Let Them Eat Cake
Gesine Bullock-Prado, one of the chefs from Vanilla Table, has just released a new book, Let Them Eat Cake: Classic, Decadent Desserts with Vegan, Gluten-Free & Healthy Variations: More Than 80 Recipes for Cookies, Pies, Cakes, Ice Cream, and More! Gesine wrote this book with everyone in mind. She wanted to provide a resource for bakers who are often hamstrung when confronted by the need to modify recipes for dietary restrictions. Available for purchase at Amazon.com
Awards Season
The International Association of Culinary Professionals has announced its 2015 IACP Award Finalists, which focus on the year's best food writing — from cookbooks to videos to journalism. A few of the chefs from, Vanilla Table are finalists – Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Baking Bible, David Lebovitz, My Paris Kitchen: Recipes and Stories, Christine Manfield, Dessert Divas and Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London's Ottolenghi. The Winners will be announced during IACP’s 37th annual conference in Washington, DC on Sunday, March 29, 2015. Congratulations chefs!
Vanilla Table Book – Giveaway
A Glug of Oil is delighted that the lovely people over at Jacqui Small Publishing are giving one lucky reader of this blog the chance to win a copy of this lovely book – 21 days left to enter. Please visit A Glug of Oil.com to find out the details.*
*Please note the prize – one copy of the book Vanilla Table, can only be sent to the UK only.
Milo & Olive
My favourite go to local – Milo & Olive a neighborhood bakery and pizzeria that is now twice the size. Smiles and delicious food all around! The lovely operations manager Anastasia was working at the new expansive counter on Saturday morning and chatted with a great friend, Chuck Craig and I, while we enjoyed a whole wheat mascarpone-blueberry iced cake, the apple kouign amann and Luxxe coffee. Our server Sarah was a delight – we will return again and again! Milo & Olive serves a menu of fresh baked morning pastries and bread, wood fired pizzas, farmers-market inspired salads and small plates in a very intimate and warm environment. Milo & Olive
When Pigs Fly
This is my London chef assistant, Kathy who helped cook and style for the Vanilla Table photo shoot. I thanked her with a gift of a Chefwear apron, “when pigs fly”. Kathy says, “it is by far her favourite apron and most complemented”!
Sausal – El Segundo
Sunday tasting for soon to open restaurant Sausal near LAX. Chef Anne began with a scrumptious artisan salad, homemade hominy and irresistible short ribs. Natasha finished the afternoon with Frozen Chocolate Soufflés and Fresh Raspberry Empanadas. Anne, Chef Terry Buzzard and Natasha, three happy gals celebrate with Sausal co-partners Sorin Costache and Joseph Suceveanu. Sausal – Nuevo rancho cuisine
Amazing fruit and veg art
Just love this! I think it beats an aquarium anytime.
Amber Locke creates intricate designs by photographing fruit and vegetables arranged on a sheet. “It started with a picture posted on Instagram of her weekly groceries last year, but now Amber Locke is being commissioned to create her 'veg art' by the likes of Jamie Oliver and Android.” Read more here and share with friends mad on photographing their veges! Amazing fruit and veg art
Melisse Restaurant
Melisse Restaurant in Santa Monica, is truly an extraordinary and elegant dining adventure! Chef/Owner, Josiah Citrin and Chef de Cuisine, Ken Takayama artistically combine ingredients, flavors and textures in a most spectacular manner. The food is divine and the presentation is exquisite. Pictured here are just two offerings that contain Heilala Vanilla beans. We are more than impressed with what they have created and extremely flattered to have our vanilla beans become a part of something so grand! Melisse Restaurant
Pineapple Souffle and Coconut Sorbet and house made vanilla yogurt with the most delicious fruit combination.
Heilala Vanilla USA
HOT OFF THE PRESS - The top 5 Trends spotted at the 2015 Specialty Food Association Winter Show in San Francisco are in - looks like Vanilla is one of the 5, with emphasis on varietals. As you can imagine that makes us Heilala Vanilla thrilled! Vanilla Bean Cheddar Cheese - yes please!! Specialty Food
After 5 Years of Work, Redbird Finally Takes Flight
Neal and Amy Knoll Fraser together run Redbird, the restaurant in the rectory of the former St. Vibiana Cathedral. It has been five years in the making. It’s been quite the journey for Neal and Amy Fraser, who made a pact 17 years ago to one day live in Downtown. The Silver Lake residents haven’t done so yet. For now, a beautiful new restaurant in a cardinal’s old home will have to do. Brilliant and cheers to you Neal Fraser.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Once upon a time, a Catholic cardinal lived and worked out of the tidy concrete rectory adjacent to the St. Vibiana cathedral at Second and Main streets. If only he could see his old home today, transformed... Read more