Chef Carlos Salgado accepts the Los Angeles Times Restaurant of the Year Award. Photo: Jennifer Johnson
LOS ANGELES, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 5/6/2018 – “Restaurants at their best can be like an escape to beauty, a vision of a better world and I guess I’ve done my best to do that,” says Michelin starred Chef Carlos Salgado, whose restaurant Taco Maria, won the Los Angeles Times 2018 Restaurant of the Year. LA Times Pulitzer-prize winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, presented Salgado with his award at the launch party for the second annual LA Food Bowl. The LA Food Bowl was established by the LA Times as a month long celebration of the culinary artistry that has made the city of Los Angeles one of the top destinations for innovative cooking. Rock star chefs such as Virgilio Martinez (Central Restaurante) from Peru and Yoshihiro Narisawa (Narisawa) from Japan, are flying in from around the world to take part in this event.
Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa attends Things In A Bowl, the official launch party of the 2018 LA Food Bowl. Photo: Jennifer Johnson
“You might know the story, where if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?” says Susan Feniger. “If you create wonderful flavors that you think are just amazing, and no one is there to taste them, then what? Your appreciation for what we do, closes a circle. It means we have made a sound. Thank you guys for being here.” Mary Sue Milliken (L) and Susan Feniger receive the Gold Award for their restaurant Border Grill at The Los Angeles Times Food Bowl Launch Party Things in a Bowl. (Photo by Michael Bezjian/Getty Images
There’s always something exciting going on in LA seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The Things In A Bowl launch party for the LA Food Bowl was held on a Monday night. Photo: LA ELEMENTS
The scene inside Rossoblu for Things In a Bowl. Photo: Jennifer Johnson
The Italian restaurant Rossoblu at City Market South in Downtown Los Angeles, was the site of LA Food Bowl’s opening night, on Monday, April 30th. The theme for the evening’s special event was, “Things In A Bowl,” and attendees were treated to selections from some of the top restaurants in Los Angeles.
Great food and drink are part of what make the nightlife here in LA hard to beat. Sarah Yenbamroong, Chef Kris Yenbamroong’s wife described Night + Market as offering, “Thai food that goes really well with alcohol.” This restaurant dished out their Sahm Chopped Salad to LA Food Bowl guests. Crispy shallots, peanuts, bok choy, Thai chiles, fish sauce, dill, cilantro and mint were among the ingredients giving this salad it’s spicy and addictive flavor.
Sahm Chopped Salad from Night + Market. Photo: Gina Skye
From Shibumi , the Downtown LA izakaya, came this delectable offering: Three-month aged beef shin, tendon, konbu, shitake and sansho tsukudani over organic California koshihikari rice served with takuan daikon pickles.
Shibumi at the 2018 LA Food Bowl. Photo: Gina Skye
“It’s vegetarian, it’s filling, it’s warm. No meat at all. if it wasn’t for the cornbread it would be vegan,” says Justin Terry, Director of Catering for LocoL “LocoL is really about the people. The food, the restaurant, is all designed to serve people that normally just wouldn’t have access to a place to go buy a decent affordable meal. A lot of the dishes are inspired by them, some of the dishes are designed by them, with our chef’s guidance. A lot of this stuff is stuff that they would normally eat just with a little bit of a twist on it. So red beans and rice with crispy collard greens, that’s something people would normally eat and it’s vegan. We were restaurant of the year last year so it’s a big deal for us. We owe a lot to Jonathan Gold.” LocoL was started by Chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson. According to their site, their mission statement reads, “We at LocoL want to live in a world where eating well doesn’t take a lot of money or time, and where healthy food is the easy choice because it’s not only convenient, but absolutely delicious.”
Comfort food by LocoL. Photo: Jennifer Johnson
Crafted bowls from Chengdu Taste, DTLA Cheese, Honey’s Kettle, Rossoblu, and Scopa also offered up treats from their acclaimed kitchens.
Downtown LA Cheese. Photo: Gina Skye
Hornitos Tequila kept the drinks flowing and Wanderlust Creamery was on hand to serve some of the finest gelato we’ve ever tasted. “Everything that we have is made in-house,” says Wanderlust Creamery representative Valerie Myers. “All the flavors are artisanal, we use an organic, grass-fed dairy and every recipe that we have is made by one person, our owner Adrienne Borlongan.” The flavors are inspired by places around the world that Borlongan has visited. One delicious example is the fig leaf infused wildflower honey and pistachio Neopolitan, inspired by the countries of the Mediterranean.
Guests enjoyed Palomas and Margaritas courtesy of Hornitos Tequila. Photo: LA ELEMENTS
The wait was more than worth it for Wanderlust Creamery. Photo: Jennifer Johnson
Outstanding food and encounters with some of the most acclaimed chefs in the world aside, what made this event so memorable was the ease with which total strangers struck up conversations with each other. Let’s face it, you can start to learn a lot about someone while standing in line waiting for some pretty amazing food. That’s a special kind of magic that food has, bringing people together, and it was there at Things In a Bowl.
The charitable partners for the 2018 LA Food Bowl are: L.A Kitchen, Food Forward and Midnight Mission. LA Kitchen is unique in that every 14weeks, their Empower program admits 22 students who were either formerly incarcerated, homeless or ex-foster care. Students in the program then receive training from LA Kitchen chefs and industry professionals. Food Forward distributes fresh surplus produce to people in need. Midnight Mission provides an array of services for our homeless men, women and children including transitional housing, mental health services and job training. The festival’s founding partner is Citi® and sponsors include Nissan, Makers Mark Hornitos and the Italian National Tourist Board.
LA Food Bowl runs through May 31. On Tuesday, May 8, come and join Chefs Roy Choi (Kogi) Kris Yenbamroong (Night + Market) Andy Ricker (Pok Pok) and more in a tribute to the late Chef Tui Sungkamee of Jittlada at the Line Hotel. For more information on this event click here.
*Update* The Los Angeles Times Food Bowl Night Market will be running from May 16-20 at Grand Park. There will be special chef collaborations and demonstrations, live music and of course food from an array of some of LA’s best restaurants and food trucks. Click here for more info.
For more information on LA Food Bowl and the restaurants and organizations mentioned in this article, please visit their websites.
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Cover photo (from l. to r.) of LA Times Staff: Editor-In-Chief Jim Kirk, Food Editor Amy Scattergood, Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter, Restaurant Critic Jonathan Gold and Food Section Deputy Editor Jenn Harris.
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