Dinner at Fabio's Firenze Osteria in NoHo

Firenze Osteria

4212 Lankershim Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 91602

(818) 760-7081

Saturday night two of my favorite people, C & K, were in town having a girly weekend. One of the many things we bond over is our love of Top Chef.  We analyze every minute of each episode, critique dishes, deconstruct character flaws, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum. They spent Friday night assisting me in my myriad of désastres macarons while watching every episode of this season's Top Chef on the kitchen TV. We are all anticipating the upcoming showdown between the three remaining culinary heavyweights Bryan, Kevin and Michael, in that order we think.  C & K were on a Top Chef tour of the city this weekend, hitting Stefan's Friday afternoon for lunch, Fabio's Firenze Osteria with D and me Saturday night and planning to brunch at The Jar (TCM, but still) Sunday morning. We had a beautiful dinner (with a few small flaws) and wonderful service at Firenze.

mintcucumber

C & K both started the evening with a virgin Mintcucumber from the drinks menu at the bar. K is not a drinker (and loves to drive, so is always happily the designated driver). Let me qualify that by saying she is funnier sober than any other three slightly inebriated amateur comedians I may have ever come across. C has a smaller and more pointed reason for staying sober. It involves a lot of belly rubbing and jokes about gaining weight. :-) These alcohol free cucumber and pineapple concoctions were delightful, sweet and herbaceous with a touch of mint, seltzer instead of gin.

 

ketel one martini

D and I started with our usual Ketel martinis. I like the presentation here. It can take me awhile to drink a martini this behemoth in size. It's always nice when the martini coupe sits in an ice bath, keeping the drink fresh yet undiluted.

 

Firenze Osteria is elegantly and unmistakably Italian. Leather chairs at the tables and bar, dark wood convertible plantation shutters on the windows, and large format photographs of Italian landmarks.

 

In the bread basket we were served a focaccia and a crusty country bread. The focaccia was lovely, not overly oily as is sometimes the case. And for dipping, a picante olive, caper and sun dried tomato dipping sauce. Delicious.

 prosciutto e melone

To start, K ordered melon and prosciutto.  If it looks to you like the portions are large, your eyes are not deceiving you. Everyone's starter portions were very generous. The quality of fruit and meat here high, with a touch of luscious burrata on the plate drizzled lovingly with balsamic.  What I do not understand on this plate are the coccoli, fried Italian fritters. They were incongruous with this light summery dish.

 

insalata di pere

C jumped in with a poached pear salad, made very flavorful by crumbled bleu cheese, caramelized walnuts and Pecorino cheese in a light red wine dressing.

 

insalata di burrata

D started with a gorgeous burrata salad on a bed of arugula with sun dried tomatoes, roasted mushrooms and pine nuts with aged balsamic sweetly dribbled everywhere. The flavor of the balsamic was immensely sweet, and a perfect foil against the richness of the burrata and verdant arugula. This might have been my favorite of the starters. I had course envy.  I also was happy both salads were nothing alike. Sometimes one sees a couple salads with different ingredients and the same dressing or a similar flavor approach. Not here. Completely different flavor profiles, both delightful. One autumnal and earthy, the other with strongly contrasting flavors and textures.

 

carpaccio di manzo

Top Cheftestant Fabio won an Elimination Challenge on the basis of this classic Italian raw beef dish.

 

Filet, arugula, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, with an olive oil and lemon vinaigrette.  Here, Lean Wong shows us how to make Fabio's Top Chef version of beef carpaccio with the infamous spherical kalamata olives. Again, generously portioned. Perfectly succulent meat, bright greens, the nuts and citrus round out the flavors. Loved.

 

C was excited to see Rosenblum on the wine list. Her father and Rosenblum are colleagues in their life-work, the starting of Rosenblum Cellars being a side project he started in his garage. This 2006 Rockpile Zin was perfect for everyone (C just had a wee taste), jammy at the start with a softer more mellow finish.

 

insalata di anatra

Cooking and eating, eating and cooking all weekend long, I didn't have enough of an appetite for pasta.  I tried instead the crispy duck salad for a main.  Sauteed duck with wild mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and roasted pine nuts over mixed greens. This was wonderful. I ate every single bite. Cleaned my plate 100%.

