Small Bites: Chocolate dim sum at the Peninsula; choucroute garnie at Bistro LQ; bartenders from New Orleans' Cure at the Edison's Radio Room

Dim sum for dessert:The Peninsula Beverly Hills puts a spin on a tribute to its Hong Kong roots with chocolate dim sum -- yes, chocolate. The dessert dumplings, created by executive chef James Overbaugh and executive pastry chef Miguel Torres, are being offered in the hotel's Club Bar and the Living Room (where resident pianist Antonio Castillo de la Gala performs, 7:30 p.m. to midnight Tuesdays to Thursdays and from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays). The warm, crisp, sweet dumplings are filled with either dark or white chocolate and citrus cream cheese. They're dusted with powdered sugar and served with three dipping sauces -- passion fruit, orange-raspberry and ginger-caramel -- and green tea ice cream. 9882 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 975-2736, www.peninsula.com.

Sausages-n-sauerkraut: Nothing says "Alsace!" like a platter of choucroute garnie. Bistro LQ chef-owner Laurent Quenioux will be serving the traditional French-German dish on Nov. 24 and 25. His includes sauerkraut poached in Riesling, jambonneau (cured pork knuckle), Morteau sausage, apple wood smoked bacon, pork shoulder, ham hocks, boudin blanc, Strasbourg sausage (wieners), blood sausage and steamed potatoes. The three-course menu also includes herring with quail egg as a first course and dessert and mignardises. $40 per person. 8009 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 951-1088, www.bistrolq.com.

The last Radio Room of 2009: Tonight's Radio Room at the Edison downtown features guest bartenders from New Orleans' Cure, which owner Neal Bodenheimer opened this year, hiring a crack team of bartenders, including Richard Gomez, Kirk Estopinal and Danny Valdez. Gomez, Estopinal and Valdez will be "behind the stick" tonight at the Radio Room, the last one for this year, along with Plymouth gin brand ambassador Simon Ford (expect plenty of gin cocktails). Tickets for the 8 p.m. event are $10; proceeds will benefit the Los Angeles chapter of the U.S. Bartenders Guild, the Sporting Life and the Museum of the American Cocktail. 108 W. 2nd St., Los Angeles, (213) 613-0000, www.edisondowntown.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: chocolate dim sum. Credit: Peninsula Beverly Hills.

Sampler Platter: Mignon coming to downtown L.A., Santa Monica resists food trucks, loads of contests

How is it possible that Farrell's is opening a location in Orange County before opening another location in Los Angeles? I have no idea, but it's true. This and more in today's food news.

-- Mignon, from the owners of Bacaro LA Wine Bar, is set to open this winter next to Cole's/Varnish. Eater LA
-- Santa Monica resists nouveau food trucks. California Taco Trucks
--Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour makes its Orange County return on Wednesday, opening a new location in Mission Viejo. Fast Food Maven
-- The New Yorker profiles Jonathan Gold (and mentions local food blogger Teenage Glutster!).
-- With the demise of Gourmet magazine, Jane and Michael Stern will now be e-mailing their Roadfood newsletter once a week. Eating LA
-- Mattatouille has some lovely pictures from his recent foodventures in Japan, Indonesia and Korea.
-- New York firm recalls ground beef due to possible E. coli contamination. Safe Tables
-- Challenge Butter recently launched its "Taste of the West" contest. Prizes include a seven-day / six-night trip to Montana and an $850 kitchen package from Spice Islands and OXO.
-- Check out this infomercial, supposedly the first one ever, made in 1949. It's from Vita-Mix and features founder William G. “Papa” Barnard and a blender. Make your own absurd video and you could win Vita-Mix's Pitch Me! contest.
-- Marly Billings of Newport Beach, Shelly Mayo of Brentwood and David Walter of Los Angeles won Wahoo's Fish Tacos' recent naming contest with the three following dishes: Power Chopper Salad, Wafu Bowl and Baja-ladas Platter.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: 28-year-old Justin Dervaes (right) secures a smoothie being blended as his sister Jordanne pedals in the backyard of the family's urban homestead in Pasadena. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times.

