Health

New cookbooks are a bright spot in spring, and this year’s crop is a bumper one. One emerging theme is: Go easy on yourself. Among this season’s favorite books, Los Angeles writers and chefs especially — including Nicole Rucker of Fat + Flour, Ari Kolender of Found Oyster and Queen St. Raw Bar & Grill, … Read more

The cookbooks bringing us joy and changing our lives in the kitchen this spring Spring’s parade of cookbooks are bringing a lot of joy into our kitchens. We read, cooked and baked our way through dozens of them, finding respite in some newfound culinary wisdom. Ace L.A. baker Nicole Rucker of Fat + Flour gave … Read more

Voices Noah Galuten A simple route to seafood sustainability? Eat way more of these four things Sustainability is an incredibly complicated topic. Yet seafood sustainability is the surprisingly rare exception in which a really complex problem has a uniquely simple option — and it’s in the hands of the consumer. To put it plainly, there … Read more

The chef who wooed L.A. with a million oysters perfects laid-back seafood Ari Kolender, chef and co-owner of two of L.A.’s most popular seafood restaurants, didn’t grow up in a household that cooked a lot of fish or shellfish because his grandfather kept kosher. But in high school he crabbed from friends’ dinghies and worked … Read more

She’s L.A.’s Martha Stewart of weed. Her new cookbook makes edibles more fun and less scary The spacious kitchen of a rented house just off Melrose Avenue in Beverly Grove is in full 420 mode. The stovetop is dotted with Le Creuset cookware. A peppercorn-studded prime rib rests on the counter next to an apothecary … Read more

How Fat + Flour’s founder busts the myth that baking has to be hard Pies piled with cloud-like whipped cream, cookies chewy and buttery, loaf cakes and cheesecakes bursting with ripe seasonal fruit: Walking into Fat + Flour is like entering a dessert dream world. It hasn’t always been a dream world for founder Nicole … Read more

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times) Newsletter You are reading our Cooking newsletter Sign up to get a taste of Los Angeles — and the world — in your own home and in your inbox every Friday Enter email address Sign Me Up You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. There … Read more

Voices Jenn Harris Will tariffs threaten the diversity of L.A. menus? Spiking ingredient prices have chefs scrambling “We are freaking out,” says Billie Sayavong. He and his wife, Nokmaniphone, operate Nok’s Kitchen, one of the few restaurants in Southern California devoted to cuisine from Laos. The Westminster restaurant has been featured repeatedly on this paper’s … Read more

Bandito Taqueria serves tender, grilled carne asada in Tijuana-style tacos with cilantro, onions, spicy salsa and creamy guacamole. (Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)

For 30 years, Hal Frederick’s restaurant Hal’s Bar and Grill was ground zero for a burgeoning Venice scene on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Frederick successfully blended art, design, music, food and people in one of the most art-forward communities in the world. (Lori Petty) I walked into Hal’s Bar and Grill for the first time during … Read more