Today I trekked over the hill to Paramount Studios in Hollywood, the only major movie studio physically located in Hollywood, for the Los Angeles Times Celebration of Food and Wine. This is a brand spanking new event the Los Angeles Times has started in conjunction with the magazine Food & Wine, and it's sort of in that same vein as my favorite event of the year, the L.A. Times Festival of Books.
I'm not exactly the biggest gourmand you've ever met. Far from it. In fact, I've always called myself a garbage disposal. Still, I had nothing better to do on this Labor Day weekend Sunday. And as a movie buff, visiting a place like Paramount, one of the oldest and most legendary movie studios in town, for whatever reason, is always pretty cool.
Paramount's located on Melrose Ave. in Hollywood. Yes, THAT Melrose. The nearby mostly Latino neighborhood was throwing a full-on party and parade in honor of Mexico's bicentennial. Streets were closed, so I had to go down side streets different from what I'd planned with Yahoo! Maps' help, but it's all good. What little I saw of the bicentennial festival looked awesome. Coincidentally, at work next week, when I build out the Q3 newsletter for my department, the design theme's going to be Mexico in honor of their lucky 200th.
I got there at half past eleven, a good half-hour before the event started. With nary a cloud in the sky, the weather was a postcard. Perhaps a bit too postcard. While waiting in line for the gate to open, I must've sweated a good pint or so. That sun beat down on me like you'd beat a drum during a welcoming fanfare. "Welcome to the first annual celebration of food and booze!"
Once we got in and I could start walking around, I got more comfortable. The event didn't take up the entire Paramount property. Paramount Studios is massive. No, this took place on one of their backlots, which is itself a fairly decent sized piece of land. When you go in, you've got this huge stretch of pavement before you, easily as long as a football field, maybe longer, and just as wide. It stretches back until it dips down and finally comes to an end at a huge warehouse-type building and ivory water tower crowned with Paramount's very famous mountain and stars logo. I'm not sure what the logic is behind that dip, which makes the back half of the blacktop a few feet lower than this front half where we came in. It's definitely distinctive, that's for sure. To the back right was a gateway leading to another backlot with faux building facades and streets, like a little town. More on that later.
The VIP area, which wouldn't open until mid afternoon, was to our immediate left as we came in. Not to fear, I paid the extra for VIP admission, so I'll report on that after I talk about all the stuff I did before then. The VIP area took up almost the entire front half of this first area, right up to that dip. Now when you get to that dip and, ya know, dip, you come upon a few select food trucks, about five, set up and already dishing out their wares. And there, front and center in this lower half of the front lot, right up against the building, was a stage set up for cooking demos. This whole lower half of the front lot was known as the Food Network Garden, and that stage was called the Hollywood Stage. From what I gathered, the Food Network Garden was so called because these five food trucks and all the chefs who'd be giving demos on the Hollywood Stage throughout the day were somehow connected to the Food Network. Obvious, I know, but I never watch the Food Network, so that's the best I can do.
While waiting for the first demo, I felt myself drawn to the food trucks. It had been forever since I'd gotten anything at a food truck. Now during my undergrad years at Temple U. in North Philly, food trucks were as much a part of the environment as the sidewalks and trees. I didn't appreciate it at the time (of course), but I have fond memories of grabbing a cheesesteak and fries for lunch, or a hot cocoa early in the morning to take with me into Paley Library while reading and killing time before my 8:40am class. So perhaps it was nostalgia that magnetized me to the food trucks today, and perhaps it was that boot-kickin' fiddle-playin' gal next to the Rajun Cajun food truck that made me pick that particular one. I ended up getting a bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo. Yes, hot as it was, I got chicken and sausage gumbo. I blame the carrot-topped fiddle player. And my love for spicy food.
Cooking Demo with Darrell "DAS" Smith - Hollywood Stage - 3:30-4:00pm
The first cooking demo on the Hollywood Stage began at 12:30pm and featured a young African-American man named Darrell Smith who, according to the program, goes by the name DAS and was featured on season six of The Next Food Network Star. Again, I know nothing about this so bear with me. While it would get crowded later, and downright packed by the time the VIP area opened, the crowd was still relatively light at half past noon, so I was able to stand pretty close to the stage. And yes, we all had to stand. No sitting in the Food Network Garden, which was fine with me. I never exercise so how else was I going to burn off, or rather, sweat out that awesome gumbo?
DAS had a full kitchen set up on stage, everything you could possibly need to prepare whatever you want. What was cool was that they had this long horizontal mirror suspended at an angle above the kitchen so we could see everything DAS was doing on the counter and stove. I'm not sure, but I think the mirror may have also magnified things a bit. From where I stood, I was probably a good fifty feet or so from DAS, and yet I could see everything he was doing in that mirror. He also had a lapel mic so we could hear everything he was saying.
The dish he made for us was chicken roulade. Know what that is? Me neither until today. I'd sure love to have some now after having spent forty-five minutes watching DAS prepare it. Roulade apparently comes from the French verb that means to roll, and so a roulade of any kind is when you've got meat that's "rolled" around a filling, like cheese or what have you. He made his chicken roulade from scratch. One of the first things he said when he got going was that when you cook chicken or pork, it always has to be well cooked. You can have rare or medium rare beef, but there's no going rare, let alone raw, with chicken or pork.
He narrated his life story while preparing the roulade. Originally from the Detroit suburbs, DAS took an entrepreneurship class in the summer when he was 12. He had to wear a suit to class every day while his pals played outside. DAS said he's had a business acumen for as long as he can remember, but it wasn't until he attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta that he found he had an even greater knack for cooking. He discovered it slowly but surely, piecemeal (pun intended), over the course (another one!) of his four years. Whenever he had friends over, rather than order pizza or whatever, DAS would actually cook stuff, and he found he loved it and was good at it.
Since I never watch the Food Network, I've never seen The Next Food Network Star. Apparently that show can get pretty dramatic. Like Big Brother, the participants, in this case chefs, live in the same house together. DAS said he had a great time on season six, but he emphasized how difficult it was, saying it was "much harder" than he anticipated. On the plus side, he made a lot of new friends. Today he lives in Hollywood and teaches at Beverly Hills High. Those who don't attend Beverly Hills High can sign up for his cooking classes on chefdas.com.
