Shin Toyoda, head sushi chef at Sushi Roku in Newport Beach (Fashion Island), isn’t a matchmaker. Yet he knows of five couples who met while eating his sushi, twosomes who later married. I imagine that the taste and appearance of his tantalizing fare inspired the strangers to chat, mentioning the refinement of flavors and the alluring texture contrasts, the colors…
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Pasta e fagioli, the classic Italian hodgepodge of pasta and beans, takes on irresistible flavor and texture at Brunos Trattoria in Brea. Often pronounced “pasta fazool” in the U.S., Brunos’ version is rich with vegetables and has a just-right luxurious thickness. Christian De La Vara, Bruno’s executive chef, enriches the broth with sautéed diced pancetta, the tasty Italian-style bacon that…
Composed Salad of Flash-Seared Steak and Japanese Omelet – grab a fork! Charlie Palmer, celebrity chef and über restaurateur, has a culinary style that is often dubbed “progressive American,” a designation based on his irresistible cuisine that showcases American ingredients in vibrantly-flavored dishes. With restaurants from coast to coast, Palmer’s Orange County restaurant, Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s, offers tempting brunches…
Wing Lam, co-founder of Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, started the first Wahoo’s in 1988 along with his two brothers. There are now 65 eateries in seven states, with dishes that incorporate influences from Mexican, Brazilian and Asian cuisines. Wing and his brothers grew up in a restaurant family and lived in San Paolo, Brazil before moving to Orange County in 1975…
Celebrity chef Michael Mina created his signature Tartare of Ahi Tuna almost twenty years ago when he opened his first restaurant, Aqua in San Francisco. Now he has three restaurants in that city, plus numerous eateries from coast to coast, including Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point. Instead of the standard beef-centric tartare ingredients, he…
Deborah Schneider, executive chef-partner of SOL Cocina in Newport Beach, says that a trusty slow cooker can replicate the kind of authentic dishes that are patiently cooked in earthenware pots in Mexico. Her new book, her fifth, “The Mexican Slow Cooker” (Ten Speed Press, $19.99) showcases irresistible dishes that traditionally cook for hours and hours at the back of the…
A pasta-free, feels-like-pasta dish using raw zucchini. Jenny Ross is the chef-owner of 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa, a raw foods restaurant that showcases a cuisine that is entirely plant-based. She utilizes fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains, that when heated are taken to no more than 118 degrees. The goal is to preserve valuable nutrients. Watch this short…
The ranch for THE RANCH (lovingly dubbed “The Farm”). A parcel filled with well-tended fruits and vegetables that supplies about 70 percent of the summertime produce used in Chef Michael Rossi’s exquisite cuisine at THE RANCH Restaurant & Saloon, Anaheim. Let’s start with the quail. I have to. Then we’ll go to the crops, and then the table. THE RANCH’S…