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L.A. Times Festival of Books: The Food Edition

Tanaya Ghosh |
May 2, 2012 | 12:23 a.m. PDT

Food Editor

Throngs of people lined up for food trucks at the Festival of Books (photos by Tanaya Ghosh)
Throngs of people lined up for food trucks at the Festival of Books (photos by Tanaya Ghosh)
Saturday

To kick off the L.A. Times Festival of Books' weekend foodie festivities at USC, Top Chef Michael Voltaggio, author of “VOLT ink,” gave a cooking demonstration. He then sat for a book signing before we interviewed him later in the day.

Then, it was time to scope out the food trucks. From Coolhaus, we got 3 different items: one hot cake cookie sandwich with fig mascarpone ice cream, one chocolate-chocolate cookie sandwich with salted caramel ice cream, and one cup of beer & pretzel ice cream. 

Although the beer was very subtle and the pretzels inevitably got a bit soggy in the ice cream, it gets props for being a unique flavor. The hot cake cookie was the better of the two cookies, with maple bits and moistness galore. The fig was quite hard to detect in the mascarpone ice cream, but the salted caramel one was quite good.

 

We also got an order of Frysmith's Kimchi Fries, which had sautéed kimchi and onions with Kurobuta pork belly, cheddar cheese and scallions to top off the crispy fries. They were amazing, although I only got a couple forkfuls in before heading backstage to interview Michael Voltaggio. He told us about his take on food trucks, molecular gastronomy, L.A. as a foodie city, and even what surprising songs we'd find on his iPod. Check out the full interview here.

Gail Simmons, author of “Talking with My Mouth Full,” then gave a cooking demonstration on how to cook perfect scrambled eggs. She topped them off with Petrossian caviar powder as she told the endearing story of how bursting into tears at a restaurant over badly cooked eggs led her to be cast as a judge on Bravo's hit cooking competition, "Top Chef."

Nancy Silverton, author of “The Mozza Cookbook,” then joined Michael Voltaggio on stage to discuss the L.A. food scene. They were interviewed by L.A. Times Deputy Food Editor Betty Hallock, and both praised the L.A. food scene.

Next, celebrity chef and author of “Cook like a Rock Star,” Anne Burrell demonstrated how to cook orecchiette pasta with spring peas, garlic, olive oil, and cheese. She had a glass of "white wine on the rocks" in hand, and came out dancing to the music that was blasting. She was the most animated chef of the weekend, and was very entertaining and fun to watch.

The heat from the sun presented the perfect opportunity to go to USC's Lemonade and get a couple fresh-squeezed gourmet lemonades. We got the peach ginger and the blackberry mint, both of which were refreshing, with the ginger being much stronger than the peach, and the mint adding a cooling element to the blackberry.

As for Saturday's food panel, L.A. Times Food Editor Russ Parsons led a panel on food justice and other issues with authors Julie Guthman ("Weighing In"), Kathleen Flinn ("The Kitchen Counter Cooking School") and Tracie McMillan ("The American Way of Eating"). They discussed the problem of higher prices for healthier foods, and also advocated implementing cooking classes in school to teach kids cooking skills from a young age. Flinn added that students would learn "how to make eggs" and "what an artichoke is," which would in turn lead to healthier food habits.

L.A. Times Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter also discussed her favorite cookbooks at the Los Angeles Times Booth earlier in the day.

 

Sunday

Mélisse chef Josiah Citrin, author of “In Pursuit of Excellence,” gave a cooking demonstration to start off the second half of the festival.  

Then, San Francisco chef and Food Network's "Chefs vs. City" star Chris Cosentino, author of “Beginnings: My Way To Start a Meal,” gave a cooking demonstration with his young son, Easton. 

Easton helped his dad by peeling vegetables, and it was evident that he is already quite enthusiastic about cooking. Although Cosentino is known for his love of all things meat, he did a vegetable dish for the demo to show that veggies can be great on their own, too.

Debbie Lee, author of “Seoultown Kitchen” and "Next Food Network Star" contestant, gave a cooking demo from her book. The cooking stage weekend ended with dessert, as Alice Medrich, author of “Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts” taught the crowd to make simply decadent desserts like chocolate mousse.  

As for Sunday's food panel, L.A. Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold discussed "Food Writing: American Potluck" with Gustavo Arellano ("Taco USA"), Jennifer 8. Lee ("The Fortune Cookie Chronicles") and Aaron Bobrow-Strain ("White Bread: The History of a Store-Bought Loaf").

The panel of food writers discussed authenticity in food. In writing his book on Mexican cuisine in America, Arellano found that "there is no such thing as authenticity." They also discussed regional fusion foods, such as Mexican Chinese food, Italian Chinese food, and Irish Chinese food. The latter is a "three-in-one," according to Lee; a combination of fried rice, french fries and curry.

Ironically, running around covering the cooking events and carving out time to see Betty White and Bethenny Frankel left me no time to eat. Thus, I decided to try Uncle Lau's Island BBQ as the day wound down. They said it would take almost an hour for my food to be ready because of the large crowd, so I went to see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar speak after Alice Medrich's demo.

Once my beef brisket sliders and fried spam were finally ready, the meal was pretty delicious, albeit heavy. The barbeque sauce smothering the brisket was sweet and tangy, and the fried spam was just that: a slab of spam coated in bread crumbs and deep fried. Since I was starving after a whole day of covering food events and thus, ironically, not having time to eat, it was just what I needed before heading out.

For more information and for next year's event, visit events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.

You can reach Tanaya Ghosh here, or follow her on Twitter.

For complete coverage of the Los Angeles Times Festival Of Books, go here.



 

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