 

Brussels sprouts

 

ravioli di brasato

K ordered short rib ravioli with high hopes on both her and my side of the table. While the quality of the house made pasta was marvelous, the taste of the beef and texture of the pasta were overwhelmed by the richness of the Tallegio cheese sauce. It was just too much.

 

tortellacci di zucca

C tried the butternut squash tortellini in a light cream and butter sauce. While still creamy, the sauce here was lighter, but the butternut squash-ricotta filling was overwhelmingly sweet. Wow sweet. Prohibitively sweet. When a pregnant lady with a sweet tooth is unable to finish her butternut squash pasta dish, there might be an issue.

 

linguine frutti di mare

Predictably, D asked for the seafood linguine in red sauce.  I thought this was great, and D thought it was solid with abundant seafood and good herbed tomatoey flavors, but the sauce was a little soupy.

 

valrhona chocolate gelato

Capping off our meal with this gelato was inspired. We were all stuffed and sleepy, but how can one pass up a rich Italian chocolate ice cream? One shouldn't and four clearly will not. So rich, it was almost like a frozen chocolate mousse.

Two good friends of mine traveled to Moorpark to eat at Cafe Firenze 6, maybe 9, months ago. Coming away underwhelmed, T described Cafe Firenze as an upscale Olive Garden. Now that's no faint criticism.  This meal, despite a couple hiccups, can in no way be described as anything even in the same neighborhood as an Olive Garden.  I'd like to see a couple of the sauces lightened up so the beautiful pasta is the star. And the filling in the tortellacci turned a little more in the direction of savory, use the current recipe for pie or cupcake filling. For the most part, this restaurant is earning its reviews here and here and here legitimately, with wonderful food and a polished atmosphere.

The service? It was flawlessly gracious from start to finish. (Except the weird thing with bringing water bottles to the table at the beginning of the meal. That's kinda weird in a used car salesman kinda way.) The host & hostess, our servers and bartender? Friendly and welcoming in the best way.  While I don't see it replacing Mozza as the hub of Italian food in Los Angeles, Firenze Osteria is a much needed addition to SFV dining. If I lived closer I would be a regular at the welcoming bar, my go to food the crispy duck salad and the wine in my glass the Terlato-Chapoutier Shiraz Viognier blend.

Winter 2009: Season of the Hot Mulled Wine

I keep mentioning that we've been drinking hot mulled wine in the evenings the last few weeks and people keep asking for the recipe. Not a great harvester of recipes, but with a deep love of research, I simply trolled the internet looking for different recipes. Found a brown sugar mulled wine, a lovely looking cardomon one, and a recipe for mulled wine with brandy. Now a fortified mulled wine? That I can get on board with. All courtesy of WineIntro.com.

My approach was to combine a few things I had skulking around the kitchen , taking up space.  Keep in mind this is not an exact science. In a deep stock pot I throw in a couple cups of water, bring to a boil.

Added some brown sugar, more than a thimble full, less than a latte. (Quarter cup or so, maybe.) I also added a liberal sprinkling of some ground spices I keep in the cupboard; ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon.

After the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has come to a boil, I squeezed in the juice from an orange, but I think any citrus fruit will do fine. I have a very prolific lemon tree in my yard, and I might molest that for fruit next time, as the oranges are gone. (Yes, lemons on my tree in December, Southern California is a land with only two seasons.) Allow liquid to cool lower than the boiling point, but still nice and hot. For the wine, I used some half and quarter bottles that had been opened over the past couple weeks and not finished. Sometimes we have a lot of these lame duck bottles laying around, sometimes we have none. The night in photos, I had .75 of a chianti and .25 of a delicious Italian white.

To add backbone to the sauce, I poured in some cheap ass cooking port and some rather expensive brandy. Heat through without boiling, you don't want all the alcohol to evaporate.

 

Enfin. Pour into thick ceramic mugs and drink while cooking, talking, watching TV, or supervising German Shepherds. Enjoy!

GSD #1.

GSD #2.

Ludobites: Japan, Korea and Mexico All on One Le Menu

Ludobites
Royal/T
8910 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232-2326
(310) 559-6300
Selected dates through December, 2009.

