Food

Miro Restaurant on the corner of Figueroa and Wilshire in the Downtown Los Angeles Financial District may look like just another new modern restaurant in town but there is more than meets the eye. From the street, the restaurant is dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers, especially the under-construction 73-story Wilshire Grand Center, which will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi. But, enter through the dramatic wooden doors where three different experiences await you. miro On the ground floor is the brightly light dining room. With floor to ceiling windows that face out to both Wilshire and Figueroa, the space is illuminated by the sun during the day. As you enter, you will be met by an elongated marble bar that is home to a pasta station, a charcuterie station and the bar which focuses on classic cocktails. The decor is modern with art deco touches. miro-dining-room Chef Gavin Mills has prepared a menu that is pan-Mediterranean, meaning it is influenced by Italian, Spanish, Greek and North African cuisine. The focus is on hyper-local seasonal ingredients with Mills purchasing ingredients from multiple weekly farmers' markets. Mills prepares all of the charcuterie in house and a board of charcuterie and cheese is a great way to start your meal. Our board had duck prosciutto, ungherese (Hungarian salami, paprika, garlic and white wine),  cacciatorini (dry salami with black pepper), Drunken Goat cheese from Spain, Mont Vully Rouge from Switzerland and Smoke Blue from Oregon. Presented on a magnificent slice of a tree trunk, the board also comes with house-made mustard, mostarda and pickles. Our board also included the chicken liver mousse topped with port jelly. 
10 October, 2016
If I could, I would travel around the world eating at the best restaurants, the ones with Michelin and the World's 50 Best rankings. I dream about a trip to Copenhagen to eat at Noma or about saving up enough money to splurge at The French Laundry. While I am not packing my bags quite yet, a visit to the San Francisco restaurant In Situ at the newly designed San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art gave me a taste of what these chefs have created. In Situ Menu In Situ, which is an adverb or adjective that means 1) situated in place or position or 2) synergizing and interacting collaboratively within a context, is located on the ground floor of SFMOMA. Led by Michelin-starred chef Corey Lee (Benu, Monsieur Benjamin) and overseen by executive chef Brandon Rodgers, the rotating menu features fifteen different dishes at a time. What is unique about these dishes is that Lee collaborated with approximately eighty high profile chefs from around the world to create a menu of their "greatest hits."
30 September, 2016
Amidst the steakhouses and Italian restaurants that line Canon Drive in Beverly Hills is the Japanese restaurant Shiki. Actually it is in the former location of Enoteca Drago, across the street from Wally's and Wolfgang's Steakhouse. Shiki is owned by Zen Noh, Japan's National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, the largest agricultural cooperative in Japan. Zen Noh was started in 1972 to support small farmers. They opened Shiki in Beverly Hills in order to showcase and increase awareness of local specialty products, such as Wagyu beef and Japanese rice, amoung other products. shiki-beverly-hills-2 Chef Shigenori (Shige) Fujimoto is from the Gifu Prefecture in Japan. He trained in tradiitonal washoku as well as sushi and worked in Japan before coming to Los Angeles in the early 1990s. He worked at Matsuhisa Restaurant in Beverly Hills from 1993 to 2004 and then at the former Shige in Santa Monica, Irori in Marina del Rey and Asanebo in Studio City, which received a Michelin Star. In 2013, Fujimoto began working at Shiki. Chef Shigenori (Shige) Fujimoto
26 September, 2016
When you think bar snacks, you might think sliders, calamari or french fries. But snacks will never be the same after enjoying them at The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa. The Restaurant at Meadowood The Restaurant at Meadowood is a Michelin Guide 3-Star restaurant in Napa Valley, CA. The tasting menu costs $330 per guest. A three-course menu is available in the bar for $90. But if you are not looking for a full dining experience and just want to have a few bites with a glass, or two, of wine, take a seat at the bar or in the rotunda and try the Snack Program for $40. The Snack Program is a 9-course tasting menu. Each course is a small bar bite but it takes bar snacks to another level. Each course is like a small sampling of what you might enjoy inside the restaurant because the snacks are inspired by dishes from chef Christopher Kostow's menu in the main dining room. This also means that the snacks change regularly.
