It’s no secret that I wasn’t very excited about an extended stay in LA but the one thing I was excited about was the food. For over 15 years I have been watching food shows (Top Chef Primarily) and hearing about the fantastic food scene in Los Angeles. When so many experts say the same thing over and over I believe it and combine that with Michelin Stars and other Food ranking systems and LA seemed like a target rich environment to try some great chef meals.

I knew enough about myself to know I wasn’t going to like all the kinds of food the city has to offer, but after extensive research I have a very long list of restaurants that were run by people I had seen on TV. When I say research I mean research. I went back and looked up every contestant who ever appeared on Top Chef and then tracked down the restaurant they were currently working at. Since lot of restaurants closed during COVID this wasn’t that easy of a task but after several hours I had my first pass. Then I looked at the menus to make sure I felt the food wasn’t to far outside of my personal. One of my favorite chefs for example is running a vegan noodle restaurant and although I appreciate where he is going the food isn’t my jam. Certainly not Lee’s!!

Lastly I looked at the restaurants seating and hours of operation. Many restaurants are open limited hours and the additional seating areas are outside which makes them a bit weather dependent. After adding up all of these factors, I had a smaller but still healthy list and we started knocking these out one at a time. Keep in mind that most of these meals were $200 or more plus parking but that was ok because I wanted to experience what I thought was the Pinnacle of culinary experience.

I am not going to list every experience out here but I will say that so far I would only return to one restaurant. They were all overpriced, which everything is in LA, but the food itself was supremely disappointing in almost every case. The sole exception to the food was the deserts were really good in every restaurant, but for me at least the starters and mains were supremely disappointing and in some cases not food I was willing to eat. I can count on one hand the amount of times I pushed food away in a restaurant but I have done that too many times here.

I should say the food is absolutely beautiful, delicately plated and a visual spectacle and the service that provides it is outstanding and consistently the best of anyplace I have been, but the food itself is either incredibly bland or over spiced to the point that you can’t taste the food itself. Let me give you an example. Recently we out to a Michelin star rated restaurant run by an Icon n the LA food scene. The chef herself was there that night and the first course was a Red Belgian Endive Caesar. It was gorgeous. A lovely tower or greens with a very good Caesar dressing and two (yes that’s right) lovely croutons. The problem was the bitterness of the Endive was so overwhelming that unless it was coated in sauce (which there wasn’t enough of) I couldn’t eat it. Ultimately I had like three pieces and pushed it away. Since this was a $19 salad I was obviously disappointed.

Now you could say, and it’s probably true, that I have an uneducated palette and there was nothing wrong with that salad but like all art you either like something or you don’t. In this case I didn’t and I don’t think I should have to apologize for that. By the way Lee ate his but wasn’t interested in eating the rest of mine. The next course Lee got was a braised pork shank. Again it looked absolutely beautiful and it was cooked perfectly, but it was incredibly bland and only had the slightest taste of apricot. When we asked for one of the side sauces, the chef herself we were told whipped up a tamarind sauce which was also extremely bland.

I should be clear here, the food is always perfectly cooked. If you ask for medium rare that’s what you get and the individual components are always at the right texture and temperature, but the seasonings are always off and since what you are paying for in a high end restaurant is the expertise in seasoning (at least I am) that’s incredibly disappointing. The one exception to this was Playa de Provisions where the seasoning was fantastic and each bite was a surprise and a little explosion to my taste buds. THAT is what a $150 meal (per person) should taste like and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect something close to that.

Most importantly I find myself asking why? Is it me? Is it them? I know I am making myself crazy but it’s a good question. It’s not like I am super picky. I grew up in Columbus which had great restaurants and every meal I have ever eaten in Chicago has been fantastic. So maybe it’s just my Midwestern palate. One of the coolest things about the LA scene is they have every cuisine in the world and I do mean everything. But I am not going to Ethiopian or Bhutanese restaurants (yes they have them) but restaurants where I think there are things I would like are on the menu.

So what is it? Well on the cruise we learned something interesting from the ships tour that I think might be part of the problem. The tour guide stated that all of the food had to come from the US on the cruise leaving from an American port but the European port cruises’ food was much better because the raw materials were better. According to him so much of the American food was genetically modified and you could really taste the difference.

That was interesting to me and I started thinking about how California cuisine had always relied on relatively simple preparation with the freshest of ingredients to create wonderful taste. It was a true movement starting in the 70’s and the idea was to let the food shine through. As a person who has had the opportunity to eat many meals with locally grown food I was all for that and indeed prefer this way of eating. We have had local herd beef in Texas, fresh seafood from the gulf coast, and crab legs in Alaska that have led to extraordinary meals in our travels. We have also of course had many mediocre meals but they didn’t advertise themselves as being the best of the best.

So maybe it truly is the raw materials (personally I have found the produce in the stores to be much worse than from Texas here. And I would say the same for the meat as well. Which is surprising because 40% of the nations fruits and vegetables come from California but maybe its all mass production. Restaurants in other parts of the country that don’t have access to the freshest understand they must do other things to elevate the food which may be the difference. Maybe the chefs buy into their own marketing and have lost the ability to be objective about their own food.

Or maybe it’s me. Either way I am going to stop with the high end restaurants for awhile and go back to what I really like which is small “hole in the wall” restaurants. Even if they are disappointing at least its easier on the wallet and who knows I might end up finding some nice surprises along the way. m

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