Nancy Silverton still doesn\u2019t like being called a chef. When I caught up with her on the phone \u2014 all while prepping for dinner at one of her Los Angeles restaurants \u2014 she says that she much prefers to be \u201ccalled a cook, or a restaurant owner,\u201d adding, \u201cthat whole image of a chef is still somebody much grander than who I feel like.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a modest perspective from a woman who helped put LA food on the map<\/a> in the 1990s, cutting her chops at Michael\u2019s in Santa Monica and then Wolfgang Puck\u2019s Spago<\/a> before creating La Brea Bakery<\/a>, followed by the veritable village square dining experience of Campanile<\/a>, with its vast gothic arches and Spanish tile fountain (now home to R\u00e9publique<\/a>), where Silverton herself would famously dish out grilled cheese sandwiches<\/a> from behind the bar on Thursday nights.<\/p>\n Today, Silverton is a two-time James Beard Award winner<\/a>, author of numerous cookbooks, co-owner of the ever-expanding Mozza Restaurant Group<\/a> (a new Osteria Mozza<\/a> opened last fall in Washington, D.C.), and, as of last week, the co-designer of a made-for-cooks clog line with Snibbs<\/a>. Oh, and she\u2019s launching two new Los Angeles restaurants this fall: Lapaba<\/a>, an Italian Korean pasta bar, and Max and Helen\u2019s<\/a>, a classic diner.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sounds incredible,\u201d I tell her. \u201cIt also sounds like a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n She laughs. \u201cI\u2019m seeing a lot of my colleagues decide that they\u2019re ready to slow down a bit,\u201d she says, \u201cwhich I can understand. But I\u2019m just here thinking, Wow, I feel like I\u2019m just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n It is easy to talk to Silverton about food, whether you know a lot about it or nothing at all \u2014 an observation that, I point out to her, might also speak to her success.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, it\u2019s true,\u201d she says, again waxing humble, \u201cthat I have a fairly good track record. If I had to say, what is my strongest talent? It\u2019s just being able to figure out what people want to eat.\u201d She laughs, \u201cOr at least enough people to keep my restaurants operating. I think I found that with my bread, the style of food at Campanile; the pizzeria<\/a>, the osteria<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The Campanile ecosystem set a precedent for her industry methodology for years to come. Silverton helped fine-tune the farm-to-table California dining fantasy that still coaxes industry folks and food lovers to Los Angeles and now inspires West Coast-style menus elsewhere in the world<\/a>; As LA Weekly<\/a> wrote in its \u201cElegy to Campanile<\/a>\u201d in 2012, penned right before the beloved restaurant shuttered after 23 years, Silverton\u2019s style has been called \u201cCal-Italian,\u201d \u201cMed-Cal\u201d and \u201curban rustic.\u201d But a more accurate description might be that it is simply \u201cwhat Silverton [likes] to eat,\u201d and able to pull focus on what genuinely interests and populates her world \u2014 cheese, bread, salumi \u2014 and how it finds an approachable pedestal in her restaurants for diners. When you think of Silverton\u2019s food, you think of fried zucchini blossoms and cheese sandwiches with burrata; parsley-heavy salads, and a passion for sourdough bread\u2019s hole structure that\u2019s so intense, she was once crowned<\/a> \u201cHer Holiness.\u201d<\/p>\n On the surface, Lapaba<\/a> and Max and Helen\u2019s<\/a> feel like a departure from the Mozza group multiverse; the former is an exploration of Italian and Korean fusion, and the latter diner will be \u2014 as her partner for the project, Phil Rosenthal, recently told Eater<\/a> \u2014 \u201cold-school […] elevating all the [diner] comfort foods that you know from childhood.\u201d That instinct for understanding and celebrating comforting food is perhaps the through line of Silverton\u2019s empire. Consider Lapaba\u2019s menu, which, as Rebecca Roland reports for Eater,<\/a> will feature kimchi suppli stuffed with Spam and mozzarella, and a little gem Caesar with doenjang \u2014 new Italian-Korean twists made in harmony with much-loved Silverton ingredients.<\/p>\n \u201cFor one, the scale of both of these places makes them [manageable],\u201d Silverton says about the logistics of opening two places at once, adding, \u201cthese also aren\u2019t 250-seat spots, which would require a lot more moving pieces.\u201d Lapaba will open with partners Robert Kim (Norikaya, AB Steak, Mama Lion), and siblings Tanya and Joe Bastianich, who are also co-owners at Osteria Mozza, Chi Spacca, and Mozza2Go.<\/p>\n Silverton emphasizes the \u201cit takes a village\u201d perspective to opening and running her restaurants. Throughout our conversation, she is quick to unfurl a list of folks in her kitchens, such as Elizabeth Hong<\/a>, who \u201c[are] really in there doing the hard work […] and yet [everyone] always wants to give me the glory.\u201d<\/p>\n It also feels fair to say that Silverton\u2019s personal style \u2014 with her colorful prints, layered patterns, and plaited buns \u2014 has become iconic in the industry. Daniel Shemtob<\/a>, the chef, restauranteur, and co-owner of Snibbs<\/a> footwear, which makes durable kitchen shoes for folks working in the service industry, wanted to partner with Silverton on a shoe for the brand because of her down-to-earth vibe and distinct aesthetic vision. \u201cI\u2019ve always admired Mozza\u2019s ingredient\u2011driven, never\u2011pretentious cooking,\u201d he writes, \u201cthat integrity is exactly what I wanted. We spent two and a half years together because she insists on getting the whole experience right \u2014 she raises the bar.\u201d And as for her style? \u201cChic maximalism,\u201d Shemtob writes, \u201chair clips, colored glosses, fearless layers \u2014 playful but precise, totally her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have to feel that what I\u2019m wearing is really an extension of me,\u201d Silverton says, and the resulting eponymous clog, the Nancy<\/a>, takes notes from her personal shoe collection, integrating vibrant soles and heel strap snaps with a farfalle-pasta-shaped non-slip tread. Given the rise of chefcore<\/a> as a fashion aesthetic, with shows like The Bear and platforms such as TikTok turning line cooks into influencers<\/a>, it positions Silverton, as always, right on the cultural pulse.<\/p>\n At a time when a lot of the culture feels to be about mastering trends, Silverton retains confidence in her own perspective. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with trends,\u201d she adds. \u201cBut wouldn\u2019t you like to walk into a restaurant, and feel like it could have started at any time?\u201d<\/p>\n