Flip the food channels and you’ll probably catch a glimpse of Nyesha Arrington. Within the last month, she acquired her current position as executive chef atWilshirerestaurant through a victory on Food Network’sChef Hunter, and debuted as one of L.A.’s contenders inTop Chef: Texas. Before that, Arrington was cooking with Josiah Citrin atMelisseand thenow closed Cache, and before that, at Joel Robuchon’sL’Atelierand The Mansion in Las Vegas. Toypically, the only time the chef can grab anything to eat away from her Santa Monica kitchen is after work. “We finish our service, you go outside and everyone’s out partying, the weekend warrior-type mentality. A bunch of drunkie kids running around,” she says. “And I’m just looking for sustenance, to just grab something to eat and go home.” Thankfully, there’s always a food truck near her Venice pad, and plenty of bars on the boardwalk for a beer. Find out which haunts Arrington hit this week in today’sL.A.Diet.
Wednesday, Nov. 16
This is a very early day for me, since I always go to the Santa Monica farmer’s market. Typically I’ll get a few pieces of fruit, have coffee, chat with Josiah Citrin, Raphael Lunetta, and Joe Miller. We’ll chat about what we’ve done for the week, what’s in season, what we’re excited about. I had an apple, and then I grabbedRöckenwagner’sjalapeno cheddar roll. Did my shopping and headed over toWilshire.
I don’t really eat until mid-day, but generally taste and nibble throughout the day. Things like celery root puree, the shrimp,the fish that comes in. We make dishes and make sure the staff tastes everything. We usually all sit down and eat staff meal around 5:00P.M.That day we had tacos, carnitas with green chile sauce, and queso fresco. Typically our grill station makes it, and bread and pantry will contribute. We also had Mexican rice and asalad.
Tasting from the line throughout the night, me and my chef de cuisine, we taste all of the dishes that come up to the pass. Make sure they’re delicious. That night I had a burger with bacon and an over-easy egg and Kennebec potatoes with hollandaise. I had a glass of wine with that. That night we had the melee, a Grenache blend. I tend to not go out on Wednesdays, it’s a long day. We went over our orders for the next day, and I wenthome.
Thursday, Nov. 17
This was an abysmal day in terms of food. I don’t really have a lot of groceries at my house, so I think I grabbed a banana at the restaurant when I got there. There was a lot of tasting around the restaurant. I didn’t eat a proper meal until staff meal, and they made shepherd’s pie with a salad that had field greens, beets, cucumbers, and red wine vinaigrette. More tasting throughout the night during service, but then that was about it. I didn’t have another real meal thatday.
Friday, Nov. 18
For breakfast, I had coffee. At the restaurant we were trying a new dish, a vegetarian gnocchi dish. And the general manager and I sat down and tasted a few different versions. It’s a butternut squash gnocchi with burrata cheese, Brussels sprouts, chanterelles, pomegranate, and sage. We were just doing different tastings on that dish, and that was basically mylunch.
We had dinner with the staff again, and I had halibut on top of broccolini. I kind of go through different phases. If I’m really hungry, I’ll have a burger. On other nights I’ll just have something simple. Had aFin due Mondewiththat.
My friend owns theCircle Baron Main Street, and they had a relaunch party. They just did a bunch of renovations. I went there, had a glass of wine. And wenthome.
Saturday, Nov. 19
Saturday’s are always crazy. It’s our busiest night of the week, we do upwards of like 200 guests, so we try to get here early. I try to bring in a staff lunch on those days because we’re so busy and don’t eat until staff meal. I went toBay Cities与辛辣peppe抓起一堆教母rs, “the works,” for the staff to eat at the restaurant. We took a little half hour re-energize break. It’s a staple. I’ll get that at least once every twoweeks.
