Joseph Mahon turns up in Fullerton to open Early Bird

Ever wondered what happened to Joseph Mahon? He is the onetime chef at the celebrated Bastide restaurant in West Hollywood, the guy who took it California casual (and earned good reviews while doing it). He's popped back up again, this time in his old stomping grounds of Orange County.

Mahon's been running a semi-permanent burger pop-up Wednesday through Saturday nights at the Rialto restaurant in Fullerton (his burger was a big seller at Bastide). And now Mahon, who has also worked with Daniel Boulud and David Myers, is opening a breakfast and lunch spot appropriately called Early Bird in Fullerton.

The place is scheduled to open July 16 with Jonathan Moulton as chef de cuisine. Moulton has worked with Rafael Lunetta and Josiah Citrin at Lemon Moon in Santa Monica and with James Boyce at Studio at the Montage in Laguna Beach.

The menu is sketchy at this point, but, according to press materials, will include dishes such as brioche French toast with almonds, toad-in-the-hole with grilled asparagus and smoked salmon, and a morning pizza with puff pastry, tomato compote and eggs for breakfast. Lunch items include coconut-curry soup, fried chicken salad, grilled cheese and penne arrabiata.

Early Bird,1000 B E. Bastanchury Road, Fullerton.

-- Russ Parsons

Photo: Mahon at Bastide. Credit: Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times

Spice Table expands lunch, adds rice bowls and cheeseburger

Spice Table chef-owner Bryant Ng, who serves banh mi at lunch at his downtown Singaporean-Vietnamese restaurant, says that because so many people have requested dinner items for their noontime meal, he's fired up the grill and added his cheeseburger to the menu. The Spice Table cheeseburger is ground prime short rib, curried pickled cucumbers, sambal, mustard aioli, fried shallots, iceberg lettuce, tomato and American cheese. It's $7.50, and for an additional $3.50 comes with French fries and a side of curry dipping sauce. 

Also new to the lunch menu are Ng's rice bowls ($7 to $11): chicken curry rice bowl with pickled cucumbers, scallions and laksa leaf; beef rendang rice bowl with sambal, peanuts and coconut; pork rice bowl with ground pork, lap chong, mustard greens and fried shallots; veg rice bowl with mushrooms, bok choy and mushroom sauce; and fried egg rice bowl with char siu pork belly, fresh soy beans and Sriracha. Two to three of the rice bowls are on the menu daily. 

114 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 620-1840, www.thespicetable.com.

ALSO:

Who came out on top at the Good Food Pie Contest?

It's the 3rd annual L.A. Beer Float Showdown

Dip into the ramen at Ikemen

-- Betty Hallock 

Photos: Spice Table

Season 2 of 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution' -- in L.A. -- set for Tuesday

 

Jamie Oliver kicks off the second season of his “Food Revolution” on Tuesday, showing viewers everywhere what Angelenos know first-hand: This city has a serious obesity problem.

But Oliver's healthful eating crusade was met with a cold shoulder at the start, something that will be documented as the show gets underway on ABC.

The ebullient Oliver doesn't give up, however. Although the end of the tale has yet to be determined -- he returns later in the month to finish shooting -- sources are already talking about the possibility of a peace treaty with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Although the second season is set in L.A., “The same challenges are everywhere,” the British chef said Thursday in a telephone news conference to promote the show.

Improving the quality of school food has been high on Oliver’s list of projects, but for months he has tussled with the LAUSD and was kept from filming and working in school cafeterias -– something that was a centerpiece of the first season of “Food Revolution,” which took place in Huntington, W.Va.

In a rough cut of the first episode, Oliver sets up a tense stalemate with the school board. In fact, the faces of the board members and outgoing Supt. Ramon Cortines could be put into the “if looks could kill” category when he comes to them asking for entrée to a school.

“I never really expected to be banned from every single school in the district," said Oliver, who added that he felt plenty of support from families in the city for his mission of healthful eating in school and at home.

Oliver said at the news conference that he hopes John Deasy, who takes over as superintendent April 15, “is going to have a different strategy, a strategy that’s more inclusive.”

“My goal is not to fight with the LAUSD,” Oliver said.

The LAUSD on Thursday repeated its longstanding position on Oliver and his request. “We have already extended an invitation to Mr. Oliver to help LAUSD (sans cameras) with its menu committee or design a yearlong menu that meets all the health and nutritional requirements set forth by the federal and state government," LAUSD spokesman Robert Alaniz said. He added: "The invitation still holds."

During the conference call, Oliver noted that it was Cortines who kept him from the cafeterias, though he managed to spend some time in West Adams Prep, a school west of downtown that runs under a contract with the district, before he was told to leave.

“If John Deasy wants to talk to me and wants to do what I know the public wants … if he’s really clever, you know, he’ll let us in for a filming and we can have a dialogue,” Oliver said.

