Jessica Koslow

Courtesy of A Real Treat

Vanessa Hughes loves candy. Hers is the sort of passion that can make someone search out a sweet shop while honeymooning in Barcelona, which she did. Her obsession was sparked by her father, and she has since passed it on to her 7-year-old daughter, Bailey.

“I have a lot of childhood memories with candy,” Hughes says. “But when my daughter began eating my candy, I started thinking more about what it was made with.”

Hughes and her husband began to look around for “better” candy options, mainly those made with no corn syrup or artificial colors. To their surprise, they found limited options — although they were really good — and they mostly were available online only. So Hughes, who had a bowl of candy on every desk when she worked in daytime television and healthcare marketing communications, suggested to her husband that they open a pop-up candy store that stocked goodies free of artificial flavors and colors, dyes, refined sugars and many common allergens. …

Read the full article at LA Weekly.

Courtesy of Cake and Cork

At the second annual L.A. Cookie Con and Sweets Show this weekend — the West Coast’s largest event of its kind — all sorts of cookie bakers, both amateur and professional, will be showing off their goods in hopes of snagging a production deal with a big-name company. Think American Idol but with baked goods. You’ll find no shortage of follow-your-dreams stories here: One sweets enthusiast left her six-figure job to create beautiful cookies; another tossed away one obsession, sports, to start selling raw edible cookie dough; another floated her idea for a brownie and cookie combination past the entrepreneurs on Shark Tank; and another banked on a rebellious culinary school business plan. At Cookie Con, they’ll all be showcasing their sugary creations — and their culinary dreams.

Here are four dessert makers who charmed us with their stories and their sweets. …

Read the full article at LA Weekly.

Photo courtesy of: Al Mare

It was bound to happen – rising from the wooden planks of the Santa Monica Pier, surrounded by Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and carnival food staples (hot dogs! fast-food pizza!), the first-ever Italian restaurant has popped up on the horizon, with an executive chef with serious gastronomical cred, Giacomo Pettinari. Even though Al Mare  a 279-seat ristorante, has been feeding the masses of tourists and locals alike through the holidays, their official ribbon cutting was actually only recently, on March 12.

Co-owners Paolo Simeone and Franco Sorgi, who have already seen success with Trastevere on the Third Street Promenade and La Piazza at the Grove, spent over two years completing the build-out of Al Mare, which is designed by local architect David Hibbert. The 9,000-square-foot Italian eatery now stands three stories tall, with second-floor balcony terraces and a rooftop deck boasting one of the best views on the Westside.

The space where Al Mare stands has an interesting history that doesn’t involve fine dining or Italian anything….

Read full article at LAWeekly.com.

Coffee toffee with chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich at Milk

I have a few entries in LA Weekly’s Best Of LA issue:

Best Ice Cream Shop

Best Portable Breakfast

Best Outdoor Dining

Best Octopus Dish

Pork Belly Bahn Mi

This month is National Sandwich Month. And although exactly how and why that came to be escapes us, it’s as good a reason as any to celebrate a dish truly worth the celebrating. Mendocino Farms — and its six locations around Los Angeles — has carved out a successful sandwich-making niche in Los Angeles. Two more locations are scheduled to open this year and one more in 2014.

It’s a recent Tuesday at lunchtime at the Marina del Rey location. A line winds through the shop and out the door, and it doesn’t get any smaller for a couple of hours; the outdoor tables are packed. In one corner sits Mendocino Farms Founder Mario del Pero, sharing his sandwich philosophy: what makes a great sandwich, why people pass other shops to eat at Mendocino Farms and where he can’t wait to open his ninth location. Turn the page, and check out our ode to 31 local sandwiches. It’s always lunchtime somewhere.

Squid Ink: What do you think makes a great sandwich anyway?

Mario del Pero: The very foundation of a great sandwich is great bread, and crafting the bread to fit the sandwich. We spend as much time working with our baker — which is Celestino Drago’s bakery — as on the sandwich we’re designing. We spent roughly a year developing the wheat bread on the Farm Club.

We either take great classics and ask, Where is this sandwich today? …

Read full article at LA Weekly

Sweet Rose Creamery

Even though July is National Ice Cream Month, nobody needs an excuse to indulge in creamy cones, cups and sandwiches any time of year. Ronald Reagan was the president to drum up this designation in 1984, decreeing that the third Sunday of the month would be National Ice Cream Day. He wanted to recognize the cold treat that 90% of the U.S. population enjoys regularly. Turn the page for the scoop on the best ice cream and gelato shops in town to visit on July 21 — this year’s National Ice Cream Day — or any other day, for that matter.

Milk

10. Milk:
Walking into Milk is like stepping into a condensed version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. There’s a stand-up fridge to the left with goodies such as butterscotch drumsticks, watermelon and red velvet macaroon ice cream sandwiches and frozen strawberry shortcakes. Piled high on the counter to the right are cookies, brownies and cakes. The menu board hanging overhead lists shakes, malts, floats and the classics, which include a warm ooey gooey chocolate sundae and the blondie with vanilla ice cream, butterscotch and pecan praline. Make Your Own Ice Cream Sandwiches are $5 with about 10 cookie types to choose from as well as flavors such as jasmine, nutella, blueberry crumble pie and their most popular pick, banana dulce de leche. 7290 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; 323-939-6455.


Read full article at LA Weekly

Organic beef slider at Packing House Wines

One week before our own dineLA launches on July 15, Claremont kicks off its first-ever Restaurant Week from now today through July 16th. Home to the seven Claremont Colleges, a botanic garden covering 86 acres, a bustling Sunday farmers market and Ben Harper’s Folk Music Center, Claremont is looking to expand its reputation beyond being labeled the city of trees and PhDs. For the next eight days, 20 restaurants are offering prix fixe menus for $20, $30 and $40. From Portuguese favorites like bacalhau de natas at Euro Café to traditional Afghan dishes like kabuli pilaf at Walter’s, it’s a good time to taste what’s cooking 30 miles east of downtown L.A.

Chocolate crème brûlée at Aruffo’s

5. Aruffo’s Italian Cuisine:
Nearly thirty years ago, two 22-year-old sweethearts decided to start a restaurant. Today, Aruffo’s is still open for business seven days a week on Yale Avenue in Claremont Village, and owner Valerie Aruffo still greets and seats her customers. The three-course lunch and four-course dinner ranges in price depending on the main course, which could be pasta swirled with homemade basil pesto or chicken breast sautéed in fine Marsala drinking wine (rather than the more commonly used cooking Marsala wine). The featured dinner dessert is one of Aruffo’s most requested: a decadent chocolate crème brûlée with fresh berries. 126 N. Yale Ave., Claremont; 909-624-9624.

Read full article at LA Weekly