Roberts Spices Up Trumps’ Menu

Want to know what baby boomers worry about? Read a magazine or watch TV--advice on sagging bodies, aging parents, the kids’ college tuition, the going price of vintage Moby Grape albums--it’s all there. And now, it seems, even boomer food is getting on in years.

Consider the letter that Trumps’ chef Michael Roberts sent to his longtime customers recently: “I came down with a case of ‘signature dish syndrome,’ ” he wrote, “a malady not unusual for restaurants of our age, (in which) the most telling symptom (is) an irrational paranoia of alienating customers by removing favorite dishes from the menu.” His solution: a brand-new menu.

When Trumps first opened a decade ago, Roberts’ food was considered avant-garde, even weird: Brie and grape quesadillas, crisp duck made with vanilla and sassafras, chicken with garlic and candied lemon. It was new and exciting and a hit with the critics.

These days, though, Los Angeles diners aren’t easily shocked. That’s why this time around, Roberts has gone for what might be called a “just-good-food” approach. Roberts’ signature sweetbreads with Greek olives has been replaced with wonderfully crisp Parmesan sweetbreads that almost seem in shape and texture like great fried chicken. Super-crisp five-spice duck comes with good “polenta”--made not just with cornmeal, but barley, bulgur and quinoa as well.

Another thing Roberts has done to keep up with the times: He’s cut back on cream and butter and salt in the kitchen. But Roberts hasn’t changed everything on the menu. You can still have plantains with caviar, a gooey creme brulee tostada, lamb with port and Roquefort or salmon tartare. His food may not be the newest and the hippest anymore, but he knows what’s good.

* Trumps, 8764 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (310) 855-1480. Entrees $12 to $26.