Traveling Time! The Great Larry Lipson Tells Us About His Latest Finds
Reporting from Costa Rica, CRN's international wine correspondent Larry Lipson will tell us about his latest Wine finds, including wines UNDER $10!Larry always has something cooking up at the Lipson Institute of Advanced Wine Studies!
Executive Chef Warren Schwartz From Westside Tavern Is Here To Share With Us Some of His Newest Menu Options
Executive Chef Warren Schwartz traces his culinary inventiveness back to his adolescence in Los Angeles, when he volunteered to cook at home for his siblings to avoid the drudgery of clean up. Trained in traditional French cuisine at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, upon graduation in 1995 he landed alongside Chef Bradley Ogden at the Lark Creek Inn, a bustling American restaurant in Larkspur, California. It was there that Schwartz garnered a lasting appreciation of truly fresh ingredients. “We had farmers knocking on the back door with zip-lock bags of amazing produce. That’s when I realized you have to start with great products.” Next it was on to Patina, Joachim Splichal’s highly rated Los Angeles restaurant specializing in contemporary Californian and French cuisine, where Schwartz worked from 1996-1998.
From there Schwartz headed the realm at Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas from 2000-2004, earning national acclaim from food critics for his inventiveness with wild game. His last place of culinary residence as executive chef prior to joining Westside Tavern was Whist at the Viceroy Hotel during the years of 2004-2008. In July 2008 Schwartz signed on as executive chef and managing partner of Westside Tavern which offers a departure from fine dining by presenting affordable American Brasserie fare. "The food at Westside Tavern can be best described as unpretentious home cooked food with a lot of heart and passion. Urban rustic fare cooked with gusto at a price that everyone can afford, and find great value. This is not a once a year special occasion dining restaurant.. It is meant to be used by everyone, and often."
An expansive, social and urban-minded restaurant, Westside Tavern features chef-driven yet affordable interpretations of California Tavern Cuisine alongside a complimentary selection of fresh cocktails, craftsman beers and thoughtful wines. Encompassing 10,400 square feet and 300 seats, Westside Tavern opens for lunch and dinner daily and is designed to be used as a casually upscale gathering place by a broad cross section of Los Angeles professionals. In addition to a dramatic main dining room and bar, Westside Tavern includes two private dining rooms and the operational capability to successfully host special events of any kind for parties of up to 100 people. Westside Tavern’s California Tavern Cuisine utilizes the ingredients, cooking methods and philosophies of modern California cooking to interpret the established traditions of American comfort food. More specifically, Westside Tavern’s familiar and crave-inducing dishes employ ingredients from local producers renowned for the quality of their products and the integrity of their growing methods; flavors and presentations are clean, bright, fresh, honest and responsibly portioned; and offerings reflect the seasonal rhythms and natural bounty of California agriculture, ranch products and seafood.
As with the cuisine, the beverage program at Westside Tavern is founded on a commitment to California products and strong value. The California-centric wine list canvasses major and minor varietals with a preference for smaller producers of outstanding wines offered at reasonable prices. The beer selection is an anthology of best-of-class California micro and craftsman brews. And the cocktail program is distinguished by the same market-driven and freshness-obsessed philosophy at the heart of the food menu. In keeping with the food, the goal of service at Westside Tavern is to comfort guests, rather than to challenge them, but in a manner that reveals depth and competence.
In style, service at Westside Tavern is warm, relaxed and gracious. In substance, it is knowledgeable, intelligent and intuitive. Above all, service at Westside Tavern communicates a sincere appreciation for the value of every guest and an inherent pleasure and pride in delivering outstanding hospitality. The design-architecture at Westside Tavern reflects the modern sensibilities and iconography of its local marketplace while expressing a strong belief in the appeal of warm materials, durable craftsmanship and essentialist composition. Like its food and service, the physical environment of Westside Tavern celebrates an idealization of West Coast American values in which quality is defined honestly, simply and in terms of durability
Chef, Author and Food Network star, Marcela Valladolid Shares Her Tips On How To Integrate Latin Flavors Into Every Meal
As the Hispanic population continues to grow in the U.S., so does its influence on mainstream American food. From jalapeno to chipotle to dulce de leche, these flavors that are heavily rooted in Latin American culinary traditions are quickly becoming an integral part of American cuisine: from snacks, to breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes. Chef, author and Food Network star, Marcela Valladolid, is available to offer your viewers her tips and recipe ideas on how to spice up your families meals this year. She will also discuss how the brand new Dulce de Leche Cheerios reflect this culinary trend.
Chef Marcela can even provide an idea on how they can be incorporated into a creative dish the whole family will love. Growing up around expert and traditional cooks in Tijuana, Mexico, Marcela was raised to be passionate about food. She jumped straight into a culinary life by working her first job at her aunt’s cooking school in Baja, Mexico. She realized she too wanted to pursue this growing love for food full time and enrolled in the Los Angeles Culinary Institute and graduated from the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris as a classical French pastry chef. Marcela went on to run a catering company and teaching children about the culinary arts in Tijuana. All the while, collecting recipes and applying her knowledge and skills of her family’s cooking traditions to map out her dreams. Marcela eventually parlayed her classical training and skills to become a food editor at Bon Appétit magazine. She went onto host of her own cooking show Relatos con Sabor on Discovery en Español channel and earned a spot as a contender on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. In August 2009, Marcela was given the chance to showcase her family recipes with her first cookbook titled “FRESH MEXICO: 100 Simple Recipes for True Mexican Flavor.” She appeared on NBC’s Today Show, The View was featured in Latina, People, People en Español, Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News around the release. The book reached the #1 cookbook spot on Amazon.com more than once. Soon after her book release, she landed her dream job as host of her own Food Network show, Mexican Made Easy.
The show made its debut early in 2010 and films in San Diego where Marcela currently lives. She’s currently taping her fifth season that will debut in the Spring. This past fall, Marcela released her second cookbook. Mexican Made Easy, which serves as a companion book to her Food Network show with the same name. With all her projects, Marcela hopes to be an advocate for great Mexican food that delivers in freshness and flavor without forcing home cooks to track down hard-to-find ingredients or spend hours at the stove.
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