Royal/T in Culver City closes this month

Royal/T, the Japanese maid cafe, eatery and art space in Culver City, is closing at the end of July.

Opened in 2007, Royal/T brought Los Angeles weekly Tokyo Nouveau Champagne brunches, waitresses dressed in playful maid uniforms and the cafe's signature milk tea, among many culinary- and art-related workshops, exhibitions and events.

The shop bids farewell with final events held at its space beginning this weekend. Saturday, from 10 a.m. to noon, Royal/T hosts a tea workshop with Paper Architect. Learn tips and tricks for planning an ultimate tea party from Nancy Caldwell while munching on an assortment of sandwiches, scones, desserts and freshly brewed tea. Purchase tickets online at www.royaltworkshop.eventbrite.com.

A closing brunch will mark the final cafe service at Royal/T on Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with live music featured throughout the afternoon. The cafe's last scheduled shindig is a pop-up dinner in collaboration with Cordero Negro from 6 to 9 p.m. July 26 and 27. The evening's 12-course tapas tasting menu is $45 per person and will include dishes like chorizo sausage with succotash and saffron corn veloute, herbed goat cheese, stuffed pequillo peppers with basil infused olive oil, and Spanish flan. Make reservations online at www.corderonegro.com/popup.

What's next? Royal/T's owner Susan Hancock plans to take the brand on the road with various events and pop-ups.

8910 Washington Blvd., Culver City, (310) 559-6300, royal-t.org.

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Photo: Royal/T storefront. Credit: Royal/T

5 Food Events: Moveable Feasts; HopHead Heaven; Can You Dig It?

Moveable Feasts: The Los Angeles Nomadic Division hosts its second Moveable Feasts dinner on Feb. 19. Last month, the dinner was held at Lucques and this month it will take place at Soho House in West Hollywood. This month's event honors Andrea Bowers, an L.A.-based multimedia artist and activist whose work makes political statements by focusing on social issues. Tickets are $200 per person and includes a three-course dinner with wine as well as a special, artist-designed object. RSVP by contacting laura@nomadicdivision.org. 9200 Sunset Blvd., L.A., (310) 432-9200, sohohousewh.com.

HopHead Heaven: Library Alehouse in Santa Monica is celebrating local bitterness with an 11-day fest featuring hoppy brews from Southern California. The alehouse will be pouring beers like Eagle Rock Populist, Bootlegger’s Knuckle Sandwich, El Segundo Blue House Citra Pale, Smog City IPA, Ladyface IPA and Golden Road Point the Way IPA, among others. Small bites like street tacos, sriracha honey wings and habanero shrimp ceviche will be available to pair. 2911 Main St., Santa Monica, (310) 314-4855, libraryalehouse.com.

Can You Dig It? On Feb. 24, M.B. Post's chef David LeFevre is kicking off a quarterly series where he'll be hosting a guest chef and featured farmer. The program will feature a three-course meal of small plates at $65 per person with optional wine pairing. For the inaugural event, LeFevre is hosting chef Giuseppe Tentori of Boka and GT Fish & Oyster in Chicago to highlight produce from Maryann Carpenter of Coastal Farms in Santa Paula. 1142 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, (310) 545-5405, eatmbpost.com.

Colman Andrews dinner: Brentwood's Farmshop is hosting a four-course dinner on Feb. 28 with dishes from "The Country Cooking of Italy" by Colman Andrews. Andrews, co-founder of Saveur magazine and the recipient of eight James Beard Awards, will be present at the event to sign copies and discuss his latest release. The event costs $90 per person and includes dinner and a signed copy of the book. 225 26th St., Ste. 25, Santa Monica, (310) 566-2400, farmshopla.com.

Zinfandel Festival Paso Robles: Paso Robles is hosting the 2012 Zinfandel Festival March 16 to 18. The festival turns 20 this year and will celebrate with barrel tastings, winemaker dinners and vineyard tours throughout the weekend featuring Zinfandel blends from more than 150 wineries. See pasowine.com.

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Photo: Cous cous from Manhattan Beach Post. Credit: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times

Culinary workshop on Gothic desserts at the Getty in March

On March 1 and 2, Getty Center educators Nancy Real and Robin Trento are leading a culinary course that explores the world of Gothic art and cuisine.

The group of 20 participants will tour the exhibition "Gothic Grandeur: Manuscript Illumination, 1200–1350," with their hosts before preparing desserts similar to those found in the medieval courts of Europe.

Real and Trento are incorporating recipes to enrich the historical components of the course and will discuss Gothic history that influenced the time period's desserts, such as the uses of spices and sugar. Panforte di Siena, for example, contains cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper, evidence of the Arab countries' influence on European cuisine because of the use of spices.