23 September, 2016
Summer is officially over and fall is underway. School is back in session and we await the change of season. That is, everywhere but California. Here is Los Angeles, it is still over 90 degrees and sometimes that makes it hard to get into a work frame of mind. So why not head to Viviane Restaurant in the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills for an afternoon. If enjoying breakfast or lunch outdoors with a view of the pool is not incentive enough, perhaps the new extended happy hour menu will be. Happy Hour at Viviane Restaurant Welcome fall with Chef Michel Hung's daily happy hour menu. Every day (all seven in the week), happy hour is offered from 2:30pm - 7:30pm. So whether you have the luxury of having your afternoons free, are looking for somewhere to go after work or want to relax with friends during the weekend, Viviane is the answer. viviane-restaurant-at-hotel-avalon-1
19 September, 2016
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
They say that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” That is exactly what Alex’s Lemonade Stand does, both literally and figuratively, raising money with the goal of ending childhood cancer. la-loves-alexs-lemonade-stand-1
Alex’s Lemonade Stand was created in 2000 by then-4-year-old Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004).
Alex was a neuroblastoma patient who decided to help raise money to help other children with cancer and held a charity lemonade stand in front of her home. In just one day, she raised $2,000, which she gave to her doctors. By the time she passed away in 2004, at the age of 8, she had raised, with the help of others, more than $1 million.
More than 10 years later, Alex’s Lemonade Stand has raised more than $127 million with the money going to funding more than 650 cutting-edge research projects, creating a travel program to help support families of children receiving treatment and developing resources to help people everywhere affected by childhood cancer.
One of the events created to raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade. Inspired by The Great Chefs Event in Philadelphia that has been benefiting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for more than a decade, James Beard winner Suzanne Goin, Caroline Styne (Lucques, AOC, Tavern) and David Lentz (The Hungry Cat) brought the event to their home city of Los Angeles in 2009.
To date, the Los Angeles event has raised more than $3.2 million to fund childhood cancer research. And, on Saturday, Sept. 10, the seventh annual L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade took place at UCLA’s Royce Quad
16 September, 2016
FIG Restaurant has been serving up California Cuisine inside the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica for years. But some changes have taken place and now there is the NEW FIG Restaurant. Fig at Fairmont The space is still the same and the covered patio is flush with natural light. The decor now has a warmer feel to it with hanging plants adding life to the space. And there is a wood burning oven that has been added that you can see when you first walk into the restaurant. Fig at Fairmont Fig at Fairmont At the helm of the new FIG Restaurant is the personable Chef Yousef Ghalaini. A native of Lebanon, Chef Ghalaini grew up in his grandfather's bakery where he first learned the art of the wood-burning oven. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley and worked in Napa, Florida, Connecticut and New York before coming to FIG Restaurant at The Fairmont Miramar. At FIG Restaurant, Chef Ghalaini works with local farmers and fresh California ingredients to create his Mediterranean inspired menu that integrates the warm spices and legumes of Lebanese cuisine. 
12 September, 2016
A few months ago, I was driving from Sonoma to Monterey when a friend called to see if I wanted to join him and some friends for dinner in San Francisco. He mentioned that it was a hard-to-get reservation and they had someone drop out last minute. I took a detour on my drive and went into the city to have dinner at Al's Place. Sadly, I came down with a 24-hour bug that same night and could not eat a single bite. I sat there at dinner, wishing but unable to eat and missing out on what Bon Appetit Magzine called "the country's best new restaurant" and a 2016 recipient of One Michelin Star. Al's Place Months later, on another trip to San Francisco, my friend was able to get a reservation so that I could actually try the food. Al's Place is located in the Mission and is a simple, but bright, space with approximately 50 seats and an open kitchen in the back. The staff is young, friendly and very knowledgeable, both about the food and the wine. Al's Place
09 September, 2016
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