Chef Marcus Samuelsson talks about art, ethnicity

At chef Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant Red Rooster Harlem, diners can see art by the L.A. native Sanford Biggers. The men are friends and clearly feel an appreciation for each other’s art, which they discussed at the Hammer Museum in one of its series that pairs creative thinkers from various disciplines.

They became friends in the mid-1990s in New York, where they acknowledged they hit the party scene “pretty hard.” Samuelsson, born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, was chef at the Scandinavian restaurant Aquavit on the East Side of Manhattan.

Both men, Samuelsson said, share a love of art and of the craftsmanship involved in making it –- whether it's his food or Biggers’ sculptures. Samuelsson said he learned “pretty early on” that he had to leave Sweden to find the education he needed; he cooked in Japan, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe as well as New York.

“To be an artist of any kind you have to be nimble, you have to be flexible,” said Biggers, whose work has been shown at the Tate in London, the Whitney in New York and many other places. His work includes installations, video and performance; he also is a professor at Columbia University.

The pair spoke to a full auditorium on Sunday, and afterward Samuelsson signed copies of his new memoir, “Yes, Chef.”

The men also talked about the effect of being young black men in worlds where many of their clients or customers are white. Samuelsson –- dressed in hip royal blue slacks rolled up to the shin and a pork pie hat -- joked that once his colleagues understood “I wasn’t dangerous, I wasn’t going to rob them,” his ethnicity wasn’t a factor. He was yelled at like any young cook in a high-end kitchen.

Biggers noted that artists of color have been prominent for some time. His work often involves African American themes. A huge lotus flower, for example, looks lacey and lovely from afar; up close, it’s clear that each petal is a diagram of a slave ship showing how people were packed into small spaces.

“In cooking, everyone knew black people cooked and served, they just didn’t have the title of chef,” Samuelsson observed. In many kitchens where he worked there were few women and no people of color as chefs.

“Black people had to work really hard to get out of the kitchen,” Samuelsson noted. “Now they have to work really hard to get back in.”

The staff at Rooster is diverse, including half female, and he said: “Most women are just better at cooking,” although the physical frenzy of line cooks “fits the young guys.”

Men and women approach cooking differently, he said. For men, it’s “I can get this tomato to look like a carrot and then like a sea urchin. When all you want on a Sunday was for a tomato to look like a tomato.”

Biggers praised Samuelsson’s influence on the Harlem neighborhood where Red Rooster opened, noting that he has helped to make the neighborhood more vital, more appealing for residents, workers and visitors.

Biggers and Samuelsson joked about their reaction to critics.

“I like to buy them a lot of drinks,” Biggers said.

“Oh. Same,” Samuelsson said.

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Photo: Marcus Samuelsson  Credit: Associated Press

A pig and beer dinner benefits cancer research

It was pouring rain that was nearing snow in the mountains, and “the city folk” who’d driven up to ReRide Ranch still wanted to go see the pig, joked rancher Lefty Ayers. They insisted, even though his house was plenty warm, with an elk pot roast in the iron pot in the fireplace.

But trudge out to see the pig the guests did. It was, after all, a female Berkshire-Hampshire pig that would go to slaughter the next morning and become part of every one of the many dishes chefs Bruce Kalman and Gavin Mills would make that week to raise money for a cause many chefs had grown fond of: Alex’s Lemonade Stand, which raises funds for childhood cancer research.

Kalman, of Urbano Pizza Bar in downtown Los Angeles, and Mills, executive chef at Wood + Vine in Hollywood, got their pig on Thursday and went to work for a dinner for about 75 people Sunday at Urbano. The event was named “Pig & Beer,” with beers for each course chosen by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune, known as the Beer Chicks. It started out with a “Pig-Tail Hour” and ended with chocolate-covered smoked porter bacon with truffle salt.

In between, the dishes included porchetta that cooked five hours in Urbano’s pizza oven; ravioli with red stripes of pig blood pasta and stuffed with ricotta, bacon and greens; “Gavin’s luscious pig cheeks”; a pork roulade stuffed with dates; pizzas with Brussels sprouts, bacon and Parmesan cream; shaved vegetable salad with slices of crispy pig’s ears and Meyer lemon. Dessert included an apple bacon upside down cake with bourbon whipped cream. Mills, who buys a half pig a week from ReRide, is known for his charcuterie and made spleen pâté, head cheese and country pâté.

The staff at Urbano donated its time, and the products were donated too; tickets were $50, and 100% of the proceeds went to Alex’s Lemonade Stand. A couple of hours before the guests arrived, Kalman directed the staff to get wood burning in the ovens. A little later, the charcuterie was sliced, herbs were pulled from stems, sauces heated.

Good Food festival links cooks, growers, workers

The idea of "good food" means many things, depending on your perspective. It could be delicious food, or food that's good for your health. The term has been adopted by policymakers to mean food that's good for the economy, or good for the workers who grow or process it. All those definitions were on the table -- pun intended -- at the recent Good Food Festival and Conference.