And on another front, Oliver has talked with consultant Kate Adamick about looking at the LAUSD food services department budget to see whether she can find money to add to the 77 cents the district says it spends on food for each lunch.

Adamick, whose Cook for America organization trains cafeteria staff in healthful budget-conscious cooking, stressed that the district hasn’t asked for her input but expects she could find savings and revenue by studying how the district gets, prepares and serves food.

“Of course, I would be very happy to help L.A. do that if they want me there,” she said from New York.

And Oliver's show is not all about the schools. In the first episode, Oliver runs into some resistance trying to reform a fast-food menu.

 

He also has other pots on the stove in his revolution campaign. The Jamie Oliver Foundation is working with the California Endowment and the American Heart Assn. to bring healthful eating to some of the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

A huge mobile teaching kitchen -– funded through donations -- is parked for now in the California Endowment’s lot while staffers get ready to offer cooking classes in South L.A., starting perhaps in June, said Kathlyn Mead, chief operating officer and executive vice president of the endowment.

Her organization is funding classes for residents in an area “barraged by fast-food joints." And the Heart Assn. will help get gardens planted in those same neighborhoods, she said.

“As those gardens are harvested, Jamie Oliver’s truck will be there,” Mead said Thursday by telephone.

The Heart Assn. and Oliver’s foundation will seek funds to open five permanent community kitchens to offer classes in Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, Cleveland and Baltimore.

-- Mary MacVean

Photos: Jamie Oliver at work in L.A. Credit: Associated Press

3 food events you should know about: Breadbar's dessert workshop; Potato Week at Larchmont Grill; Rock Sugar ingredient scavenger hunt

'Festive Desserts Without Fear': Robert Wemischner, author of "The Dessert Architect," is hosting a hands-on class on Sunday, Nov. 14., to teach participants the art of creating desserts. The workshop will show you how to prepare: pears in caramel with vanilla ice cream, cranberry pistachio tart and "chocolate fantasy" served with fruits of the season. (We're just not sure where the fear ever came in.) Seating is limited; reservations recommended. $70. 5 to 8 p.m.  

BreadBar West Third 8718 W. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, (310)-205-0124, www.breadbar.net.

An homage to the potato’s possibilities: From Monday, Nov. 8, to Sunday, Nov. 14., Larchmont Grill's tuber initiative is centered on a three-course potato menu for lunch or dinner. Aiming to reveal potatoes' limitless possibilities, the selection includes a sweet onion and purple potato tart and a sweet potato cheesecake for dessert. (A week of potatoes, great; just don't go overboard.)  

5750 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323)-464-4277, http://www.larchmontgrill.com.

Shop with a chef: Catering to foodies that love Asian food but don't know where to get quality Asian ingredients, chef Mohan Ismail of Rock Sugar Pan Asian Kitchen will lead a small group on a shopping tour that begins at the Los Angeles fish market downtown. The hunt continues at 99 Ranch in Van Nuys, after which guests will return to the Century City restaurant to observe Ismail demo some of his specialties such as steamed bass with crispy organic tofu and mango sticky rice. Saturday, Nov. 13, 8:30 a.m. (meet at Rock Sugar) to 2 p.m. $150 per person.

10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City, (310)-552-9988, www.rocksugarpanasiankitchen.com.

-- Max Diamond

Photo credit: Glen Koenig/Los Angeles Times

Midnight happy hour at Cache; monthly winemaker socials at Cafe Pierre; lunch to go at the Farmer's Kitchen

Midnight in the garden of happy hour: It's midnight in Santa Monica and you're looking for $4 beers and $7 cocktails. It turns out there is such a thing. Cache restaurant now offers midnight happy hour with $7 signature cocktails and chef Josiah Citrin's snacks-in-a-Mason-jar. Cocktails include: Garden Lemonade with thyme-infused vodka, rosemary and sage; the Kiwi Reve with vodka, St. Germain, kiwi, thyme (again! so French) and Bugey-Cerdon wine; and the Black Crowe with tequila, Cointreau, blackberries and lime. Well drinks and select wines by the glass are also $7, and beers are $4. Mason jar snacks -- eggplant tapenade, olives, duck confit, foie gras parfait -- are $3 to $8. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, midnight to 1:30 a.m. 3110 Main St., Santa Monica, (310) 399-4800.

Farmers market lunch: Lunching near the corner of Hollywood and Vine? The Farmer's Kitchen, a project of the nonprofit group that runs the Hollywood Farmers' Market, is now open for grab-and-go lunches from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday. (It's open from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays for breakfast and lunch during the Hollywood Farmers' Market.) The spring take-out lunch menu includes sandwiches such as organic roasted chicken and roasted market vegetable; salads such as baby spinach and strawberries; fruit salad; crudites; and fruits by the piece. 1555 N. Vine St., Hollywood, (323) 467-7600.

