3 Food Events You Should Know About: Culina kicks off 30 days of risotto; soba at Breadbar and green tea chocolates at the Bazaar, for Japan relief efforts

The risotto schedule: Culina Modern Italian offers 30 days of risotto for the month of April. The schedule for the first 20 days is above. $19 each. 300 S. Doheny Drive, Los Angeles; (310) 860-4000; www.culinarestaurant.com. 

Help with green tea tablets: Now through April 30, the Bazaar by José Andrés is donating 100% of proceeds from the sale of its green tea-infused white chocolate tablets to the Red Cross disaster relief efforts in Japan. They're available in the Bazaar's patisserie. $3 each or $24 for a 24-piece box, available until the end of April. 465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 246-5555; www.thebazaar.com.

Making soba: Cookbook author and soba maker Sonoko Sakai presents another soba workshop Saturday, April 9, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Breadbar on 3rd Street. Learn how to make soba noodles with organic stone-milled Dattan and Japanese buckwheat flours. The cost is $125 per person, and part of the proceeds will be donated to the Japan Sake Organization Relief Fund for sake brewers who suffered damage in last month's earthquake and tsunami. Includes a soba tasting paired with sake and buckwheat tea. Limited to 12 students. (Bring an apron, head bandana and closed-toe shoes, and a container to take home soba.) For more info and to reserve, call the 3rd Street Breadbar. 8718 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles; (310) 205-0124; www.breadbar.net.  

-- Betty Hallock

Larry King’s new calling: Unveiling 'Brooklynized' bagels

Armed with trademarked "Brooklynized" water, Larry King proves it's never too late to realize a dream.  After retiring from his television show, it seems King has discovered a new purpose: bagel restaurateur for the West Coast Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. in Beverly Hills, which opens Friday.

VIPs such as the mayor of Beverly Hills will help King launch the shop with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, partying like rock stars as Brooklyn borough President Marty Markowitz presents the Brooklyn Bridge via video. 

After the 6 a.m. opening, King will offer the first 100 customers a free half-dozen bagels.  At the shop, customers can marvel at the processing equipment that produces Brooklynized water. It's encased in glass and sits under 24-hour spotlights. It is Beverly Hills, after all. 

-- Max Diamond

Photo credit: Charles Sykes/Associated Press

3 Food Events You Should Know About: 'Cheese Rules' debuts online; Cakes for a Cause at La Monarca Bakery; for St. Patrick's Day, chilled lettuce soup?

Cheese TV: Barrie Lynn, also known as the Cheese Impresario, has launched a guide to all things cheese with a Web video series on the Small Screen Network titled "Cheese Rules." Several episodes are online, including "Organic Pinot Noir and Cheese with Shaun Phillips" -- yes, Shaun Phillips the starting linebacker for the San Diego Chargers and apparently a passionate cheese connoisseur. Says Phillips, "You know how I love cheese." He's featured in three episodes including one that pairs Lynn’s peanut brittle and Gorgonzola grilled cheese sandwich with a Manhattan. Go to www.smallscreennetwork.com. 

Green day: Nothing says St. Patrick's Day like ... chilled lettuce soup with smoked salmon and dill? Well, it does at the Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills. At least according to their St. Patrick's Day menu, which also includes corned beef and cabbage with roasted potatoes and sticky toffee pudding with malt ice cream and Irish whiskey jelly. The three-course menu is available for lunch on Thursday for $35, or for dinner for $45, at the hotel's Belvedere restaurant or in the Club Bar or Living Room. I'm a sucker for celebrating a holiday in the Peninsula's Living Room, but St. Patrick's Day? Maybe.... 

9882 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 551-2888, www.peninsula.com. 

Cakes for a Cause: La Monarca Bakery in Santa Monica is celebrating its official grand opening with the launch of its Cakes for a Cause campaign. From Saturday to June 30 the bakery will donate 20% of revenue from all cakes to the ECOLIFE Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the aim of protecting the endangered habitat of the monarch butterfly. The bakery is hosting its official grand opening party Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m., featuring free pan dulce and Mexican beverages, live mariachi, a ribbon cutting and more. From Saturday to the end of the month, Twitter followers who post “I support @LaMonarcaBakery and #CakesforaCause!” will be entered to win a 7-inch cake of their choice.

1300 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 451-1114; www.lamonarcabakery.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Cheese connoisseur Shaun Phillips of the San Diego Chargers. Credit: Harry How / Getty Images

How the other half lives: A peek inside a Beverly Hills villa

 
One kitchen island is a luxury. But two? It's a foodiot's dream.