Over several days, participants ate from the bounty of Southern California's crops and chefs. They also gardened and talked. The conference was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the Santa Monica Farmers Market.

L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky helped kick off the conference, talking about how his own eating habits have evolved. The panelists generally offered an overview of some of the issues about growing and eating food -- including how to feed schoolchildren, the effects of farming on the environment, conditions for farm and restaurant workers, an upcoming congressional farm-bill debate, obesity and other questions.

On a panel about food and public health, Bob Martin, a former executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, jumped right into one of the controversial topics -- the raising of animals for food.

3 Events: Raising a cup, end-of-summer picnic, foodie auction

Caffeinated birthday: Paper or Plastik Cafe is celebrating its first anniversary with a party that, like the cafe, is as much about performance and design as about eating or coffee -- even the Intelligentsia and Ecco coffee made in its steel pour-over bars. The party is set for 7:30 p.m. to midnight on Sept. 10, and will include performances by the Brazilian jazz band Out of Focus and of proprietor Yasha Michelson’s dance technique, plus exhibits of photographs and metalworking, the latter using leftover materials from the café’s construction. Sangria and snacks will be provided. Of course, there will be coffee. 5772 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 935-0268,  www.paperorplastikcafe.com.

Dinner, with beer: City Tavern and brewery Ladyface Ale Companie host a four-course beer-pairing dinner for an end-of-summer picnic on Thursday, Sept. 15. On the menu: an amuse bouche of deviled egg, asparagus and roe with Trois Filles Tripel; orzo, crab, avocado and grapefruit salad and beet vinaigrette with Chaparral Saison; duck confit and crisps with Chesebro IPA; smoked cocoa-rubbed tri-tip sandwich and potato salad with Picture City Porter; and spiked watermelon and peppered strawberries with Sazerac-oaked Red Rye. $46 per person. Call for reservations. City Tavern, 9739 Culver Blvd., Culver City, (310) 838-9739, www.citytavernculvercity.com. 

Bid for foodie-ness: Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Huckleberry Cafe are pitching in to present an online "Foodie Extravaganza" auction that will run Sept. 1 to 30 to benefit Growing Great, a nonprofit organization promoting school garden and nutrition education. Auction items include: a private in-home dinner party cooked by chef Walter Manzke with wines paired by Gargiulo Vineyards; a special tasting menu at AOC from chef Suzanne Goin with pairings by wine director Caroline Styne; an in-home baking class and party with pastry chef Zoe Nathan; a handmade pasta course and tasting menu with Rustic Canyon chef Evan Funke; and a private “Swine Dinner” at the Village Idiot. Other items contributed from: Andrew's Cheese Shop, Animal, Artiste Winery, Blue Plate Oysterette, Christina Perozzi, Cube, Gjelina, Hungry Cat, Justin Winery, Melville Winery, the Mercantile, Milo & Olive Milling Co., Misfit, Red Car Wine, Soho House, Son of a Gun, Sunstone Winery, Sweet Rose Creamery, Tar and Roses and more. Many of these auction items are for groups of 6 to 10 people. To see the complete list of auction items and to register to bid, go to growinggreat.dojiggy.com. 

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Photo: Paper or Plastik. Credit: Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times

Farmers market: 30 years in Santa Monica

Alex Weiser (above, right) is one of the best-known farmers at the Santa Monica Farmers Market. His melons, carrots and wide variety of potatoes draw crowds to his tables every week. But when he began, he was a college student helping out his parents and employing his friends.

Meanwhile, Molly Gean had to ask repeatedly before the market allowed her to sell her product: Harry's Berries -- now a foodie favorite for its fragile strawberries, among other items.

Gean and Weiser shared their memories Thursday night on a panel about the 30th anniversary of the Santa Monica Wednesday market -- a market that chef Mark Peel of Campanile called one of the most important in the country.

The panel was one of many events marking the anniversary, concluding with the Good Food Festival and Conference in September.

The market opened in the summer of 1981 with 23 farmers, said Laura Avery, the manager who joined the market the following year. "I'm in awe of what these farmers do," she said.

Gean noted that some of the early farmers have died, and that in some cases, like her own, the next generation is at the market stalls. She and Weiser both said farmers markets helped save their farms -- and saved them from having to grow produce not for flavor but rather to the specifications of more commercial wholesale operations.

Peel, a market maven, makes menus around what he finds. And these days, he goes on Wednesday, writes a menu, sends pictures and tweets about what he'll cook that night. Often, he says, the menu is posted before he can get from Santa Monica back to his La Brea restaurant.

Josie LeBalch from the restaurant Josie said she and other chefs have asked the farmers to grow what they want to cook, and in turn the farmers have introduced them to ingredients such as purslane that they now use.

The attitude toward a new thing, she said, is sometimes: "I don't even know what it is, but I want it first."

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Photo: Sotera Jaime of Jaime Farms and Alex Weiser at the Santa Monica Farmers Market. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Santa Monica Farmers Market turns 30; giant party planned

 

The Santa Monica Farmers Market is a giant among its peers, with its huge assortment of vendors and its reputation as the place to spot interesting produce and famous chefs. It should not be a surprise that it intends to celebrate its 30th birthday in a giant way, with a five-day festival and conference on Sept. 14-18.

