Top chef makes it personal

Alain GIRAUD, the Provence-born chef who has had a long and successful tenure in Los Angeles, most recently at Bastide, has started a company called Four Stars Private Cuisine.

Although Four Stars might sound like a small catering company, Giraud rejects the “catering” label because, he says, “I don’t have the structure to do big mass catering.” Instead, he says, he’s doing small dinner parties for 12 to 20 people, drawing clients from fans of his food at Bastide.

His menus are similar to those he created for the restaurant. The difference is in scale. “Now I’m alone with one or two assistants, and at Bastide I had six or seven cooks. It’s like I used to have an orchestra and now I’m playing solo.”

At a recent dinner party for 16, the menu included bay scallops with white truffle and celery root veloute; sauteed foie gras with pear and fig compote, a Banyuls reduction and dried white pear chips; and roasted rack of veal marinated in olive oil, thyme and crushed garlic. Giraud had the veal air-shipped to him the day before from Four Story Hill Farm in Pennsylvania.

Giraud sees his new endeavor as “a step to the side” and says, “I was not ready to rush into another restaurant. I was not in the mood for it. I was not prepared.” Likening his dismissal from Bastide to a divorce, he sums it up this way: “I wasn’t ready to date.”

He is looking into other projects and admits to having a few interesting offers. But for now, “private cuisines” seems like just the right thing. “Here I am in the world in my teeny SUV making parties,” says the chef (alain@alaingiraud.com).

“Why not?”

-- Leslee Komaiko

Small bites

* Eric Klein, the Wolfgang Puck protege who has spent the last year and a half as executive chef at Maple Drive in Beverly Hills, is leaving that post Dec. 12. In fact, he is leaving Los Angeles. Klein has accepted a position as executive chef at the signature steakhouse of Wynn Las Vegas, a resort scheduled to open on the Strip on April 28.

The restaurant will be one of more than a dozen opening at the site. There will also be a Daniel Boulud brasserie, with Philippe Rispoli as executive chef, and restaurants headed up by chefs drawn from around the country, including Jimmy Sneed, a Jean-Louis Palladin protege who was chef at the Frog and the Redneck in Virginia; Paul Bartolotta, formerly executive chef at Spiaggia in Chicago; Stephen Kalt, who cooked at Spartina in New York City; Alessandro Stratta of Renoir at the Mirage in Vegas; and Takashi Yagihashi, who’s coming from a restaurant called Tribune near Detroit.

* For the past several years, Michelle Myers has been turning out sensational sweets as the pastry chef at Sona. Now she’s branching out with Boule, a shop she describes as a “modern patisserie.”

Directly across the street from the restaurant and slated to open the second week of December, Boule will offer pastries, cakes, breads, candies, ice cream and sorbet.

Initially, Boule’s business will be to-go only. But in the coming months, the plan is to add a tea salon.

Boule, 420 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 289-9977.

* Yu, not to be confused with Yi Cuisine, opens Friday on Montana Avenue in the old Wolfgang Puck Cafe space. Manager William Ousley calls the cuisine “pan-Asian.” Think Chinese firecracker shrimp, Thai crab cakes and sushi. The chef is Andrew DeGroot, a veteran of Cafe del Mar and the short-lived Avenue restaurant in Beverly Hills.

Yu, 1323 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 395-4727.

* Rusty Updegraff (the guy behind departed hot spot 360) is one of the partners in a new Latin fusion restaurant opening mid-December in West Hollywood, in the old Kachina Grill space at Robertson and Santa Monica boulevards. Gozar, which Updegraff says means “enjoy” or “have fun,” will offer specialties from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Spain. Richard Hyman, chef at Border Grill Pasadena, will helm the kitchen.

Gozar, 8948 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.