The Los Angeles Chefs Collaborative dinner is one of those ideas that is so ingenious, that I wish I had thought of it. 5 different Chefs from some of LA's most fabulous restaurants come together to prepare an amazing meal under one roof. The dinner is 7 courses long. Each chef prepares one dish and a 6th chef is flown in from another fantastic restaurant somewhere else in the country to mix it up a bit, and for the 7th course, the pastry chef at the restaurant of choice is responsible for making dessert.
The brilliantness of this concept is that each chef is spending all their time focusing on one dish. A dish that they know will be eaten right before or after another great dish. So as you can imagine, there is a level of competition between the chefs, which allows the diner (me) to feel like a judge on Top Chef. All of the jest is in good faith as the dinner benefits the Special Olympics of Souther California.
I choose to go to the dinner at Melisse. The special guest was Chef Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern, one of my favorite restaurants in New York. The other chefs and restaurants that are included in the 2009 5x5 include Michael Cimarusti of Providence, Neal Frazer of Grace, Josiah Citrin of Melisse, David LeFevre of Water Grill and Gino Angelini of Angelini Osteria.
There is no peaking at this menu online before entering the restaurant, which makes it only more exciting. A special, signed menu was placed in front of us at the start of the meal and then the fun began.
Josiah Citrin made our first course, which was a veloute of asparagus-rosemary and passion fruit. It was good but did not feel like much of a course, just a few small bites.
The second course was Hawaiian big eye tuna from Michael Cimarusti. This dish was simple and the fish was fresh, but again didn't blow my socks off. The bright orange sauce underneath the fish was a little off-putting.
The next course was one of my favorites: maine lobster from Gabriel Kreuther with carrots, fava beans and nasturtium flower broth. The lobster melted in my mouth and the broth was the perfect accompaniment.
Gino Angelini created the next course, a turbot filet with leek veloute and pioppini mushrooms and polenta crostini. This is the best dish I've ever had from Chef Angelini and I wish it was offered at his restaurant. The fish at his restaurant unfortunately rarely gets more creative than a dover sole.
The final savory course was cumin scented lamb from chef David LeFevre. This dish was phenomenal. It was finished with a tomato date compote, a hummus like garbanzo coulis, kumquat, and pomegranate strewn couscous. I have never been a huge lamb fan, but this dish converted me not only to a fan of lamb but also Chef LeFevre. There were so many components, yet the dish was perfectly balanced.
The final course was prepared by Melisse's pastry chef and was described as a rather boring sounding apricot-caramel with panna cotta and almond croquant. It ended up being the perfect ending to a great meal.
The chef's all came out to greet us, which made the evening even more special and it all went to such a great cause. Every city should have a 5x5.