From Apartment Therapy → Get the Look For Less: Breakfast Nook

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[Photo: Merrick Morton/Open Road Films]

Jon Favreau's new film Chef, which premieres tonight, is a lush, loving tribute to food. Even with co-stars Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey, Jr. it's the food that truly stands out. For Favreau – who wrote, directed and starred in the indie flick – a lot of the credit goes to LA food truck pioneer Roy Choi.

The actor/director goes on: "I went with him in his car to every one of his restaurants – like a ride-along if you're doing a cop movie," said Favreau. "He explained to me everything he was doing and seeing. He would try the meat; I would try the meat. He would taste a dish; I would taste a dish. At the end of day I couldn't move from eating all the food." More importantly, said Favreau, they decided to work together.

"Roy said 'I'll do it but you have to get the kitchen right. Movies always get it wrong. I'll do everything you need. I'll train you, do the menus, look over your scripts, help you in the editing room. Whatever you want. But you have to promise you'll get the details right.' I said that's all I ever want to do. That's the way I work. That's exactly what I had in mind as well."

Chef follows Carl Casper (Favreau) after he loses his job at a restaurant and tries to rediscover his passion for cooking by starting up a food truck. To get comfortable in the kitchen, Choi sent Favreau to a French culinary school and then had him train in several of Choi's kitchens.

"Eventually after a real slow tedious process of prep," said Favreau, Choi "just jammed me on the line during a service. They just throw you in the water. It's like pushing you out of the nest. And you slowly learn from other people on the line and as they figure out how much you can take they're happy to have another set of hands. And I was a good set of hands they could trust. That's when Roy said everything shifted for him and he knew I was going to be ready."

The first scenes in Chef are set in a fictional restaurant owned by Dustin Hoffman. Those scenes were shot in LA's Hatfield's on Melrose. "Don't confuse the location with the restaurant in the movie; cinematically it was wonderful. When you build a restaurant on a stage for a Hollywood film it looks so perfect. This one had a beauty to it and was very well laid out. I loved how the front and back of the house you could see the open kitchen – you could see in – that was fun for the cameraman. Kitchens aren't usually aesthetically pleasing places in reality; they're generally hot and crowded. The visual aspect of it isn't a priority. This one is."

Another critical scene in Chef is a massive food truck roundup shot on Abbot Kinney in Venice on a First Friday: "It was an important spot for Roy," said Favreau. "Because that's where his Kogi truck first started and that was the epicenter.

The specific of the neighborhoods of Hollywood and Los Feliz for Swingers ending up being a really important part of the personality of that film and I felt Venice was an important part of the personality of Chef."

Making the movie has changed the way Favreau looks at food. He's in the midst of a major remodel of his own kitchen. He says he's adding a wok ring and a pizza oven and going all-stainless with open shelving.

"But even what they call a commercial kitchen at home is very different from what a chef calls a kitchen. Chefs want everything open. They want to see everything. They want to use their space efficiently. Everything is geared around cooking and cleaning and keeping things in order and so you maximize that.

"It's different than what families want in their kitchen – kitchens are really extensions – they are the new living room – they get cozy and comfortable and are geared towards television and sitting around and eating. It's a family space and that's not what a chef wants – a chef wants a lot of pots and pans and cutting boards and towels and ingredients."

More important than the kitchen is the approach to food. Favreau remembers the first thing Roy Choi said to him: 'When a chef sees a bag of shallots he gets excited because they know they're going to get to peel them all.'

"And I was like ok is that some sort of metaphor for something else or are you making a point? He literally meant it. By the way I really enjoy doing an afternoon of prep especially with my kids, its arts and crafts for them. I love shopping for garlic and taking the germ out and fine slicing and preparing all the ingredients you're going to cook with later.

"That's the gift of what I learned – there's a meditative practice that comes with this very simple work that done well and consistently will make for a great dish. But also a great experience making it."
— Andrew Epstein
· All Chef Coverage [~ELA~]

No, no, it’s fine, honestly.

BBC / Eldad Carin/Shutterstock / en.wikipedia.org

1. Wow.
2. Thanks for the input.
3. Good for you.
4. Good luck with that.
5. Good job.
6. No, the burnt bits are actually the best bits.
7. No, the meal's been fine.
8. Cool.