Pre-empt: don't let the quick sell out of all Ludobites reservations keep you from trying to visit this December. Krissy says a couple cancellations for each evening are slowly trickling in. Click the Ludobites link at the top and make a reservation through Ludovic's website.  Call now, get in there.

Tuesday December 1st members of the Los Angeles food blogging community, co-hosted by Ludo Lefebvre, his gracious, charming wife  Krissy and the visionary men of FoodDigger, attended a pre-opening night view of what's to come during the December pop-up engagment of Ludobites at Royal/T in Culver City. Also in attendance were: Kevin, H.C., Danny, Fiona, Caroline, Lindsay, Josh, Javier, Sonya, Elina, Rachel and Cathy.

 

Artwork from Jane Glassman's In Bed Together

Having covered Ludobites here, and here and here, regular readers of this blog know Ludobites to be a temporary restaurant throwing down taste sensations during periodic engagements around the city. At the end of summer 2009, @thejgold was so thrilled with Ludobites that he deemed it one of the 99 Most Essential Los Angeles Restaurants, stating, "You can’t find it in Directory Assistance, and you can’t have dinner there tomorrow night...But when Ludo Bites is there, it’s there, and your dinner is as real as the DJ set you may have heard last week from the guy they flew in from Brussels. Lefebvre was the protégé of three of the four greatest modernist chefs in France, and wonders flow from his borrowed stoves."

Tuesday's FoodDigger dinner was characterized by all the panache the FoodDigger gents are known for exhibiting. And while some of the elements of this month's Ludobites reminisced elements of the Ludobites prior, there were some things new and very, very exciting. In a nod at the Japanoiserie that is the cosplay inspiration behind Royal/T, Ludo spins his characteristically modern French/Continental food on its head with Japanese, Korean and Mexican touches using classic French techniques that  tease the palate and thrill the imagination.

Everyone adores @frenchchefwife Krissy Lefebvre, for her wit and charm but also her generous nature. Two thirds of the times I visited Ludobites last summer, I rode the citybus arriving embarrassingly late for much sought after reservations. Neither time was it a problem. Krissy handled our tardiness with good humor, rapidly seating us, and we experienced first class service every visit.

In response to bloggers' complaints about ambient light, or lack thereof, in the last venue, Krissy purchased a light box for the restaurant so interested parties could shoot beautiful stills of their gorgeous food. She plans to keep it up during the entire engagement. I'm sorry, but how f'ing cool is she?

Just for us food-obsessed guests, Ludo played L'Invention de la Cuisine avec Michel Bras, famous French chef from Laguoile (from whence my favorite corkscrew hails).

Michel Bras coupe des haricots verts.

 

Le menu.

 

Les coupes des champagne.

 

Krissy and Ludo share a toast with present company celebrating the opening and we all drink to their prosperity.

I sat across from and next to two of my favorites, Javie from Teenage Glutster and Kevin of Kevin_Eats. Above is Javier's tiny vintage-looking Sony camera.

 

First courses.

 

Scallops, Brown Butter, Pineapple, Black Powder

This was one of two dishes Ludo shared with the crowds on opening night of the art exhibit.  Silky browned butter, brightly sweet pineapple, cilantro oil with squid ink powder mixed together with a raw scallop.  Hearing the description, one would think the pineapple would overpower the delicate brown butter and scallop. Not so. This dish is perfection. After eating this on opening night, I started craving raw scallop to the extent I sought it out two nights later at Kiyosaku, Palm Springs's best and most expensive sushi bar. My craving for this dish wasn't really satisfied until I ate it again with Ludo this week.

 

Bread Soup with Gruyere Marshmallow

Surprisingly, Ludo makes nothing of the wonder of a slow cooked egg on the menu. In my mouth, the slow cooked egg was the highlight of this dish. The 90 minute 143˚ poached egg is a celebration of chicken-goodness, and I loved it with this soup. This soup is the essence of the crust of a good brown bread, the gruyere marshmallow light in texture and flavor, the egg a perfect sphere of protein completing the dish. I have plans to make this egg at home. They include a double boiler and a candy thermometer. Please stay tuned.

