Just a reminder folks to tune in to the SoCal Restaurant Show every Saturday morning on KLAA-AM 830 because it's Anaheim-based and Weekling pal Jet Tila is the host. Here's the lineup for mañana, from producer Andy Harris–enjoy!
]
-10:30 a.m. to 10:42 a.m.
This past week Chef Jet has been part of an influential food conference along with a number of standout food luminaries at UMass Amherst in Massachusetts. Jet will give us some of the highlights.
Producer Andy will preview one of the biggest ethnic food festivals happening this weekend in Orange County.
We'll also answer some e-mail inquiries.
10:45 a.m. to 11:13 a.m.
Sotto on Pico Blvd. in West Los Angeles just east of Century City is the dream restaurant of American chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack who are both obsessed (in the best possible way) with all things Italy. Samson is the skilled executive chef and Pollack is the gifted pizzaiolo, and the food represents the fare of Southern Italy.
Steve Samson is known to Angelenos as one of the respected executive chefs in the rich history of Piero Selvaggio's Valentino in Santa Monica. In early 2009 Samson and Pollack created the well-received Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa's performing arts district near South Coast Plaza for David Myers.
11:15 a.m. to 11:27 a.m.
We've been following the Cochon 555 national tour since their stop in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 5th at House of Blues in West Hollywood. Our own Chef Jet Tila headed one of the five competing teams creating dishes from a whole heritage pig. Each culinary team provided tastes for the 400 attendees who were then part of the final judging.
The ten regional winners met at the Aspen Food & Wine Festival last Sunday for the final showdown, The Grand Cochon. Among the finalists was Chef Ray Garcia of Fig in Santa Monica, the supreme porker from the Los Angeles competition.
Cochon founder, Brady Lowe, based in Atlanta, joins us with the final report of this year's results.
-11:30 a.m. to 11:57 a.m.
Tal Ronnen is the go-to vegan chef cooking in the United States. He opened his first Los Angeles area restaurant, Crossroads, back in March. It's at the corner of Melrose and Sweetzer Avenue in West Hollywood. The food is fine-dining vegan with Mediterranean-style small plates in a highly designed space.
“I just can't do the throw some vegetables and a starch on a plate thing,” Ronen once said in a Los Angeles Times profile. “That's the problem with most vegan dishes. It's a Portobello mushroom cap, or pasta primavera, and when you're finished with dinner you have to hit the drive-through. You have to give people something that will satisfy them”
Chef Ronnen also contributed to the original menu for LYFE Kitchen which launched earlier in the year in Culver City.
His reputation is such that in early 2011 when very particular casino resort mogul Steve Wynn wanted to add vegan dishes to all of his acclaimed restaurants at both Wynn Las Vegas and Encore the plum assignment went to Chef Ronnen.
Follow Stick a Fork in It on Twitter @ocweeklyfood or on Facebook!
One Reply to “SoCal Restaurant Show For this Week on KLAA-AM 830: Little Saigon Night Market, Cochon 555, and More!”