At first an item that came across our desk seemed a totally zany idea: Munk Pack’s ready-to-eat Oatmeal Fruit Squeezes to time with “National Breakfast Month” and the back-to-school season. But much to our surprise, the product tastes great (it could have a little more texture, true), so much more satisfying th...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) You would think that fried chicken was just invented the way is has become a “culinary darling, ” but who cares as long as it lasts. So it had to happen and New Orleans happily has done it first, a National Fried Chicken Festival (FCF) presented by Raising Cane’s that attracted a record [&...
Following its ninth successful run on the Paramount Pictures Studios backlot, The Times is adding a second session in Costa Mesa to focus on the thriving dining scene and award-winning restaurants in the heart of Southern California. The LA TIMES Taste debuts in Costa Mesa will take place at The MET over three days, Oct. [&hel...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) American mainstream chefs known for their ethnic or ethnic-inspired cuisines, Mary Sue Milliken (Border Grill) and Suzanne Goin (AOC, Luque), represented the “ethnic good segment” of restaurants in the The Good Food Media Network’s recently released annual Good Food 100 Restaurants list. T...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Private-chef-turned-restaurateur Helene Henderson’Malibu Farm in Newport Beach is officially open! White-washed and sunny as the original in Malibu, a brick sidewalk leads the easy path to the indoor-outdoor restaurant, ice cream shop and store. It fits so snugly into a newly remodeled, carefully c...
Celebrate regional American National Cheeseburger Day When the cheese was added to a hamburger it was a big deal. Honoring the 1926 invention of The word “cheeseburger” is a shortened form of the phrase “cheese hamburger”, meaning a hamburger with cheese. The original word hamburger arguably comes from the town of Ha...
Watch! You have to be driving east to west to spot the inset Kapoor’s Akbar Indian Restaurant on the north side of Cesar Chavez Boulevard just outside of DTLA. And, laughed owner Owner Avinash Kapoor, “you have to know our place is 701 West. Cesar E Chavez Ave., Suite 107, which is one of several restaurant spa...
(Gerry Furth-Sides, All images courtesy of Westfield Century City except as noted). Westfield Century City welcomes guests to TASTE, a culinary festival, to show off its new upscale restaurants and recent high end remodel. The massive scale of the place now has to be experienced to be believed. Even Gelson’s Market n...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Editor’s Note: Since this post was published, Preux & Proper no longer features Maker’s Mark. The dictionary definition of “Maker’s Mark” is the hallmark on a piece of English gold, silver, or plate denoting the person or firm responsible for its productio...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Preux & Proper’s is in a sweet two-floor version of the iconic (22 stories) New York flat-iron high-rise built in 1902. This DTLA location may be an odd match-up for New Orleans cuisine, but founder-owner Joshua Kopel, partner-Chef Sammy Monsour beautifully realize Kopel’s mission to R...
Gerry Furth-Sides 
Barbara Hansen 
Chef-owner Alain Cohen 
Roberta Deen 
Jose Martinez 
Nivedita Basu 