left), Church & State (middle) and Palate (right).​This weekend, Tender Greens in Hollywood will kick off its first Sunday beer garden, a monthly event with all-you-can-eat roasted meat and all-you-can-drink craft beer for a flat fee of $35. (We had a ... More >>

Update: Sotto's Neapolitan Pizza Oven Ready to Burn

Last week we took a peek into Sotto's Neapolitan pizza oven, which was imported brick by brick from Naples and in the middle of being hand-built by third-generation oven-builder Stefano Ferrara. (It's one of less than 10 hand-built Ferrara ovens in the United States.) Ferrara finished the oven an ... More >>

A Peek Into Sotto's Hand-Built Neapolitan Pizza Oven; Will Soft-Open Feb. 25

Great pizza begins with a great oven, which is why Steve Samson and Zach Pollack of Sotto, the Italian restaurant opening in the bottom floor of the Test Kitchen space, went straight to Naples for theirs, importing 15,000 pounds of materials and even the oven designer himself. It's a massive inves ... More >>

Sotto & Picca Opening in Test Kitchen Space

As Test Kitchen, LA's experiment in musical chefs, takes its victory lap and bids farewell, the concept is already being transformed into something less temporal featuring two (semi-)permanent restaurants and a bar. In late January, Steve Samson and Zach Pollack will open Sotto, their Italian res ... More >>