Slideshow

A Look Back at Angeleno’s ‘To Live & Dine in L.A.’

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Ray Garcia of Fig

Last night, Angeleno reprised its annual summer food event “To Live and Dine in L.A.,” a showcase celebration of its picks for the magazine’s annual restaurant awards, and not, it should be noted, a party for the David Hasselhoff-themed film of the same name. Though we never ran into “best new chef” winner Josef Centeno, the Fairmont Hotel was still sizzling as some of the year’s best new breakout restaurants and established honorees were on hand manning their summertime best over a profusion of grills. Ricardo Zarate and the Picca team prepared black cod anticuchos, while neighbor Andrew Kirschner of Tar & Roses grilled chicken oysters and pig tails, Blue Cow chef Joshua Smith steadied his flame on confit duck wings, and Fig’s Ray Garcia managed a bucket of pig heads for some nose-to-tail tacos. Come take a look at who was there and what they were cooking in our slide show look back at yesterday’s “To Live and Dine in L.A.” event.

Ricardo Zarate and crew oversaw anticuchos of black cod with a camote sweet potato crisp and pickled Japanese cucumbers. The day earlier, Zarate made Peruvian donuts, or picarones, at The L.A. Street Food Fest.
Chef Saingee Wong (middle) with chef-owner Andre Guerrero (far right), also of Maximiliano and The Oinkster.
Wong prepared carbonnade de flamande, a Belgian stew of short ribs braised in Belgian ale.
Chef-owner Andrew Kirschner, who loaded up guests’ plates with pig tails and chicken oysters.
Chef Rui Wang, serving her chicken apricot pot pies.
The Baldwin Hills restaurant offered super thin sliced of smoked Angus beef with chips made from Weiser Farms’ potatoes and a summer corn relish.
Chef Govind Armstrong in action.
Looking like a much cheerier version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, chef Ray Garcia stood amongst hanging pig skins, with a bucket of pigs’ heads and assorted parts to his side.
Garcia employed every part of the pig for his “nose-to-tail” tacos, kindly saving some pig’s heart for the Grub Street staff, served with one of the team’s home-brewed apricot saison.
Nose-to-tail tacos with salsa quemada.
Joshua Smith grilled confit duck wings for The Mendocino Farms offshoot, while his associate dressed in “1% MFFM” ink was preparing the restaurant’s beloved banh mi using omelettes in place of ciabatta.
Chef Charlie Parker made basil boudin blanc and pate de campagne to match with David Fleischer’s carpano antica vermouth on ice with orange zest, bitters, and soda.
A Look Back at Angeleno’s ‘To Live & Dine in L.A.’