The strength of women and so many cookies, Halloween cocktails, our critic’s pick of some of L.A.’s greatest Thai restaurants and Mt. Whitney hikers’ Merry Go Round pitstop … I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with Tasting Notes.
Jubilee’s L.A. debut 
Lara Adekoya, of the Los Angeles bakery Fleurs et Sel, speaking at the Cherry Bombe Jubilee food conference.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
In a downtown loft building last Sunday morning, more than 300 women, many festively dressed in pink or red, picked up badges, coffee and HomeState breakfast tacos before the opening session of the first Los Angeles edition of the Cherry Bombe Jubilee. The magazine and media company Cherry Bombe has been hosting annual conferences for women in the worlds of food and drink in New York since 2014.
At the sold-out L.A. Jubilee — which Courtney Storer, culinary producer of “The Bear,” affectionately likened to a food lover’s Lilith Fair — Cherry Bombe’s founder and editor in chief Kerry Diamond conducted a series of on-stage interviews, including one with Storer and “The Bear’s” co-showrunner Joanna Calo about the TV series that Diamond called “as important to the industry as Anthony Bordain’s ‘Kitchen Confidential.’”
Diamond also talked with cookbook author and creator Molly Baz about moving to Los Angeles (“I feel more able to be me and a little less like I had to conform to what was cool back in the New York days”), her love for palm trees, her inspiration for the Ayoh sando sauce brand she launched last year and how she almost got into a bar fight over her insistence that no aspiring chef should go into debt for culinary school — hard work and apprenticeship, she says, work best.
In addition, Baz, who talked with me earlier this year about losing her home and dream butter-yellow kitchen in January’s Eaton fire, spoke with Diamond about how the recovery process has enabled her to finally embrace the title of her next cookbook, “Less Is More,” which had been suggested by her publisher (as a companion to her “More Is More” cookbook) but now has taken on real meaning for herself and her family.
When Diamond brought Mozza’s Nancy Silverton to the stage, the chef, who is pictured on the most recent cover of Cherry Bombe, said, “When people ask, ‘When are you going to retire?’ I say, ‘Retire from what? Stop breathing?’”
Other speakers included Alyse Whitney (interviewed earlier this year by Jenn Harris about her cookbook “Big Dip Energy”), who talked about fatphobia and overcoming the bullying she endured for years because of her body size — “a scale,” she said, “is not a moral compass.”
Sarah Ahn, co-author with her mother, Nam Soon Ahn, of “Umma: A Korean Mom’s Kitchen Wisdom,” talked of watching her father’s body suffer over time from his work as a painter — “I don’t mean painting on a canvas in an art studio. I mean under the desert sun.” Creating her Ahnest Kitchen blog and social media feeds, she said, helped put her complicated family feelings into words and led to her cookbook, which is now a bestseller. “Platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels gave us a chance,” she said, “where status, background or whether your kitchen was magazine-perfect or not didn’t matter.”
Melissa King, 2020’s “Top Chef All Stars” champion and author of the new book “Cook Like a King,” talked with Hedley & Bennett founder Ellen Bennett about growing up in the San Gabriel Valley and overcoming the embarrassment she felt bringing homemade Chinese lunches to her predominantly white Christian school. Ultimately, it was her ability to pull inspiration from her family’s heritage that helped her come up with some of the flavors that helped her win “Top Chef.”
During a panel discussion moderated by Diamond on the L.A. restaurant scene, A.O.C.’s Suzanne Goin, Guelaguetza’s Bricia Lopez, Kwini Reed of L.A.’s Poppy and Rose and Anaheim’s Poppy and Seed, plus Holly Fox, of Last Word Hospitality, the restaurant group behind Found Oyster, Barra Santos, Rasarumah and more, talked about how they started out, the economic challenges they’re facing and why they love what they do. Lopez also talked about how miraculous McDonald’s seemed when she first came to Los Angeles from Oaxaca. “The ketchup, the jelly … c’mon! People would tell me, ‘It’s been manufactured to make you feel good,’ and I’d go, ‘great!’”
The day’s best feel-good panel, however, may have been one of the break-out sessions, “Cakers & Bakers,” moderated by Elisa Sunga, who had just hosted a massive Cake Picnic gathering in Santa Monica the previous day, with 983 cakes brought to Tongva Park. (The basic rule: If you bring cake, you can eat cake.)
