Simon Sinek’s new book, Together is Better

Together is BetterSimon Sinek’s upcoming book, , Together is Better, is a celebration of that simple, human idea that we are better when we help each other than we are when we work alone.    It is the kind of book that is perfect to give to your friends, family, and colleagues who have started asking their own questions about what a more joyful and purposeful work life could bring.  

This why we are offering this ticket type. If you have someone in your life who you’d like to thank for helping you along your journey, whether that’s professionally or personally, then choose this option to receive an additional book, complete with gift ribbon.

Patric Kuh with Antonia Lofaso

Tuesday, June 21, 2016
8pm 
 
Patric Kuh
in conversation with Antonia Lofaso
 
discussing his upcoming book,
Finding the Flavors We Lost: 
From Bread to Bourbon, How Artisans Reclaimed American Food


Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School

Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS
$20 General Admission Section Seat  
$45 Reserved Section Seat + book

Patric Kuh is the restaurant critic for Los Angeles Magazine and the author of The Last Days of Haute Cuisine: The Coming of Age of American Restaurants, which won the 2002 James Beard Award for writing on food. His new book is Finding the Flavors We Lost: From Bread to Bourbon, How Artisans Reclaimed American Food.
 
“Kuh artfully tells a food tale… As a chef, I am inspired by Kuh’s desire to give convenience and mass production a run for the money with a tasty vision for the American table. This book made me hungry!” (Alex Guarnaschelli, executive chef at Butter and author of Old-School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned to Cook)

 
We hear the word “artisanal” all the time—attached to cheese, chocolate, coffee, even fast-food chain sandwiches—but what does it actually mean? We take “farm to table” and “handcrafted food” for granted now but how did we get here? In Finding the Flavors We Lost, acclaimed food writer Patric Kuh profiles major figures in the so-called “artisanal” food movement who brought exceptional taste back to food and inspired chefs and restaurateurs to redefine and rethink the way we eat.

Kuh begins by narrating the entertaining stories of countercultural “radicals” who taught themselves the forgotten crafts of bread, cheese, and beer-making in reaction to the ever-present marketing of bland, mass-produced food, and how these people became the inspiration for today’s crop of young chefs and artisans. Finding the Flavors We Lost also analyzes how population growth, speedier transportation, and the societal shifts and economic progress of the twentieth century led to the rise of supermarkets and giant food corporations, which encouraged the general desire to swap effort and quality for convenience and quantity.

Kuh examines how a rediscovery of the value of craft and individual effort has fueled today’s popularity and appreciation for artisanal food and the transformations this has effected on both the restaurant menu and the dinner table. Throughout the book, he raises a host of critical questions. How big of an operation is too big for a food company to still call themselves “artisanal”? Does the high cost of handcrafted goods unintentionally make them unaffordable for many Americans? Does technological progress have to quash flavor? Eye-opening, informative, and entertaining, Finding the Flavors We Lost is a fresh look into the culture of artisan food as we know it today—and what its future may be.

Antonia Lofaso joined Joe Bastianich and Tim Love in the second season of CNBC’s ‘Restaurant Startup,’ as a consultant and the show is now in its third season. Best known for her role on Top Chef Season 4, Top Chef All Stars and Top Chef Duels, Chef Antonia Lofaso is one of America’s most loved chefs. Most recently, Lofaso has gone from television personality to business owner and is currently executive chef and owner of Black Market in Studio City, California and Scopa Italian Roots in Venice, California. With a lifelong passion for cooking, Lofaso chased her dreams and has managed to balance her busy career with being a single parent. She shares her secrets and tips in her book The Busy Mom’s Cookbook re-released in paperback and can be seen as a frequent judge on Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen.

September 5 — Molly Ringwald in conversation with Meghan Daum

Wednesday, September 5, 2012
8pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Molly Ringwald
in conversation with Meghan Daum, Los Angeles Times columnist
discussing her debut fiction, When It Happens to You

Track 16 at Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue, Bldg C-1
Santa Monica, CA

PURCHASE TICKETS
$20, $40 includes Ringwald’s book,
$34 signed book purchase only (shipping included to US destinations)
$95 includes the book + pre-event reception*

* Proceeds from tickets to the reception support the upcoming Live Talks Los Angeles emerging voices/authors series of events that commence in 2013

Molly Ringwald in the news…

Q&A with Molly Ringwald, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times review of When It Happens To You
In the New York Times: Molly Ringwald talks about her new novel
On NPR:  A Novel Endeavor from Molly Ringwald

Film, television and Broadway star Ringwald’s debut fiction, When It Happens to You, “sizzles with rare insight about the reverberations of betrayal and of love.”

Molly Ringwald mines the complexities of modern relationships in this collection of linked stories, When it Happens to You.  She follows a Los Angeles family and their friends and neighbors as they negotiate the hazardous terrain of everyday life — revealing the deceptions, heartbreak, and vulnerability familiar to us all.

A stay-at-home mom grapples with age, infertility and an increasingly distant husband. A former children’s television star tries to rebuild his life after being hospitalized for “exhaustion.” An elderly woman mourns the loss of her husband and her estranged relationship with her daughter.  A single mother finds untapped reserves of strength to protect her flamboyant six-year-old son who wishes only to wear dresses. And in the devastating title story, a betrayed wife chronicles her pain and alienation, leading to an eviscerating denouement.

As the lives of these characters converge and diverge in unexpected ways, Ringwald reveals an eye for the universality of loss, love, and the search for connection. When It Happens to You is being called an auspicious literary debut by this well-known star of film, TV and Broadway.

Writer Gary Shteyngart (Super Sad True Love Story) says Ringwald “knows how families work and uses her considerable talents to make them come alive on the page.”  Writer Robin Black (If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This) says, “While we have been watching Molly Ringwald, she has clearly been watching us. These stories sizzle with rare insight about the reverberations of betrayal and of love.”

Meghan Daum has been an opinion columnist at The Los Angeles Times since 2005. Her latest book, Life Would Be Perfect I Lived In That House, was published by Knopf in 2010. She is also the author of the essay collection My Misspent Youth and the novel The Quality of Life Report and her work has appeared in numerous magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, and Vogue. She is currently at work on a book of essays about sentimentality.

PURCHASE TICKETS

$20, $40 includes Ringwald’s book,
$95 includes pre-event reception (6:30-7:30pm) plus book

Track 16 at Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue, Bldg C-1
Santa Monica, CA

Some Simon Winchester’s (at Live Talks on 11/18) favorite books…

Over at Goodreads, they have an a write up of Simon Winchester’s favorite bedtime books about the sea!  Winchester will be at Live Talks on November 18 at Track 16 in conversation with Patt Morrison.  This event will benefit the new — to be launched in early 2011 — Los Angeles Review of Books.  Starting tomorrow, we will have an interview with Tom Lutz who is heading the effort at the LARB.