At this point the chicken roulade was nearly done. Someone in the crowd, which had grown since the start of the demo, asked how you can tell if the chicken is done if it's wrapped in plastic the way DAS had his roulade wrapped in plastic, and you can't see the clear liquid. DAS said the whiteness of the chicken is always a good indicator. For the roulade, the ideal time and temp are 27 minutes at 350. DAS said he's been doing this so long that he's got an internal clock in his brain and literally knows when the 27 minutes are up. For this demo he was using olive oil but said peanut oil works just as well, even though it's not as healthy and you have to be sure no one at your table has a peanut allergy. Whichever you use, he stressed that you only need one teaspoon and no more. Meantime, he sliced the potatoes a quarter-inch thin. That's pretty thin, right? Go too fast and you might cut yourself. To avoid that, DAS said to "feel the side of the blade along your knuckles" as a sort of sensory confirmation that the sharp edge of the knife is pointed down at the potato and not at you. He used a mallet to make the chicken breast extra thin.
Hungry yet? Yeah me too. Judging by all he's done at a relatively young age, he's obviously very driven and type A, with a competitive streak to round things out. But you don't get that sense at all watching him work. He's very folksy, casual, laid back, and he makes preparing such a fancy dish look like another day at the office. If I tried my hand at chicken roulade, it'd be a disaster.
And now for a panel kinda like the panels I attend every year at the Book Fest.
Life after Top Chef - Westside Stage - 1:45-2:30pm
On the panel were Betty Fraser from Top Chef season two/Grub (in the heart of post production Hollywood), Chris "C.J." Jacobsen from Top Chef season three/The Yard, and the bald, crabby Alex Reznik from Top Chef season seven/Ivan Kane's Cafe Was. The moderator was a gal named Krista Simmons, associate editor for Brand X (one of the big sponsors here).
Let me just say that I haven't heard of any of these people, and I've never watched Top Chef. The above is from the trusty program.
The Westside Stage was located in the faux town backlot behind the first backlot where I watched Chef DAS in the Food Network Garden. I went back there right after DAS's demo and had a good half-hour to kill before the Top Chef panel. The various streets, fronted with faux brownstones and townhouses, were lined with tents manned by the restaurants and wineries sponsoring the event, just as they have sponsor tents every year at the Book Fest.
When we surrendered our admission tickets at the front gate this morning, we were each given a small plastic wine cup with the Food and Wine logo as well as a bunch of little drink tickets. The idea was that we'd exchange a drink ticket for a tasting at any of the wine tents. As luck would have it, though, most of the wine tents didn't care about the tickets. I think one vendor asked me for it, but the other tents didn't give a shit. Awesome, huh? By the time the Top Chef panel started, I'd already had a few samples and was feeling fine and dandy on this gorgeous day.
Even though I was flying blind here in terms of who these people were, I was able to deduce a thing or to. First and foremost, I figured out that this Alex Reznik guy, with his polished dome of a noggin, was caught up in some "controversy" during season seven of Top Chef. I use quotes because it was more like a faux controversy, at least to me. The season ended with him suspected of stealing a competitor chef's pea puree. Talk about passionate foodies, a lot of the folks in the audience were absolutely convinced he'd stolen the pea puree and weren't shy about heckling the man. Pea puree. Seriously?
Betty Fraser seemed like a kool kat. She was on Top Chef season two and co-runs a joint in Hollywood called Grub. Betty said Grub's in the "heart of post production Hollywood." She runs it with a woman named Denise. Together, they're the so-called Grub Gals. Apparently Grub's been kicking butt. Citysearch has given it the Best Breakfast, Best Brunch, and Best Lunch awards a whole bunch of times. Betty won that season on Top Chef with a grilled cheese sandwich she made for Al Roker on The Today Show called Ba-Da-Bing Betty's Grilled Cheese Sandwich. That's awesome, I want to have it just because it's called that. I told you she was cool, right? And get this: TGI Friday's paid her for the rights to have Ba-Da-Bing Betty's Grilled Cheese on their menu.
Betty didn't know she wanted to be a chef until relatively late. I forget where she's from, but she originally came out to L.A. to be an actress. She kept at it for a good while until finally, at thirty-five, she decided, in her words, that she "sucked" at it. Like a lot of starving actors, Betty made ends meet in the restaurant industry, first as a hostess and waitress before eventually learning how to prepare the food herself. During one of the early episodes of Top Chef, she was invited to cater. Not on the show itself, but to provide food for the crew on their meal breaks. Set catering, as they say. Well, the way she told it, on one particular day she woke up in a really goofy mood and decided to do something different. She wasn't specific as to what she made but only said she was "determined to liven the place up." Whatever she did, it caught the producers' attention. Next thing you know, she's on season two. And today she's a thriving Grub Gal.
Chris Jacobsen, whom everyone calls C.J., said he had to go through your typical Hollywood casting call. He was on the third season of Top Chef, which was only a few months after the second season when Betty was on. Dude had to wait several hours during the interminable casting call. He went through an interview process, answered tons of questions, the whole deal.
Our friend Alex Reznik endured the same to get into season seven. That's another thing I had to deduce from what they were talking about: Season seven is still airing as we speak. It began in June and wraps up next week. The big tipoff was when someone asked Alex who he thought would win. Instead of committing to any predictions, Alex took the long-winded diplomatic route by going on and on about how this season is "too stacked with talent" to pick a favorite. The chefs are all "phenomenal." One of them's been short-listed for the James Beard award twice. Another's got a Michelin star, yada yada yada. And apparently those are the ones who are "no good" relative to the other competing chefs.
One thing all these superstar chefs agreed on is how grueling the life is. DAS talked about this during his chicken roulade demo. You truly need to possess an unbridled passion for all things cooking if you have any hope of making it as a chef. Alex said flat out that 90% of those who aspire to be chefs won't make it due to the long, thankless hours of the entry level positions that all culinary school grads are obligated to endure. They quit, drop out of the culinary rat race, sayonara. As for how long the entry level hell lasts, everyone on the panel agreed that five years was par. Lest you think that doesn't sound too bad, Alex said to imagine suffering five years of chefs telling you you're no good. "Five years of hell," C.J. called it.