These are just two of the highlights in this Beverly Hills mansion that was first built for gossip columnist Rona Barrett and later owned by singer Luther Vandross. The Harold Levitt-designed Modernist home re-imagines a European villa. And if you happen to have $13.9 million lying around, it can be yours.

Check out the rest of the photo gallery -- it's our House of the Week -- in our Real Estate section.

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch 

3 food events you should know about: 'detox' cooking demo at M Cafe; pickling class at Farmer's Kitchen; more participants added for Restaurant Week

Coming clean: Jessica Porter, author of "The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics," leads a "post-holiday detox" cooking demo at the Beverly Hills location of M Cafe. The menu includes: carrot-daikon tonic; rice, avocado and corn salad; and purple passion stew and greens. The demo will be followed by a macrobiotics Q&A. $45 per person. 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13. E-mail amy@mcafedechaya.com to reserve a space.

9433 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills; (310) 858-8459; www.mcafedechaya.com.

Pickling 101: The Farmer's Kitchen, the community kitchen run by the nonprofit that organizes the Hollywood Farmer's Market, hosts a class on pickling. Learn the basics in a small, hands-on class with recipes using fresh food from the farmers market. Participants will take home jars. $75 (pay when you arrive). 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15. The deadline to register is Friday, Jan. 14. at 8 p.m. Go to: www.hollywoodfarmerskitchen.org.

1555 N. Vine St., Suite 119, Hollywood; (323) 467-7600. 

Restaurant Week: DineLA updates its lineup of participating restaurant's in this month's Restaurant Week, which runs from Jan. 23 to 28 and Jan. 30 to Feb. 4. Participants include K-ZO, Lucques, Nobu Los Angeles and the Bazaar. Three-course meals for lunch and dinner will be $16 to $44 for appetizer, entree and dessert. SEE THE LATEST LIST OF RESTAURANTS AFTER THE JUMP. 

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Oysters with uni and caviar at K-ZO in Culver City. Credit: Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times.

Now open: Red Medicine in Beverly Hills, Bar Toscana in Brentwood, l'Epicerie Market in Culver City

On Brentwood's Italian-restaurant row, Toscana has opened a next-door lounge, inspired by Negroni-pouring Milano (even though Milan's in Lombardy, not Tuscany, but whatever). Bar Toscana has Italian-inspired cocktails and market-driven stuzzichini, or small plates, from executive chef Luca Crestanelli (a native of Verona). Highlights include lobster salad with tomato; Sardinian flatbread; and fava bean purée, tomato jam and artichoke spread. Francesco Lafranconi came up with the cocktails, executed by bar manager William Perbellini, such as a Negroni Sbagliato, made with Campari, sweet vermouth, Prosecco, orange and a dry olive rim, a tribute to the cocktail developed in the '70s at Milan's Bar Basso.

11633 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 820-2448 or visit www.bartoscana.com.

Red Medicine opened last week on Wilshire Boulevard on the edge of Beverly Hills in the former Hokusai space. Chef Jordan Kahn, ex-pastry chef of Michael Mina's XIV, is cranking out his own take on Vietnamese cuisine: for example, pork chaud-froid with crispy chicken skin, lychee, clove and pistachio; green papaya salad with pickled roots, crispy taro chips and tree nuts; and sweetbreads with curry, yam and turmeric root jam. Managing partner Noah Ellis oversees the cocktails, at least one of which is served in a pineapple and comes with several straws.  

8400 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (323) 651-5500, www.redmedicinela.com. 

After a false start or two, Culver City cafe and retail shop l'Epicerie Market is open. The cafe serves breakfast (good morning, crepes), lunch and dinner. The marketplace carries infused olive oils, housemade tapenades, pasta sauces, French cheeses, saucisson and charcuterie, macarons, fresh bread, petit fours and mille-feuille. 

9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, (310) 815-1600, www.lepiceriemarket.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Black Friday openings: FarmShop bakery, Obika Mozzarella Bar, L.A. Creamery Artisan Ice Cream

 

On your way to the stampede for flat-screen TVs, you might also want to keep in mind the Black Friday restaurant openings at Brentwood Country Mart, Beverly Center and Westfield Topanga Shopping Center. Ice cream break, anyone? 

FarmShop: Jeff Cerciello, who headed Thomas Keller's Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery and Ad Hoc, has opened FarmShop bakery in the Brentwood Country Mart, taking over the space that formerly housed Maury Rubin's City Bakery. This is the first phase of FarmShop's opening, according to a release. The bakery will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, with brunch service expected to start the weekend of Dec. 4. Breakfast, lunch and family-style dinners soon will follow. The market, featuring cheese, charcuterie, a butcher, prepared foods, and wine and beer is slated to open next year.

