Bizarre Foods: Pony Express Premieres Tuesday July 3, 9/8c on Travel Channel! We filmed in some truly amazing locations for this season of Bizarre Foods. There were moments in each episode where I just had to pinch myself—whether it was driving a real World War II tank in Belgium, trout fishing in Scotland with Angus… Read More →
¡Salud! Tacos The Zimmern List: San Diego premieres April 2 9|8c on Travel Channel! To fully experience San Diego you need to spend a day in Barrio Logan, a neighborhood on the rise transformed by a vibrant art and food scene. After a stroll through the art-filled Chicano Park—home to a massive display of murals… Read More →
Night + Market Song Los Angeles is the hottest food city on the planet. These days, it’s not just entertainers but also food entrepreneurs who are arriving in throngs to realize their dreams, creating a diverse restaurant scene where people are willing to take risks. Visiting the city and not eating Thai food is a… Read More →
San Francisco’s In Situ By Bob & Sue By offering the signature recipes of many of the world’s greatest chefs, Michelin 3-star chef Corey Lee of Benu and his executive chef Brandon Rodgers have made In Situ, located in the renovated Museum of Modern Art, one of the most unique dining experiences in the world. The… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week This bay scallop ceviche with yuzu and sea urchin at Cut in Beverly Hills was a stunning example of why this steak house continues to serve simple delicious surprises at every turn on their menu. Fresh and bracing with deep bass tones from the urchin, it was the… Read More →
Santa Monica’s Rustic Canyon By Bob & Sue Chef Jeremy Fox (ex-Ubuntu and Manresa) offers creative dishes and a thoughtful wine list in this trendy, casual restaurant. Vegetarians will love the beets with quinoa, avocado, blood orange and pistachio; the fresh peas with pecorino, mint, black pepper and red wine vinegar; and the white yams… Read More →
Eating at California’s Five Michelin 3 Stars By Bob & Sue With the elevation of Manresa to three stars for 2016, Northern California now has five of the 13 Michelin 3-star restaurants in the United States. We ate at all five in nine days during our recent anniversary celebration in January. These five great chefs… Read More →
Chef Accarrino Shares San Francisco Favorites After graduating from the CIA in New York and working for top tier chefs around the country (including Thomas Keller at Per Se and Tom Colicchio at Craft Los Angeles), chef Matthew Accarrino moved to San Francisco in 2009 to take over the SPQR kitchen. At the intimate Fillmore neighborhood restaurant, Accarrino takes traditional,… Read More →
Classic San Fran Seafood Located in the Nob Hill neighborhood, Swan Oyster Depot is more than 100 years old—an amazing feat in the restaurant business, especially considering they haven’t lost any relevancy. Get there early or expect to wait, folks start queuing up for one of the 18 counter seats before they open at 10:15am, and the… Read More →
A Technical Wizard Corey Lee is one of the most talented chefs in America. He’s a master technician and a creative wunderkind, cooking on a different level than almost anyone else in the country. Dinner at his three Michelin star San Francisco restaurant Benu is an unrivaled experience—a tasting menu comprised of a cuisine unique… Read More →
A Mecca of Korean Cuisine Over the past decade, Los Angeles has become as famous for its food as it is for its celebrity sightings. It is also home to the country’s largest Korean population, and with them came incredible, authentic Korean cuisine in all shapes and sizes. Here are a few restaurants that won’t disappoint… Read More →
Genius Culinary Innovation David Kinch, chef/proprietor of Manresa in Los Gatos, California, creates some of the most exciting food in America. After working in Europe, Japan and New York, the James Beard award-winning chef moved to the West Coast and opened his flagship restaurant in 2002. Four years later, Kinch famously entered into a partnership… Read More →
Welcome to the Future By Andrew Zimmern Apps and i-whatevers are old news in the venture capital meccas of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The big investment frontier is now food, and what’s going on out there is revolutionizing what we eat, how we eat and how it gets to us. Hampton Creek Foods is… Read More →
L.A. Recommendations From Michelin-starred fine dining to Korean barbecue and taco food trucks, Los Angeles has one of the most exciting and diverse food scenes in the country. Here’s a snapshot of my favorite L.A. eateries and hotels – there are probably a hundred more that should be on the list, but I’m only vouching… Read More →
Kings of Dude Food As chef/owners of the widely acclaimed restaurants Animal and the seafood-centric Son of a Gun, Jon Shook & Vinny Dotolo are anchors of the Los Angeles food scene. These rockstar chefs turned successful restaurateurs also recently opened Trois Mec with pop-up king Ludo Lefebvre, plus another project in the works. Dotolo… Read More →
Carnivorous Bliss Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook are rockstars of the Los Angeles food scene. The chefs co-own and operate two of LA’s most exciting eateries – Animal, where meat is the main course, and Son of a Gun where they channel their Floridian roots and focus on seafood (they also recently opened Trois Mec… Read More →