You don't necessarily have to be a kitchen slave to get your foot in the door. What Betty did, catering, is also a common way to get experience and exposure. Alex said that while he himself never did much catering, he agreed with the others that catering was underestimated as a perfectly valid entry level gig. The one drawback, according to the panel, was the extra pressure you feel from not being in your comfort zone. That is, in your kitchen. And indeed, Alex said that was the main reason he never took to catering.
During the audience Q&A, a woman sitting next to me asked them about their backgrounds. She introduced herself as a food DJ from New York who grew up in a family of cooks, and she wanted to know if they came from similar backgrounds. C.J. didn't, but Alex and Betty both said they grew up in families with a lot of cooking.
Another person in the audience wanted to know where you could get the best burger in L.A. Betty said her favorite was Father's Office. That's awesome because I've actually been there once. It's on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. The Aero Theatre is on Montana just a few blocks east. If you've read any of the movie posts on this blog, you may already know about the Aero, as the majority of the movie events and Q&As I attend take place there. One time, I think it was a Sunday, I went down there for a James Bond double feature. I intentionally got there early because I wanted to have a couple beers and a bite to eat before the show. A few days before, I checked out the Montana Ave. website, which has a listing of places to eat in that area. That's how I found Father's Office. Its being hailed as the "Cheers of Santa Monica" sold me, as Cheers is one of my favorite sitcoms ever. So I went there and had a couple beers and a burger. That burger was spectacular, and Betty's endorsing it is pretty cool. I forget the names of the restaurants the others named for their favorite burger, but I do remember all of them being on the Westside.
Cooking Demo with Anne Willan - Downtown Stage - 3:30-4:00pm
And now we venture further into this little faux town. I had some time to kill and so made the rounds for more awesome samples of food and wine.
I also checked out some of the food trucks parked back here. Parked way in the back, literally right up against the fence where the faux town gives way to the gritty reality of gravel lots and Dumpsters, was the food truck that turned out to be my favorite of the whole event: The Munchie Machine! It's the Scooby Dooest food truck in town. Check out themunchiemachine.com to see what all my fuss is about. The truck's run by a few guys who look to be in their twenties. I recommend their hand-cut fries. As a fries fanatic, I can easily say those were some of the best fries I've ever had.
The Downtown Stage wasn't far from the trucks. Whereas the Westside Stage, where I saw the Top Chef folks, was sort of a makeshift stage, the Downtown Stage was much larger, more of a concert-type venue like the Hollywood Stage where I saw DAS. I showed up just in time for a cooking demo put on by this soft spoken, unassuming English gal named Anne Willan. Her modesty turned out to be in reverse proportion to her track record.
Our gal Anne here, who easily looked a decade younger than her seventy-two years, founded a very well-known cooking school in France called Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne. Or simply La Varenne, as it's more commonly known. Originally from Newcastle, she relocated to France and opened the first La Varenne in Paris when she was in her mid thirties or so. About ten years later, she was inducted into "Who's Who in Food and Beverage," a list compiled by the James Beard Foundation. In the food world, that's kind of like the hall of fame. I'm the furthest thing from a foodie, but even I have heard of James Beard. Growing up in New Jersey, my father kept a James Beard cookbook in the kitchen. Not sure we ever used it, but there it was, reminding us every day of Mr. Beard's greatness. Anyways, by the time she was in her early fifties, Anne had relocated to Burgundy and enjoyed living there much more than Paris. It was in Burgundy that she opened up another La Varenne and ran it until about three years ago. Bon Appétit voted her cooking teacher of the year. She's written a bunch of books, most recently The Country Cooking of France, which came out and won some awards around the time she left Burgundy.
See what I mean? Anne's a gourmet superhero. And she's based here in L.A. now, running a cooking school in Santa Monica. Check out lavarenne.com. It's like she took La Varenne and moved it here. The British guy emceeing the Downtown Stage, chap called Alistair, said something about how long he'd lived in the States, which prompted Anne to say that she's been an American citizen since her early thirties, before she went to France.
For her cooking demo, Anne showed us how to make a set of appetizers based on the red pepper. In French it's called Trio aux Poivrons Rouges, which literally means Trio of Red Pepper Appetizers. Ann called it the Red Pepper Trio for short. I never thought I'd salivate over anything that had anything to do with a red friggin' pepper, but check out the three red pepper snacks she made. You had red pepper and goat cheese on toasted baguette, red pepper and olive salsa(!) on toasted baguette, and finally, my favorite, the red pepper shooter "with a bit of crème frâiche."
Does that sound awesome or what? And since I'm sure you'll want to make this stuff yourself, as I do, here's what you need.
Ingredients
First and foremost: 6 red peppers
For red pepper and goat cheese toasts:
12 thin slices of small baguette
6 ounce log of soft goat cheese
For red pepper and olive salsa toasts:
1 garlic clove, crushed
¾ cup pitted green olives, drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Ground black pepper
12 thin slices of small baguette, lightly toasted
For red pepper shooters:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 ½ cups chicken or vegetable stock, more if needed
2 teaspoons sugar
3-4 tablespoons crème fraîche, to finish
Small round cookie cutter
Got all that? Now here's how you make it.
Directions
To peel the peppers: Heat the broiler and broil the peppers on a baking sheet until black and blistery, turning them to cook evenly, 10-12 minutes. Alternatively, light a gas burner and, using a two-pronged fork, hold the peppers one by one over the flame, rotating so that the skin blackens and blisters evenly. Fasten the blackened peppers in a plastic bag so they steam and the skin is loosened. When the peppers are cool, slip off their charred skins with your fingers. Don’t worry about leaving a few flecks of black—it adds flavor.
For the goat cheese toasts: Slice 2 peppers down one side, discarding cores and seeds; flatten peppers into one large piece. Use the cookie cutter to stamp out 12 rounds of red pepper; set aside the trimmings. Crush the cheese with a fork and spread it on the bread so it is completely covered. Broil the croustades on the baking sheet until the cheese is lightly toasted and the edges are melted, 2-3 minutes.
Set pepper rounds on top. Just before serving, warm the toasts in a 250°F oven 2-3 minutes. Serve them warm.
