Eat your way across L.A.
Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
1
Food lovers and cooks will have plenty to explore at this year’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books April 20 and 21 on the USC campus. Here’s what we have cooking:
2
Panels and Interviews
Saturday, April 20
Joan Nathan, author of “My Life in Recipes,” is appearing Saturday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
(Deb Lindsey / For The Times)
4 p.m.: Food Memoir: Cooks With Books. Storyteller, historian and Jewish recipe collector Joan Nathan (“My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories”); France-based cooking teacher and guide Rosa Jackson (“Niçoise: Market-Inspired Cooking From France’s Sunniest City”), and chef, writer and magazine founder Klancy Miller (“For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food: Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes”) in conversation with L.A. Times Food general manager Laurie Ochoa. Free. At USC’s Ray Stark Family Theatre.
Her stories and recipes from the Jewish diaspora set the template for other food writers seeking their own identity.
Sunday, April 21
Programming note: The Ideas Exchange event with José Andrés scheduled for Sunday, April 21, has been canceled. Unfortunately, Andrés is unable to appear as planned, as he is focusing on supporting the World Central Kitchen team and their families through this difficult time. We apologize for any inconvenience this cancellation may cause.
José Andrés spends much of his time contemplating the unifying nature of food, both in and out of the world’s most dangerous conflict and disaster zones.
3
Ask me anything about ... cookbooks
At the L.A. Times Food x Now Serving Booth
L.A.’s world-famous cookbook store Now Serving is joining with L.A. Times Food for meetups and signings with chefs and authors of recent and forthcoming cookbooks. We’ll also have L.A. Times Food merch, including a new apron from Hedley & Bennett and a new batch of our California Heat spice from Burlap & Barrel. Meet L.A. Times Food staff writers and editors too!
Saturday, April 20
Sara Kramer, left, and Sarah Hymanson outside Kramer’s Echo Park home.
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
10 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Ask chefs and authors Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson anything about their “vegetable-intensive” restaurant (on the L.A. Times 101) and forthcoming book “Kismet: Bright, Fresh, Vegetable-Loving Recipes.”
Learn to cook vegetables in all the best possible ways from the new cookbook “Kismet: Bright, Fresh, Vegetable-Loving Recipes” by Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer, the chefs of Kismet and Kismet Rotisserie.
“The SalviSoul Cookbook” author Karla Vasquez in the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.
(Katrina Frederick / For The Times)
11 a.m. to noon: Ask author Karla Tatiana Vasquez anything about Salvadoran food and her forthcoming book “The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes and the Women Who Preserve Them.”
At last, after nearly 10 years, Karla Vasquez’s “The SalviSoul Cookbook” is being published by Ten Speed Press with terrific Salvadoran recipes you’ll want to make and stories of the women who shared them.
Noon to 1 p.m.: Ask vegan recipe developer and Veggiekins website founder Remy Morimoto Park anything about her book “Sesame, Soy, Spice: 90 Asian-ish Vegan and Gluten-free Recipes to Reconnect, Root, and Restore.”
1 to 2 p.m.: Ask cooking video host Rie McClenny anything about cooking on camera and her book “Make It Japanese: Simple Recipes for Everyone.”
2. to 3 p.m.: Ask “Ranch to Table” Magnolia network host and lifestyle pro Elizabeth Poett anything about cattle ranching and her book “The Ranch Table.”
Sunday, April 21
Chef Michael Twitty with his food memoir “Koshersoul” in the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.
(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)
11 a.m. to noon: Ask recipe developer, food stylist and “Salad Freak” author Jess Damuck anything about working with Martha Stewart and about her new book “Health Nut.”
Noon to 1 p.m.: Ask Rose Wilde anything about baking with whole grains, her Red Bread bakery or her cookbook “Bread and Roses.”
1 to 2 p.m.: Ask food editor and Netflix TV cooking host Alyse Whitney anything about her career and new cookbook “Big Dip Energy: 88 Parties in a Bowl for Snacking, Dinner, Dessert, and Beyond!”
2 to 3 p.m.: Ask culinary historian and author Michael Twitty anything about his Afroculinaria website, winning the James Beard Book of the Award for “The Cooking Gene” or his subsequent book “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew.”
Michael Twitty’s second book “Koshersoul” explores the links between Black and Jewish culinary traditions with conversations, personal essays and recipes, including a matzoh ball gumbo.
3 to 4 p.m.: Ask Michelin-star chef Iliana Regan about running a restaurant in the Michigan forest or her latest memoir “Fieldwork.”
Author and former restaurant critic and magazine editor Ruth Reichl.
( Michael Singer)
4 to 5 p.m.: Ask Ruth Reichl anything about being a restaurant critic, editor of Gourmet and author of memoirs and fiction. Plus, get bookplates signed for her forthcoming “The Paris Novel.”
4
On the L.A. Times Cooking Stage
Saturday, April 20
TikTok star and cookbook author Jenny Martinez making birria tacos at her home kitchen in Norwalk.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
11 a.m.: Cooking demo with Jeff and Jordan Kim, “Cooking With the CrunchBros”
12:00 p.m.: Cooking demo by Radhi Devlukia, “JoyFull”
Josh Scherer eats French onion ramen featured in “The Mythical Cookbook” outside the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen.
(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)
2 p.m.: Cooking demo with Josh Scherer, “Rhett & Link Present: The Mythical Cookbook”
With the spring release of ‘The Mythical Cookbook,’ Josh Scherer, Rhett and Link embrace culinary mayhem with unhinged recipes
3:30 p.m.: Cooking demo with Gianluca Conte, “Italian/American: It’s a QCP Cookbook, Betch!”
On TikTok, there’s no one stopping a teenager from Indonesia or a grandmother in Nigeria from pressing “post” — and millions of users are hungry for the recipes they share.
Sunday, April 21
11 a.m.: Cooking demo by Jing Gao, “The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp”
The flavors of Sichuan spice up Thanksgiving when Fly by Jing founder Jing Gao makes jiaoyan turkey, mala stuffing, chili crisp mac ‘n’ cheese and more. ‘Thanksgiving, to me, is the most personal meal.’
12:30 p.m.: Cooking demo with Jenny Martinez, “My Mexican Mesa, y Listo!”
2 p.m.: Cooking demo by Tiffani Thiessen, “Here We Go Again”
The ‘Saved by the Bell’ icon’s food crawl began with Southern-fried frickles and ended with Michelin chocolate cake. No wonder her new cookbook levels up leftovers.
3:30 p.m.: Cooking demo by Nancy Silverton, “The Cookie That Changed My Life: And More Than 100 Other Classic Cakes, Cookies, Muffins and Pies That Will Change Yours”
From her bestseller cookbook “The Cookie That Changed My Life,” chef Nancy Silverton demonstrates two easy twice-baked pastries.
Updates
6:09 p.m. April 17, 2024: This story has been updated to reflect the cancellation of the Ideas Exchange previously scheduled with José Andrés.
