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An Ambitious Closed Loop Dining Experiment from Andy Doubrava and Tiff Ortiz

This past weekend we were lucky enough to be invited to the informal family meal of Andy Doubrava, lately Executive Chef of Rustic Canyon Wine Bar, and Tiff Ortiz, nomadic chef extraordinaire, at BH’s Leora Cafe. Andy and Tiff have created Slow Burn, a closed loop zero waste residency and upcoming tour that pretty much explodes the brick & mortar restaurant model and rethinks nothing less than our relationship to fine dining and food. Laura Klein and her chef husband, Leor Klein, are feeding the movers and shakers of UTA at Leora Café during the day, and plan to bewitch the rest of us at night.

now, CultureLisa AlexanderOctober 12, 2022Comment

How to Make a Tequila 101 with Spirits Whisperer Virginia Miller

If there’s anyone who knows about palate, it’s Virginia Miller. For fifteen years she’s been a dining, cocktail, spirits and drink writer and editor, as well as a professional spirits awards judge for umpteen global awards (as well as a dining, bars and cocktail judge). Edible LA first met her at a farm-to-table dinner in Stinson Beach, in the Bay Area, and we couldn’t stop comparing notes. We knew right away that Virginia was the ‘real’ thing, someone who knew a crazy amount about spirits and whiskeys and just about any kind of food. In the most recent chapter in her professional life (which includes being the W. North America Academy Chairperson for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants,) Virginia has had the kind of dreamboat experience the rest of us only fantasize about: she was the nose and palate — and for two years, the co-creator behind — a new tequila with an established global brand, Avion, part of one of the biggest spirit companies in the world, Pernod Ricard. What was that like? She says it all comes down to the palate. But what is a palate? Is it something we’re born with, or something we learn?