For the olive and red pepper salsa: Cut the reserved pepper trimmings in pieces. Put the garlic, olives, and cumin in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add the pepper pieces and continue pulsing until the mixture is quite fine. Season with black pepper. Shortly before serving, shape ovals of the salsa with two teaspoons and set one oval on each toast. Serve at room temperature.
For the red pepper soup shooters: Coarsely slice the remaining peppers, discarding stems and seeds.
Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the shallots and garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the peppers with sugar, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until peppers are very soft, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then purée the mixture in a blender with 1 cup of the chicken stock until very smooth. Transfer the soup to a saucepan and bring almost to a boil. Stir in more chicken stock to make a rich, pourable soup. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve in shot glasses, with a dab of crème fraîche on top.
Cheese and Sake Tasting - VIP Stage - 4-4:45pm
Yes, the VIP area was finally open. And yes, since I paid extra for the VIP admission when I bought the ticket, I wasted no time heading straight there. It meant retracing my steps through Times Town, back out into the front lot, past the Hollywood Stage and the Food Network Garden (ahoy, Rajun Cajun!), almost back to where I came in, before finally arriving at the VIP entrance on my right. The VIP Stage was dead ahead as I came in, surrounded by the innumerable tents manned by reps from the more posh restaurants in L.A., such as First & Hope and Drago.
I've never had sake and know very little about it, but the idea of a sake and cheese tasting sounded too unique to pass up. Leading the tasting were cheese guru Barrie Lynn and sake guru Keinosuke "K" Inoue. Barrie is the Cheese Impresario. And I'm using capital letters because our gal Barrie holds the copyright on that title. She's also the cheese columnist for The Beverly Hills Times and writes a monthly column called Cheese Matters. I've never been so interested in cheese than after hearing her talk about it. Check out her site when you get a chance, thecheeseimpresario.com. Definitely peruse all that stuff under Cheese and Fun. She's even got cheese poems! Very witty gal and knowledgeable about her passion.
Just as Betty Fraser, the Grub Gal from the Top Chef panel, fell into her career by accident after her original aspiration, acting, didn't pan out, Barrie was originally a marketing exec who fell into the cheeseverse completely by accident. She didn't elaborate on the nature of the accident other than to say it was like "Cupid's arrow coming out of the sky." Her big break came when she was hired for one of the Oscars after parties in early 2006. She became fast friends with the rap group Three 6 Mafia, who won Best Original Song that year for "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle & Flow. I don't know why, but that's hilarious. If you met her and knew anything about Three 6 Mafia, you'd never suspect they'd be friends, but perhaps that speaks to the power of her awesome cheese.
Keinosuke "K" Inoue works at Banzai Beverage Corporation. He was a wealth of information about sake. I was transfixed, listening to him rhapsodize about it. First and foremost, sake is not distilled like liquor, it's brewed like beer. Sake breweries are built on top of major water sources, without which you couldn't brew sake. K stressed that you can't transport water to a sake brewery. It just wouldn't work. Either build on a big well or there's no point. K said he's amazed at how many people think sake keeps like wine. As in, we stupid Americans assume the longer you let sake sit around in your cupboard or in your basement, the better it will taste. The truth is the polar opposite. Sake doesn't keep at all. It'll last maybe a few days or so on the outside, but that's it. So when you buy a bottle of it, either guzzle that baby or what are you doing? K did concede that if you keep it refrigerated, it might last a couple months, but that's a big "might." He's convinced that this massive misconception is why sake's gotten such a shitty rep in the States. Most people here don't know anything about it and so, unbeknownst to them, are judging sake after having drunk it spoiled. K also noted that Americans mostly drink it hot, so there you go. You're drinking hot, spoiled sake. If you want really good sake, keep it in the fridge and make sure you've had it within a week of buying it, and you're sure to have awesome sake. Take it slow, though. K did caution that sake's alcohol content is a couple percentage points higher than wine. So, you know, hurry up and all so it doesn't spoil, but take your time and enjoy it. To get the details on how sake is brewed, K recommended this page from his company's site: http://www.banzaibeverage.com/making/index.html.
Someone else was standing up front to the side while K was talking. K introduced him as Sato, the "Jimi Hendrix of sake." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but judging by the applause, Sato's obviously a huge deal in the sakeverse.
After Barrie and K finished their spiels, they both stood up front and put on a cheese and sake tasting. Since I was a few minutes late coming from Anne Willan's red pepper demo, I missed out on getting a plate of bread and grapes and a glass. So I stood there while people came up to get samples of cheese and sake. Barrie called up some people she seemed to know. Even though I was missing out, it was still kind of entertaining to watch people experiment. You could tell they weren't used to good sake, and I eventually knew how they felt. After the tasting, I had the chance to taste sake at one of the tents in the VIP area. I was kind of anxious to try some at that point, but my taste buds didn't respond too well. The sake was so-so. Then again, beer was so-so when I first tried that many an eon ago, and look at me now, a veritable beer fanatic.
My favorite tent in the VIP area was First and Hope, a restaurant downtown on the southwest corner of, yes, First and Hope. They're relatively new, only just opened in the last year or so. I've been there twice, the first time with Mom back in May and then again with Dad in July. As it turned out, the woman running their tent was the hostess who was there the night I took my Dad there. She actually recognized me, which was cool. Today she offered free samples of these little tater tot balls. The chef at First and Hope is from Tennessee, so you definitely have a Southern influence, but it's unique at the same time. Go to firstandhope.com and check out their menu to drool over stuff like Meyer’s Ranch Beef Short Ribs with Fingerling Potatoes, Baby Carrots and Mushrooms. Does that not sound fantastic?
Among other notable tents was the one by Singha, the Thai beer. I've been familiar with this yummy brew a long time, but I have to say my fandom was renewed by how much fun they had with their set-up. I especially love the hat.
I ended the day where I began it, over at the Hollywood Stage where they put on a concert. It was a double bill with Scottish songstress Angela McCluskey followed by She and Him, the duo featuring M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel. I stayed in the VIP too long to catch Angela, although I certainly heard her. I eventually made my way over and caught She and Him. The sun was below the horizon at this point. It was finally cooling off, and it felt really good to plop down on the pavement to give my feet a rest along with several hundred other people.
