Elina Shatkin

Los Angeles chefs made a strong showing among the semifinalists for the 2012 James Beard Awards, which were announced today. Local nominees for the Best Chef, Pacific award include Josef Centeno (Lazy Ox Canteen), Michael Cimarusti (Providence), David Feau (The Royce at the Langham), Matt Molina (Mozza), John Rivera Sedlar......

Chef Bruce Kalman recently took the reins as exec chef at Urbano Pizza Bar in downtown L.A., replacing chef Brad Winnaman. Kalman was the opening chef at The Misfit in Santa Monica, where he favored a market-driven menu, specifically a Santa Monica Farmers Market-driven menu......

This video is a few years old, but since Eddie Izzard has been in town lately, playing a handful of late-night shows at Largo, his riff on the Death Star canteen (that's British for "cafeteria") is timely. And hilarious, especially when animated with Lego. Watch as Darth Vader complains about......

When beer-centric, vegan-friendly Echo Park mega-bar Mohawk Bend opened in July 2011, it was with chefs Sera Pelle and Randal St. Clair. The new executive chef is Mike Garber, formerly of BLD and Whist at the Viceroy. (St. Clair oversees the menu at Tony Yanow's Tony's Darts Away while Pele......

If that headline isn't the most lukewarm compliment ever, we don't know what is. We were so thrilled to learn about Jack in the Box's bacon milkshake, we didn't even care when we learned it's not real. It exists. It's just that there's no bacon in it. Be Food Smart......

Duff Goldman, owner of Charm City Cakes (now in L.A.) and star of Food Network's Ace of Cakes, made a shocking admission on Saturday's episode of Good Food. The reality star told host Evan Kleiman: He hates fondant. The man who built an empire on the stuff flat-out says, "I......

Pack up the surfboard and throw on the bikini. UrbanSpoon is giving away one free trip to LudoBites Nine-0 -- in Hawaii. The prize includes two first-class, round-trip tickets on Hawaiian Airlines, four nights at the Four Seasons Kona and dinner for two at LudoBites. All you have to do......

Hey, baby. It's been a long week, but it's Friday afternoon. Time to kick off those shoulder pads, slip into the bathtub and pour a glass of cool Champale. What? Don't remember Champale? Why, it's the Champagne of malt liquors, a fizzy concoction that was pitched as the poor man's......

Why should you have to choose between meatballs and sausages on your sub? Or, for that matter, between roast beef and pastrami? Thankfully, at Eastside Market Italian Deli, you don't. Though it has been around for 73 years in the same beige and brown corner building, the deli is a......

If watching a gaggle of the country's most arrogant, clueless and regressive men discuss the reproductive fates of millions of American women -- with almost no input from women themselves (apparently, we aren't "qualified") -- left you utterly appalled, perhaps you'll want to attend the annual Planned Parenthood Food Fare......