I try to stay hydrated throughout the day, drink a lot of water. A lot of times I have to remind myself to eat, as ironic as that sounds, because I’m surrounded by food all day. There was no staff meal that day, but I tasted throughout dinner. I left the restaurant around 11:30 P.M., and the events planner, pastry chef, and I went to a fundraising for Thanksgiving, a canned food drive, atWokcanoon Fifth Street. We ate some sushi there, had some edamame, and some kind of roll, maybe a spider roll. And we had a couple of cocktails and went home. We took some food from the restaurant to the drive, some canned corn, green beans, and tomatosoup.
On the way the home, I hit theDogtown Dog Truckon Main Street. It was right down the street from my house. That was my splurge-y, indulgent meal. I had the California dog with arugula, basil aioli, crispy onions, and tomatoes. And I got tater tots with buffalo wing sauce and nacho cheese. The Dogtown Truck does it right every time, they’re consistent. The onions are crispy, the arugula is alwaysfresh.
Sunday, Nov. 20
We’re closed on Sundays, so it’s my day off. It’s super mellow. I don’t do much. It’s a good day to just hang out and decompress. There’s a placeNovel Cafénear my house so I go there, get some jasmine tea. Just sort of reflect on the的一周。
In the afternoon, phone calls start coming in; friends wanting to hang out. This week, we watched football, hung out on the boardwalk. We were atSidewalk Caféfor a little bit. We walked down toVenice Ale House, and that’s when we decided to cook dinner. Andy Dick was there, it was funny. He was being very flirtatious with my girlfriend, it was pretty funny. I think I had anIPAthere.
I ordered groceries fromYummy.com, so everything was at my house when we got back. Then we started cooking. Everyone wanted something comforting, and we were originally going to make pasta by hand, but I couldn’t find the clamps to my pasta machine. So we made rigatoni with sausage, braised fennel, and a red-wine tomato sauce. That’s probably my favorite day of the week, just to get in there to do our own family meal. Legitimate family, you know, you with your friends. Everyone helps out in the kitchen. And we cook a proper sauce,mirepoix, herbs, lots of love. My buddies peeled and seeded tomatoes, everyone in the kitchen, drinking wine. My dog waitingaround.
我的朋友做了一个沙拉。我们有一些brocolini the pasta, but we took the stems and shaved them and put them in the salad. It also had hard-boiled egg, tomato. She made a sherry vinaigrette, which was awesome because she’s never made that. We made croutons. We cooked them in bacon fat and threw in thyme. Served it all with some Parmesan toast points. For dessert, I had this cereal, Crispix, and we toasted it and crushed it, topped with ice cream, a brandy caramel sauce, and soft whippedcream.
What’s awesome is that two out of six are chefs, but we’re taking these ordinary ingredients and plating them. And then we all sat around and watchedTop Chef, and they all laughed at me. Which is cool. The night dwindled down and we all partedways.
Monday, Nov. 21
Went toGroundworkcoffee for breakfast, I grabbed an everything bagel, which is my favorite, with chive cream cheese. Came to work, and didn’t really eat. Left around 4 p.m., went home and made a turkeysandwich.
Met my buddy at a different Groundworks in Venice, the one on the boardwalk, and had some jasmine tea. Later, we went toWurstkuche, the new one in Venice. I had a Louisiana hot link, which I haven’t had in years. I love spicy food. I topped it with hot peppers, caramelized onions, and I put the American yellow mustard on it. He got fries, I tasted them. I didn’t really want them. And I had aFin duMonde.
Then we went to an industry party atRay’satLACMA, the party for the restaurants that were inEsquire. They sent a bunch of food out, but I wasn’t really hungry. I did taste the sweet breads with sunchoke and brown butter. There was a lot of food, and a lot of people, but I didn’t really eat that much. I had some kind of cocktail called a Secret. It was pink. I think it had whiskey and lemon juice. We just stayed for one andleft.
Then I met my buddy atThe Basement Tavernon Main Street. Stopped by to say hi and tell him how to make cranberry sauce. And that was pretty much it. Then I went to my friend’s house, and his buddy sent him aLou Malnati’spizza from Chicago, and I had a slice of that. It was so good! Then I wenthome.
