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This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register. There is a new trend in fine dining and it is called “social responsibility.” Recently, I attended Taste Talks Los Angeles, a food and drink festival featuring talks, tastings, dinners and parties. As L.A.'s amazing chefs, restaurants and cultural figures came together, they engaged in great conversation, including the role social responsibility has in the hospitality industry.
According to the California Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing, California has more than 118,000 homeless people, accounting for 22 percent of the nation’s homeless population. Many across the state, from political groups to nonprofits to for-profits to individuals, are working to solve this moral crisis, and the hospitality industry plays an important role.
Chrysalis is a Los Angeles based nonprofit organization  founded in 1984 to create a path to self-sufficiency for homeless and low-income individuals. They provide the resources and support to find and retain employment. To date, more than 58,000 men and women have been helped and, most importantly, 71 percent of people who find work through Chrysalis keep their jobs, officials said.
Located on the ground floor of a magnificently designed new building on Melrose Avenue, Umeda Restaurant opened its doors earlier this year. Across the street from Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza and Chi Spacca, Umeda is on the north side of Melrose, on the corner of Citrus, just west of Highland. Omeda quietly opened with little fanfare but luckily some friends told me about it. Umeda Restaurant is named after its chef, Takuya Umeda. Takuya Umeda began his career in Sapporo, Japan and worked with chef Nobu Matsuhisa at Nobu London between 1997 to 2003. Umeda then came to work at Nobu's Matsuhisa in Bevelry Hills until 2017, when he opened his own restaurant. In the front of the house is the friendly and charming Joseph Mansour who also worked at Matsuhisa for almost a decade. 
Anything you think about chocolate will be changed after trying Peluso Chocolate from Sicily. This special chocolate is not just about eating chocolate, it is about eating a story. And Peluso Chocolate is the Please The Palate pick of the week. Peluso chocolate is called chocolate "made in the cold." This recipe was created in 1746 in the southern city of Modica in Sicily and has been made the same way ever since. The cocoa seeds are ground and mixed with sugar. Those are the only two ingredients! There is no butter or oil or milk added. The processing is done at a low temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. By processing it at a low temperature, the healing properties of the cocoa are maintained (they are typically lost when the temperatures reach more than 104 degrees). The healing properties of cocoa are tannins, which have antioxidants and blood pressure regulators. That means that this chocolate has benefits for cardiovascular health, antibacterial protection and safeguards against viral diseases. Flavanoids (which offer protection against tumors) ensure better liver function and help strengthen immune defenses to fight free radicals.
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