The Weinstein Company / Via elizabethstonembitch.tumblr.com

9. That's nice.
10. I can't wait to do that.
11. I'm sure it'll be fine, generally the wound cleans itself.
12. Well done.
13. Really, genuinely well done.
14. You should definitely go out with them. I'm sure they're great.
15. That sounds fun.
16. Awesome.

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He may not have won the game, but he’s still a winner in our book.

21-year-old Trent Girone, who has Aspergers and Tourette Syndrome, had dreamed of being on "Wheel Of Fortune" since he was a toddler. On Wednesday, he not only fulfilled that dream, but also made history as the first special needs contestant on the show.

Wheel of Fortune / Via huffingtonpost.com

"I have been a fan of the show since I was at least two years of age," Trent wrote in a blog post. "I love the show and wanted to be part of its history. I thought I would do a great job at solving puzzles."

Wheel of Fortune / Via youtube.com

And Trent was right, he did an awesome job solving the puzzles. While he didn't end up winning, he didn't care, he was just happy to have been on the show...

Wheel of Fortune / Via youtube.com

"My best advice to future contestants is to relax and have a good time. It is a lot of fun, whether you win big or not. That is my number one guarantee," Trent wrote.

Wheel of Fortune / Via youtube.com

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A consistent lack of sleep wreaks havoc on your body and brain. Want to quickly test if you're not getting enough sleep? Hit play on this video.

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The Chicago zoo has welcomed this adorable three-week-old Klipspringer. It’s one of the tiniest hoofed creatures ever.

The Lincoln Park zoo is celebrating the birth of a baby klipspringer, which means “rock jumper” in Afrikaans.

lpzoo.org

Born on March 30, the female klipspringer calf is the second child of Dash (the sire) and Triumph (the dam). Klipspringer pairs mate for life.

lpzoo.org

The baby calf joins her older sister, Arya, who also resides at the zoo.

lpzoo.org

“The klipspringer calf is healthy and eating well and, as a result, has almost doubled her weight since birth,” said Curator of Mammals Mark Kamhout.

lpzoo.org

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Like most of you I'm guessing, I go through serious lunch phases. This winter brought about a relentless breakfast burrito spree followed by a big run of avocado toasts topped with an egg. Lately though — now that spring is slowly showing its face — it has been all about soba noodles. In my humble opinion, there's no better way to usher in warmer weather lunches.

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Do you ever wonder why some wine bottles say Pinot Gris and others Pinot Grigio? Is there a difference? And should you prefer one to the other?

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Grand Rapids Griffins player Jordin Tootoo made a sweet little boy's day after giving him his hockey stick during a recent game.

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In an effort to warn folks about potential earthquake disasters, Caltech and the U.S. Geological Survey announced today that they will be beta testing an earthquake early warning system on the city of Long Beach. [ more › ]

What came first, the restaurant or the pop-up? That’s a hard one to answer in the case of this Japanese near Marble Arch. It’s been in the offing for a while and was originally due to open around October last year, but supposed issues with refurbishment and the council held it up more than six months until its eventual launch last week. Eager not to waste time, the team launched a Kurobuta pop-up on Chelsea’s King’s Road to give a taste of what to expect, it’s now proved so popular that it’s staying put. So, here we have the opening of the original Kurobuta, which is also the second Kurobuta branch in London.

Led by Aussie chef Scott Hallsworth, who has previously held head chef  positions at Nobu restaurants in both London and Melbourne, Kurobuta draws inspiration from traditional Japanese izakayas — a form of tavern where people go to drink but also share plates of food — but has a playful fusion edge. We’d consider it to be somewhere between a Japanese gastropub and a tapas bar.

The space is large and stark, filled primarily with rows of chunky communal wooden tables that bring to mind a Wagamama’s. Some cosier booth seats and a large central bar provide the ‘pub’ feel, at least in the way that foreign countries or airport terminals try to replicate proper pubs but can’t quite do it. The ubiquitous hanging lights with filament bulbs, a must-have for any new London restaurant worth its trendy salt, are present and correct.

