Are Celebrity Chefs Good for Food?

Zocalo Public Square

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010, 7:30 PM

Are Celebrity Chefs Good for Food?

Moderated by Jonathan Gold, LA Weekly Food Critic

 Chefs have always had a knack for fame — from Julia Child to Napoleon’s personal chef, who published lucrative cookbooks and invented the tall white chef’s hat. But today, thanks in part to the Food Network, several seasons of "Top Chef" and "Hell’s Kitchen," and a burgeoning foodie culture, chefs are full-fledged celebrities. Besides running top restaurants across the country, they publish enough books to overwhelm the shelves — and abilities — of most any home cook. They host TV shows that rely on outsized personality as much as inventive recipes. And they lend their names and talents to chain eateries and bottled grocery-store sauces. Are celebrity chefs over exposed and over extended, and how have they transformed food? Pulitzer Prize winning LA Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold visits Zócalo with a panel of star chefs — including Nancy Silverton of Mozza, "Top Chef" Season Two winner Ilan Hall, and "Top Chef Masters" star Susan Feniger of Street — to find out how famous foodies shape what we cook, how we eat, and the future of high cuisine. 

Skirball Cultural Center

2701 N. Sepulveda Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 

Make a Reservation

Roasted Corn, Quinoa and Cumin Chicken Kabobs

Broiled garlic and cumin chicken kabob with roasted corn and pepper salad, and peach mango salsa

Black quinoa, roasted corn and pepper salad with mixed baby greens in a cilantro lime vinaigrette 

Why quinoa?

One cup of cooked quinoa has 15% fewer carbohydrates and 60% more protein than a comparable amount of brown rice; it also has 25% more fiber, which can help lower blood cholesterol.

Colori Downtown Los Angeles

Colori is fab for home style Italian in a very casual setting, perfect for dining solo or with a group. Yes, it's noisy and not on a particularly nice street, but really worth it.

  Before opening Colori 3 yrs ago, Chef Luigi Barducci Contessi spent 15+ years at Ca Brea and before that he was at Locanda Veneta,  This may explain why Ca Brea has been so disappointing for the last few years, but lucky for downtown diners if they visit Colori. 
Seafood stew, a favorite of Colori regulars,  is not on the menu, but they will make it upon request with whatever seafood they have on hand.

429 W 8th St
Los Angeles, CA 90014

213- 622-5950

www.colorikitchen.com/

Salad Season II

Grilled Japanese eggplant on a bed of gingered black lentils. Dressed with thyme, lemon juice, walnut oil and chopped walnuts    

Black & Blue, Broiled Steak Salad 

Filet mignon, avocado, marinated red onion and mushroom, steamed purple potatoes, carrots, 

black lentils, blue cheese crumbles on a bed of mixed greens. 

Lightly dressed with a fresh herb (thyme, rosemary) and red wine vinaigrette 

It's Salad Season!

 Lobster, black quinoa, 

avocado, early girl tomatoes and marinated red onion in a pomegranate vinaigrette 

Black bean, avocado, 

quinoa, artichoke hearts, roasted corn, grape tomato with Lime cilantro vinaigrette 

more salads here



Om Chef downtown L.A. enlightened omnivore clients will find all ingredients for these salads cleaned and chopped in labeled glass containers conveniently located in their refrigerator...making this dish qualify as 'fast food' the enlightened omnivore way

Asian Flavored Lobster Soup in Under 20 min

Begin with chicken stock preferably fresh homemade, or if you are short on time use Swansons low sodium chicken broth. Heat chicken stock with minced fresh garlic, ginger and fresh chili pepper to taste.While stock is heating up prep your veggies. Shown is a simple mix of thinly sliced crimini and shiitake mushroom, carrot, fresh lotus root,  fingerling potatoes, green onion and cilantro, and a couple of smallish lobster tails. Add spuds first, cook 5-6 minutes, add carrot, cook additional 2 minutes, add mushrooms, cook 2 minutes, add remaining ingredients cover and remove from heat. Finish soup with a splash of nam pla (fish sauce), and/or a little fresh lime juice.