Changing Lives Through Food Darrie Ganzhorn is the executive director of Santa Cruz’s Homeless Garden Project, an incredible nonprofit that provides job training, transitional employment and support services to those in need on a 3-acre organic farm and garden. Trainees and volunteers grow and harvest fruits and vegetables that sustain daily lunches and fundraising farm… Read More →
San Francisco’s Pastry Star Melissa Chou has presided over pastries at San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Aziza for the past five years, creating impressive desserts that wowed the folks at the James Beard Foundation (she was a finalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2012 and 2013) and San Francisco Magazine, which named her Pastry Chef of the Year… Read More →
The Cuisine of Xi’an China’s Shaanxi Province is known for its terra cotta army, built in the 11th century B.C. in the city of Xi’an (one of the oldest cities in China), as well as for its lamb- and noodle-heavy cuisine. At Shaanxi Gourmet, just east of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley, you’ll… Read More →
Hot on Hot Some of the best Chinese food near Los Angeles can be found east of the city in the San Gabriel Valley, where several restaurants specialize in Hunanese cuisine (located in South Central China, the Hunan Province is a large source of immigration to the city). Hunan dishes are known for their mouth-numbing… Read More →
Breaking New Ground When husband-and-wife team Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski opened State Bird Provisions at the end of 2011, they instantly garnered national recognition for their unique dim-sum-style service and outstanding globally-influenced cuisine. Since the restaurant’s debut, Bon Appetit chose it as America’s Best New Restaurant, Food & Wine magazine added chef Brioza to their… Read More →
Where everything is made from scratch. An unassuming Korean restaurant in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood, To Hyang is the stuff of legend. The authentic, flavorful Korean grandma food is unrivaled, with Hwa-Soon Im cooking her home-style food behind a small stove using her own fermented bean pastes and pickles. I don’t know anyone else… Read More →
Modern Italian Cuisine The emblem of the Roman Empire and an acronym for Senatus Populusque Romanus, SPQR roughly translates to “The People and Senate of Rome.” At SPQR, executive chef Matthew Accarrino takes traditional, rustic recipes inspired by ancient Italy and reinvigorates them with 21st century flavors and techniques. Smaller plates such as the chicken liver… Read More →
Not Your Typical Vietnamese Restaurant Chef Jordan Kahn opened Red Medicine in 2010, inspired by many post-shift late night meals at Vietnamese restaurants around Los Angeles. Although he uses fragrant, traditional ingredients in his wildly creative menu, this isn’t your traditional Vietnamese joint. Kahn’s reinterpretation of Southeast Asian cuisine is simply stunning, almost too pretty… Read More →
Not Your Typical Vietnamese Restaurant Chef Jordan Kahn opened Red Medicine in 2010, inspired by many post-shift late night meals at Vietnamese restaurants around Los Angeles. Although he uses fragrant, traditional ingredients in his wildly creative menu, this isn’t your traditional Vietnamese joint. Kahn’s reinterpretation of Southeast Asian cuisine is simply stunning, almost too pretty… Read More →
An Ode to The Sea Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, the duo behind the popular meat-centric Animal, are bringing LA gourmands a piece of their Floridian roots with the seafood studded menu at Son of a Gun. It’s a small space with a laid back vibe, a long communal table and walls covered in kitschy nautical… Read More →
An Ode to The Sea Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, the duo behind the popular meat-centric Animal, are bringing LA gourmands a piece of their Floridian roots with the seafood studded menu at Son of a Gun. It’s a small space with a laid back vibe, a long communal table and walls covered in kitschy nautical… Read More →
It’s Amazing What You Can Do With Two Ingredients Before Chef Thomas McNaughton opened Flour + Water in San Francisco, he traveled straight to the source and studied the art of hand-rolled pasta in Bologna, Italy. The result? A menu of authentic, rustic Italian cuisine, with made-from-scratch pasta, house-cured meats and Neapolitan-style pizzas fired in a… Read More →
It’s Amazing What You Can Do With Two Ingredients Before Chef Thomas McNaughton opened Flour + Water in San Francisco, he traveled straight to the source and studied the art of hand-rolled pasta in Bologna, Italy. The result? A menu of authentic, rustic Italian cuisine, with made-from-scratch pasta, house-cured meats and Neapolitan-style pizzas fired in a… Read More →
A Modernist Approach Benu should be on everyone’s go-to list. Chef/owner Corey Lee’s East-meets-West modernist cuisine is phenomenal. Advice for anyone headed to Benu: order the tasting menu so you can avoid the decision making pressure. As your meal progresses, you’ll notice every dish that comes from the kitchen is a work of art in terms… Read More →