The menu is pretty similar to the King’s Road branch, split largely between sushi and sashimi, robata barbecue, ‘crunchy’, and ‘junk food Japan’ sections. All plates are served for sharing at the table. We tuck into a selection of sushi by way of a make-shift starter. Salmon and sweet scallop nigiri are a particular treat, generous on fish and laden with extra texture in the form of a spike of deep-fried veg. A soft shell crab maki with kimchi mayo lets the fusion flavours out to play and is all the better for it. Whole battered and crisp crustacean legs have just enough deep-fried grease flavour to be considered comfort food yet manage to retain some of the sushi’s elegance. At least until we try to eat it, but we assure ourselves that (crab) legs akimbo is fine, as it is a pub (of sorts) after all.

Continuing in the same fused vein are wagyu beef sliders from the junk food section of the menu: two mini brioche buns filled with pickled cucumber, crunchy onions and ‘umami mayo’, along with patties made from the luxurious Japanese beef. Served super-rare, the burgers are packed with rich, sexy raw beef flavour, the other ingredients know their rightful place firmly in the background. Given it’s not particularly large, this is one of the pricier dishes at £19 but an utter treat that’s probably worth trying for a cow-enthusiast.

We’re left less convinced by the idea of a tuna sashimi pizza and imagine a fair few long-gone sushi chefs have been karate chopping at their coffins with the mere sound of it. But, honestly, it isn’t all that bad. The name teases, but really it is thick slices of some superb tuna dressed with soy, yuzu, red onions and chillies on a crackerbread-style base. That half of our party of two decided to discard the base all together is telling of its superfluous nature, but the topping is vibrant all the same.

An intricate dessert of Yorkshire rhubarb leans closer to home for its influences, presented wrapped, rolled, stripped and moussed, sprinkled with a little crumble topping. In its look and its delicacy it is sushi-like.

Friendly service (though bizarrely almost entirely Australian from what we could tell) and accessible prices make Kurobuta an attractive mealtime proposition so long as diners don’t expect anything too traditional. We’d also be quick to note that moreish nibbles such as tempura broad beans and a large selection of sake and Japan-styled cocktails make it a perfect pop-in spot for drinks and a bite to eat if you’re bored of the pub. OK, that will never happen, but still…

Kurobuta is at 17-20 Kendal Street, W2 2AW.

Disclaimer: We review anonymously and pay for all our meals/drinks.

The term "tiki drink" conjures images of a cocktail suitable only for an island oasis or for sipping while sinking your toes in the sand. With the Jungle Bird, no frilly accessories are necessary, and even the sunshine is optional. This throwback cocktail has layers of dark rum, Campari, pineapple and lime juice — it works in a weirdly wonderful way. Just grab a glass and some ice and you're halfway there.

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Sobering new research reveals just how far behind the 99 percent are falling

As we’ve told you before: Anyone looking through old magazine ads could only conclude that the past was pretty darn terrible… At least if that past includes a mission to save your wife from having a job outside the home, doctors that smoked like chimneys, and babies drinking soda like it’s the nectar of life itself.

In our latest installment of Badvertising History Lessons, we find out how insurance can save a man’s family life and then on the health front, take stock of some life choices we can’t imagine any doctor recommending these days.

We’ve got some of the funniest friends of Consumerist on the job and they’re not letting the past rest on its terrible laurels, no siree.

Scroll on down and click on any ad caption to enlarge and read the full text in all its sexist glory — and send your own examples of why the past was terrible to tips@consumerist.com with the subject line TERRIBLE PAST.

TRAVELERS INSURANCE:

Mark M., the next contestant on The Price Is Right:: I’m kind of impressed that an ad from 1963 acknowledged that being a stay-at-home mom is a full-time job. I also think that little girl in the striped shirt is in major trouble. The whole family is staring at her, including the little blonde girl, who, is clearly the milkman’s child.

Matt R., the guy with all the best Internet links: Traveler’s Insurance, keeping women in their place since 1864.

Laura Lane, comedian, writer and journalist with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge:: How is that baby looking right at me? It’s like the Mona Lisa of babies.

Lauren D., awesome friend whose calls you actually want to pick up: Wife work? Little Bobby looks old enough to start pulling his weight to me.

Mike Lawrie, photographer/editor extraordinaire: Kid in background: “Mom, I know it’s hard with dad gone, but you haven’t put a shirt on me in three weeks. Get it together.”