Brentwood Country Mart, 225 26th St., Suite 25, Santa Monica, (310) 566-2400, www.farmshopla.com.  

Obika Mozzarella Bar: The second L.A. outpost of the Italian chain of mozzarella-focused restaurants is open in Beverly Center. Just as at the Century City location, the Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP is flown in three times a week from Italy. Besides seasonal panini such as speck affumicato dell'Alto Adige with grilled artichokes and wild arugula, the menu features other cheeses, Italian specialties and California produce. Open on Black Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Beverly Center, 8500 Beverly Blvd., Suite K604, Los Angeles, (310) 652-2088, www.obikala.com.

L.A. Creamery Artisan Ice Cream: Chef-partner Jessica Goryl, formerly of Cafe del Rey and Laurent Tourondel's BLT Steak, uses Straus Family Creamery dairy and offers 16 to 18 house-made rotating flavors daily. Also: sorbets, sundaes, ice cream sandwiches, bonbons and fresh fruit popsicles. Plus baked goods, Intelligentsia coffee and tea from the Art of Tea. (Note: It's next to Nordstrom.)

Westfield Topanga Shopping Center, 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Suite 1044, Canoga Park, (818) 340-2663, www.lacreamery.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Obika's Century City location. Credit: Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times

Now open: Scarpetta in Beverly Hills, Pal Cabron in Koreatown, the Luggage Room in Pasadena

Beverly Hills Italo: Chef Scott Conant's Italian restaurant Scarpetta opens Monday night at the Montage hotel in Beverly Hills. It's the L.A. outpost of his New York original and the fourth Scarpetta in his growing restaurant empire. (There are others in Miami and Toronto, with another expected to open this year in Las Vegas.) The menu of "soulful, seasonally inspired Italian dishes" includes autumn vegetable salad with black trumpet mushrooms, hazelnuts and foie gras emulsion; pumpkin soup with farr, almonds, spiced croutons and pumpkin oil; Conant's signature spaghetti with tomato and basil; Sorrento-style pasta with Dungeness crab and sea urchin; orata rosa with watercress gremolata; and ash-spiced venison loin with braised radicchio and smoked polenta dumplings. The new decor in what was the Parq restaurant is "Old Hollywood-inspired." 

225 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 860-7970, www.montagebeverlyhills.com.

Cemitas galore: Bricia and Fernando Lopez of L.A.'s Guelaguetza Oaxacan restaurants have transformed the Guelaguetza on 8th Street into their second outpost of cemitas and tlayudas shop Pal Cabron. The first one (also formerly a Guelaguetza restaurant) opened in Huntington Park last year. Their father, Fernando Lopez Mateos, opened the original Guelaguetza in 1994 and another on Olympic Boulevard several years later. "My father and I decided to close the [8th Street] location," Bricia says. "We were losing money and I figured it would be better to move clients to the Olympic location... My valet guy said, 'Why don't you just turn it into a Pal Cabron, I mean, how much could it cost you?' I had a eureka moment and we were repainting" the next day. That was less than two weeks ago. Pal Cabron Dos debuted last weekend, serving its signature cemitas (Puebla-style sandwiches) stuffed with avocado, onions, Oaxacan cheese and your choice of meats such as cesina or tasajo; tlayudas (big, thin, crispy tortillas) smeared with beans, cheese and meat; and now tacos too.  

3337-1/2 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, (213) 427-0601, www.lascabronas.com.

Suitcase depository goes pizza parlor: La Grande Orange in Pasadena (located in the 1935 Del Mar train depot) has opened its pizza-parlor satellite next door, dubbed the Luggage Room in recognition of its former incarnation as, well, a luggage room for the train station. Pizzas of the thin-and-crispy variety include the Gladiator with spicy Italian sausage, Salumeria Biellese pepperoni and tomato sauce; the Mushroom Party with duxelle of crimini, button and oyster mushrooms along with sweet onion and fennel; and the Free Bird with spicy chicken sausage, clams and rapini. There are cocktails too. Choo-choo. 

260 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, (626) 356-4440, www.lgohospitality.com. 

