Every year, it gets tougher to find just the right present. I think the best gift you can give someone is time. And no, not the metallic kind that goes on your wrist (doesn't everyone use their phone for that?). I mean sharing a memory, and usually one that includes eating. For Forkers who know chefs like my guy knows quarterbacks, this one will do.
Next Monday and Tuesday evening, Chef Bradley Ogden will be in town celebrating his cookbook, Holiday Dinners with Bradley Ogden. Best known for New American cuisine, his Lark Creek Restaurant Group opened its newest location at Fashion Island earlier this year. You can check out Edwin's review here. If you're the kind of shopper who prefers to “sample the goods”, you're in luck. A la carte dishes (inspired by the cookbook) from Lark Creek's local chef, John Ledbetter, will be available for consumption.
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Tastes include blue corn cakes with caviar and creme fraiche, green goddess salad with chilled shrimp, honey and cider vinegar basted rack of pork with mashed red potatoes and garlic, and apple crumb pie with buttermilk ice cream. That . . .doesn't suck.
Ogden will be on site from 5 – 8:30 p.m. each night. Diners interested in meeting the chef can purchase a cookbook to be signed that evening for $30. Dinner with a friend, plus celeb chef sighting and personally autographed book make for one thoughtful present for the person you nickname foodie. Book a reservation if you're interested– we cozy up to their corner booth near the private dining room.
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A contributing writer for OC Weekly, Anne Marie freelances for multiple online and print publications, and guest judges for culinary competitions. A Bay Area transplant, she graduated with a degree in Hospitality Management from Cal Poly Pomona. Find her on Instagram as brekkiefan.