Eviction Cancels Chef School’s Turkeys : Finances: Landlord, citing unpaid rent, shuts Culinary Institute, which had planned gourmet Thanksgiving meals.

Twenty people who are expecting $200 gourmet Thanksgiving dinners prepared by the Los Angeles Culinary Institute to be delivered at their doors this morning may be in for a rude awakening.

The landlord of the award-winning school for chefs, citing non-payment of rent, evicted the school and changed the locks on the doors of its building at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.

“We were forced to do it,” said Kenneth Mowry, general manager of the equestrian center, where the culinary school was a tenant until Tuesday morning. “From the economic standpoint, it was hurting the equestrian center.”

The turkey dinners were to include apple chestnut and sage dressing, cranberry relish, baked yams, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, and were prepared by student chefs at the school.

The chef who runs the school, Raimund Hofmeister, said, “All the turkeys are in the refrigerator, the dinners will all be canceled and everyone will get their money back.”

The school and two adjoining restaurants, the Classroom and the Equestrian Bar and Grille, were padlocked by marshals Tuesday. Mowry said rent had not been paid in about a year.

Hofmeister and his attorney, James Jimenez, said they were not notified of the impending eviction.

“It was an illegal shutdown,” Hofmeister said. “They never gave me notice, then they gave us 20 minutes to get out.”

Hofmeister runs the highly regarded culinary school, one of two in the Los Angeles area, where 120 students learn the art of cooking. The school has won national and international awards at culinary competitions.

Hofmeister said he does not know what will happen with his students.

The school was a co-tenant at the site with Equestrian Culinary Enterprises, which operates the restaurants. Hofmeister is president of Equestrian Culinary Enterprises. That company filed for bankruptcy in May but the case was dismissed on Nov. 7, Jimenez said. The school is not involved in the bankruptcy case, he said.

Jimenez said he will seek a court order to restore the school at the equestrian center.

The businesses have been run by Hofmeister for the past three years at the equestrian center, and Mowry said the relationship between them has been difficult.

“It was the manner in which he ran his business,” said Mowry. “But he was an excellent chef.”