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Pal Cabron cemita. Credit: Johanna Jacobson

4 food events you should know about: Zen dining at Breadbar; Eva fundraiser and anniversary dinner; the American Wine & Food Festival; Cube's pork and beans fundraiser

 

Zen dining: Starting Tuesday through Sept. 28, Breadbar hosts chef David Schlosser and his “Za-Zen” pop-up, offering a taste of kappo cuisine based on a formal style of dining from Kyoto, Japan. Dishes explore the balance in traditional Japanese cuisine between seafood and farmed vegetables and sea plants. A seven-course "plant and fungi" menu includes germinated rice with barley, fresh chestnuts, lotus root pickle, kelp soup and black sesame mochi; fall mushrooms marinated, grilled and smoked in hay, with sesame and kinako paste; and fig filled with red bean and cinnamon ($34). Another menu includes hirame sashimi, pressed in kelp and marinated konbu jinme with mountain yam, nori cube, wasabi and wasabi sprout; autumn knife fish sanma with prickly ash pepper and marinated winter vegetables; and persimmon with shaved black sugar ($46). 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. 

Breadbar, 8718 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (310) 205-0124, www.breadbar.net. 

A fundraiser, and an anniversary: Eva restaurant and Share Our Strength host a fundraising dinner to help fight childhood hunger on Wednesday. Four courses feature the produce of Alex Weiser and include: potato with clam; cod caponata; chicken with charred onion; and "chocolate with chocolate." $65 per person. And on Sept. 29, chef Mark Gold celebrates Eva's first anniversary with special guest chefs Josiah Citrin, Michael Cimarusti, Walter Manzke and Sherry Yard. Five courses for $150; an additional $50 with wine pairing. Reservations required.  

7458 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 634-0700, www.evarestaurantla.com. 

Puck-a-palooza: Tickets for the American Wine & Food Festival, benefiting Los Angeles Meals on Wheels programs, are now on sale. The 28th annual bacchanalia hosted by the Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation, takes place Sept. 25 at Universal Studios' back lot. Among the chefs at this year's event: Gino Angelini, Paul Bartolotta, Floyd Cardoz, Lissa Doumani and Hiro Sone, Dean Fearing, Thomas Keller, Paul Liebrandt and more. See the jump for the full list of participating chefs. The next day, on Sept. 26, Wolfgang Puck, Lee Hefter and Barbara Lazaroff with executive pastry chef Sherry Yard host the Chefs Grand Tasting Dinner at Spago. Tickets are $300 for the AWFF, and $750 per person or $7,000 per table for the Chefs Grand Tasting.

American Wine & Food Festival, Universal Studios’ back lot, 3900 Lankershim Blvd., Gate 3, Universal City. Chefs Grand Tasting Dinner, Spago Beverly Hills, 176 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills. For tickets and more info, go to www.awff.org/tickets. 

Pork! Beans! Cube Marketplace & Cafe, along with Steven Sando of Rancho Gordo and Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller of Fatted Calf charcuterie, present a pork and beans rooftop barbecue fundraiser at its downtown factory on Oct. 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. Dishes will incorporate products from the Bay Area's Fatted Calf (pork) and Rancho Gordo (beans). All proceeds from the event will benefit Cube Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the development of garden-to-table programs for local underprivileged children and their parents. Corey Landis & the Attacks and Quinn DeVeaux & the Blue Beat Review are scheduled to perform. $64 per person in advance, $75 at the door. 

Cube Foundation Rooftop Garden, 550 Ceres Ave., Los Angeles, www.cubemarketplace.com. 

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Mark Gold at Eva. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Larry King is bringing bagels to Beverly Hills

We know what's next for Piers Morgan, he'll replace Larry King on CNN next year. But what's next for Larry King? He's going into the bagel business.

The talk show giant plans to open the first West Coast outpost of the Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. in Beverly Hills in November. The restaurant, which will use "Brooklynized" water but plans to feature California cuisine, will be located at 262 Beverly Drive and will capitalize on all things Larry King. King also has signed on to be the company's national spokesman and its West Coast developer.

The 3,700-square-foot location can seat up to 70 people inside and 24 people on its patio. It will also be outfitted with a special Larry King booth, which can seat eight and is reserved specifically for King and his guests. At its center will be a Larry King-style microphone. I bet it the booth will also look extremely serious, wear suspenders and have big glasses (for water).

In addition to bagels, the menu will feature pizza melts and French fries called "potatonaters."

The hallmark of the Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. -- which was founded in 2009 in Delray Beach, Fla., not Brooklyn -- is a 14-step process that makes regular water take on the characteristics of Brooklyn water. So think tough, hip, vegan water that loves Justin Bieber but acts like it hates him.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Larry King. Credit: Rose M. Prouser / CNN