And now I'm sunburned and burned out, but in a good way. Besides, it's Labor Day tomorrow so I get to sleep in. This was great fun. I'm glad the L.A. Times is trying out new events like this while nurturing old standards like the Book Fest. Here's hoping they celebrate food and wine next year.
I'm not exactly the biggest gourmand you've ever met. Far from it. In fact, I've always called myself a garbage disposal. Still, I had nothing better to do on this Labor Day weekend Sunday. And as a movie buff, visiting a place like Paramount, one of the oldest and most legendary movie studios in town, for whatever reason, is always pretty cool.
Paramount's located on Melrose Ave. in Hollywood. Yes, THAT Melrose. The nearby mostly Latino neighborhood was throwing a full-on party and parade in honor of Mexico's bicentennial. Streets were closed, so I had to go down side streets different from what I'd planned with Yahoo! Maps' help, but it's all good. What little I saw of the bicentennial festival looked awesome. Coincidentally, at work next week, when I build out the Q3 newsletter for my department, the design theme's going to be Mexico in honor of their lucky 200th.
I got there at half past eleven, a good half-hour before the event started. With nary a cloud in the sky, the weather was a postcard. Perhaps a bit too postcard. While waiting in line for the gate to open, I must've sweated a good pint or so. That sun beat down on me like you'd beat a drum during a welcoming fanfare. "Welcome to the first annual celebration of food and booze!"
Once we got in and I could start walking around, I got more comfortable. The event didn't take up the entire Paramount property. Paramount Studios is massive. No, this took place on one of their backlots, which is itself a fairly decent sized piece of land. When you go in, you've got this huge stretch of pavement before you, easily as long as a football field, maybe longer, and just as wide. It stretches back until it dips down and finally comes to an end at a huge warehouse-type building and ivory water tower crowned with Paramount's very famous mountain and stars logo. I'm not sure what the logic is behind that dip, which makes the back half of the blacktop a few feet lower than this front half where we came in. It's definitely distinctive, that's for sure. To the back right was a gateway leading to another backlot with faux building facades and streets, like a little town. More on that later.
The VIP area, which wouldn't open until mid afternoon, was to our immediate left as we came in. Not to fear, I paid the extra for VIP admission, so I'll report on that after I talk about all the stuff I did before then. The VIP area took up almost the entire front half of this first area, right up to that dip. Now when you get to that dip and, ya know, dip, you come upon a few select food trucks, about five, set up and already dishing out their wares. And there, front and center in this lower half of the front lot, right up against the building, was a stage set up for cooking demos. This whole lower half of the front lot was known as the Food Network Garden, and that stage was called the Hollywood Stage. From what I gathered, the Food Network Garden was so called because these five food trucks and all the chefs who'd be giving demos on the Hollywood Stage throughout the day were somehow connected to the Food Network. Obvious, I know, but I never watch the Food Network, so that's the best I can do.
While waiting for the first demo, I felt myself drawn to the food trucks. It had been forever since I'd gotten anything at a food truck. Now during my undergrad years at Temple U. in North Philly, food trucks were as much a part of the environment as the sidewalks and trees. I didn't appreciate it at the time (of course), but I have fond memories of grabbing a cheesesteak and fries for lunch, or a hot cocoa early in the morning to take with me into Paley Library while reading and killing time before my 8:40am class. So perhaps it was nostalgia that magnetized me to the food trucks today, and perhaps it was that boot-kickin' fiddle-playin' gal next to the Rajun Cajun food truck that made me pick that particular one. I ended up getting a bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo. Yes, hot as it was, I got chicken and sausage gumbo. I blame the carrot-topped fiddle player. And my love for spicy food.
Cooking Demo with Darrell "DAS" Smith - Hollywood Stage - 3:30-4:00pm
The first cooking demo on the Hollywood Stage began at 12:30pm and featured a young African-American man named Darrell Smith who, according to the program, goes by the name DAS and was featured on season six of The Next Food Network Star. Again, I know nothing about this so bear with me. While it would get crowded later, and downright packed by the time the VIP area opened, the crowd was still relatively light at half past noon, so I was able to stand pretty close to the stage. And yes, we all had to stand. No sitting in the Food Network Garden, which was fine with me. I never exercise so how else was I going to burn off, or rather, sweat out that awesome gumbo?
DAS had a full kitchen set up on stage, everything you could possibly need to prepare whatever you want. What was cool was that they had this long horizontal mirror suspended at an angle above the kitchen so we could see everything DAS was doing on the counter and stove. I'm not sure, but I think the mirror may have also magnified things a bit. From where I stood, I was probably a good fifty feet or so from DAS, and yet I could see everything he was doing in that mirror. He also had a lapel mic so we could hear everything he was saying.
The dish he made for us was chicken roulade. Know what that is? Me neither until today. I'd sure love to have some now after having spent forty-five minutes watching DAS prepare it. Roulade apparently comes from the French verb that means to roll, and so a roulade of any kind is when you've got meat that's "rolled" around a filling, like cheese or what have you. He made his chicken roulade from scratch. One of the first things he said when he got going was that when you cook chicken or pork, it always has to be well cooked. You can have rare or medium rare beef, but there's no going rare, let alone raw, with chicken or pork.
He narrated his life story while preparing the roulade. Originally from the Detroit suburbs, DAS took an entrepreneurship class in the summer when he was 12. He had to wear a suit to class every day while his pals played outside. DAS said he's had a business acumen for as long as he can remember, but it wasn't until he attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta that he found he had an even greater knack for cooking. He discovered it slowly but surely, piecemeal (pun intended), over the course (another one!) of his four years. Whenever he had friends over, rather than order pizza or whatever, DAS would actually cook stuff, and he found he loved it and was good at it.
Since I never watch the Food Network, I've never seen The Next Food Network Star. Apparently that show can get pretty dramatic. Like Big Brother, the participants, in this case chefs, live in the same house together. DAS said he had a great time on season six, but he emphasized how difficult it was, saying it was "much harder" than he anticipated. On the plus side, he made a lot of new friends. Today he lives in Hollywood and teaches at Beverly Hills High. Those who don't attend Beverly Hills High can sign up for his cooking classes on chefdas.com.