Kunin Wines at Cafe Pierre: Café Pierre in Manhattan Beach kicks off its monthly winemaker socials on Thursday, May 6, with Seth Kunin of Kunin Wines. Winemaker socials take place on the first Thursday of every month from 5 to 7 p.m.  Owner Guy Gabriele invites winemakers to showcase their wines at these casual tastings, and chef Remi Lauvand serves appetizers to complement the wines. Next month's featured wines include: 2007 Stolpman Viognier; 2007 Pape Star Rhone Blend; 2007 Paso Robles "Westside" Zinfandel; and 2007 Santa Barbara County Syrah. Reservations recommended but not required. $20 per person. 317 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, (310) 545-5252.
 
-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Cache restaurant by Gina Ferrazzi / Los Angeles Times.

Chowhound readers have spoken: Langer's Deli is L.A.'s best

Chowhound puts it thusly:

This year, by the barest of margins, pastrami trumped lobster and MacArthur Park trumped Melrose.

For eight years now, the food blog has been asking readers to decide “the ultimate Los Angeles restaurant.” And for the last three of those eight years, the readers have bestowed that honor upon Providence. This year? Chowhound readers say it's Langer's Deli.

-- Rene Lynch

Photo: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Book review: 'Save the Deli' by David Sax

The wandering of the Jews is frozen in the marble of the corned beef on rye. The fall of the Temple, the exile, life in the ghetto, reliance on the cheapest meat and the ensuing need to tenderize and smoke and spice, the crossing to the New World -- it all culminates in the towering sandwich you find at the Carnegie in New York, Junior's in L.A., Manny's in Chicago. Every deli is a synagogue. What remained when the kingdom was smashed and the faithful sent a-wandering.

In his deeply satisfying new book "Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen," David Sax sets out to tell this story one city, one deli, one tradition at a time, traveling from New York to San Francisco to Los Angeles, speaking to deli men, eating smoked meat, working as a cutter at Katz's on Houston Street ("Like snowflakes, no two pastramis are exactly alike, sometimes the flesh would be buttery soft, with very few sinews to impede my carving, but often I'd cut through a maze of tissue"), tasting and kvetching and chronicling the state of the cuisine, all this activity set against a dread premonition -- that the deli is going away, and the long run is over. "Across North America ... Jewish delicatessens are disappearing faster than chicken fingers at a bar mitzvah buffet," he writes. Read the rest of the review here:

Cafe Nine opens on 9th floor of Crocker Building

When we stumbled upon Charles "Captain Chuckie" Hsieh's food cart in early January (on his first day in business, no less), it was a treat just to find pulled pork within walking distance of The Times building. Since then, things have moved fast for Hsieh. After two months parked in an empty storefront in the Crocker Bank Building and three additional weeks dishing out his signature pulled pork sliders on Hawaiian buns at the Downtown Independent Theater, Hsieh quietly opened Café Nine on the ninth floor of the Crocker Building (also home to the Crocker Club).

A dining guide for USC and UCLA grads

 

Graduating from college is kind of a big deal.

After four or more years of midterms and finals, Mom, Dad, and every other relative in the western United States will want to see little Josephine Bruin or little Tommy Trojan shake the dean's hand and move that tassel from right to left.

The big question is: how to feed them all after the ceremony and into the weekend?

We picked 10 restaurants, with a variety of price ranges and cuisines, where UCLA and USC graduates and their families can celebrate a well-deserved brunch or dinner. (And thank goodness that true-blue and cardinal-red blood need not be shed in a battle over one of these restaurants: USC’s graduations begin this weekend on Friday, and UCLA’s are not until mid-June.)

So, class of 2009, after you toss your hats, get ready to fill your bellies:

Los Angeles BBQ Festival: Smoke in your eyes and yummy in your tummy

After a first year troubled by long lines and vendors running out of food, everything seemed right on Q at the second Los Angeles BBQ Festival on Sunday.

“This year is 10 times better – no lines. It’s like it should be,” said Jason Sinroll of Manhattan Beach, who was bitterly disappointed in last year’s festival.

Organizer Dan Silberstein of DrinkEatPlay saw to it that last year’s problems would not be repeated, increasing the number of food vendors and drink stations and putting in more seating. The food stalls were plenty busy, but what lines there were moved quickly. Finding a seat at a table with an umbrella could be a challenge, but getting a chair somewhere didn't take long.

“How could it be any better?” asked Brian Stein, pit master of Susie Q’s in Santa Maria, as he supervised tri-tip cooking over red oak (at right). “We’re in Santa Monica, the pier’s right there … barbecue and tri-tip in Santa Monica on Mother’s Day.” He was ably assisted by a Le Cordon Bleu student, plus a guy the Susie Q’s crew met in the parking lot and hit it off with. Brian’s wife, Nancy Stein, said that’s part of the Susie Q’s family atmosphere, adding, “It’s really sweet how everyone is all sweet.”