Sampler Platter: Fat is the new normal, Eating Valley Blvd, XIV's vegan tasting menu, protecting Kentucky bourbon

Food art, bourbon, red onions and fat acceptance lead today's food news roundup.

-- Alton Brown says he doesn't see "Good Eats" lasting much beyond next year. Show Tracker
-- Chef Michael Mina’s vegan tasting menu at XIV. To Live and Eat in L.A.
-- Fat as the new normal: Saying no to diets, fat acceptance and questions about whether extra pounds really equal extra risk. Los Angeles Times
-- If you like art with your food, don't miss Wayne Thiebaud's iconic cupcakes on display in a retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of California Art until Jan. 31. Eating L.A.
--New food blog, Eating Valley Blvd, devoted solely to 8 miles of Asian eateries on Valley Boulevard between the 710 and 605 freeways, goes live.
-- Congressman Ben Chandler urges his fellow Kentuckians to protect the state's signature bourbon and horse industries. Lexington Herald-Leader
-- Gourmet Pigs declares Spago one of dineLA's best deals.
-- What to eat at Tanzore's Diwali party in Beverly Hills this week. Grub Street LA
-- Ma'Kai (Santa Monica) may close and be replaced by a Red Onion. Eater LA

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Wayne Thiebaud's "Four Sandwiches" (1965) puts its own spin on the theme of uniformity. Credit: Hackett-Freedman Gallery

Small Bites: Chaya Brasserie turns 25; Forty Deuce burlesque at Cafe Was; raclette on Balboa Island

Chaya celebrates: Chaya Brasserie in Beverly Hills launches a new menu for its 25th anniversary, still focusing on its mix of French and Japanese cuisine (heavy on the French): fruits de mer, rillettes served en cocotte, daily specials such as cote de boeuf and entrees such as boudin blanc. A new bar menu, titled "La Petite Chaya," in honor of the first restaurant that the Tsunoda family opened in California in1982, features small plates, sushi and dessert. Executive chef Shigefumi Tachibe also is offering a $25 prix-fixe dinner special for the month of October served with anniversary-edition wines by the glass from Au Bon Climat Winery. Proceeds from $25 tickets for an Oct. 25 celebration will benefit the Careers through Culinary Arts Program. 8741 Alden Drive, Los Angeles, (310) 859-8833, www.thechaya.com.

Forty Deuce Fridays: Starting this week Ivan Kane brings back his Forty Deuce burlesque show. Kane's Cafe Was will host Forty Deuce Fridays with shows at 10 p.m. and midnight. 1521 N. Vine St., Hollywood, (323) 466-5400, www.cafewas.com.  

Balboa Island raclette: Raclette night returns to Swiss-French restaurant Basilic on Tuesday. For $21.50, all-you-can-eat raclette is served with fingerling potatoes, cornichons and pickled onions; for an additional $7, a selection of Bundnerfleisch (Swiss air-dried beef), prosciutto and saucisson sec. 217 Marine Ave., Balboa Island, (949) 673-0570, www.basilicrestaurant.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo credit: Chaya Brasserie.

[Updated] Students' future might start with tuna tartar

Tuna tartar isn't normally on the menu at Hollywood High School, but a group of students interested in food service careers got to taste the dish made by a master, chef Shigefumi Tachibe of Chaya Restaurant Group.

Tachibe went to the school recently to demonstrate the dish and to challenge the students to replicate his work as well as to customize a tuna tartar to their own style. Chaya has "adopted" Hollywood High, along with Westchester and West Adams high schools. Chefs will work with students in school and host students at the restaurants, as well as offer some internships.

It's part of the Careers through Culinary Arts Program, which has programs in 15 L.A. Unified schools. C-CAP provides training in high schools in cities around the country; the 19-year-old program has given more than $28 million in scholarship money for culinary programs.

Like many other things, funding for C-CAP has been squeezed, and the efforts "to develop the next generation of talented young chefs is in jeopardy," said Mitzie Cutler, program director of the Los Angeles chapter of the program.