At this point the chicken roulade was nearly done. Someone in the crowd, which had grown since the start of the demo, asked how you can tell if the chicken is done if it's wrapped in plastic the way DAS had his roulade wrapped in plastic, and you can't see the clear liquid. DAS said the whiteness of the chicken is always a good indicator. For the roulade, the ideal time and temp are 27 minutes at 350. DAS said he's been doing this so long that he's got an internal clock in his brain and literally knows when the 27 minutes are up. For this demo he was using olive oil but said peanut oil works just as well, even though it's not as healthy and you have to be sure no one at your table has a peanut allergy. Whichever you use, he stressed that you only need one teaspoon and no more. Meantime, he sliced the potatoes a quarter-inch thin. That's pretty thin, right? Go too fast and you might cut yourself. To avoid that, DAS said to "feel the side of the blade along your knuckles" as a sort of sensory confirmation that the sharp edge of the knife is pointed down at the potato and not at you. He used a mallet to make the chicken breast extra thin.
Hungry yet? Yeah me too. Judging by all he's done at a relatively young age, he's obviously very driven and type A, with a competitive streak to round things out. But you don't get that sense at all watching him work. He's very folksy, casual, laid back, and he makes preparing such a fancy dish look like another day at the office. If I tried my hand at chicken roulade, it'd be a disaster.
And now for a panel kinda like the panels I attend every year at the Book Fest.
Life after Top Chef - Westside Stage - 1:45-2:30pm
On the panel were Betty Fraser from Top Chef season two/Grub (in the heart of post production Hollywood), Chris "C.J." Jacobsen from Top Chef season three/The Yard, and the bald, crabby Alex Reznik from Top Chef season seven/Ivan Kane's Cafe Was. The moderator was a gal named Krista Simmons, associate editor for Brand X (one of the big sponsors here).
Let me just say that I haven't heard of any of these people, and I've never watched Top Chef. The above is from the trusty program.
The Westside Stage was located in the faux town backlot behind the first backlot where I watched Chef DAS in the Food Network Garden. I went back there right after DAS's demo and had a good half-hour to kill before the Top Chef panel. The various streets, fronted with faux brownstones and townhouses, were lined with tents manned by the restaurants and wineries sponsoring the event, just as they have sponsor tents every year at the Book Fest.
When we surrendered our admission tickets at the front gate this morning, we were each given a small plastic wine cup with the Food and Wine logo as well as a bunch of little drink tickets. The idea was that we'd exchange a drink ticket for a tasting at any of the wine tents. As luck would have it, though, most of the wine tents didn't care about the tickets. I think one vendor asked me for it, but the other tents didn't give a shit. Awesome, huh? By the time the Top Chef panel started, I'd already had a few samples and was feeling fine and dandy on this gorgeous day.
Even though I was flying blind here in terms of who these people were, I was able to deduce a thing or to. First and foremost, I figured out that this Alex Reznik guy, with his polished dome of a noggin, was caught up in some "controversy" during season seven of Top Chef. I use quotes because it was more like a faux controversy, at least to me. The season ended with him suspected of stealing a competitor chef's pea puree. Talk about passionate foodies, a lot of the folks in the audience were absolutely convinced he'd stolen the pea puree and weren't shy about heckling the man. Pea puree. Seriously?
Betty Fraser seemed like a kool kat. She was on Top Chef season two and co-runs a joint in Hollywood called Grub. Betty said Grub's in the "heart of post production Hollywood." She runs it with a woman named Denise. Together, they're the so-called Grub Gals. Apparently Grub's been kicking butt. Citysearch has given it the Best Breakfast, Best Brunch, and Best Lunch awards a whole bunch of times. Betty won that season on Top Chef with a grilled cheese sandwich she made for Al Roker on The Today Show called Ba-Da-Bing Betty's Grilled Cheese Sandwich. That's awesome, I want to have it just because it's called that. I told you she was cool, right? And get this: TGI Friday's paid her for the rights to have Ba-Da-Bing Betty's Grilled Cheese on their menu.
Betty didn't know she wanted to be a chef until relatively late. I forget where she's from, but she originally came out to L.A. to be an actress. She kept at it for a good while until finally, at thirty-five, she decided, in her words, that she "sucked" at it. Like a lot of starving actors, Betty made ends meet in the restaurant industry, first as a hostess and waitress before eventually learning how to prepare the food herself. During one of the early episodes of Top Chef, she was invited to cater. Not on the show itself, but to provide food for the crew on their meal breaks. Set catering, as they say. Well, the way she told it, on one particular day she woke up in a really goofy mood and decided to do something different. She wasn't specific as to what she made but only said she was "determined to liven the place up." Whatever she did, it caught the producers' attention. Next thing you know, she's on season two. And today she's a thriving Grub Gal.
Chris Jacobsen, whom everyone calls C.J., said he had to go through your typical Hollywood casting call. He was on the third season of Top Chef, which was only a few months after the second season when Betty was on. Dude had to wait several hours during the interminable casting call. He went through an interview process, answered tons of questions, the whole deal.
Our friend Alex Reznik endured the same to get into season seven. That's another thing I had to deduce from what they were talking about: Season seven is still airing as we speak. It began in June and wraps up next week. The big tipoff was when someone asked Alex who he thought would win. Instead of committing to any predictions, Alex took the long-winded diplomatic route by going on and on about how this season is "too stacked with talent" to pick a favorite. The chefs are all "phenomenal." One of them's been short-listed for the James Beard award twice. Another's got a Michelin star, yada yada yada. And apparently those are the ones who are "no good" relative to the other competing chefs.
One thing all these superstar chefs agreed on is how grueling the life is. DAS talked about this during his chicken roulade demo. You truly need to possess an unbridled passion for all things cooking if you have any hope of making it as a chef. Alex said flat out that 90% of those who aspire to be chefs won't make it due to the long, thankless hours of the entry level positions that all culinary school grads are obligated to endure. They quit, drop out of the culinary rat race, sayonara. As for how long the entry level hell lasts, everyone on the panel agreed that five years was par. Lest you think that doesn't sound too bad, Alex said to imagine suffering five years of chefs telling you you're no good. "Five years of hell," C.J. called it.