CAMEL:

Mark: The doctor himself doesn’t exactly look like the picture of health. What you don’t see in this ad is that he actually shares a bed with an oxygen tank.

Jeff Bercovici, Forbes media guru: This would be a good place to note that doctors also have some of the highest rates of suicide and addiction. Doctors: Do as they say, not as they do.

Mike: Doctor: He’s dying? I’ll be right there!
Caller: No, you misheard me, I’ll be right there, this IS Death. You have lung cancer.

7-UP:

Mark: This is a disgrace! At least pour the 7-Up into a baby bottle before feeding it to him.

Laura: This child later became executive producer of The Biggest Loser.

Jeff: Technically, 7-Up doesn’t rot your teeth if you don’t have teeth yet.

Lauren: First drink is free, Jimmy. You know where to find me when you want more.

Matt: And after the kid is done, he’ll have a fun toy to play with – a glass bottle.

Jeff Cronin, Director of Communications, Center for Science In the Public Interest:
I’ve seen this ad before, but I don’t think I actually read the copy and realized that besides promoting 7-Up for babies straight up, they were promoting 7-UP for babies as a mixer for milk (“… add 7-Up to the milk in equal parts, gently pouring the 7-UP over the milk…”). That had to have been pretty gross, even by 1950s standards.

We have the obvious, surface-level creepiness (“he isn’t our youngest customer by any means”) but the closer one looks some strange things reveal themselves. We have this random plug for Soldier of Fortune (!), for instance — that’s the fine print on the right. We have a neglected lamb plushy toy, bravely forcing a smile. And there’s something not quite right about the angle of the “mom’s” approach vis-a-vis the soda bottle. Does anyone offer anyone else a drink like that. baby or otherwise? The whole effect is downright terrifying. A cry for help from a tortured Madison Avenue psychopath.

Brooklyn women who have bathing suits, are down for a 30 minute soak in a tub full of ramen noodles, and are looking to make a quick $175: Look no further.

There's got to be an anime about this already.

Woman to sit in my bath tub full of ramen noodles (brooklyn) Thanks Tessa!

The iPhone generation tries to figure out how a Walkman works in this viral video.

Last night official Oprah's Favorite Things actress Lindsay Lohan's US sobriety tour swept into Letterman for an awkward but earnest segment about personal growth and a guy named Meditation Bob.

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Raising kids is hard. But am I guilty of making it harder than it really is?

"Earthquake lady" Lucy Jones went on Reddit to debunk some of the useless myths that surround the still-mysterious phenomenon of earthquakes. But she also shared some facts about building codes in Southern California that left us feeling a bit...shaken. [ more › ]

Instagram has enjoyed a massive surge in the United States, the latest stats from eMarketer show.

In 2013, the photo platform thrived under Facebook’s umbrella, seeing a spike of 35% in US-based users. And while the growth has slowed, it still remains healthy: there was a 34.7% increase in users last year alone.

In the coming years, the growth will slow – but the user base will still be close to doubling by 2016. That means that 1 in 4 smartphone users will be engaged with the brand in that year.

Instagram’s user base is also maturing, bringing it on par with that of Twitter when it comes to regular usage – this statistic alone underscores how well the platform is doing when compared to Twitter, which is a standalone, public company working to capture the weight of the actual mainstream.

In fact, Instagram’s user count has outpaced Twitter in 2013 on smarphones, according to eMarketer, and will continue to beat out the social network in the years to come.

This is especially important, as mobile is clearly the way most users will interact with the internet moving forward. And given that Facebook is now making over 50% of its revenue from mobile, Instagram could prove to be the most well spent $1 billion in the history of social networks.

Here’s how the current and projected age breakdown of US Instagram pans out, showing (as far as raw percentages) the most growth in the 12-17 year old segment. This bodes well for Facebook, which is constantly struggling to prove continued relevance to this particular age group.

Also, the 18-44 demographic will be the core constituency of the platform through to 2016 – a solid sign for marketers looking to ensure that the desired customers will stay on the platform in the years to come.

NB: Photo spread courtesy Shuttertstock.

Take your pick of streaming devices —there are already plenty out there. Amazon says its new Fire TV can best every Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV in the land on speed, ease of use, and a treasure box of extras. In most cases, Fire TV delivers on those promises. But it comes at a price.

