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Something is always cooking

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Even if you’re not a foodie, you know Nancy Silverton’s work. As the pastry chef and co-founder of Campanile, she created a restaurant that still stands as a culinary landmark on La Brea Avenue. The bakery she started next door to provide rustic bread, La Brea Bakery, now distributes her loaves around the country.

After 15 years of success, Silverton says she finally has some free time -- but hardly knows how to utilize it. So she stays close to her Hancock Park home and, of course, enjoys good food.

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On familiar ground

I find I do this so rarely but I love to go to an early movie, usually a foreign film. I’m not one for epics. I have a hard time with American films, though I did love “Sideways.” To go to an early movie, before 6 p.m., would be a real treat, and then go to dinner.

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I’m definitely a neighborhood person. I live in Hancock Park, but I don’t often travel west of La Cienega. But I don’t really go east of Vermont, either. I would likely go to dinner at Jar or AOC. Both of them I love -- especially Jar, now that they’ve redone it. It’s a very comfortable atmosphere. I always choose a bar over a table. Not if I’m with too many people, but for two or three I like the informality. I don’t feel the pressure of dining.

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Hoofin’ it

Saturdays I get up before 8 a.m. I always feel best when I start the day with a walk in my neighborhood. I’m not a big workout person -- meaning, going to the gym -- but I love to walk. It’s the same route because I know that it’s exactly three miles. I’m always surprised by the things I notice that I haven’t seen the day before.

I love having lunch at La Terza on 3rd Street, on the corner of Orlando. It’s owned by the Campanile former manager, Claudio Blotta, and Gino Angelini. I like to go there on Saturday with a girlfriend because it’s quiet.

I love to walk on 3rd Street. My favorite place to shop and hang out is Noodle Stories -- a clothing store with the most beautiful clothes, nice selection and very small. I always visit Caryl Kim, she’s the owner. It’s the most expensive friendship I have. I can’t leave her store without buying something, because what she has is so beautiful.

Then I’ll mosey on around 4 p.m. or so to Monsieur Marcel, a little wine bar and food shop in the Farmers Market. The Farmers Market has always been, all my life, one of my favorite places, even when it was a tourist stop full of buses, to now when it’s hipper than ever.

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Reading, riding

Sunday morning is the most extravagant day and time of the week. I get up and sit on my balcony and read my newspaper.

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After that, I would meet my friend Margy Rochlin and go for a bike ride. We park the car around Jefferson and Overland, and you can ride the bike path down to the marina. When you do it, you think, “Why don’t I do this all the time?” You have no idea that you’re in Los Angeles; there are lots of undeveloped parts of it.

Angelini Osteria on Beverly Boulevard, that’s my favorite restaurant in L.A. I love it because it’s so unassuming and everything is so appealing on the menu. It’s a great place to go early on a Sunday. I love the octopus-and-tomato salad -- it’s warm -- and the braised artichokes. Their lamb chops are fantastic. Very simple, and very delicious food.

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-- Robin Rauzi

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