 

Krissy holds up a loaf of pain campaigne (Lindsay an editor at Laist helps me brush up on my French, which lack of use seems to work in inverse proportion to physical exercise), a brown country bread from Breadbar, location of the last Ludobites.

 

Bordeaux, for le foie gras.

 

Foie Gras Beignet, Celery Roots Remoulade

All made much to do of this sexy liver dish. Is it sweet, how much foie is that? Did you see how much foie in in there? OMG, I don't know how he can put so much foie in here. Is this curry in the celery roots? What is the source of the light oil coming from inside the beignet? What is on the outside of the beignet? Molasses or is it honey? I heard Will across from me say, "Holy shit, that's good." I quote.

 

Richly delicious, with indeed an obscene amount of foie gras (2 oz), a touch of curry in the celery root salad, and some slightly sweet glaze on the outside of the beignet. Honestly, I could not finish mine. Apparently I was sitting in the desert, because a couple of vultures nearby were waiting happily for anything I cast off. No names mentioned, natch.

:-D

 

Caroline snaps pics of her foie gras beignet in Krissy's box. If you want to see beautiful snaps from the light box, check out Cathy's blog Gastronomy.com.  Personally, I love ambient light and hate fighting crowds. No Black Friday for me.

 

Squid, Chorizo Oil, Kimchi Puree, & Red Onion with Eggplant Skin

This was the perfect course to follow the luxurious intensity of the foie gras. Savory (chorizo oil), spicy (kimchi), sour (kimchi) and sweet flavors (pickled onions) combine with light textures in a punchy way.

 

Moneterey squid is slow cooked, and what looks like mustard is actually pureed kimchi. IMO, this dish is some kind of genius.

 

Le menu progresses.

 

Veal, Udon, Kombu Dashi, Mushrooms, Sesame Seed Miso

My favorite dish of the night, hands down. Enoki & button mushrooms with green onions, shredded veal and udon in a dark kelp broth (kombu dashi) with sesame studded miso paste swooshed on the side of the plate. 

 

Add just a little miso to the broth, to your taste. I don't even know how to wax poetic about this beautiful dish, I loved it.

 

Wild Striped Bass, Garden Vegetables, Aioli

At this point, the wine has been flowing freely for hours, talk is growing silly and merry making is being had. Out parades a beautiful bass in a sea water broth with tiny baby vegetables, radish, broccoli (purple and green) and Brussels sprouts with a gorgeous flavorful aoili ribboned throughout the dish.  This is so gorgeous I wish it had been served earlier. I wish everything had been served first...

 

The Glutster and Kevin shoot their fish.

 

Hanger Steak, Crunchy Escargot, Baby Corn, Bok Choy, Black Olive Mole

Coolest dish of the evening. Sunday after the opening of In Bed Together, Javier and Momma Glutster took Ludo into their home in East LA, schooling the Frenchman in mole making.  You may think Ludo is some kind of crazed wackadoo after the whole pig's ear quesadilla incident, but this guy has soul. Once, he and Krissy invited on twitter whoever could make it to their house for dinner. A local girl I follow stopped in without ever having met them in person and had a fabulous time. This willingness to interact with and support the LA food community who in turn support them impresses me to no end. As does this grass roots way of learning the fine art of mole. No, Ludo did not call in Rick Bayless, one of the world's finest Latin-American chefs, nor visit LA's own chefpert John Rivera Sedlar. Instead he traveled to the eastern regions of our fair city and learned from a solely Spanish speaking Zacatecana. Props, maing.

And the resulting dish is delicious.  Excellent quality hanger steak, (is this really hanger steak?), baby corns in the cob, crispy little escargot to dip in the mole. My one complaint would be not enough mole on the plate. But there's never enough mole. There's never ever enough mole.

 

Now, if it seems like there are a couple dishes missing, that's because I turn into a pumpkin at 10:30 on nights prior to rising at 5.  Luckily someone from the FoodDigger community always leaves a little early (I follow on his heels), and I can almost always take a pass on dessert. Despite missing two courses, this evening was an epic joy.  Thank you FoodDigger, and thank you Ludo and Krissy. I am counting the days til my next visit, coming right up.

And please, wait to be seated.