Normally, if a guy’s got a tat and he’s wielding a big knife, I’m booking it in the opposite direction.
Unless he happens to be Ludo Lefebvre, hot chef of the moment in Los Angeles. He was my interview of the month for Rue and he deserves every accolade he’s received…and then some.
I first had his food a long time ago, at the Joe Pytka-owned Bastide. At WK’s suggestion, I had a truffle and pancetta risotto, laced with coffee. I was prepared for weird. I wasn’t prepared to want to dive into it, smother it on my skin and pull it up over my head. But that was where I found myself, contemplating doing things with a plate of food I had only ever wanted to do with…well, let’s leave it at that, shall we? Ludo left soon after that. I can’t blame him. Pytka’s a challenge with a large ego even in a town full of challenges with large egos.
My next taste of his food was during Jonathan Gold’s Gold Standard event at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Typefiend and I had snuck in early; the first booth was Ludo’s. He smiled as wide as PU in a candy store as I ate quickly one sample, then another and then a third before Typefiend reminded me that this was only the first stop in what was to be an afternoon of intensive eating.
To read, and see, more about Ludo, click here.