L.A. Times - Food & Dining

Apron maker finds profitable recipe catering to chefs

By Betty Hallock — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Ellen Bennett launched an apron company last year not knowing how to sew and not knowing how to run a business. Now she has the world, so to speak, by the strings.

Across the Table: In France, a cherry tree, clafoutis and an intuitive baker

By S. Irene Virbila — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Périgord, France, many years ago:

Restaurant recipes: The Luggage Room Pizzeria chopped salad

By Noelle Carter — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Dear SOS: My husband and I are completely in love with the LGO Chopped Salad at the Luggage Room in Pasadena. We moved an hour away from the restaurant and dream about it. Is there anyway you could get the recipe?

Battle of the Burgers 2013: Are you ready?

By Noelle Carter — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 PDT

Attention, Burgermeisters: Think you've got the best burger around?

Bulgur: An ancient convenience food

By Faye Levy — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

The wheat product is a staple of the Fertile Crescent and popular in pilafs, tabbouleh, kibbeh and a variety of other dishes. It's even eaten as a dessert.

When I lived in the Middle East, I learned that tender tabbouleh salad and crunchy fried kibbeh , the celebrated Levantine croquette, share a key ingredient: bulgur. Since ancient times, bulgur has been a staple in the Fertile Crescent, where it is popular today as pilaf and is used in a variety of other dishes, including stuffed vegetables, lentil entrees, meat stews and stuffings for poultry. In fact, the word "bulgur" comes from Turkish, and southeastern Turkey may be the area where wheat was first cultivated.

Jonathan Gold | L.A. restaurant review: RivaBella makes ordinary Italian perfect

By Jonathan Gold — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Gino Angelini's enormous new restaurant on the Sunset Strip has grand ambitions and occasional flashes of brilliance, serving precise versions of his Italian dishes in a streamlined international style.

Angelini Osteria is almost everyone's favorite Italian restaurant in midtown: an informal room with well-designed trattoria cooking, a place to settle into for a plate of bombolotti or a Sunday saltimbocca, where whatever diet you happen to be on at the time will be accommodated without a fuss. Some nights, it feels as if everybody in the room knows one another, but you're in on the party too. You drink well, you eat well and you go home. A lot of chefs have come out of that kitchen, including Ori Menashe of Bestia.

Critic's Choice: Brunches that can begin a civilized day

By S. Irene Virbila — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

On these beautiful, lazy mornings of late spring, brunch beckons like the promised land. Bring a couple of good friends (or your mom), sit in the sunshine and catch up over a relaxed meal. We're not talking giant buffets but carefully prepared, seasonal dishes. I don't indulge often, but whenever I do, I leave with a feeling of well-being that leaves a glow on the rest of the day.

Farmers Markets: A CSA model for seafood in Santa Monica

By David Karp — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Fishermen selling their own catch at Southern California farmers markets are vanishing. An attractive alternative is Community Seafood, a "community-supported fishery" that started selling last Sunday at the Santa Monica Main Street farmers market . Founded by two marine scientists, Sarah Rathbone and Kim Selkoe, it seeks to support local fisheries and provide ultra-fresh, sustainably caught fish to subscribers.

The California Cook: Glazing, what good vegetables deserve

By Russ Parsons — Sat, 4 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Every good cook should know the simple technique of glazing vegetables.

So many home cooks are obsessed with making dishes just like the professionals do. They buy hand-forged Japanese chefs knives, seek out $50 bottles of olive oil and spend hours preparing elaborately composed dishes from "The French Laundry Cookbook" or "Eleven Madison Park."

At a salon on Melrose, flowing wine and food for thought

By Jessica Gelt — Sat, 4 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Osteria la Buca hosts an eclectic gathering in an upstairs room with conversation a requirement.

Six men and two women sit down to a simple dinner around a rectangular table in a glassed-in upstairs room at Osteria la Buca. It's 7:30 on a Tuesday night in spring, and the sun is just barely sinking into the city haze, leaving Melrose Avenue awash in dirty pink and gold light. The guests — all strangers — have arrived to take part in a new dinner series called the Salon at Osteria la Buca. They have been picked by the restaurant to participate based upon recommendations from previous guests and RSVP letters they composed outlining their professional accomplishments and personal philosophies.