Dinner at Michael Voltaggio's "Ink" in Los Angeles

Pardon the Punctuation...For my two year anniversary I decided to attempt to make a last minute reservation to Ink restaurant on Melrose.  Michael Voltaggio of "Top Chef" fame, has brought Michelin star quality and service to Los Angeles without the usual Michelin star highbrow. After making a reservation online at OpenTable I called ahead to see if anything earlier had opened up. Diana the hostess answered the phone like a breathe of sunshine and let us know that we were going to have her favorite table for our dinner. Upon arriving, Diana treated us like family. This let us know we were in for a special night. Any special dinner calls for a special bottle of wine. A bottle of 2001 Heitz Cellars Martha's Vineyard Cabernet was at peak and perfect for the night.  Our waiter Ben continued bringing the great servicer after we were seated. He recommended we do three plates each since we did the À la carte choices for the menu. If you go, two plates a piece is plenty...we were stuffed after our six plates...no bueno. We ate a lot so I'm going to break this down in a list in the order we received the din din.

La Quercia Berkshire Ham

1. La Quercia Bershire Ham with Manchego biscuit and Marcona almond butter: The biscuit was perfectly flaky with a slight hint of manchego in it. If the La Quercia Berkshire Ham was referred to in a rap song it would be called,"Off the chain." You must order this if you go. 
2. Beef Tartare  with hearts of palm, sea bean chimichurri, horseradish, and rye: I still can't get over how the chef pulled all of the flavor out of the horseradish while getting rid of the heat. Exquisite is the only way to describe the rest of the ingredients. 
3. Brussels Sprouts with pig ears, lardo, and apple: When the dish arrived it looked they brought me Medusa's head on a plate. It was like a scene from "Clash of the Titans." The sprouts were crunchy, bitter and perfectly seasoned. The lardo was a mouth watering compliment to the pig ears and just melted in your mouth.
4. Grilled Octopus with house made ink shells, young fennel, and pimenton:  There are only two places on this side of the Atlantic that I have had perfectly grilled octopus and this one of them. I could have just ordered two orders of this and called it a night. Just the perfect tenderness in the texture and char flavor in the octopus. The octopus ink pasta shells were to die for and could be sold as a dish on their own. You must order this if you go.



Brussels Sprouts



Beef Tartare

5. Pork Belly with charcoal oil, bbq flavor, and corn: As far as I'm concerned, pork belly is the new "black" and I'm never going to get tired of it. They could have served this without a knife You must order this if you go.
6. Wagyu Beef with carrots, tendon, and horseradish tofu: Tender, flavorful, and crunchy is the best way to describe this dish. We were stuffed by the time we got it and I couldn't get myself to stop eating it. The tendon was fried and tasted like a classic pork rind. Overall a very good dish.
7. Apple with caramel, walnut, and burnt wood ice cream: This was art on a plate. Never would I have thought that a craving for burnt wood ice cream would be in my future. They literally burn wood to a crisp and infuse it's flavor with the ice cream. If I was ever on "Death Row" this would be part of my final meal. They freeze the ice cream with liquid nitrogen and you have to crack open the ice cream shell to get to the apple. One of the top five desserts I've ever had. You must order this if you go.

"Ink" is a home run of a restaurant that will leave you smiling and begging for more. Chef was kind enough to sign the menu for me and complete the perfect anniversary dinner. I have a feeling this won't be the last time they see my face at their establishment.

Octopus with ink shells

Pork Belly

Wagyu Beef

Apple with burnt ice cream

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The Hollywood Cooking Class Groupon

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Pardon the Punctuation....My christmas gift from my brother and sister in law was a Groupon for The Hollywood Cooking Class.  Before I get to the good stuff I must get to the bad. Whoever is running the booking of this class might not be the sharpest tool in the shed. I called several times with no return phone call and when they did return one of my calls it was two weeks later. Not the best way to run a successful business. Once we finally booked a time they rescheduled my class not once but twice...ridiculous. Once we got to the class my impression changed completely. My wife and I were greeted by Vanessa who was great and served us some drinks while we waited for the rest of the class to arrive.  Of course several guests were thirty minutes late and since they live in a bubble where the world revolves around them, they didn't even acknowledge their tardiness and apologize to the eight other people that showed up on time. At least we were finally able to start. Aja was the chef teaching the class and she was great.  The dishes were simple yet elegant and Aja was great and answering any question we had. First we rolled our own chocolate truffles and had a few options to flavor them. This was a blast since I've always been intimidated to make my own truffles. It was so easy to do that I can't wait to make my own. I wish Aja would have done a demo on how to make the ganache so we can see that part of the process but it's understandable why it was pre-made for us since it takes a couple of hours to cool for rolling. Next we made a basic mixed green salad and were educated on how to make a true vinagrette. All of it was educational and delicious. The appetizer course was vegetable spring rolls which is something I had never made on my own and enjoyed the whole process from choosing which vegetables to put in rolls to mixing my dipping sauce. Our main course was a Swai fillet cooked over vegetables en Papillote style which basically means it was wrapped in parchment paper like an empanada and baked in the oven. This was something that I would have never taken the time to cook before but after trying it in the class it's going to be one of my "Go To" choices for making a healthy fish dish. Happily I can say that the "Hollywood Cooking Class" did not leave a bad taste in my mouth. Chef Aja was great and did a great job of making this fun, educational, and entertaining. I have to admit that we had a better time in the class than we expected to have. I'm looking forward to attending another version of the class in the future and I recommend it for couples and solo guests alike.

Swai En Papillote

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