Hall's oats felt like a parfait with a lovely mix of textures. The presentation was nice, too. Drummond's overnight oats were good, but Fuller's impressed me the most and looked amazing.
The painting in question was gifted to the Inn's late founder Helmuth Deetjen by the late, celebrated local artist George Choley. This particular Choley painting had been in the same place since the 1980s, undisturbed, and a symbol of continued historic preservation.
Housed in a former church banquet hall, Hermon's is an 89-seat restaurant named after the lesser-known Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood in which it resides. It is the latest addition to James Beard Award-nominated Last Word Hospitality's growing portfolio of neighborhood haunts that offer city-wide appeal, like perpetually busy Found Oyster in East Hollywood and Historic Filipinotown's Rasarumah. Chef DK Kolender (formerly of Tartine and Dudley's Market) runs the kitchen, serving a crowd-pleasing menu full of Italian, French, and continental American touches
Tuna carpaccio arranged in a circle arrived first, the slices beaming ruby like sun through stained glass. Radicchio leaves had been dressed with kefir and gorgonzola, the tart and the sweet funk offsetting the bitter. Clams, splashed in bright and herby broth, were paired with a narcotic mound of thin fries.
whose family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1967, remembers vividly how his school lunch of braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut between two pieces of bread was looked at by his classmates. 'Oh, God, what are you eating? That's gross,' Chen recalled during a recent busy lunch hour at his San Francisco restaurant and bar, China Live, on the edge of the nation's oldest Chinatown. 'And now everybody wants the braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut. Hopefully, perception of Chinese (food) has now come a long ways.'
Coming from Australia, where Michelin does not operate, this was my first exposure to a Michelin-starred restaurant as a guest. It was everything I imagined it would be. The precision. The discipline. The elegance of service. The execution on the plate. The entire experience felt intentional and deeply respectful of the craft.
My time in a fine dining kitchen as a line cook was one of the most stressful and surprising experiences I ever had. It wasn't just difficult work. It was a difficult environment for a number of reasons. It was cramped and frantic, and the personality clashes you see on shows like "The Bear" were not uncommon. I don't recommend it.