Author Aran Goyoaga, whose newest book is “The Art of Gluten-Free Bread,” talked about how her gluten-free croissant might be her biggest discovery. Her experience as a professional pastry chef, she said, gave her a deep understanding of what a croissant needs to feel and taste like.
Lara Adekoya, who runs the hugely popular Fleurs et Sel bakery in L.A.’s West Adams neighborhood said that although she is known for her “thick, fluffy, doughy, delicious chocolate chip cookies,” she’s been experimenting with jams and lemon curd for thumbprint cookies as well as other flavor combinations, including her current favorite — Nutella with raspberry dark chocolate. That one drew a lot of oohs and mmmms.
More audible yums came from the audience when Lisa Donovan, best known for her Southern classic recipes and the memoir “Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger,” described the cake she hopes will be commemorated on her gravestone: a buttermilk tres leches cake. It’s an homage of sorts to her parents: “My mother’s Mexican and my father is Appalachian.”
Red Bread bakery founder Rose Wilde, who said tiny cakes will be the subject of her follow up to the highly praised “Bread and Roses” cookbook she wrote on baking with grains from around the world, told the audience that sea buckthorn, the Vitamin C-packed berry, is the flavor she’s obsessed with. “It tastes like a musty passion fruit,” she said. “It’s incredible.”
All the sweet talk led me to Adekoya’s Fleurs et Sel shop a few days later where I bought a sampling of the massive cookies that made her reputation — each could easily be shared by two to four people — plus some of her smaller bites for our next Food section meeting. We were especially taken with Adekoya’s new three-flavored Neapolitan cookie, which had an intense strawberry center layer.
One of the most interesting aspects of the conference is that despite the fact that gender inequality remains an issue in restaurant kitchens — 55% of restaurant and food service workers are women, but just 21% of chefs are female, according to statistics released this year by the National Restaurant Assn. — not a lot of time was spent complaining about sexism. Cherry Bombe’s main focus is on telling women’s stories — how they achieved their success and just got the job done.
Thai wonderland 
(Morain An / For The Times)
One of Los Angeles’ many strengths as a dining destination is the breadth and depth of our Thai restaurants. As critic Bill Addison wrote this week, “Thai is a pillar cuisine of Los Angeles” with a multitude of “micro-regional cooking styles” at our disposal. Addison recently surveyed many of L.A.’s great Thai restaurants and has come out with a list of his 15 favorite spots, with full knowledge that there are many more excellent regional Thai places to explore. Use his list as a starting point for your own explorations.
Exploring Maydan 
Maydan restaurant, within Maydan Market in West Adams, specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
One of the year’s most anticipated openings is Maydan Market, a live-fire-centered food hall dreamed up by Rose Previte, known for her D.C. restaurants, among them the acclaimed Maydan. Reporter Stephanie Breijo was on site for opening day — watch for her full story coming — and got a tour from Previte for the video linked here.
Hanging at the Merry Go Round 
Outside the Merry Go Round restaurant in Lone Pine, owners Kuei Chu (second from left) and Dan Siegel (third from left), flanked by their son Michael Kwon and close family friend and worker Marrisa Watterson.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Reporter Lila Seidman and photographer Jason Armond recently went to Lone Pine to talk with Mt. Whitney hikers and locals about their love for the neon-lit Chinese restaurant the Merry Go Round, which still retains much of its merry-go-round decor dreamed up by original owners Marjorie and Roland McCain — the name “Margie” remains on the neon sign. “The funky, carousel shape of the building,” Seidman writes, “is reminiscent of mimetic, or programmatic, architecture that began cropping up in Los Angeles in the early 20th century.” The restaurant, which served steaks and barbecue when it opened in 1958, is now best known for its orange chicken and other Chinese American specialties made by current owner Kuei Chu, 75,and the banter dished out front by her husband Dan Siegel, 81. The two bought the place in 2010 and are now thinking about retiring and looking for a buyer. “It would mark the end of an era,” Seidman writes, “for customers — and servers — who have come to know and love the owners.”
Also … 
Bamboo Club’s Halloween-themed pop-up, called Tremble Club, serves spooky spins on the bar’s tiki cocktails. The Fall of Romulus comes topped with a gory fresh-raspberry float.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
