Chris Bianco, Kwame Onwuachi and L.A.’s Culinary Stars Savor the Moment
Observer ·
The L.A. Chef Conference offered a snapshot of a restaurant world in flux, with Chris Bianco, Kwame Onwuachi and others looking firmly ahead.
Chris Bianco was at the L.A. Chef Conference on Monday, Oct. 5, doing what he often does: cooking and philosophizing on the joys of living in the moment.
Bianco has long been considered one of the best and most influential pizzaiolos in the United States, but what matters more to him is being part of a movement. On Monday, Chris Decker , whose Truly Pizza in Dana Point regularly shows up on national and global best-of lists, thanked Bianco for being a pioneer who paved the way for many chefs.
“We met 20 years ago,” Decker, who was at the conference alongside fellow Truly Pizza co-founders Donna Baldwin and Michael Vakneen , told Bianco. “It means the world. All the inspiration, all the love. I think about it every single day. Thank you for everything. No one would give a shit about pizza in America if it wasn’t for you.”
“That’s very sweet of you to say,” Bianco replied. “Thank you. That means a lot. I would say if I raised a bar, a lot of motherfuckers are dancing on it right now.”
Bianco, of course, runs Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix and Los Angeles. Truly Pizza, which recently expanded to Laguna Beach (where it also has a spinoff gelato spot and is working to debut a bagel shop), will open its first L.A. location in Venice early next year. Arguments could be made that Los Angeles is becoming one of the foremost pizza cities in America and has a chance to rise to the top of the dough heap. But Bianco, like other acclaimed chefs , is long past thinking about this kind of recognition.
“This is what I want to say about fucking ‘best,’” Bianco told Observer. “The devil’s favorite word. The best anything is anything you like best. Don’t waste any time thinking about that. Just, like, fucking submit to the space you’re in and enjoy the moments and don’t think about anything else when you’re eating in someone’s house. That’s what I do.”
Bianco was at the L.A. Chef Conference at City Market Social House to collaborate with Daniele Uditi of Pizzana on both a pizza (with a sauce featuring guanciale and San Marzano tomatoes, topped with fior di latte, Pecorino Romano and more guanciale) and pasta (calamarata with roasted-tomato cream and colatura di mozzarella di bufala).
Working with Bianco is “like a hurricane,” Uditi told Observer. “Everything is all over the place. And then all of a sudden, when you start cooking, everything comes together.”
Working with Uditi, meanwhile, is “like a late-summer après -beach day,” Bianco told Observer. “We’re just gonna roll around and throw something together, and it’s just gonna all work seamlessly. It just happens with a beautiful serenity.”
“I give him peace in his life,” Uditi replied when Observer told him what Bianco said. “He gives me chaos transforming into peace.”
Chaos, peace, beginnings, endings. Those are recurring themes at the annual L.A. Chef Conference, put together by Brad Metzger Restaurant Solutions . The conference is a gathering of the city’s culinary A-list, who show up to share success stories, struggles and solutions. The conference also had a national feel this year with heavy hitters like Danny Meyer (whose new leadership book, “What Could Possibly Go Right?”, was released on September 29) and Kwame Onwuachi (whose second cookbook, “All Hours”, was released on September 22). L.A. culinary bookstore Now Serving hosted a book-signing table at the conference for authors including Meyer, Onwuachi, Claudette Zepeda , Adam Weisblatt , Roxana Jullapat and Monti Carlo .
During a panel with Providence’s Michael Cimarusti, Border Grill ’s Susan Feniger and Kato ’s Jon Yao, Onwuachi discussed how one key to his success is having a distinct point of view.
“It should be like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” Onwuachi said.
He remembers early conversations about what would become the game-changing Tatiana in New York.
“I went to the board of Lincoln Center, and I was like, ‘I want to do a restaurant that celebrates old New York,’” Onwuachi said. “And they’re like, ‘Oh, you mean like the Ritz-Carlton or the Four Seasons?’ I was like, ‘No, motherfucker, like the Bronx is burning. The birth of hip-hop.’ They didn’t like that I was cursing so much, so that Zoom ended quickly. But they called me back, and I was able to do something that truly reflected American New York cuisine, this influence from Jewish culture, Chinese, Caribbean, West African.”
This year’s L.A. Chef Conference was a reminder that cooking is often about history, hardship and a personal connection to the food you’re making. Onwuachi, born on Long Island, remembers being sent to live in Nigeria, where his home had no electricity or running water. Bianco, born in the Bronx, was a high school dropout who started working at a pizza place when he was 13. Uditi, born in Naples, lived out of a van in Los Angeles before becoming a neo-Neapolitan force with five Pizzanas in L.A. and three in Texas.
The conference was also a reminder that Los Angeles, which still hasn’t recovered from devastating fires, Hollywood strikes and the lingering effects of the pandemic, isn’t an easy city in which to own a restaurant. Steve and Dina Samson ’s Rossoblu , which hosted lunch at the L.A. Chef Conference, will close on Nov. 1. The Samsons freely admit that there have been financial struggles at Rossoblu .
“The last 18 months were really hard and bad for my mental health,” Dina tells Observer.
But restaurant operators are resilient people. The Samsons have sold the space, and Steve will stay on as the culinary director for the next chapter.
“It’s perfect,” Dina says. “He doesn’t have to look for a job, and I can take a break.”
Despite the restaurant ending dinner service on November 1, Rossoblu will host special guest-chef dinners on Oct. 27 and Nov. 17 and sell take-home packages of food for the holidays before handing over the keys in January.
And even as many doors close in Los Angeles, there are ambitious chefs who aim to open more. Uditi, for example, had a 15,000-person waiting list for his pop-up Lele Dinner Club last year and tells Observer he’s looking for a permanent home for that concept.
There’s also buzz about Onwuachi wanting to open a restaurant in Los Angeles.
On Friday, Onwuachi cooked at the Listed party that kicked off ComplexCon . This was on the same weekend that Smorgasburg vendors cooked at Puffcon . It was also the same weekend that professional skateboarder Don “Nuge” Nguyen DJed at the Brentwood opening party for his Burgers She Wrote smashburger joint while Mexico City mariscos destination Taller de Ostiones by FISM was in Venice serving chilled seafood at Enrique Olvera ’s new San Damian . Los Angeles, for at least a few days, felt like a never-ending food festival where cuisine and culture blended in beautiful ways. It felt like a city that’s ready to embrace new restaurants.
“I would love to open something in L.A.,” Onwuachi told Observer. “L.A. is one of my favorite cities, for the weather, the golf, the produce, the Mexican food, the sushi. I can go on and on. I lived here during the pandemic, and it’s always been a dream of mine to open a restaurant here. It’s something I’m working towards.”