Astorino - Los Angeles Cult Recipes

LOS ANGELES CULT RECIPES TAKE A JOURNEY TO LOS ANGELES, THE CITY OF CALIFORNIAN DREAMS, THROUGH 100 ICONIC RECIPES THAT CAPTURE THE SPIRIT OF THE BIRTHPLACE OF FOOD TRENDS THAT GO GLOBAL. AUTHOR VICTOR GARNIER ASTORINO RECOMMENDS GREAT PLACES TO EAT AND CAPTURES SNAPSHOTS OF THIS GLITTERING CITY ITS ECLECTIC TASTES FOR SPICES, GRILLED FOOD, HEALTH FOOD, VEGAN FOOD, CARAMEL AND EVERYTHING SWEET. Victor Garnier Astorino grew up in Bordeaux, France. He left France in 2010 to live in Los Angeles and returned to Paris with two great passions: the hamburger and photography. In 2011, he opened his first hamburger joint, Blend, in Paris, and has since opened a further three in Paris.

BETH.

BETH.

ELECTRIC AVE & CALIFORNIA AVE CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Dear Victor, parts 12 and 16 of your report are not relevant to the topic. You do understand that this is a reflection on your academic experience and not a travel guide. Kindly remove these sections. It was with these stinging words that the academic dean of my school received the report of my university exchange to Los Angeles in 2010. Too many photos of hamburgers! And yet as soon as I returned, still obsessed with this subject, I started working on opening a gourmet burger restaurant in Paris. I dreamed it, created it, called it Blend Hamburger, and it saw the day in late 2011.

I was quickly joined by my partner, accomplice and friend Adrian, without whom no page of this book could have been written, and since then we make sure we each eat at least one hamburger a day. Six years later, when this Los Angeles travel diary was proposed, life gave me the opportunity to bring my two passions together: cooking and photography. An amazing fate for what was once seen as off topic! Even better, it was in the city that has always pushed me to do what I love. To carry out this project, I chose to go alone and take only my analogue cameras. Not being able to see the shots before I went back to France made each moment last much longer, and now, with the developed film I take precious care of the material trace of this total immersion. I will never, for example, forget my dinner with Richard, who invited me to join him at his table because there was a 45-minute wait at Little Doms for its spaghetti and meatballs, and night was falling.

In the end, the photo was ruined ... If I had known at the time, Im not sure I would have had such a good time. In Los Angeles, no door is ever closed. Wherever I was, and even when it was not a good time, I was always given a chance. I didnt receive a single negative response from anyone I approached. I feel like once you throw yourself (or lose yourself) in something that makes you happy, people dont judge you, whatever it is.

This is a city that lets people live their dream. This dream is everywhere. It is in the manners and attitudes ... It is also at the heart of its economy, as Los Angeles lives to the beat of the film, television and music industry. It works itself into the diversity of its landscapes: from the enormous freeways I spent so many hours on, to the heights of Hollywood, where a few minutes walk takes you outside of civilisation. And it fully comes into its own on the Pacific Coast Highway, which runs alongside the massive, powerful and omnipresent ocean ...

All of these elements that inspire dreams and meditation surely explain why Los Angeles is home to some of the most creative and healthy food in the world. The menus of the restaurants seem totally freed from convention. It is also perhaps the meeting of the citys many cultures, combined with certain American eating habits, that produces these extraordinary ideas. Only in Los Angeles, for example, is it normal to eat a Thai pizza or order a Korean taco. The quest for wellbeing fosters their creativity. Alex, the co-founder of Caffe Delfini, told me the idea of serving julienned zucchini (courgette) with his bolognese sauce was as a replacement for high-calorie spaghetti.

So some of the most delicious, non-conformist dishes in this food diary start from the imperative to do oneself good, without dogma or limits. The shared, unbendable rule of this game, the safeguard of all these ideas, is the worship of local produce, elevated to the level of the sacred. The restaurants effectively develop a sacred bond with their local environment, in particular through the farmers markets, their preferred source of supply. The citys nickname in fact is the farm of the United States, because of the diversity and volume of its agricultural production. The possibilities on restaurant menus are limitless. This book of cult recipes pays tribute to the Angelenos and the incredible fecundity of Los Angeles, both for the body and the mind.

I hope it will help persuade you to go and discover or rediscover the City of Angels, and especially to taste the original versions of these dishes, some of which seem straight out of a dream to me.

THE APPLE PAN HICKORY BURGER WITH CHEESE SERVES 4 Grapeseed oil Fine sea salt 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) minced (ground) beef 2 teaspoons liquid smoke (American food stores) 8 cheddar cheese slices 4 hamburger buns 4 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 large pickle (gherkin) 1 iceberg lettuce 2 teaspoons In a hot frying pan brushed with grapeseed oil, cook four seasoned minced beef patties over medium heat on one side for 3 minutes. Mix together 150 ml (5 fl oz) water and the liquid smoke. Pour a quarter of the mixture onto each burger. The frying pan must be hot enough for the water to evaporate immediately. Flip the burgers and arrange two slices of cheddar in a star shape on each burger.

For a rare burger, keep cooking for another 3 minutes; for medium, 4 minutes; for well done, 5 minutes. To assemble the burger: spread the bottom half of the bun with mayonnaise, then add rounds of pickle, three to four lettuce leaves cut to the width of the hamburger, the burger with the melted cheese and the smoky tomato sauce, then top with the other half of the bun. What a pleasure to eat at The Apple Pan! Despite the fact you often have to queue and you cant stay forever because you have to give up your seat. It is one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles. The sodas are still served in paper cones, just like in the 1940s. And the smoky flavour of their hickory burger remains a secret that many fans would dream of decoding.