Los Angeles

Since closing down his superb Mezze, Food Republic favorite Micah Wexler has set up shop inside Umamicatessen, that downtown LA depository of multiple restaurants under one roof. Wexler is playing with a large question: how do you cook an entire city? Every Thursday, he picks a different element of Los Angeles and cooks a menu to fit the theme. Read on.

There are few things frowned upon more in the dining community than reservation no-shows. In a nutshell, it’s a lose-lose: restaurants lose business and customers hoping to snag a prized table at the latest hotspot are shut out. Restaurants are starting to fight back, via public shaming and policies requiring advance ticket purchase. So, what exactly does the future hold for reservations? We have some ideas.

To illustrate the program for its Le Grand Fooding Crush Paris-LA, Le Fooding tapped famed Parisian illustrator Floc'h. Here, we talk to him about the project, and find out how a comic book artist and magazine illustrator ended up drawing chefs from Paris and L.A. And for those Francophones out there, the interview is featured in V.O., with subtitles, so to speak.