R.J. Cutler’s homegrown premiere

By Debra Prinzing It's a pre-launch celebration for "The September Issue," R.J. Cutler's documentary feature about the fashion world's high priestess Anna Wintour and her creation of Vogue magazine's most important issue of the year. But unlike the film's gala preview last week at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this is not a red-carpet affair. Instead, Cutler and his girlfriend, "Project Runway" producer Jane Cha, above, have gathered a group of friends two weeks prior for an intimate, relaxed evening of oven-fired pizzas and savory grilled vegetables, all in Cutler's new outdoor dining room, set in the Hollywood Hills under carnival lights and the stars.

By Debra Prinzing It’s a pre-launch celebration for “The September Issue,” R.J. Cutler’s documentary feature about the fashion world’s high priestess Anna Wintour and her creation of Vogue magazine’s most important issue of the year. But unlike the film’s gala preview last week at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this is not a red-carpet affair.

Instead, Cutler and his girlfriend, “Project Runway” producer Jane Cha, above, have gathered a group of friends two weeks prior for an intimate, relaxed evening of oven-fired pizzas and savory grilled vegetables, all in Cutler’s new outdoor dining room, set in the Hollywood Hills under carnival lights and the stars.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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The setting: Where an auxiliary driveway once stood, Cutler now has an outdoor dining room. Created by Lory Johansson of the design firm Just Joh, www.justjoh.com, the space is enclosed by a terra cotta red stucco wall with a fireplace at one end and built-in cushioned seating on two sides. Overhead: a metal arbor.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Candles and succulents grace the top of the 16-foot trestle table, made of reclaimed Indonesian teak.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Cutler says that he imagined “a big conceptual approach” when it came to restoring the 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival home, which he bought in 2005. To the self-described “observational filmmaker,” the three-quarter-acre parcel needed a dramatic narrative, indoors and out. “I saw enormous potential here,” he says. “I loved that the home was huge, but it felt to me as though the spaces could be defined to create intimacy.”  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Designer Johansson, shown here adjusting the arbor’s sun screen, engineered the Roman shade-style system on cables so the cloth panels could be positioned according to the weather or time of day.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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When Cutler remodeled his house?s kitchen and added the outdoor dining room, he also added a second kitchen in between, complete with wood-fired pizza oven. His friend Alberto Lazzarino, who recently closed Melograno in Hollywood to work as a private chef, came over to help with the party. Here, Lazzarino prepares asparagus, zucchini, mushrooms, corn, peppers and eggplant on the outdoor grill. His secret for making tasty veggies? Grill everything dry on both sides. Then, before serving, brush on a marinade of extra virgin olive oil, a touch of garlic and fresh parsley and thyme from the garden.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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The vegetables come off the grill and onto the platter where they are beautifully arranged.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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A dark, unsightly mud room that was not original to the house is gone. Now the kitchen patio has plenty of outdoor seating, sheltered by an oversized umbrella.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Lazzarino cooks the hand-topped gourmet pizzas in a 600-degree wood-burning oven by EarthStone, a Glendale company.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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After enjoying meals from his friends’ pizza oven, Cutler asked Johansson to add a similar one to his outdoor kitchen. “There is a lot of party-giving here,” the producer-director says. “I’m passionate about cooking, but it wasn’t until I moved into this house that I started focusing on it.”  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Cutler serves fresh-from-the-grill vegetables to guests Karen Thorland, left, and Ron Michaelson, whose design firm Concept Arts created the theatrical posters for “The September Issue.”  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Dinner is served family style. Overhead, a few strings of carnival lights add sparkle, while the fireplace lends some intimacy to the atmosphere. Though Cutler assumed the stucco walls, fireplace and pizza oven would be painted white, like the outside of his house, Johansson convinced him to go with a color that matched the terra cotta roof tiles of his house. “Lory was right — and brilliant,” Cutler says. The glow of flames against the reddish-orange walls creates a warm, comfortable light.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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“It was really important to R.J. that the kitchen be the heart of what he was doing here at the house, because he cooks so much,” Johansson says, adding that it’s “definitely a guy’s kitchen.” The espresso-stained white oak flooring, dark cabinets and stainless-steel appliances are decidedly masculine. The main source of color, green glazed vintage subway tiles, appears on a backsplash above the stove.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Vintage kitsch and industrial accents make their statements against the backdrop of Cutler’s honed marble countertop.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Johansson designed a custom wrought-iron and gold-mica light fixture that doubles as a pot rack. There are three downward task lights, hidden from view, and a ring of smaller bulbs that give the mica shade its candlelight-like glow. “My lighting philosophy is to illuminate what you need to see but to hide the light source,” Johansson says. “It’s almost as if the prep island glows all by itself because you don’t notice where the task lights come from.”  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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The pot filler faucet against the backdrop of the green vintage tiles. Johansson found the tiles at Olde Good Things, www.oldegoodthings.com, an architectural salvage store that said the tiles were from a New York City electrical transfer station.  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)

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Cutler and Johansson stand in the recently renovated kitchen. Johansson borrowed space from an unused butler’s pantry to extend the kitchen’s footprint, but at 180 square feet, the finished room is still relatively compact. The light counters, walls and ceiling offset the dark wood floor and cabinet fronts. The L-shaped banquette, right, lends a cozy touch. “We made it comfy and covered it in celadon cotton velvet,” Johansson says.

For Cha, the telltale detail was the pullout spice cupboard. “The spices were organized in this aesthetically pleasing, harmonious yet practical — dare I say ‘artistic’ — way,” she says. “It demonstrated to me almost instinctually that this man cares deeply about how elements are put together, how they ‘sing.’ Love at first spice — I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.”

More fashionable houses:

Citizen of Humanity founder Jerome Dahan’s California charmer: http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/home/la-hm.0117.citizen-pg,0,5447835.photogallery Johnson Hartig, designer behind the Libertine line, gets a little crazy near Hancock Park: http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-hartig12july12-pg,0,6273259.photogallery The founder of Etnies brings some skateboarder cool to Newport Beach: http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-0913-etnies-pg,0,5252124.photogallery  (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)