La Brea Bakery Celebrates 25 Years, Reopens Full Service Cafe

Yes, it has been 25 years since Nancy Silverton first opened La Brea Bakery. Amazing! They recently reopened their flagship cafe in a large, beautiful space on La Brea (of course), coinciding with their 25 year anniversary.

Of course, there will be plenty of bread and pastries to satisfy you, being La Brea Bakery, and all, but the cafe serves more than that.

Don't miss the pastries, though, from the French toast rosette (which I highly recommend), almond croissant, to flower shaped macarons.

The cafe is poised to be a great place to grab lunch. serving salads, sandwiches, and pizzas.
I couldn't get enough of the Ham and Cheese Panini with rosemary ham, gruyere, balsamic onions, dijon aioli, sage, country white sourdough ($10.50)

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Clementine's Grilled Cheese Menu

It's the 8th Grilled Cheese Month at Clementine! No, no fooling.

Every week Clementine will feature 5 different grilled cheeses, including one by another great LA chef each week. 5 different ones every week?? Well, when should I go then? Go every week! Or if you can't make that, here's the entire menu schedule. Pick and choose wisely.

Here's what Clementine is serving up April 1-4:

• Oliver's Grilled Cheese: pepperjack, soppresata, and Calabrian peppers, on white rye - courtesy of Nancy Silverton of Mozza and La Brea Bakery
  
• The Original Beef Dip Grilled Cheese, on a French roll served with hot mustard (add a pickled egg, $1)
  
• Monte Cristo: turkey, ham, gruyere, mayo and dijon on white bread, grilled French-toast-style, dusted with powdered sugar and served with strawberry jam
  
• Pecorino sardo, oven-roasted tomatoes, olives and thyme on panini bread
  
• Cheddar and Swiss on dark bread served with crunchy apple slaw
  

Week of April 6-11:

• Chicharron de queso (crispy fried cheese!) with black beans, avocado, pickled jalapenos, mayo and pico de gallo - courtesy of Jimmy Shaw, chef/owner Loteria Grill
  
• Grilled cheese al carbon: jack cheese, grilled marinated steak, bacon, avocado, chopped onions and cilantro, served with smoky salsa
  
• Fontina with truffled mushrooms and brisket jus on country bread
  
• Grilled Garlic Melt, served with fava bean puree, sauteed greens and shaved parmesan
  
• Little Armenia: soujouk, melty cheese, herbs and grilled tomato on Armenian bread

P.S. Sandwiches can be prepared meatless and on matzah for Passover - just ask!

Week of April 13-18:

• Provolone, hot Italian sausage and garlicky rapini on ciabatta - courtesy of Evan Kleinman, host of KCRW's Good Food and chef/owner Angeli Cafe
  
• BBQ chicken with mozzarella, red onion, cilantro, and smoky bbq sauce
  
• Croque Monsieur: ham and gruyere on country white bread, topped with mornay sauce and more cheese
  
• Brie, baby spinach, balsamic onions, currants and pine nuts on panini bread
  
• Quesadilla with havarti, roasted poblanos and ripe mango, served with salsa and black bean salad

P.S. Sandwiches can be prepared meatless and on matzah for passover - just ask!

Week of April 20-25:

• Camembert with mustard greens and delicious mushrooms on country bread - courtesy of Amelia Saltsman, author of The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook
  
• Tuna-Runa: Italian tuna, cheddar, and creamy mushrooms on buttery white bread
  
• Chili dog grilled cheese: meaty chili and hot dog melted together with cheddar cheese. Our salute to Pinks!
  
• Grilled Torta: ham, cheese, roasted tomato mayo, mustard-fried onions, grilled jalapenos, lettuce and avocado on homemade telera
  
• Pastrami Reuben: Niman Ranch pastrami, gruyere, sauerkraut and our 10,000 lakes dressing on rye bread
  

Week of April 27-30:

• Queso mahon with chorizo, quince paste and romesco - courtesy of Suzanne Goin, chef/owner Lucques, A.O.C. and Tavern
• Cobb Sandwich with havarti, blue cheese, chicken, bacon, avocado and roasted tomato mayo on semolina bread
  
• Ensley Cheese Steak - Annie's cheesy meatloaf grilled with peppers, onions, and pepperjack on a toasted french roll
  
• Asparagus, green garlic, fines herbs and three cheeses on wholegrain bread
  
• Mini Mouse Ears grilled cheese - for your kid or the kid in you

Clementine
1751 Ensley Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 552-1080
www.clementineonline.com

Upcoming Foodie Events!

Foodie events are starting to get lined up again this year, whoohoo!!

There are some really impressive ones coming up very soon:

Tomorrow, Friday Feb 27, Locali is having their official launch party. Between 5-8 pm get free samples of organic tamales from La Guera Tamalera and grass-fed hot dogs from Let's Be Frank. 5825 Franklin Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028.

Sunday, March 9. Jonathan Gold has lined up 30 of his favorite restaurants for the LA Weekly Gold Standard. Restaurant lineup includes Animal, Sona, the two Mozzas, Providence, Loteria Grill and Jitlada, among many other great ones. Tickets are $60 and include all food and drinks (wine/beer). 3-7 pm.
http://ow.ly/gvg

On the more "educational" side, on March 11, Zocalo is holding a discussion on "Can Food Really be Authentic?" Featuring Mozza's Nancy Silverton, Jazz from Jitlada, and Roy Choi from Kogi BBQ truck, the event is moderated by Jonathan Gold. 7:30 PM, Skirball Cultural Center.