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Spinach is good, bacon is bad, right? Not so fast, Popeye. Google recently debuted a new tool that makes it easy to quickly compare the nutrients between two different foods, so I decided to use it to pit the so-called healthy green against the much-maligned bacon — and got some very surprising results.

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If you're going on a solo trip or even for a walk alone at night, it's a good idea to let a loved one know you're safe (or possibly not). Kitestring is a simple webapp that checks up on you and sends a text message to your emergency contacts if you don't respond by a designated time.

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I write this infographic as I eat the most delicious mango. For some reason this mango tastes better than all of the other ones I can remember, perhaps because it’s the first mango of the warm season to come. As much as I love mangos, I’ve always had a difficult time eating them. I usually cut each side, attempt to slice the flesh out of the freshly cut wedges, then continue to eat the juicy mango flesh straight off the pit. I usually have mango juice dribbling down my chin and elbows, and end up leaving behind about half the mango on the pit.

Thankfully, today’s infographic explains how to properly cut open and eat a mango, along with tons of other interesting information. I’ll be able to successfully cut open and eat a mango next time. Check out today’s infographic for some delicious information! [via]

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© Jasmin for Daily Infographic, 2014. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eat, flesh, fruit, health, Healthy, mango, nutrition, orange, peel, pit, skin

Listen, when science tells you to do something, I’m not going to argue. And so if chemists says marinating meat in beer before you cook it to help kill potentially scary carcinogens, well, we’re listening. Because let’s face it, there’s a high possibility that you’ll have beer hanging around that summer barbecue (if summer ever shows its sunny face, sigh).

A team of European scientists wrote in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry that beer marinades provide a great way to cut down on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, as the science folk call’em), reports PSMag.com.

That’s the stuff that forms on meat when it’s cooked over open flames, “mainly, by contact of dripping fat with hot embers.” Because that substance can be carcinogenic, some health experts recommend limiting exposure to PAHs.

It sounds like researchers had a somewhat tasty time with this experiment, using pork loin steaks from a grocery store and marinating some in beer baths of varying types and others without anything as a control group.

According the findings, black beer did the best out of the three, reducing net weight of total PAHs by 53%. Next in line were non-alcoholic pilsners at 25% reduction and regular pilsner at 13%.

We’re sure you’ve stopped reading at this point because “grilled meat” and “beer,” but hey, at least now you have a scientific excuse for dousing that steak in a fine brew.

Chemists Endorse Marinating Meat With Beer [PSMag.com]

Now that Airbnb is a $10 billion soon-to-be-public corporation, the outlaw of the sharing economy is trying to go legit at the expense of its hosts. Literally.

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This week, President Obama mentioned that he is "concerned" with "the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan." What are the chances that that will happen in our lifetime? Let's guess!

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“Mother may I take a shot?” “Yes you may!”

Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed

Old game: Two teams of people stand in parallel lines holding hands. Each team takes turns choosing the supposedly scrawniest player and then singing "Red Rover, Red Rover, Send [selected weakling] right over!" The chosen runt runs really fast towards them trying the break the grasp of two players hands until someone inevitably sprains a wrist and the game is officially banned from the playground.

New game: Same, but with drunk people. If you don't make it through the chain, DRANK.

Old game: Players take turns being the leader and throwing a basketball into the hoop in various ways. Once the leader makes a shot, the second player must copy the same distance/posture/etc. and try to make the same shot. For each miss, the player gets a letter starting with H then O then R and so forth. The first player who gets HORSE loses.

New game: You'll be surprised how much easier it is to shoot a weird free-throw after a few. But see how long it takes before you forget how to spell HORSE. Or what a horse even is.

Old rules: A number of chairs that is one less than the number of players is set up in a room. While music is played, players must walk around the chairs until the music stops, at which point they all scramble to get a seat. The person without a seat is out and one chair is removed until there is one chair, two players and one final winner.

New rules: This is already played at every bar and party ever (only with, hopefully, better music). Might as well make it official and let people know that you will fight them for the last available stool.

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Facebook's Internet.org initiative is working on a fleet of drones, satellites, and lasers, with the aim of "beaming internet from the sky" to every person potential Facebook user in the world.

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The maker of the wildly popular Candy Crush game has had a disastrous public debut. What might that mean for private companies in the gaming space?