A New Year’s Meal of Their Dreams

Times writers asked some of Los Angeles’ most well-known chefs to answer the question: If you started the New Year with the meal of your dreams--what would it be?

Michel Richard, Citrus:

“What I want is impossible to reproduce. I’d like the meal I ate for Christmas the year I first started training to be a chef, with all the same people, all the same food and all the same spirit. I was 14 years old and had just started working in a kitchen at the Great Cerf a few weeks before. It was the first time I’d had foie gras , the first time I had Champagne chicken, and it was when I tried my first truffle. For years after I left there, I’d call the owner and thank him for that beautiful dinner and for the way he taught me about food--it was tough, but beautiful.”

John Sedlar, St. Estephe:

“What I’d really like is to collect people from the past, people who were interested in food and wine, but were not necessarily great chefs, and get them to cook. I’d like Thomas Jefferson to cook one course and James Beard another. Then I’d get both Napoleon and Archestratus (the ancient Greek gourmet) to do a course. I’d ask the Baron Philippe de Rothschild to consult on the wines. I’d ask them to do a simple meal--just to see what they’d cook--so I could understand each of their philosophies. Finally, I’d also like to find a great ancient Aztec chef to cook some of the original chocolate recipes in their bitter forms for me.”

Ken Frank, La Toque:

“For an actual meal, I’d like to go to Chinois and have them do their best for me--I’ve never been there before and I hear it’s great. What I’d really like though, is a batch of Royal Rivera pears--they’re one of my absolute favorite foods. You don’t have to fly to Europe to get them and you don’t have to be a great chef to enjoy them. I get them sent to me this time of year from Harry and David, you know, the Fruit-of-the-Month Club. It’s the one thing they do that is the best in the world, even better than pears I’ve had fresh out of the orchard. I think they’re perfect--as good as food gets.”

Michael Roberts, Trumps:

“I would want some sort of really brilliant Mandarin Chinese dinner. I’d get the best chef to come over from China--I don’t know who that is--and say, ‘Just do the best dinner you can.’ I’d want shark’s fins, turtles . . . I adore Chinese food, I never get enough of it. When I lived in New York I lived near Chinatown, but here I just don’t have a lot of Chinese food.”

Wolfgang Puck, Spago, Chinois on Main:

“I would like a surprise. All my friends are wonderful cooks, but what I would really like is if someone would come--like from another planet--and make something that was completely out of this world. And I would think, this tastes so wonderful, how come he didn’t come before?”

Evan Kleiman, Angeli, Trattoria Angeli:

“I would want three women that I cook with when I’m in Italy (they’re not great chefs, just great home cooks), to come over and make me a picnic of real cucina rustica. We’d have a great spread of antipasti , salumeria , pasta al forno , bread and wine. For dessert we’d have fruit. And we’d eat it all outdoors, at Franklin Canyon Park.”

Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, City Restaurant and Border Grill:

“We’d definitely want to eat our dream meal outdoors, either in the desert or the mountains. For the first course, we’d want to bring back Fernand Point to make some sort of delicious pate , and next would be an egg course by Salvador Dali. Then we’d want a dal and curry course made by Padma, the guy we worked with in India who is responsible for all the Indian influences on our menu. And when we were in Mexico, we stayed with a woman, Eulalia, who made the most delicious soups. We’d want her to make something. And for dessert, we’d want something by Fredy Girardet.”