COOKING & ENTERTAINING WITH STYLE : Entertaining in the New L.A.

Entertaining in the New L.A. It’s about cultures, contradictions and complements, traditions and an insatiable search for something new. Whether we entertain privately in our homes or publicly in a restaurant, we’ve developed a love affair with ethnic foods of all types, and we excel at blending flavors from a variety of cuisines, such as the pairings of chef-created soups and sandwiches on Page 30. We happily mix and match, be it tableware, foods and customs of the Far East or of the Near East, of Central America or of South America, of the American Southwest or of the Yankee Northeast. We’re as comfortable seated on floor pillows dining on Moroccan fare as we are gathered in a high-tech restaurant sampling the latest in L. A. cuisine, or hiring a caterer to provide elegant hors d’oeuvres and decadent desserts while we prepare the entree. Rules are broken in the New L.A.: Luxury looks meet casual concepts head-on; old and new make bold pairings. Ethnicity comes as second nature; the issue is style and how to achieve it.