Shawna Dawson curated an impressive culinary roster, ranging from food to apparel, in DTLA.
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Crème Caramel LA is a new venture from Kristine de la Cruz. She has three different varieties – classic, coffee and chocolate – all based on family recipes, plus a bread pudding crafted from challah and brioche and layered with Cast Iron Gourmet Cajun bacon and salted caramel. As she said, “I like how Artisanal LA gives us an opportunity to come together and work together.” She’s been using Dunkin Donuts coffee, but met the man behind the Cold Brew booth, and now they might work together. Artisanal LA marked Crème Caramel LA’s debut, with a goal of getting into farmers markets in 2011.
Cast Iron Gourmet, from full-tilt bacon fiend Rashida Purefoy, just rolled out pesto bacon and bacon chutney, which is made with bourbon, coffee, maple syrup, brown sugar, spices, onion and more.
Maggie Stebar of Maggie Mae Aprons broke through by designing retro chic aprons for her employer, Baby Blues BBQ. She now sells the aprons beyond the walls of the WeHo restaurant.
Flying Pie Man Yuichiro Sato hails from Tokyo and won KCRW’s 2nd Annual Good Food Pie Contest. At his second consecutive Artisanal LA, he made his signature Meat Pie, which is similar to a Shepherd’s pie, with a flaky crust. This time, he added a Chili Meat Pie and the Pork Belly Sukiyaki Pie, which he packed with pork belly, enoki and shimeji mushrooms, leeks, onions, grilled tofu, shirataki noodles, napa cabbage and shungiku (a Chrysanthemum-type vegetable) stewed in a Japanese sukiyaki broth (normally part of a hot pot) and accented with Spanish Ibores goat cheese.
Lardon truck is “the country’s first all-bacon food truck.”
Lardon’s baco is a “taco” with interwoven bacon subbed for tortillas. The filling consists of mashed potatoes, molten cheddar and a horseradish bacon sour cream dipping sauce. Anybody who can eat more than one of these Franken-tacos is a champion eater.
Hungry Nomad is a mobile spinoff of Sasoun Bakery featuring variations on the Yeretsian family’s signature flatbreads.
New Hungry Nomad options like the fattoush salad, with spice-crusted za’atar chips, bulgur and lentils.
Dawson embraced the holiday spirit by offering complimentary chestnuts roasted in a copper kettle.
Artisanal LA founder Shawna Dawson has done a great job of promoting some behind-the-scenes and emerging players on the L.A. food scene. Hopefully this becomes a regular event, since I’ve personally managed to learn a lot, meet some great producers and enjoy some good food.
Blog Comments
Latoya Bridges
December 22, 2010 at 12:49 AM
All Spice Café hot sauce is the business! My favorite is the habanero. However, I once got into trouble with my girlfriend for making chili with his Ghost chile spice rub and it came out too spicy. Oh well more for me!
Lee
December 16, 2010 at 4:35 PM
All Spice Café hot sauce is the business! My favorite is the habanero. However, I once got into trouble with my girlfriend for making chili with his Ghost chile spice rub and it came out too spicy. Oh well more for me!
Joshua Lurie
December 16, 2010 at 4:50 PM
Lee,
If you can handle their ghost chile spices, more power to you. Glad to hear you like All Spice.
Nick
December 14, 2010 at 5:47 PM
The Chili Meat Pie was even better than the original I think. Great flavor and a steal at $5
Joshua Lurie
December 14, 2010 at 9:46 PM
Nick,
The chili meat pie was better than the original? Sounds like I may have missed out. I liked the Flying Pie Man’s pork belly pie pretty well, but it sounds like you got to taste the grand champion.
Tweets that mention Food GPS » Artisanal LA Rings in the Holidays Downtown -- Topsy.com
December 14, 2010 at 5:37 PM
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jo, julie Wolfson, All Spice Cafe, All Spice Cafe, Daniela Galarza and others. Daniela Galarza said: I read this and I regret (not attending!) http://www.foodgps.com/artisanal-la-rings-in-the-holidays-downtown/ (via @foodgps) […]
Daniela
December 14, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Wish I had gone just for that S’more Pie. Oh, and the Missouri Butter Pie. Oh wait, the Orgasmo de la Boca sounds like it’s worth a taste as well…
Joshua Lurie
December 14, 2010 at 5:33 PM
Daniela,
The Missouri butter pie was pretty awesome, and with a name like Orgasmo de la Boca, it’s impossible not to try a sample, at least. TOTALLY different flavors. You probably wouldn’t want to eat them back to back.
Vxronica
December 14, 2010 at 5:06 PM
Awesome round-up Josh. Even seeing pics of Creme Caramel and that bacon chutney is making me drool all over again.
Joshua Lurie
December 14, 2010 at 5:27 PM
A drool-worthy post? That’s quite a compliment. Glad you enjoyed the recap, Vxronica. Thanks.