 The Dining Room at the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa has been searching for a talented chef de cuisine to replace Craig Strong since Strong resigned to work at Studio at the Montage in Laguna Beach in May. Replacing Strong certainly wasn't easy as he helped earn the restaurant a Michelin star in both 2007 and 2008. But now the Dining Room has announced that they have settled on Michael Voltaggio, who will begin his reign in the kitchen tomorrow.
Voltaggio recently left his position as chef de cuisine at the Bazaar by Jose Andres at the SLS Hotel, which thrived under his guidance, earning four stars from Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila and attracting attention from around the country. Not at a loss for things to spend his time on, Voltaggio is also a contestant on Season 6 of Bravo's "Top Chef," and he can be found cooking as a guest chef July 30 during Breadbar's Hatchi series.
For now he'll stick with the menu on offer but is expected to unveil a new one in August. The new menu will be featured through the end of the year. Come 2010 the Dining Room will be renovated and unveiled with a fresh, as of yet unannounced, twist.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photo: Michael Voltaggio, right, at the Bazaar by Jose Andres. Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times
 Friday's Calendar section devotes its regular "My Favorite Weekend" column to the daily doings of superstar chef Wolfgang Puck, who almost choked me up with his admission that when he has friends in town he has his wife bring them to wherever he happens to be working that day and "hopefully, I'll get the chance to sit down and spend some time with them."
That is until I read about the $6,000 espresso machine he has in his house and thought, "OK, so that's what all this hard work is about." And who knows? Maybe a really good espresso machine is worth it. And besides, no matter how disappointed Puck's friends might be to not see much of him, surely they aren't disappointed at the prospect of eating in one of his restaurants under his care.
Other Puck favorites include: Angelini Osteria, Matsuhisa (where he enjoys the miso cod), Nokia, Griffith Observatory, LACMA and the Getty Center.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photo: Wolfgang Puck and his family. Credit: David Livingston / Getty Images
 In todays' New York Times, Jane Sigal writes about "The perfect burger and all its parts." She says that most accounts credit the burger's ascent to gourmet stardom to Daniel Boulud, who first stuffed ground sirloin with "truffles, braised short ribs and foie gras" eight years ago at DB Bistro Moderne in Manhattan.
Then she switches course to focus on what she writes is "a perfect burger recipe." The man responsible? Michael David, the executive chef at Comme Ça brasserie here in L.A.
The genius of his Comme Ça burger is that it is consistently juicy, perfectly seasoned and precisely medium-rare. The patty is charred on the outside and rosy pink from edge to edge.
It is a radical improvement on what most people already do, but it’s not much more complicated. His trick is to treat the burger the way many chefs do a steak.
He puts a good hard sear on both sides using his plancha, the freight train of flat tops, then transfers it to a 375-degree oven to finish cooking. After it comes out, there’s a built-in resting period while he toasts the buns and makes a last-minute lettuce salad.
I don't know about you, but I'm about five minutes away from making up some sort of excuse to leave work so I can go eat one of those burgers. For some reason, I bet I'll have to get in line.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photo: Comme Ça. Credit: Coral Von Zumwalt / For The Times
 Fans got a taste of what they’ve come to crave from Top Chef during Episode 3 on Wednesday: a sprinkling of drama, a few sound bites from a trash-talking European chef and a dash of frenzy during the "elimination challenge."
Ludo Lefebvre was a breath of fresh air for the series, making it clear that he was there to win. Many of these top-notch chefs seem to be tip-toeing around one another and playing nice simply because there’s a charity involved. We want drama! We want blood!
Fortunately it didn't take long for the show to serve up both. The quick-fire challenge was to create a dish using a single color palate. The waiters accidentally forgot to bring out the beet gazpacho that accompanied Ludo's beef carpaccio, which led to a melodramatic outburst. When the gazpacho finally was delivered, the judges weren't pleased with the monochromatic mess that resulted. The drizzled beet soup turned the plate into a gory murder scene. Ludo's wasn't the only slip-up, though. Wilo Bennettleft the ring around his salmon tartare, but the judges didn’t give a hoot. He won the quick fire.
For the offal street food elimination challenge, all four of the chefs chose to prepare dishes from Latin America. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an Angeleno who’s all about a late-night taco run, but there are so many roads they could have taken with those ingredients (heart, tripe, tongue and pig’s ear).