After the tour, the class will retreat to the Getty's private dining room, where participants, with the help of their instructors, will prepare desserts representative of the period and countries of origin of the manuscripts featured in the exhibition, such as lavender pudding from England, krapfen from Germany, torta bonissima and panforte di Siena from Italy, marzipan from Spain and pignolat from France.

The workshop is $75 per person.

1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A., (310) 440-7300, www.getty.edu.
 
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Image: "The Dragon Pursues the Woman Clothed in the Sun Who Receives the Wings of an Eagle," about 1255-1260. Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. Ludwig III 1, fol. 21v

'Moveable Feasts' dinner series by Los Angeles Nomadic Division

 

 

The nonprofit public art initiative known as Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) was founded in 2009 to curate site- and situation-specific contemporary art projects in L.A. and farther afield.

The organization has featured "Nomadic Nights," an ongoing series of events, in various locations throughout L.A. that reflect the diverse ways in which contemporary artists engage and present visual culture through their work, performances and ideas.

New to the organization this year is "Moveable Feasts," a dinner series that incorporates elements similar to "Nomadic Nights" by making art accessible to the public but is different in that the engagement of people and culture will be more intimate through the added component of food.

"Moveable Feasts" will take place at restaurants throughout the city once a month. Each event will be held in honor of a different artist, will take place in a different neighborhood of L.A. and will feature a specially selected three-course menu. As of now, four dinners are planned for January through April at locations in West Hollywood, Venice and downtown.

On Sunday, LAND will host its first of the "Moveable Feasts" series with a dinner at Lucques on Melrose Avenue in honor of L.A.-based artist Mungo Thomson. Thomson, whose work includes various media  exploring backgrounds and space, was part of LAND's exhibition "The Secret Knows" in Austin, Texas, "The Secret (Still) Knows" in L.A. and "Nothing Beside Remains" in Marfa, Texas.

Tickets to the event are $150 per person and include a three-course dinner with wine as well as a signed copy of Thomson's People, a magazine created by Thomson that addresses reception and empty space.

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Image Credit: Mungo Thomson, People, 2011. A LAND Exhibition: Nothing Beside Remains.

ArtBites explores the history of desserts on Dec. 11

Explore the history of desserts Sunday in a hand's-on class through ArtBites.

The day starts at LACMA, where participants will explore the museum's collection of Latin American, French, English and Italian paintings and decorative arts. After the museum visit and discussion, the group will meet at Surfas' test kitchen for a hands-on cooking class.

Holiday desserts to be made include büche de Noël, gingerbread baby cakes, a fresh berry galette, a maple-pear upside down cake and chocolate-peppermint bark.

ArtBites was founded by Maite Gomez-Rejón in 2007 to combine the history of art and food. She has worked in the education departments of various museums and also as a private chef, so her resume is perfect for the endeavor. ArtBites hosts classes that tour museum galleries, tracing the historical role of food through art collections, followed by hands-on-cooking classes.

Sunday's four-hour class starts at noon and is $100 per person. The price  includes museum admission, tour, recipes, ingredients and wine.

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Photo: Büche de Noël. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

L.A. artist Alyson Iwamoto's ceramics inspired by farmers market

Los Angeles ceramic artist Alyson Iwamoto's latest works are inspired by farmers market produce such as winter squash, pomegranates, summer melons and Asian radishes. She creates these vessels with traditional Asian glazes by making plaster molds around a fruit or vegetable and casting them in porcelain. 

Iwamoto's beautiful ceramic representations of fruits and vegetables found in Southern California are available for purchase at the Japanese American National Museum, the Craft and Folk Art Museum and the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Her works, which include a pomegranate vase ($50) and radish cup ($30), will also be on display and for sale at this year's Unique LA event on Dec. 3-4.

Alysoniwamoto.com.

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Upper photo: Radish vase, radish cup and pomegranate vase.

Lower photo: Summer melon bowls. Credit: Alysoniwamoto.com

'Fit for a King: The Merle Armitage Book of Food' at LACMA

LACMA's "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way" exhibition opened at the beginning of this month. The study of midcentury modern design examines the work and influence of the state's native designers and transplants from other parts of the country as well as from Europe.

Among its 300 objects, including furniture, ceramics and fashion, are examples of midcentury modern graphic design with large, bold and experimental typefaces. Featured in the exhibition is Merle Armitage's Art Deco designed cookbook "Fit for a King: The Merle Armitage Book of Food." Armitage was a jack of many trades; in addition to being a theater impresario (he founded the Los Angeles Grand Opera Assn. and later managed the Philharmonic Auditorium), he was also an avant-garde book designer.