You don't necessarily have to be a kitchen slave to get your foot in the door. What Betty did, catering, is also a common way to get experience and exposure. Alex said that while he himself never did much catering, he agreed with the others that catering was underestimated as a perfectly valid entry level gig. The one drawback, according to the panel, was the extra pressure you feel from not being in your comfort zone. That is, in your kitchen. And indeed, Alex said that was the main reason he never took to catering.
During the audience Q&A, a woman sitting next to me asked them about their backgrounds. She introduced herself as a food DJ from New York who grew up in a family of cooks, and she wanted to know if they came from similar backgrounds. C.J. didn't, but Alex and Betty both said they grew up in families with a lot of cooking.
Another person in the audience wanted to know where you could get the best burger in L.A. Betty said her favorite was Father's Office. That's awesome because I've actually been there once. It's on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. The Aero Theatre is on Montana just a few blocks east. If you've read any of the movie posts on this blog, you may already know about the Aero, as the majority of the movie events and Q&As I attend take place there. One time, I think it was a Sunday, I went down there for a James Bond double feature. I intentionally got there early because I wanted to have a couple beers and a bite to eat before the show. A few days before, I checked out the Montana Ave. website, which has a listing of places to eat in that area. That's how I found Father's Office. Its being hailed as the "Cheers of Santa Monica" sold me, as Cheers is one of my favorite sitcoms ever. So I went there and had a couple beers and a burger. That burger was spectacular, and Betty's endorsing it is pretty cool. I forget the names of the restaurants the others named for their favorite burger, but I do remember all of them being on the Westside.
Cooking Demo with Anne Willan - Downtown Stage - 3:30-4:00pm
And now we venture further into this little faux town. I had some time to kill and so made the rounds for more awesome samples of food and wine.
I also checked out some of the food trucks parked back here. Parked way in the back, literally right up against the fence where the faux town gives way to the gritty reality of gravel lots and Dumpsters, was the food truck that turned out to be my favorite of the whole event: The Munchie Machine! It's the Scooby Dooest food truck in town. Check out themunchiemachine.com to see what all my fuss is about. The truck's run by a few guys who look to be in their twenties. I recommend their hand-cut fries. As a fries fanatic, I can easily say those were some of the best fries I've ever had.
The Downtown Stage wasn't far from the trucks. Whereas the Westside Stage, where I saw the Top Chef folks, was sort of a makeshift stage, the Downtown Stage was much larger, more of a concert-type venue like the Hollywood Stage where I saw DAS. I showed up just in time for a cooking demo put on by this soft spoken, unassuming English gal named Anne Willan. Her modesty turned out to be in reverse proportion to her track record.
Our gal Anne here, who easily looked a decade younger than her seventy-two years, founded a very well-known cooking school in France called Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne. Or simply La Varenne, as it's more commonly known. Originally from Newcastle, she relocated to France and opened the first La Varenne in Paris when she was in her mid thirties or so. About ten years later, she was inducted into "Who's Who in Food and Beverage," a list compiled by the James Beard Foundation. In the food world, that's kind of like the hall of fame. I'm the furthest thing from a foodie, but even I have heard of James Beard. Growing up in New Jersey, my father kept a James Beard cookbook in the kitchen. Not sure we ever used it, but there it was, reminding us every day of Mr. Beard's greatness. Anyways, by the time she was in her early fifties, Anne had relocated to Burgundy and enjoyed living there much more than Paris. It was in Burgundy that she opened up another La Varenne and ran it until about three years ago. Bon Appétit voted her cooking teacher of the year. She's written a bunch of books, most recently The Country Cooking of France, which came out and won some awards around the time she left Burgundy.
See what I mean? Anne's a gourmet superhero. And she's based here in L.A. now, running a cooking school in Santa Monica. Check out lavarenne.com. It's like she took La Varenne and moved it here. The British guy emceeing the Downtown Stage, chap called Alistair, said something about how long he'd lived in the States, which prompted Anne to say that she's been an American citizen since her early thirties, before she went to France.
For her cooking demo, Anne showed us how to make a set of appetizers based on the red pepper. In French it's called Trio aux Poivrons Rouges, which literally means Trio of Red Pepper Appetizers. Ann called it the Red Pepper Trio for short. I never thought I'd salivate over anything that had anything to do with a red friggin' pepper, but check out the three red pepper snacks she made. You had red pepper and goat cheese on toasted baguette, red pepper and olive salsa(!) on toasted baguette, and finally, my favorite, the red pepper shooter "with a bit of crème frâiche."
Does that sound awesome or what? And since I'm sure you'll want to make this stuff yourself, as I do, here's what you need.
Ingredients
First and foremost: 6 red peppers
For red pepper and goat cheese toasts:
12 thin slices of small baguette
6 ounce log of soft goat cheese
For red pepper and olive salsa toasts:
1 garlic clove, crushed
¾ cup pitted green olives, drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Ground black pepper
12 thin slices of small baguette, lightly toasted
For red pepper shooters:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 ½ cups chicken or vegetable stock, more if needed
2 teaspoons sugar
3-4 tablespoons crème fraîche, to finish
Small round cookie cutter
Got all that? Now here's how you make it.
Directions
To peel the peppers: Heat the broiler and broil the peppers on a baking sheet until black and blistery, turning them to cook evenly, 10-12 minutes. Alternatively, light a gas burner and, using a two-pronged fork, hold the peppers one by one over the flame, rotating so that the skin blackens and blisters evenly. Fasten the blackened peppers in a plastic bag so they steam and the skin is loosened. When the peppers are cool, slip off their charred skins with your fingers. Don’t worry about leaving a few flecks of black—it adds flavor.
For the goat cheese toasts: Slice 2 peppers down one side, discarding cores and seeds; flatten peppers into one large piece. Use the cookie cutter to stamp out 12 rounds of red pepper; set aside the trimmings. Crush the cheese with a fork and spread it on the bread so it is completely covered. Broil the croustades on the baking sheet until the cheese is lightly toasted and the edges are melted, 2-3 minutes.
Set pepper rounds on top. Just before serving, warm the toasts in a 250°F oven 2-3 minutes. Serve them warm.
For the olive and red pepper salsa: Cut the reserved pepper trimmings in pieces. Put the garlic, olives, and cumin in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add the pepper pieces and continue pulsing until the mixture is quite fine. Season with black pepper. Shortly before serving, shape ovals of the salsa with two teaspoons and set one oval on each toast. Serve at room temperature.