For example, Ludo drew the pig ear for the challenge and chose to make a quesadilla, which seemed a bit unimaginative considering pig ear has so many street food-friendly applications (Thai hu mu plao or French-fried pig ear salad, to name two). Plus, television's guru of Mexican cooking, Rick Bayless, was his competition. Cindy Pawlcyn's bland menudo had everyone underwhelmed, and judge James Oseland was perturbed by Bennett's cold pita pocket. Bayless' tacos de lengua (tongue tacos) ended up bowling over the judges and the tourists at Universal Studios who got to do the scoring.
The quote of the hour was definitely Ludo’s threat to Bayless, “I will beat you with my quesadilla!” Sounds like grounds for a restraining order to me.
--Krista Simmons
Photos: Bravo TV
New chef at Shangri-La: The Hotel Shangri-La has tapped Dakota Weiss as the new chef at its restaurant, replacing Noah Rosen (you might recall him tweeting about the fact that he had been fired earlier this month). Weiss started Monday, the same day she moved back to L.A. from Philadelphia, where she had helped restaurateur Stephen Starr (Buddakan, Morimoto) open Parc. Weiss previously was chef at the Tower Bar at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Hollywood. Weiss says she is slowly rolling out her menu, starting with a couple of new items Friday. "Very fresh, very simple, no foams," Weiss says. "Lots of seafood, a big raw bar menu." Plus, look for her "thousand-dollar pretzels." 1301 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 394-2791, www.shangrila-hotel.com.
Recent changes at the Bazaar: Michael Voltaggio quietly exited Jose Andres' Bazaar at the SLS Hotel at the end of April as chef de cuisine, succeeded by Jorge Chicas, who has long been part of Andres' core culinary team and also helped open the Bazaar. Look for Voltaggio as a guest chef at Noriyuki Sugie's "Hatchi" dinner series at Breadbar next month. Meanwhile, according to @SLSHotel: "Chef Jose Andres is in town today ... getting ready for a busy weekend!" 465 S. La Cienga Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 246-5555, www.thebazaar.com.
Top Cheffer takes over restaurant: Former "Top Chef" contestant Stefan Richter is opening a restaurant in Santa Monica; he's partnering with the owner of L.A. Farm on Olympic Boulevard. According to a news release, "Stefan's at L.A. Farm will bring a cosmopolitan classiness to the Santa Monica dining scene," because, of course, Richter is known for being classy. The menu will feature "light California cuisine," including tapas at dinner. There will be cocktails too, along with Milwaukee's Best and Pabst Blue Ribbon. An August opening is scheduled. 3000 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 449-4000, www.lafarmrestaurant.com.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo: Hotel Shangri-La. Credit: Hotel Shangri-La
AK no longer: Chef Conny Andersson announced that AK Restaurant + Bar will be closing Saturday, June 20, because of "creative differences" with his financial partners. The Swedish-inflected Venice restaurant opened last November. It will continue to operate under a different name and menu, according to a release from Andersson, who says he is currently searching for a new L.A. location for AK (but didn't it stand for Abbot Kinney?). 1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, (310) 392-6644, www.akinvenice.com.
No Giraud at Social Hollywood: Jeffrey Chodorow's China Grill Management says Alain Giraud, chef-partner at Anisette in Santa Monica, will not be involved in the restaurant at Social Hollywood. When chef Michel Richard left the location, he had asked Giraud to take over the restaurant as a consulting chef. At the time, Giraud said he was negotiating an agreement with China Grill Management (which also operates Asia de Cuba among other restaurants) and was planning on designing new menus. Apparently, those negotiations fell through (Squid Ink reports that "Giraud's stress level went up"). “While we believed that Alain Giraud was an ideal match for the banquet side of Social Hollywood, this was not the time for this collaboration," said general manager Joseph Ojeda. Social Hollywood is exploring "a number of other options." Meanwhile, the Bar at Social Hollywood is open Thursday to Saturday. 6525 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 337-9797, www.citrusatsocial.com
Vermont taps OG chef: Now that restaurateurs Wayne Elias and Chris Diamond have closed Mark's in West Hollywood and moved to Vermont restaurant in Los Feliz, expect menu changes on June 29, when executive chef Stephane Beaucamp returns to the kitchen. Beaucamp was formerly Vermont’s executive chef; the restaurant's most recent chef, Laurent Quenioux, is setting up Bistro LQ in the old Mimosa space on Beverly Boulevard. Beaucamp already has rolled out "Lobster Bake" on Wednesdays. He'll also continue “Dish It Out Mondays,” a specially priced menu that was a Mark’s tradition. 1714 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 661-6163, www.vermontrestaurantonline.com
Valentino in Houston: Restaurateur Piero Selvaggio plans to open PS Valentino Vin Bar at the Hotel Derek in Houston this fall. It's an expansion of the primi concept he installed at his flagship Santa Monica restaurant Valentino -- small plates with an extensive list of wines by the glass.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo courtesy of Vermont restaurant
 Boa set to open Thursday: Boa Steakhouse has relocated farther west on Sunset Boulevard to the Luckman Plaza and is scheduled to open this Thursday. The 13,000-square-foot restaurant (OH: "You could fit a village in there") includes a 4,000-square-foot patio and features a familiar menu: tuna tartare, crab cakes, table-side Caesar, 40-day dry-aged New York strip, whole lobster. But the bar and lounge menu is new. Also of note: Happy hour is 5 to 7 p.m. 9200 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 278-2050.
