Season of Change for Several Local Chefs

Movable Feasts: Now that the holidays are over, it seems our L.A.-area chefs are on the move. Never a settled bunch, these folks are particularly antsy right now. Par exemple: Alain Giraud has resigned as chef of Lavande and the rest of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel food operations. He will be gone by early February. Giraud opened Lavande and was chef for about three years; that’s equivalent to about nine in chef years. Before Lavande, Giraud stayed at Citrus for eight years, so he’s a stable worker compared with some of his peers. As for his future, he said, “I will be developing my restaurant in the coming months.” Why leave Lavande without having a place he can immediately take over? It seems his new partner dangled a lucrative carrot. “It came in a way I couldn’t say no to,” said Giraud. Giraud doesn’t know where his new place will be, but you can be sure the food will reflect his roots. He’s from southern France, after all. And when we know more details, we’ll pass them along.

Carrie Nahabedian is leaving as executive chef of the Four Seasons Hotel on Doheny Drive in L.A. to return to Chicago. She has a cousin, Michael Nahabedian, who has helped create two restaurants there and will develop a third with her at the helm. “We’ve been trying to keep it under wraps,” Nahabedian said of her departure, but that didn’t work out. She plans to vacate her post by the first week of February. “It’s a pretty big shock,” she told us. “I’ve really settled into the hotel.” But after living in California for eight years, she decided it was time to return to her family and hometown. And since the building she had been eyeing in the courthouse district of Chicago became available, she had to grab it. Another cousin, L.A.-based home designer Tom Nahabedian, will fly to Chitown to design the place, which as yet has no name. The food will be very sunny for the Windy City. Said Nahabedian, “I’m trying to bring a little bit of California to Chicago.”

Josie LeBalch, formerly chef of Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas and the Beach House in Santa Monica (where she lingered for about a year), has grabbed a restaurant for herself. She’s taken possession of 2424 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica, which used to house David Wolf’s restaurant (called 2424 Pico). Interestingly, Wolf went to work for Liza Utter at the Beach House when LeBalch departed to search for her own place. So it seems they’ve traded places. Said LeBalch of her new space, “It needs a lot of work. . . . You always need to change the interior to put your identity on it.”

So she’ll put new appliances in the kitchen and move the entrance to the back. She’ll hang on to the huge adjacent parking lot and offer free valet parking or the option to self-park. She hopes to have her restaurant, which will be called Josie, open by the end of March or early April. As for the cuisine, you can expect her brand of California cooking crossed with classical French technique. And because this is the smallest venue she’s cooked in (with about 100 seats), she’s looking forward to hands-on cooking nightly.

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What Do You Mean We’re Expensive?: Pacific Dining Car, the venerable steakhouse with locations in downtown L.A. and Santa Monica, has reworked its pricing and ordering system. Mike Green, general manager of the downtown location, said, “We’re just going to try to join the crowd.” By “crowd” he means other prime steakhouses (like Morton’s and Arroyo Chop House) that price meat separately from potatoes and vegetables at dinner. So now, Pacific Dining Car’s prime-aged steaks will cost from $25 to $35, and sides will run $3.50 to $4.95. The plates out of the kitchen should look the same as they did before.

* Pacific Dining Car, 1310 W. 6th St., L.A., (213) 483-6000; and 2700 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 453-4000.

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Bite-Sized News: Perroche will be opening Sunday nights to serve dinner, and the corkage fee that night will be only $2. Chef and owner Stuart Barker said he’s bowing to the pressure of other Valley restaurants that keep their corkage fees low on certain nights. Perroche is at 11929 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; (818) 766-1179. . . . Granita is having its fourth annual black truffle dinner tonight. Chef Jennifer Naylor will incorporate the black diamond truffle from Italy into six courses. The price is $98 per person plus beverages, tax, and a suggested 18% tip; seatings from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

* Granita, Malibu Colony Plaza, 23725 West Malibu Road, Malibu, (310) 456-0488.

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Angela Pettera can be reached at (213) 237-3153 or pettera@prodigy.net.