Lobster was on hand for this dish, but most any seafood,  chicken and/or tofu would work just as well.

Soup allows for tremendous creativity, simply varying a few key seasoning ingredients can change it completely.  Replacing the cilantro, ginger, nam pla and lime juice with fennel, a little white wine, a pinch of saffron, fresh thyme, a swirl of EVOO and a strip of orange peel turns it into a heavenly Mediterranean soup needing nothing more than a baguette and someone to enjoy it with.....the fresh lotus root works beautifully in the Mediterranean version

Asian soups are an Om Chef favorite, I love the myriad of dried ingredients available, including dried lily buds,  shrimp, oysters, scallops, wood ear, black fungus, jujube, seaweeds, jellyfish, and  multiple kinds of fungi to name a few.

Om Chef downtown L.A. enlightened omnivore clients will find all ingredients for this dish cleaned and chopped in labeled glass containers conveniently located in their refrigerator...making this dish qualify as 'fast food' the enlightened omnivore way

Buffalo Cornish Hens

Cornish hens marinated in Franks hot sauce overnight and roasted at 500 for 15 minutes.

Oba Sushi Pasadena

Oba Sushi

Simply phenomenal sushi and outstanding service!

Miso eggplant, seaweed salad, cold spinach, udon noodles, broiled mushrooms, tamago sushi, cucumber roll and chilled fresh tofu are a few of the vegan options, and every one of them is executed beautifully.

Just off the 110 fwy. or the Fillmore stop if using the Gold Line train, exceptional sushi and free wifi

Oba 
181 east glenarm street, pasadena, ca 91105   •   626-799-8543

L.A. Lakers Fans, Excessive Sugar and Car Fires

While cooking for a couple of Lakers fans near the Staples Center in Downtown L.A. I was able to capture some much more fiery events...

Just minutes after the Lakers victory, fans began running in the streets, screaming, and banging on parked cars.... After an hour or so the excitement had escalated to the point of setting things on fire, such as this cab
....and attemting to upend other cars, such as this yellow cab mini van. They failed to flip the van over, possibly because sugar gives only temporary energy, and what they really needed for the endeavor was protein....
The Verve energy drinks passed out to fans after the victory, like all energy drinks, are nothing more than high sugar and caffeine concoctions....


Clearly, these Laker fans had indulged in too many sugary beverages, resulting in a false sense of strength, incredibly poor judgement, and for the fans that turned arsonist, and the ones that decided to wander onto the freeway while on foot, absolute and complete stupidity.

Eat well, think well!

L.A. Funghi, the Magic of Mushrooms

Porcini, Chanterelle,  Morels, Wood Ear, 

Blue Foot, Black Trumpet, Shiitake,  St.George, or Butter Bolete...............L.A. Funghi's got them!

Chef Dirk Hermann developed his passion for food and madness for mushrooms as a young boy growing up in the Bavarian Alps. Dirk's parents where restauranters who frequently traded with wild mushroom hunters for meals, and the light to dark, sweet to bitter, famous Bavarian beers. Dirk continued this tradition as a chef and restaurant owner in his homeland as well as the US. 

Dirk is known as the 'L.A. Funghi', and his remarkable assortment of mushrooms can be found at the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market, and other local farmers markets.....
For LA Funghi locations, recipes and the medicinal qualities of mushrooms go to Dirk's site
L.A. Funghi.com 

One of the simplest mushroom techniques of all, stuffed...

..and they can be stuffed with most anything.

 Above is a simple mix of walnuts, spinach, basil, mushroom stems, and feta cheese, 

and quickly broiled for 10-15 minutes. 

'Kinda Like a Chef' blog has an ultra simple recipe for olive oil fried mushrooms using L.A. Funghi's mixed mushroom basket here

Love mushrooms? Love beer?   Check out wild mushroom hunter and home brewer, Damon's 'Life with Beer' blog, for   Chanterelle Belgium Ale