L.A. Via Luxembourg

Lea’s Lambs: Many Los Angeles chefs have professional connections to French and Italian kitchens. That’s no surprise. But what you may not realize is that a couple of L.A. chefs have a connection to a kitchen in the tiny country of Luxembourg.

Bordered by France, Germany and Belgium, the whole of Luxembourg (roughly the size of Rhode Island) boasts only one famous restaurant: the one-star Restaurant Lea Linster in Frisange. Owner and chef Lea Linster was recently named one of the top 10 chefs in the world by the French edition of Saveur magazine.

Despite that status, Linster constantly takes in apprentices, many of them from the United States. “I love to have the Americans,” she told us, “because it helps my English.” She also thinks American chefs have a much freer way of looking at food. “They are part of the new world for me,” she said. A few years ago she trained Danielle Reed, now the chef of Ciudad, a Latin American restaurant in Los Angeles.

She also trained Peter Maher for a few months. He’s the newly appointed chef of La Boheme, a French Asian restaurant in West Hollywood. Of Linster’s training, Maher said, “She took care of me.” He added, “Of the few places I went, [hers] was by far the nicest and the most educational.”

Maher most recently held the position of chef de cuisine under Alain Giraud at Lavande in the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. At La Boheme, he says, “we lean heavily toward Lavande style . . . with a few twists here and there.” On his new menu, which just made its debut, are these appetizers: veal cheeks with an orange reduction and kadaifi-encrusted shrimp. Entrees include a crisp-skinned salmon, and a roasted breast of chicken with Yukon Gold gnocchi, braised Napa cabbage and bacon sauce.

* La Boheme, 8400 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood; (323) 848-2360.

Still Wearing White: A little cafe and patisserie just opened on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. The chef-owner recently dropped out of the sky. Alan Genicoff was leaving a cooking position in Melbourne, Australia, to go home to New York when his flight path took him through Los Angeles. Genicoff got off the plane, looked at some property and made up his mind to become a cafe owner in a brand new town.

If you think that’s impulsive, you won’t believe the career he ditched to go to culinary school. It seems Genicoff was a doctor for 15 years in a previous life.

“Everybody thinks I’m off my bean,” he said. “Who gives up being a doctor to become a chef?” Well, we know one guy. Now he gets up at 5 a.m. to bake pastries and cakes, and make salads, sandwiches, quiches and soups at Cafe Praline. He serves lunch Mondays through Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pastries are available from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. You can dine in or take out. Nothing on the menu is more than $6.50.

* Cafe Praline, 8539 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; (310) 657-9136.

Beard Fever: In New York, the James Beard Foundation has announced its nominees for the year 2000 and, as usual, quite a few Southlanders are up for awards. Nobu Matsuhisa, who owns Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills, Nobu in Malibu and Ubon in the Beverly Center, has been nominated for outstanding chef. Outstanding restaurant nominations went to two Santa Monica restaurants: Valentino and Chinois on Main. Campanile in Hollywood has been listed for the outstanding wine service award, and Suzanne Dunaway, owner of the Buona Forchetta bakery in Venice (and an artist whose cartoons have often appeared in The Times), is up for the KitchenAid Book Award for her book “No Need to Knead.” Four San Francisco restaurants were nominated for best chef, California category, but none from L.A. Ouch.

Among nominees in journalism are Times staff writer Emily Green for her story on disappearing English cheeses and staff writer David Shaw for a series about wine critic Robert Parker.

For Night Owls: Bruce Marder’s latest venture, Brentwood Restaurant & Lounge, now offers a late-night menu from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights. You can tame those midnight munchies with pommes frites and sauce, macaroni and cheese, steak tartare, panini, pizzas and mini-hamburgers. The prices run from $5 to $12 per plate.

* Brentwood Restaurant & Lounge, 148 S. Barrington Ave., Brentwood; (310) 476-3511.

James and Joe: Joseph Antonishek, chef of L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills, has been invited to cook a dinner at the James Beard House in New York at the end of March. When he returns, he’ll prepare the same menu for his California diners from Tuesday through April 15. On the six-course Beard menu are a Chilean sea bass roasted with “orange spice” and served with New Zealand mussels in a tomato-cardamom broth, roasted duck breast with duck leg confit, kabocha squash polenta cake, asparagus and caramelized honey jus. The price is $95 a person; paired with wines it’s $125 a person.

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* The Restaurant at L’Ermitage, 9291 Burton Way, Beverly Hills; (310) 385-5307.

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