2017 Los Angeles Kitchen Notebook
An in-depth look at some of our favorite dishes and cocktails from our time on the ground in Los Angeles.
Capturing California Citrus
Ray Hayashi spent a year at such esteemed Kyoto restaurants as Michelin-starred Aji Fukushima and three Michelin-starred, four-century-old Hyotei. Back in the States, Hayashi is heading up research and development for mentor David LeFevre’s restaurants, infusing the restaurant group with fresh ideas. One nugget he brought from Japan is a technique for making potent citrus oil. Hayashi soaks peak-season yuzu rinds in vodka before pouring the liquid into a double boiler. To that mix he adds a neutral oil and gently simmers the mixture until the alcohol evaporates. The result is a clear, clean, pure citrus oil that he gingerly drops onto a plate of spot prawn, uni, tosazu vinegar, oro blanco, and shiso. Hayashi’s adopted technique captures the micro-seasons of California citrus, dispensing their fleeting aromas and flavors one droplet at a time.
Parsley Seed Za'atar
From eye serum to antioxidant facial hydrating cream, beauty brand Aesop offers no fewer than 10 products that rely on the power of parsley seeds to make customers smoother, softer, moister, and even tauter. When asked to cook for a dinner in Los Angeles using ingredients in the company’s portfolio, Kismet Chefs Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer found inspiration in parsley seeds. “It occurred to us that no one uses them,” says Kramer. Sourced from a local garden supply shop, the duo combines the inexpensive seeds with ground sumac, sesame seeds, and other spices to make za’atar. The blend is sprinkled over a salad of crisp Persian cucumbers, bright citrus, and tangy labneh, adding the concentrated flavor of parsley and textural crunch of seeds. “They deserve a place in the culinary repertoire,” says Kramer.
Ginger that Bites Back
At Tim Hollingsworth’s Otium, Chef de Cuisine Jonathan Granada is giving ginger a novel treatment. He’s not pickling or candying it, he’s curing ginger to concentrate the root’s potent flavor. Granada tosses one pound of young ginger in oil and roasts it hard in a wood-fired oven. He then quickly packs the hot ginger in a cure comprised of one quart each salt, sugar, and wood ash. The residual steam helps tenderize the root. After curing the ginger for three-weeks, Granada confits it in canola oil until toothsome. The infused oil coats a dish of roasted snap peas, radish, and abalone mushrooms. Adding intrigue to the dish, Granada chops the cured ginger pieces and folds them in for an intoxicating, salty-sweet, smoky-bitter, biting ginger flavor with a water chestnut crunch.
You Can’t Call Me on My Cell Phone
Modern speakeasies, those self-serious cocktail dens born in the early aughts, have lost serious market share to more casual, accessible bars. In that climate, Pablo Moix opened Old Lightning—hidden behind Scopa in Venice—in part to share his collection of exceptionally rare spirits (like a Civil War era bourbon) and vintage Champagnes. But more notably, the bar brings a welcome update to the speakeasy format. Mixing in a space that’s more living room than dungeon, the experience is fun and fleeting. And that’s due in no small part to the strict no cell phones policy. Millennials beware: the host collects them before you enter. When you can’t text, ’gram, or scroll, you tend to talk to the humans around you, and relish every uninterrupted sip of whatever damn cocktail strikes your fancy.