Published in 1939, the cookbook rejected standard hidebound rules of the field and used bold title spreads that served as poster-like introductions to Armitage's texts. Featured recipes were from the leading cultural figures of the day, and from Armitage's circle of artistic friends, including critic Lewis Mumford, designer Raymond Loewy and photographer Edward Weston. The book also features black-and-white portraits of vegetables, including a pepper, an artichoke (halved), kale (halved) and an eggplant, photographed by Weston.

The exhibition runs through June 3, 2012.

5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., (323) 857-6000, lacma.org.

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Bottom image: "Fit for a King: The Merle Armitage Book of Food." Credit: Designarchives.aiga.org

'Bought, Borrowed & Stolen': 20 years of Allegra McEvedy's secrets

Allegra McEvedy has been cooking professionally for more than 20 years, working her way through a batch of restaurants in London, most notably the River Café and the Cow, in addition to stints at American eateries Rubicon (now closed) and Jardinière in San Francisco, and New York's Tribeca Grill. The Cordon Bleu alumnus was chef-in-residence at the Guardian for three years, has had a column in the Evening Standard and a seasonal food slot on Robert Elms' show for BBC London.

McEvedy's fifth book "Bought, Borrowed & Stolen: Recipes and Knives from a Travelling Chef" comes out this month. The cookbook traces 20 years of recipes, not to mention knives, from food diaries recorded during her travels. The English chef discusses her favorite fall food, her recently released cookbook and the time she spent on the West Coast, with the Los Angeles Times:

Q: What knife, of your collection, is your current favorite or most used?

A: Well, as you probably can tell I have a bit of an emotional attachment to all of my knives, so although it's hard to choose a favorite I am finding myself reaching for a beautiful example of the craft that I bought in New York about five years ago. It's the younger sibling of one I picked up when I was working at Tribeca Grill in '96; both are made by Michael Moses Lishinsky [of Wildfire Cutlery]. All his knives are full tang meaning the metal extends all the way to the base of the handle. And being someone who embraces difference, I love that he uses heat-treated steel, as opposed to the more fashionable stainless. I also like the fact that it's one of only two knives in my 70 strong collection that I can trace back to the maker. My favorite job for this beauty, where it really excels, is smashing cloves of garlic; Mr. Lishinsky may have created the perfect shape of the flat of the blade with this one purpose in mind!

Caitlin Williams Freeman and SFMOMA's latest edible art offering

Caitlin Williams Freeman is the in-house pastry chef at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's rooftop cafe. The former UC Santa Cruz photography student co-founded Miette. Then in 2001, in what she thought would be a temporary stint, she started making pastries for her husband James Freeman's Blue Bottle Coffee locations.

When his company landed a spot on SFMOMA's rooftop, Williams Freeman used the opportunity to channel her love for paintings and photography into her baking. Now the cookies and cakes available -- for visual and literal consumption -- at the coffee bar pay homage to artworks on view in the museum's galleries.

Constantly coming up with new ideas for art-inspired desserts, edible spinoffs have included a Katharina Fritsch ice cream sandwich, with poodle-shaped chocolate cookies sandwiching vanilla ice cream; a fudgsicle-take on Ellsworth Kelly's Stele I (located in the sculpture garden); and a Thiebaud cake inspired by the museum's large collection of Bay Area artist Wayne Thiebaud's paintings.

The latest addition to the menu is a popsicle created in reference to Santa Monica-born artist John Zurier's painting "Arabella," included in the "The More Things Change" exhibition, on view until Nov. 6. The popsicle, made of fresh spearmint ice milk and strawberry, costs $5 and will be available up until the exhibition's closing day.

The next dessert in the works will be ...

'Food and the Art of Consumption' exhibition at Cal State Fullerton

"Acquired Taste: Food and the Art of Consumption" opens Oct. 29 at Cal State Fullerton's Begovich Gallery.

The exhibition, curated by Alyssa Cordova and Heather Richards of Sixpack Projects, addresses the underlying issues surrounding food and consumption. With a growing awareness of food policy and politics — think Michael Pollan or "Food, Inc." — and a booming interest in the organic, local and slow food movements, the artwork featured in "Acquired Taste" highlights society's relationship with food through installations, sculpture and oil paintings.

Opening reception programming includes a cooking demonstration by chef Jonathan Dye, a participatory mural art project and a lecture by artist-in-residence Gregory Stewart. Also featured will be master preserver Delilah Snell's "Jam Van," a traveling exhibition of her work in a converted vintage Volkswagen van. She is featured regularly on KCRW-FM’s "Good Food" radio program.

The exhibition will be on view through Dec. 8.

Begovich Gallery, Cal State Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, (657) 278-7750, acquiredtaste.sixpackprojects.com.

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Credits, from top: Rodrigo Calderon, Ashley Sinohui and Laurel Webster; Rebekah Myers and Timothy Berg