The idea is to show off the food and its growers, and to talk about regional and national food and farming issues in a series of panels and speeches. There will be a street fair too. The market has four sites, two on Saturday, one on Sunday and the largest one, on Wednesdays.

The Good Food Festival & Conference is organized by FamilyFarmed.org, a Chicago-based organization that works to expand the production and distribution of locally grown food and raise issues related to it.

The event will include workshops and panels on food policy, school food, hunger, the environment, farming and organic food. There will be demonstrations on growing a butterfly garden, food perservation, beekeeping and composting. Speakers include the farmers who sell the produce at the markets; chefs who cook their food; and others, including the chief executive of Chipotle, Steve Ells; food activist and grower Will Allen; and L.A.'s senior advisor on food policy, Paula Daniels.

There's so much going on, it's not contained in the Good Food Festival & Conference. On Aug. 27 at Santa Monica Place,  chefs will make jams, pastries and other foods. And on Sept. 8, the director of "Food, Inc.," Robert Kenner, and Barbara Spencer of Windrose Farms will lead a conversation at Food Restaurant, near Rancho Park. There's also a film series.

An art exhibit of farm scenes from the L.A. area will be on display at Santa Monica High School. The art was created in the 1930s, as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration. For more info, go to www.goodfoodfestivals.com.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo of Santa Monica Farmers Market by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

L.A. mayor appoints senior advisor for food policy

 

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has appointed Paula Daniels, who chairs his Food Policy Council, to be his senior advisor on food policy. Among her jobs will be overseeing efforts to increase residents’ access to local, affordable and healthful foods.

"I think it shows a lot about where food policy has come in this country, and in this city, that it's going to have a place of emphasis in the mayor's office," Daniels said Thursday. Villaraigosa announced her appointment on Wednesday.

Daniels will continue to chair the volunteer council. One of her goals, she said, is to establish a regional food hub that would increase the distribution of locally grown food to low-income communities. A hub might also include such things as community kitchens.

With the vast variety and supply of fruits and vegetables grown in Southern California, there is an opportunity to connect farmers with urban consumers, she said.

She said she also hopes to work toward food-procurement policies that support the use of local, nutritious food by schools and city and county institutions, and to encourage growing practices that are sustainable and use fair labor practices.

Daniels noted that Villaraigosa recently returned from a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting at which he introduced a successful resolution calling on the group to support efforts such as regional food hubs to improve access to healthful food in neighborhoods known as food deserts.

Daniels, an attorney and former public-works commissioner, has more than 20 years of experience working in the environmental community.

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Taking Jamie Oliver's 'Food Revolution' to the streets

 

Here's a sneak peek at what's coming in this week's Food section:

In a downtown parking lot sits one of the most impressive things that Jamie Oliver, the chef-activist-TV personality, has brought to Los Angeles for his "Food Revolution" television show: a red-and-khaki-striped big rig tricked out as a traveling cooking school.

Even in food-truck-mad L.A., this behemoth, 70 feet long, stands out.

Demonstrations have been held on board for officials, potential donors and others. But last week, the first classes began for young people. After the truck starts traveling, the plan is to offer classes to children, adults and families in South Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Long Beach and Santa Ana. Classes will focus on simple, healthful, everyday cooking.

You can read the rest of Mary MacVean's report here:

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Photo: The rolling cooking school for Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution."  Credit: Katie Falkenberg / For The Times

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

A power trio -- Silverton, Feniger and Tracht -- take center stage at Jewish Federation lunch

 
Feeding lunch to 700 women? That’s an ordinary challenge for the likes of Susan Feniger, Suzanne Tracht and Nancy Silverton. But a lunch that also meets all kosher dietary laws? Now, that was interesting.

The three chefs were featured at a fund-raising lunch Tuesday marking the 100th anniversary of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and to make sure that everyone could eat the meal regardless of how strictly she followed the laws of kashrut, the chefs had to plan their dishes in a new way.

All the equipment in the catering kitchen set up in a tent was blessed. New knives were bought and wrapped in plastic wrap at night to make sure they were not used inappropriately, Feniger said. The salad greens were washed three times to make sure they were insect-free.

“It was an interesting learning experience,” Feniger, co-founder of Border Grill and owner of Susan Feniger's Street, said before the lunch, which   was held in a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport.

Tracht, chef-owner of the restaurant Jar, said she had to use feta cheese rather than the burrata, a cream-filled mozzarella, that she normally uses because she couldn’t locate kosher burrata. And Silverton, co-founder of Pizzeria Mozza, La Brea Bakery and Campanile, had to use a different chocolate for her pudding.

Tracht said she wished she's spent time in a kosher market looking at what was available before she’d started her planning.

She grew up in a kosher household and said one of her childhood meals was borscht, and “it wasn’t always the most attractive thing,” so she decided to use beets in a different way. She made a beet salad with cucumber slices, arugula and feta cheese. (Find the recipe below.)