Food events at Live Talks LA: Mark Bittman (Oct 16); Yotam Ottolenghi (Oct 23) & Marcus Samuelsson (Oct 28)

Mark Bittman, Yotam Ottolenghi and Marcus Samuelsson speak at Live Talks LA, October 2014

Mark Bittman, Yotam Ottolenghi and Marcus Samuelsson speak at Live Talks LA, October 2014

We are excited about a series of food events at Live Talks Los Angeles this fall.  All three are held at All Saints Church, Beverly Hills and are preceded by a reception with selections prepared from each of the cookbooks featured.  We feature Mark Bittman on October 16, Yotam Ottolenghi on October 23 and Marcus Samuelsson on October 28.

October 16, Mark Bittman — one of America’s best-known and most widely respected food writers. He covers food policy, cooking, and eating as an Opinion columnist for The New York Times and the paper’s Sunday Magazine. He produced “The Minimalist” column for 13 years and has starred in several popular Public Television cooking series. Now a frequent public speaker, he appears regularly on the Today Show and is a guest on a wide range of television and radio shows. Bittman has authored more than a dozen cookbooks, including How to Cook Everything® The Basics, How to Cook Everything®, How to Cook Everything® Vegetarian (all available as apps), Food Matters and The Food Matters Cookbook, and the new VB6™: Eat Vegan Before 6:00. Visit his website.  In How to Cook Everything Fast, Bittman provides a game plan for becoming a better, more intuitive cook while you wake up your weekly meal routine with 2,000 main dishes and accompaniments that are simple to make, globally inspired, and bursting with flavor.

October 23, Yotam Ottolenghi who owns an eponymous group of four restaurants, plus the high-end restaurant, Nopi, in London. His previous cookbooks—Plenty, Jerusalem, and Ottolenghi—have all been on the New York Times bestseller list. He writes for The Guardian, and appears on BBC.  Plenty More is the much anticipated follow-up to Ottolenghi’s bestselling and award-winning cookbook Plenty, featuring 120 vegetarian dishes organized by cooking method. Plenty influenced the way people cook and eat vegetables. Its focus on flavorful, vegetable-centric dishes that emphasize spices and fresh ingredients caused a produce-cooking craze in the UK, the US, and the world over. Plenty More continues in the spirit of Plenty, with dazzling dishes, prepared raw, grilled, baked, simmered, cracked, or braised. It features recipes for main dishes, sides, salads, and sweets including Membrillo and Stilton Quiche, Buttermilk-Crusted Okra, Candy Beets with Lentils, Roasted Rhubarb with Sweet Labneh, and Quince Poached in Pomegranate Juice.

October 28, Marcus Samuelsson, owner of Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem and former Executive Chef and co-owner of New York’s Restaurant Aquavit, AQ Cafe at Scandinavia House, and Riingo. The youngest chef ever to receive two three-star ratings from The New York Times, he starred on Discovery Home Channel’s Inner Chef.  His cookbooks include Aquavit and the New Scandinavian Cuisine, The Soul of a New Cuisine, which won the 2007 James Beard Foundation Award for best international cookbook, and New American Table.  He is winner of Top Chef Masters, and a judge on Chopped. In 2009, he was chosen by President Obama to cook the first state dinner.  In his latest cook book, Marcus Off Duty, Samuelsson shows how he cooks at home for family and friends. Born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, and trained in European kitchens, he is a world citizen turned American success story.  The recipes blend a rainbow of the flavors he experienced in his travels—Ethiopian, Swedish, Mexican, Caribbean, Italian, and Southern soul. His eclectic, casual food includes dill-spiced salmon; coconut-lime curried chicken; mac, cheese, and greens; chocolate pie spiced with Indian garam masala; and for kids, peanut noodles with slaw.

Previous food events at Live Talks Los Angeles include: Marcus Samuelsson in 2012 discussing his memoir; Daniel Boulud with Jonathan Gold and Suzanne Goin with Russ Parsons.  Videos to each are in the links.