The Beverly Hillls Chaya restaurant turns 25 next month, and is holding a fund-raiser for C-CAP on Oct. 25.

UPDATED:  And earlier version of this post incorrectly said that C-CAP has given more than $3 million in scholarship money. The total is more than $28 million.

-- Mary MacVean

(Photos: Chef Shigefumi Tachibe, top, serves his tuna tartar during class at Hollywood High School. The finished product, bottom. Photos by Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The battle of Chow vs. Chow heats up; celebrity lawyer (and Mr. Chow regular) Bert Fields enters the fray

Michael Chow, a.k.a. Mr. Chow, has tapped celebrity lawyer Bertram Fields in his ongoing campaign against former restaurant employee Philippe Chow. Just as Philippe Chow is about to open his first L.A. restaurant in West Hollywood, Michael Chow has slapped him with another lawsuit, this time in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Michael Chow already had filed a suit against the chain of Philippe restaurants in July in Miami federal court. Both lawsuits allege that Chak Yam Chau, who now goes by Philippe Chow, has deceived consumers by falsely using the Chow name to promote restaurants that "imitate" the Mr. Chow restaurants.

The Los Angeles suit, besides repeating accusations of copied dishes (including Mr. Chow's "famous satay sauce") and improper use of sponsored Web links, also alleges kitchen espionage and harassment, citing a glass door that was "'mysteriously' and deliberately smashed" recently at the Beverly Hills Mr. Chow. 

"We are not going to make any further comments as these are all redundant (delusional) accusations to the Miami suit and nothing to add to," wrote Stratis Morfogen, a Philippe restaurant partner named in the suits, in an e-mail to The Times.

As with the Miami lawsuit, Michael Chow is seeking more than $10 million in damages, according to the Los Angeles filing.

"My friends and I have enjoyed dining at Mr. Chow’s for many years," says Fields, who has represented the likes of Tom Cruise and Joel Silver. "Many of us entertain there .... So I’m personally affronted when this former food chopper and his cynical backers try to make money by imitating everything Mr. Chow does."

Morfogen had called the Miami lawsuit meritless. A motion to dismiss was filed in Miami federal court in July.

Michael Chow founded the chain of famous Mr. Chow restaurants in 1968 in London, followed by restaurants in New York and Beverly Hills. Philippe Chow worked for Mr. Chow for more than 25 years in New York before starting his own chain of Philippe restaurants there in 2005. His Los Angeles restaurant is set to open next month. Both have expanded to Miami and have plans for restaurants in Las Vegas.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Philippe restaurant in Miami. Credit: Philippe

The dineLA food truck rolls out with some big names attached

It's a sign of the times: Anisette's Alain Giraud will be handing out free samples from a food truck on the Third Street Promenade. "I've never worked inside a truck, so I don't want to get too ambitious," he says of the French delicacies he will prepare.

That's not a permanent change of venue, of course. Giraud is one of five well-known Southern California chefs who will be participating in a promotion in advance of dineLA's first fall Restaurant Week, which will begin Oct. 4.

But while Giraud may not be ambitious, that's certainly not the case with dineLA, which hit on the canny idea of tapping into the food truck fad that has taken the city's popular imagination by storm.

Giraud will spend one day on the dineLA truck, which was donated by RoadStoves, the same company that helped the Kogi Korean barbecue taco truck redefine road rage. The other chefs who will cook on wheels and hand out free tastes are Eric Greenspan from the Foundry on Melrose, Jason Johnston from Dakota at the Roosevelt, Walter Eckstein from Lawry's the Prime Rib and John England from downtown's new Rosa Mexicano.

To read the rest of Jessica Gelt's story, click here.

