When the Brentwood Public Library needed money to modernize 19
years ago, UCLA alumna and fundraiser Carole Schiffer swooped to
the rescue with what is now the longest-running food festival in
Los Angeles.
This weekend, it might also be one of the most diverse.
The “Great Tastes in Brentwood” festival takes place
Sunday, Oct. 8 from 12 to 5 p.m., featuring 24 Los Angeles
restaurants serving up customer favorites and standout
specialties.
Admission is free and the small portions are $2 to $6 each.
All proceeds go to local public schools.
Schiffer raised money for the UCLA Alumni Association and the
American Diabetes Association after she finished undergraduate and
business degrees at UCLA.
“I never quite got out of fundraising,” Schiffer
said.
By day Schiffer is a real estate agent, but fundraising remains
a passion ““ and a successful one.
“Mayor Tom Bradley agreed to match us $1 million if we
could raise $1 million on our own,” she said.
That’s when Schiffer proposed “Great Tastes in
Brentwood.”
Fourteen Brentwood restaurants participated in the first year;
since then, participation has grown to include restaurants from
other areas of Los Angeles.
Of the various restaurants that will be present at the festival,
one of the most exciting will be Katsuya.
Arguably the hottest restaurant in Los Angeles right now,
Katsuya opened in June with lots of big names behind it. Designer
Phillipe Stark created the bento box and geisha-inspired
interior.
Chef Katsuya Uechi, named “Chef of the Year” by
Angeleno magazine, mans the restaurant’s three kitchens when
he’s not flying back and forth from Okinawa.
Since its opening, Katsuya has seen big-name diners too,
including Cindy Crawford and Harrison Ford.
But it’s Los Angeles ““ pricey Japanese fusion
cuisine and Hollywood stars are a dime a dozen here.
This Sunday, Katsuya’s food can be judged without the
hype.
Regular sushi can be unwise in a hot outdoor setting, but
manager Leonard Matsumoto plans to provide festivalgoers with safe
options such as the baked crab handroll, the most popular item on
the menu.
“Basically it’s crab, … almost like a dynamite
roll with mayo-soy dressing,” Matsumoto said. “We bake
it and then put it in a rice paper handroll instead of a
traditional seaweed wrap.”
Their second offering is spicy tuna with a twist.
“The sushi rice is fried so that the outside becomes
crispy,” Matsumoto said. “We put a little slice of
jalapeno on top.”
Unlike the trained chefs at Katsuya, however, owner of San
Gennaro Cafe and chef Jay Handal didn’t go to culinary
school.
“What is it called ““ Darwinism? I grew up in a
neighborhood (where) there were 100 kids on the block, and if you
wanted to eat, you better learn how to cook,” Handal
said.
This graduate of what he dubs “The Culinary School of Hard
Knocks” insists on serving and cooking the right way, and
that means pasta painstakingly handmade daily.
Though renowned food critic Merrill Schindler once spoke of San
Gennaro’s pizza as the best Brooklyn pie west of Hesper, a
street in Little Italy, Handal decided to feature various
tortellini and ravioli dishes at the festival.
“Everyone knows us for our pizza, but we’re not
(just) a pizza house,” Handal said.
For Handal, real Italian food is about cooking from the heart,
which seems like it would be difficult when he has to feed an
entire night’s worth of diners.
But big Italian family Sunday night gatherings have prepared him
well.
“When somebody comes into my restaurant, it’s my
home; it’s like inviting people into my home to eat,”
Handal said.
For those who don’t want to try ethnic food, Republic
Restaurant + Lounge will serve up modern American comfort food.
It’s also known for a floor-to-ceiling wall of 2,000
bottles of wine, serviced by black-clad wine fairies floating up
via harness to pluck your selection out of the wall.
You’d have to go to the restaurant to meet a wine fairy;
alternatively, you could go to “Great Tastes” to meet
Gabriel Morales, head chef of Republic and soon-to-open
Romanov.
For the more adventurous, a preview of Romanov’s
“contemporary Russian” offerings will be available.
The restaurant is set to open in November, so customers
won’t have to wait too long for full-sized portions of
Pozharsky croquettes stuffed with ground chicken and pork and
topped with cremini mushroom sauce.
Their second festival offering is a smoked salmon Napoleon and
caviar creme fraiche layered between buckwheat blini.
Standing out among the diverse festival offerings might be a
challenge for restaurants, but chefs like Morales are certainly
aiming high.
“We’re shooting for the moon on this one,” he
said.