Michele StuevenThe Grammy Awards are back in L.A. this Sunday, Feb. 10. For those lucky enough to score a spot in one of the luxury or event suites, the new executive chef for Levy at Staples Center, Manny Slomovits, has created a “Performance of the Year” menu that might even make Cardi B. go Gaga.
The package includes everything from small bites like Slomovits’ artisanal jerky to a 72-hour sous vide short-rib board and plenty of vegan options, like a winter kale salad with roasted butternut squash.
“We wanted the food to be more L.A.-focused — fun, clean, fresh,” the chef tells L.A. Weekly from a suite overlooking the stage. “That said, we’re still in an arena and people expect mac and cheese and other guilty pleasures, so we’ll have both lobster and bacon mac and cheese. If you feel like pecking, we have sweet and savory snacks on sticks as well as lighter things, like the mini elote street corn salad, to showcase the street food and ethnicity we have going on outside L.A. Live.”
Executive chef Manny Slomovits; Credit: Michele Stueven
The Earth, Smoke & Fire Tribute to Toast is a soulful selection of artisanal breads, smoked shrimp ceviche, fire-roasted red pepper hummus, watermelon radish, cucumber, lemon, pickles, capers, egg, crème fraiche, caviar and house-cured salmon. The artisanal beef jerky is painstakingly made in the cavernous Staples kitchen and comes in three flavors — lemongrass and ginger, tangy teriyaki and rustic. The elote salad is paired with an ELYX Vodka celery root vichyssoise shooter that comes with ginger and roasted pepper bruschetta, tomatillo and peppercress oil.
Smokin’ Sunset; Credit: Michele Stueven
And speaking of vodka, the Smokin’ Sunset cocktail will be served on beverage carts scooting up and down the Delta Suite level along with Champagne and the Avion 44, made with Avion Reserva 44 Extra Anejo tequila, paired with a single piece of L.A. chocolatier John Kelly’s semi-sweet chocolate & caramel dusted with Hawaiian Alaea sea salt. The Smokin’ Sunset was developed just for the Grammy evening, and it combines Absolut ELYX Ultra-Premium Vodka and blood orange lemonade, served in a cedar- and rosemary-smoked glass garnished with kumquats.
One thousand meals a day are being prepared to feed crew and staff the week leading up to Grammy day.
“We’re so glad the Grammys are back in L.A.,” Slomovits says. “It’s Staples Center, the center of the universe!”
The 61st annual Grammy Awards air live on CBS on Sunday, Feb. 10, starting at 5 p.m.
To see the Performance of the Year, go to laweekly.com/slideshow/heres-whats-cooking-at-the-grammys-on-sunday-10133448.
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