Author Archive

THE GOLD PLATED COBB

Power restaurant Michael’s in New York has a Cobb Salad on its lunch menu for $36. The Brown Derby’s Robert Cobb cobbled together “his” salad out of what he found in his L.A. restaurant’s refrigerator one night. In 1953, a Cobb salad in the Brown Derby went for $2.25. Okay, inflation, and Michael’s uses balsamic [...]
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A PRODUCT DISCOVERY – How to get that pot luck from here to there

By Larry Dietz - If you love to cook, you probably have friends who invite you to dinner at their place. So you almost certainly have been in a situation where you’ve offered to make something and once you’ve made it you have to figure out how to get the dish to their house. Easy [...]
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CORTI BROTHERS – Grocer, wine merchant and Sacramento institution that delivers a newsletter to read and reread

By Larry Dietz - I love good writing as much as I love good food – maybe more, since good writing doesn’t have calories, prep time, or clean-up. Mixing good writing and food is truly a recipe for enjoyment, and that brings me to one of the few pieces of mail I read and reread. [...]
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FOOD BROADCASTS WITH NO PICTURES – Evan Kleinman has one that works on radio

By Larry Dietz- I’ve never been a big fan of food shows on the radio. Usually they’re centered around recipes, with hosts or guests who are so chirpy and upbeat that I can’t take them, or their recipes, seriously. Or there are the solemn your-body-is-a-temple and good-food-is-its-fuel hosts who only make me want to rush [...]
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The Little Whisk That Can

Beating a couple of eggs? You don’t need a huge whisk. The little one in the photo will do just fine. Don’t say, use a fork. Whisks do a better job of aeration. And don’t compare the little whisk, bought for $2.95 at Sur La Table, with the weensy razor Cary Grant borrows from Eve [...]
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MY MOST MEMORABLE MEAL – Home Base, Florence

(MY MOST MEMORABLE MEAL is an occasional feature written by the co-hosts of the restaurant recommendation web site http://www.atLarrys.com) By Larry Dietz - There are people who can recite every course of a great meal they had years ago; I’m not one of them. In self-defense – or embarrassment – I travel overseas with a [...]
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BAY CITIES – Restaurant of the Week

By Larry Dietz - Bay Cities is an “international” deli in Santa Monica: a 20-foot long row of shelves devoted to olive oils and vinegars, another devoted to pasta, other shelves to sauces, canned fish – who buys those jumbo tins of anchovies – as well as ones filled with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern specialties. [...]
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BARBRIX – Restaurant of the Week

By Larry Dietz - Barbrix is the sort of restaurant and wine bar every neighborhood should have; the Silverlake area of Los Angeles is that lucky location. The chef is Don Dickman, whose cooking at Rocca led Times’ reviewer Irene Virbilia to say that he’d “channeled a Tuscan grandmother.” At Barbrix Dickman has expanded his [...]
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La HUASTECA – Restaurant of the Week

By Larry Dietz - I don’t want to oversell La Huasteca, although my first inclination is to write: “go there this minute.” The food is memorable, prepared by Chef Rocio Camacho, who made her mark in East L.A. at Moles La Tia. Now she’s performing on a larger stage, literally. La Huasteca is in the [...]
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INEXPENSIVE & INFORMAL IN MANHATTAN

By Larry Dietz – Sure, New York City is a great restaurant town. Why shouldn’t it be? It’s got people with money and expense accounts. Many city residents live in apartments with tiny kitchens, which makes ambitious cooking at home difficult. And just as important, it has a public transportation system – taxi, subway, bus, [...]
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