For the red pepper soup shooters: Coarsely slice the remaining peppers, discarding stems and seeds.
Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the shallots and garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the peppers with sugar, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until peppers are very soft, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then purée the mixture in a blender with 1 cup of the chicken stock until very smooth. Transfer the soup to a saucepan and bring almost to a boil. Stir in more chicken stock to make a rich, pourable soup. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve in shot glasses, with a dab of crème fraîche on top.
Cheese and Sake Tasting - VIP Stage - 4-4:45pm
Yes, the VIP area was finally open. And yes, since I paid extra for the VIP admission when I bought the ticket, I wasted no time heading straight there. It meant retracing my steps through Times Town, back out into the front lot, past the Hollywood Stage and the Food Network Garden (ahoy, Rajun Cajun!), almost back to where I came in, before finally arriving at the VIP entrance on my right. The VIP Stage was dead ahead as I came in, surrounded by the innumerable tents manned by reps from the more posh restaurants in L.A., such as First & Hope and Drago.
I've never had sake and know very little about it, but the idea of a sake and cheese tasting sounded too unique to pass up. Leading the tasting were cheese guru Barrie Lynn and sake guru Keinosuke "K" Inoue. Barrie is the Cheese Impresario. And I'm using capital letters because our gal Barrie holds the copyright on that title. She's also the cheese columnist for The Beverly Hills Times and writes a monthly column called Cheese Matters. I've never been so interested in cheese than after hearing her talk about it. Check out her site when you get a chance, thecheeseimpresario.com. Definitely peruse all that stuff under Cheese and Fun. She's even got cheese poems! Very witty gal and knowledgeable about her passion.
Just as Betty Fraser, the Grub Gal from the Top Chef panel, fell into her career by accident after her original aspiration, acting, didn't pan out, Barrie was originally a marketing exec who fell into the cheeseverse completely by accident. She didn't elaborate on the nature of the accident other than to say it was like "Cupid's arrow coming out of the sky." Her big break came when she was hired for one of the Oscars after parties in early 2006. She became fast friends with the rap group Three 6 Mafia, who won Best Original Song that year for "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle & Flow. I don't know why, but that's hilarious. If you met her and knew anything about Three 6 Mafia, you'd never suspect they'd be friends, but perhaps that speaks to the power of her awesome cheese.
Keinosuke "K" Inoue works at Banzai Beverage Corporation. He was a wealth of information about sake. I was transfixed, listening to him rhapsodize about it. First and foremost, sake is not distilled like liquor, it's brewed like beer. Sake breweries are built on top of major water sources, without which you couldn't brew sake. K stressed that you can't transport water to a sake brewery. It just wouldn't work. Either build on a big well or there's no point. K said he's amazed at how many people think sake keeps like wine. As in, we stupid Americans assume the longer you let sake sit around in your cupboard or in your basement, the better it will taste. The truth is the polar opposite. Sake doesn't keep at all. It'll last maybe a few days or so on the outside, but that's it. So when you buy a bottle of it, either guzzle that baby or what are you doing? K did concede that if you keep it refrigerated, it might last a couple months, but that's a big "might." He's convinced that this massive misconception is why sake's gotten such a shitty rep in the States. Most people here don't know anything about it and so, unbeknownst to them, are judging sake after having drunk it spoiled. K also noted that Americans mostly drink it hot, so there you go. You're drinking hot, spoiled sake. If you want really good sake, keep it in the fridge and make sure you've had it within a week of buying it, and you're sure to have awesome sake. Take it slow, though. K did caution that sake's alcohol content is a couple percentage points higher than wine. So, you know, hurry up and all so it doesn't spoil, but take your time and enjoy it. To get the details on how sake is brewed, K recommended this page from his company's site: http://www.banzaibeverage.com/making/index.html.
Someone else was standing up front to the side while K was talking. K introduced him as Sato, the "Jimi Hendrix of sake." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but judging by the applause, Sato's obviously a huge deal in the sakeverse.
After Barrie and K finished their spiels, they both stood up front and put on a cheese and sake tasting. Since I was a few minutes late coming from Anne Willan's red pepper demo, I missed out on getting a plate of bread and grapes and a glass. So I stood there while people came up to get samples of cheese and sake. Barrie called up some people she seemed to know. Even though I was missing out, it was still kind of entertaining to watch people experiment. You could tell they weren't used to good sake, and I eventually knew how they felt. After the tasting, I had the chance to taste sake at one of the tents in the VIP area. I was kind of anxious to try some at that point, but my taste buds didn't respond too well. The sake was so-so. Then again, beer was so-so when I first tried that many an eon ago, and look at me now, a veritable beer fanatic.
My favorite tent in the VIP area was First and Hope, a restaurant downtown on the southwest corner of, yes, First and Hope. They're relatively new, only just opened in the last year or so. I've been there twice, the first time with Mom back in May and then again with Dad in July. As it turned out, the woman running their tent was the hostess who was there the night I took my Dad there. She actually recognized me, which was cool. Today she offered free samples of these little tater tot balls. The chef at First and Hope is from Tennessee, so you definitely have a Southern influence, but it's unique at the same time. Go to firstandhope.com and check out their menu to drool over stuff like Meyer’s Ranch Beef Short Ribs with Fingerling Potatoes, Baby Carrots and Mushrooms. Does that not sound fantastic?
Among other notable tents was the one by Singha, the Thai beer. I've been familiar with this yummy brew a long time, but I have to say my fandom was renewed by how much fun they had with their set-up. I especially love the hat.
I ended the day where I began it, over at the Hollywood Stage where they put on a concert. It was a double bill with Scottish songstress Angela McCluskey followed by She and Him, the duo featuring M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel. I stayed in the VIP too long to catch Angela, although I certainly heard her. I eventually made my way over and caught She and Him. The sun was below the horizon at this point. It was finally cooling off, and it felt really good to plop down on the pavement to give my feet a rest along with several hundred other people.
And now I'm sunburned and burned out, but in a good way. Besides, it's Labor Day tomorrow so I get to sleep in. This was great fun. I'm glad the L.A. Times is trying out new events like this while nurturing old standards like the Book Fest. Here's hoping they celebrate food and wine next year.