Thursday, March 12. The Planned Parenthood L.A. Guild is holding a fundraising Food Fare, featuring an array of restaurants such as A.O.C, Anisette Brasserie, Clementine's, Joe's Restaurant, Pink's Hot Dogs, Pitfire Pizza, and XIV. Chefs Suzanne Goin (Lucques), Nancy Silverton (Osteria/Pizzeria Mozza), and Jon & Vinny (Animal) will also be there signing their cookbooks! Tickets are $125 for the afternoon and $175 for the night, but everything above $60 is tax-deductible.
http://www.pplafoodfare.com/tkts.asp

Also, as part of ongoing deals and steals, The Park in Echo Park is offering $15 3-course meal every Tuesday. This upcoming Tuesday they are featuring gumbo, jambalaya, and banana bread pudding. 1400 Sunset Blvd.

The Food Event: Food and So Much More

The Food Event, hosted by Los Angeles Magazine, is perhaps my favorite of this type of events so far this year! And it is actually the cheapest at that - $60 admission (disclosure: I was able to obtain a media pass for the event, but you'll see the $60 would be well worth it! Plus it also benefits Concern Foundation and LA Food Bank!). I bumped into LA&OC Foodie there, who already posted his review, and we both agree that this event is definitely going into our calendar next year!

First, there's the venue. The Food Event took place yesterday (Sunday) in the grounds of Saddlerock Ranch in the Malibu Hills. It's a beautiful property with grape vines, llamas, horses, zebras etc.
A bit out of the way but the drive through the hills was similarly beautiful. Going to this event felt like a mini getaway. Albeit a bit hot, the venue definitely beats all other events.

Then, there's the food (of course). A sampling below of some of my faves, clockwise: orechiette with mushrooms and truffles (excellent), octopus carpaccio from Tra di Noi, bison tartare and pheasant mousse from Saddle Peak Lodge, and tuna tartar from Chaya Brasserie.
But those are only what I started out with. There's also lobster bisque (also one of my fave there!) from Darren's, cold poached salmon from Paperfish, and hamachi poke and tomato gazpacho both from the Four Seasons hotel in Westlake Village.
The lobster is creamy with coconut, and has a bit of spicy kick to it.

The beer sponsors served their beverage in their signature beer glasses - which we get to take home. Hmm ... is this a friendly challenge to see how much I can drink? Well, the glasses below are what we ended up taking home :P
Some of the highlights are the "Provence" wine from Peju - a blend of 5 grapes that include both reds and whites. It was meant to introduce red wine to those who normally drink whites. It's a crisp, light wine with a bit of the tannin taste. As for the beer, my favorite was the blond Leffe.

And let's not forget the desserts. We had macaroons from La Provence Patisserie, gelato from Gelato Bar, an assortment of excellent pastries from Rustic Canyon, and some amazing blueberry mint lemonade from Lemonade - loved it (then again mint is my true love :P ).
It's a hot day so the lemonades went fast! And so did all the Fiji water bottles there - my only complaint is perhaps how they ran out of water halfway through the event, although wine and beer were still abound.

So that was the food and drinks. But that's not all! What really brings this event to the top is all the chef cooking demonstrations (well, and of course, eating their food right after)!

The chef cooking demonstration starts off with Chef David Linville from The Shore, who demonstrated how to make mozzarella from scratch.
Simple but always excellent dish - mozzarella with basil leaves and tomatoes!

After managing to grab some seats, Nancy Silverton set up right in front of us. Best seats in the house :) Known for both Osteria and Pizzeria Mozza, she of course brought some burrata with her.
Silverton demo'd making celery pesto sauce from scratch (I got this on video, which I will hopefully post later- waiting for an OK from LA Mag PR people), and served up some celery salad topped with lovely burrata and the pesto sauce!

Then there's Neal Fraser from Grace, cooking up some uni pumpkin risotto!
Everything was in a pot which meant we didn't get to see much. There was fun conversation about the best salt to use. The risotto was excellent. Al dente and creamy, with bits of uni still visible.

The Two Dudes (Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo) from Animal on Fairfax made a quick demo of how to make their awesome BBQ ribs. A quick demo of seasoning and putting in the oven - then another quickie of their BBQ sauce (got this on video too, hopefully will put up later!)
Here too they use Niman ranch meat, just like in their restaurant. Loved it there, loving it here too. The meat was so tender and falling off the bones. One of the most satisfying bites of the day (who can say no to ribs?).

Kerry Simon also demonstrated wheat penne pasta, and brought tubs of his famous junk food desserts - we're talking rice krispies, cookies, and kettle corn! Yum!

The awesome afternoon ended with a Cook-off, Top Chef style! Defending her reign after two consecutive wins is Top Chef's Betty Fraser, exec chef of Grub. The challenger is Makoto Okuwa, of the newly opened Sashi in Manhattan Beach (and former assistant of Morimoto in Iron Chef).
Chef Fraser served up some shrimps poached in butter, kaffir limes etc, with candied pumpkin, which I didn't get to taste because they ran out (personally I'd deduct points for not preparing enough *sob*). The judges all seemed to love it though and said that the shrimp was "perfectly cooked".

Chef Okuwa served up some shrimp-pork-beef Baos with black truffles! Excellent bao, freshly made so the dough is still moist and chewy. The thickness was also just right for me. And let's not forget truffles, which you guys know I love ...

So who do you guys think won? Make a guess and I will let you know later!