The city’s reputation precedes it: Most people’s eyes light up when you mention Ojai, that magical land less than 90 miles from Los Angeles. Sprinkled with hiking trails, olive and orange orchards, natural springs and wellness spas, (in some ways) it’s like a European vacation without the long flight and......
Vanessa Hughes loves candy. Hers is the sort of passion that can make someone search out a sweet shop while honeymooning in Barcelona, which she did. Her obsession was sparked by her father, and she has since passed it on to her 7-year-old daughter, Bailey. “I have a lot of......
At the second annual L.A. Cookie Con and Sweets Show this weekend — the West Coast's largest event of its kind — all sorts of cookie bakers, both amateur and professional, will be showing off their goods in hopes of snagging a production deal with a big-name company. Think American Idol......
It seems like the intent of brunch hasn't changed much since the word first appeared in print in 1895, when British author Guy Beringer wrote: “Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting. It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow......
Southern California has it all: the best produce, great wine, vinegars, oils and cheeses. That sums up the way many top chefs feel about the culinary paradise we call home — among them Cale Falk, the new executive chef of the Purple Palm Restaurant at Colony Palms Hotel in Palms......
What started during 27-year-old Robert Kronfli’s sophomore year at USC as a weekly dinner party for friends in an off-campus apartment has blossomed into a mini-hospitality empire: the small plates hotspot Bacaro L.A. near the USC campus, Nature’s Brew café and coffeehouse located two doors down, Kronfli Brothers line of......
It was bound to happen - rising from the wooden planks of the Santa Monica Pier, surrounded by Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and carnival food staples (hot dogs! fast-food pizza!), the first-ever Italian restaurant has popped up on the horizon, with an executive chef with serious gastronomical cred, Giacomo Pettinari. Even......
Patricia Tsai is a bit of a role model. As we discovered in part 1 and part 2 of our interview with the chocolatier and owner of Chocovivo, Tsai persevered through extraordinary events in order to do what drives her -- make bean-to-bar chocolate in the most honest of ways......