'Triple Threat' dinner: A six-course tasting menu is in the works for a Zagat-presented dinner at Sona on Wednesday. Chef David Myers, guest chef Noriyuki Sugie and Sona chef de cuisine Kuniko Yagi will prepare California-Japanese dishes that feature ingredients from Chino and Kondo farms, paired with wines and sake. (See the full menu after the jump.) $95 per person; wine and sake pairings additional. Call for reservations. 401 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 659-7708.
Photo credit: Annie Wells / For The Times
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 BLD for Pasadena: Co-owner Amy Fraser confirms reports (via Eater) that BLD will open a second location in Pasadena in the newly built Raymond Renaissance building at the corner of Raymond and Holly Streets, next to the Raymond Theatre. Fraser and her husband, chef Neal Fraser (also the proprietors of Grace restaurant), expect to open by the end of the year. It's the same concept -- breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week -- with a similar design (the designer is Robert Weimer) and menu (no chef picked for the new spot yet). "But certainly, we want to cater to our audience," Amy Fraser says. "Pasadena is really starving for restaurants. [Amen.] So at dinner, it will be more restaurant than bistro or cafe."
Breadbar's hatches 'Hatchi': Breadbar, always coming up with new ideas, now introduces chef Noriyuki Sugie's once-a-month "Hatchi" menu. "Hatchi" means "eight" in Japanese, hence the rotating menu will feature eight dishes priced at $8, created by a guest chef. The inaugural "Hatchi" dinner -- June 25 -- will feature Debbie Lee, a finalist on "The Next Food Network Star," and her Korean- and Southern-inspired small plates (crab and corn fritters with kimchi aioli and pickled watermelon rind, for example). Breadbar Century City, Westfield Shopping Center, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., No. R-2, Los Angeles, (310) 277-3770, www.breadbar.net.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo of BLD on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, by Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times
From @figsandconfit (Noah Rosen): "I've been fired as Executive Chef from the Hotel Shangri-la in Santa Monica...." Then: "Anyone know a good lawyer?"
High-end sushi chain Nobu probably hasn't heard the last of Greenpeace, which has extended its campaign against Nobu Matsuhisa's namesake restaurants to the West Coast.
Greenpeace said it sent protestors to the Nobu on La Cienega Boulevard on Friday to press the restaurant to stop serving bluefin tuna, which environmentalists have identified as perilously overfished. Protestors made reservations and posed as diners to engage waiters and managers in conversations "to educate them about the imperiled bluefin."
Greenpeace senior markets campaigner Casson Trenor was among the protesters. "We told the manager that our point was to communicate directly to the management that their actions regarding bluefin tuna and their flagging stocks were not acceptable," Trenor said. He said that protesters were asked to leave and did so peacefully, leaving tips for their servers. "We weren't there to cause any major disturbances."
Nobu's Los Angeles publicist would not comment, and Nobu general manager Justin Wyborn was not available. A spokeswoman at Nobu New York also was not available.
Similar protests have been staged in New York and London.
Nobu certainly isn't the only Japanese restaurant serving bluefin -- hon maguro in Japanese -- which is one of the most popular fish for sushi and sashimi. It is on Seafood Watch's "avoid" list.
But Nobu "is probably the most influential international sushi chain in the world," said Jane Kochersperger, Greenpeace media officer. "Because they are innovators, we're hoping that moving Nobu to more sustainable policies has a ripple effect in the food world."
-- Betty Hallock
Photo by Christine House / For The Times
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