Photo: The chefs are,  from left: John England of Rosa Mexicano, Walter Eckstein of Lawry's the Prime Rib, Alain Giraud of Anisette Brasserie, Jason Johnston of Dakota Steakhouse and Eric Greenspan of the Foundry on Melrose, with the dineLA food truck at RoadStoves. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Small Bites: Kitchen Pantry opens at the Bazaar, Amici Trattoria opens in Glendale, Gordon Ramsay class

Kitchen Pantry: The newest addition to the Bazaar by José Andrés is the Kitchen Pantry, a collection of cooking products and specialty foods available for sale, including  Ventresca tuna belly fillets, Mancho-Oro saffron, Grand Reserva sherry vinegar, Nuñez de Prado olive oil, preserved El Navarrico piquillo peppers, blanched Marcona almonds and, of course, Andres' cookbook "Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America." The Bazaar by José Andrés, SLS Hotel, 465 S. LaCienega Blvd., Beverly Hills. (310) 246-5555, www.thebazaar.com.

New Amici: Brentwood Italian restaurant Amici Trattoria has opened another outpost in Glendale that's noticeably larger (seating for 187) with a patio garden, a full bar and a few new menu items. The Americana at Brand, 889 Americana Way, Glendale. (818) 502-1220, www.amicila.com.

Cooking like Ramsay: On Saturday, executive chef Andy Cook and his team at Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood will host a two-hour master class. For $150, they'll teach guests how to create several of Ramsay's signature dishes. If you miss it, there are seven more of these master classes scheduled through the end of the year. 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 358-7788, www.thelondonwesthollywood.com/gordon_ramsay/.

Eating Out: DineLA Restaurant Week will return for its first-ever autumn event Oct. 4 to 9 and Oct. 11 to 16. Here are just a few participating restaurants: Cache, On Sunset, the Lobster, the Bistro Garden at Coldwater, Bella Cucina, Geisha House, Ketchup.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: The Bazaar by José Andrés in the SLS Hotel. Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

Bouchon Beverly Hills getting closer to completion

Since Thomas Keller is now the president of a restaurant group and not just a chef, he doesn’t get into the kitchen as often as he once did. But that doesn’t mean he’s changed his perfectionist ways. Touring the work site of his new Bouchon restaurant in Beverly Hills, he stops to remind a workman that the spaces inside the walls need to be vacuumed before being closed up. That’s inside the wall, right? A place that no one will ever see? A place that won’t even be exposed until the wall is taken down sometime way in the future? Doesn’t matter. Keller would know it was there and it would bug him. “They all think I’m crazy,” he says, laughing. “But there’s a right way to do things, right?”

The new Bouchon, in the city of Beverly Hills’ Garden Building, across a small park from the Montage hotel on Canon, is still in the roughing-out stages, but Keller insists it’ll be ready to open by Nov. 18. It will mark a significant step up from his previous Bouchon restaurants -- more than 17,000 square feet stretched across two floors, built at a cost of more than $10 million. There will be a grand staircase at the entrance and a racetrack bar stocked with Champagne and shellfish. Open for lunch and dinner (no Bouchon Bakery, unfortunately), it’ll seat about 200 diners if all the spaces are maxed out (there’s a lot of seasonal outdoor seating on patios and balconies).

Very Small Bites, Part II: Stefan's, Eva, Caffe Roma, Reservoir

"Top Chef" Season 5 runner-up Stefan Richter has officially opened his eponymous restaurant, Stefan's at L.A. Farm, a high-end industrial park packed with post-production and audio mixing companies. 3000 W. Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica. (310) 449-4000.

Eva, which is going into the former Hatfield's space, announced that Sundays will be a no-menu "Dinner Party" night. Chef Mark Gold will cook based on what he selects from farmers markets and serve everything family-style, "with free flowing wine." 7458 Beverly Blvd., L.A.

Newly renovated to give it more of a bistro feel, Caffe Roma has recently reopened. 350 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills. (310) 274-7834, www.cafferomabeverlyhills.com.

Reservoir begins serving brunch every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 16. Options include a BLTA served over a cheddar-and-chive waffle, a vegetarian chorizo scramble, Bloody Marys and more. 1700 Silver Lake Blvd., L.A. (323) 662-8655, www.silverlakereservoir.com.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Guinness ice cream and chocolate cake at Reservoir in Silver Lake. Credit: Axel Koester / For The Times