Taking the Kitchen to the Street: Experiments in Flavor and Form

In conversation with Lesley Suter
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
01:18:08
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Episode Summary

The culinary experience has turned into an experiment through the hands of Chef Ludo’s guerilla style pop-up restaurant LudoBites and Chef Roy’s roaming Kogi BBQ truck. How do these ephemeral establishments play with the identity of the city and the palates of its inhabitants? Listen in on what promises to be a playful, irreverent journey into the creative minds of these celebrated chefs.


Participant(s) Bio

After Chef Ludo Lefebvre trained in France for 13 years he moved to Los Angeles to work at L’Orangerie where, as head chef, L’Orangerie became one of the top-rated restaurants in California. Lefebvre released his first cookbook, CRAVE, a Feast of the Five Senses in 2005. His guerilla style “pop-up” restaurant events called LudoBites currently take place at different locations around Los Angeles. They have been included in Jonathan Gold’s "99 Most Essential Restaurants List for Los Angeles" and have been identified as a dining experience that “may fundamentally change the way we look at restaurants.”

Roy Choi is a classically trained chef from Los Angeles who cut his teeth in the kitchens of Le Bernardin, the Embassy Suites, and the Beverly Hilton before rediscovering his roots as an Angeleno and channeling his soul into a taco that tastes a lot like LA. After launching Kogi BBQ in 2008, Choi fused the flavors of the city with Hawaiian-style picnics and opened A-Frame; Venice's Sunny Spot followed in 2011. Choi currently is working on his first book, Spaghetti Junction: Riding Shotgun with an LA Chef, a memoir/cookbook that chronicles his rough and tumble journey through the streets of LA, with recipes for life along the way.

Lesley Bargar Suter is the dine editor for Los Angeles magazine where she covers and critiques the restaurant scene in one of the country’s most important culinary hubs. In May 2012, Suter took home a James Beard Award, the first ever awarded for food coverage in a general interest publication. She has lent her culinary know-how to national publications as well, including Saveur and Conde Nast Traveler, has appeared on a number of television and radio programs including Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef Masters, and is a regular guest on KCRW’s Good Food.



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