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What was the first meal you ever made in
your life?
I remember that distinctly.
I was about 11 years old, and
I was making breakfast.
I was not wearing a shirt at the time.
So I'm frying eggs, and
basting it with hot oil, and it's splattering, and
it just sprayed across my whole chest.
So I burned both my nipples.
So what do you associate with cooking,
you associate sexual things?
Cooking is always sexual.
Look at the dining room, half your tables
are trying to get some play for the evening so
your job as a chef is to facilitate lovemaking.
I'm Michael Hung,
I"m the executive chef of Faith and
Flower in downtown Los Angeles.
Faith and Flower is kind of a mix up of,
you know, throwback design and
decor that looks to the 1920s and old Hollywood.
But we're pairing it with modern California rustic
style of cuisine.
I've put together a really great team of
hardworking, talented chefs.
Our front of house staff is totally generous and
warm and engaged with our guests and I think that
has really clicked with the population down here.
The menu is really a reflection of
Los Angeles.
It kind of hits a lot of global notes and I think
that kind of reflects Los Angeles because LA is
a city that has a lot of great ethnic good and
we're trying to draw from that culture.
Downtown over the past four or five years
has really started to emerge as a destination.
I mean, we're in the Southpark
area of downtown so we're kind of
the front-runner of restaurants in this area.
A lot of the food I do is a marriage
between my formal culinary training and
a lot of stuff that I ate when I was a kid.
So before I became a chef I was working in IT and
also in finance positions in New York City.
I was really not happy
with the work I was doing.
And one day my brother told me he
enrolled in culinary school.
You know, when he told me that,
it kind of like clicked in my brain that that's
something I always wanted to do also.
The day I heard that I kinda just got
enrolled in the school and, you know,
quit my job that day.
I've been in San Francisco for
nine years in coastal luxury management and,
and Dave Bernahl brought me down here.
Dave kind of gave me his vision about restaurants
and, and business as a whole, so
I think that was the major draw for me.
You know, we received quite a few awards for
best new restaurant, Thrillist had us as
best new restaurant in the country.
It's not just the kitchen that's getting accolades,
it's the, the bar program.
Mike Lay is an outstanding bartender,
super creative.
You know, I think we've worked incredibly hard
and I think that our hard work and, and
what we're trying to do, and trying to make our
guests happy has really kind of shown in,
in the rewards that we're getting.
Last night it was myself, David Bernahl from CLM.
Dave is one of the majority owners
of Faith & Flower.
Stephane Bombet who is also one of the partners
in the restaurant.
And a good chef friend of our Chris Oh,
who has the Seoul Sausage company and
numerous other restaurants so we kind of
split for a little bit and headed over to Torein
which was one of Stefan's other restaurants.
We're headed on a gas-tastic journey
tonight.
Yeah. Because you're cooking
front row later tonight.
Yes. And Chris Morningstar
is gonna to rock some front row.
He's probably going to rock some front row.
And- Potentially Bruce.
Bruce is gonna rock the foie gras.
Probably.
Just for context.
My toe hurts already.
Just for context they just
repealed the foie gras ban in California.
So everybody is very excited to be serving it
in mass quantities.
Well, right now we are headed to Terrine
restaurant right outside of Beverly Hills.
And the chef is a good friend of ours,
Chris Morningstar.
And they just recently opened about a month ago.
Oh, yeah. This is beautiful.
The Terrine is California styled raw.
It was very French influenced.
Hi, thank you for coming, thank you very much.
You missed,
you missed the car ride over boys that's all.
Did you guys open a bottle in the car?
We already got a bottle of Ketel One open over
there, what are you talking about.
I just order the food, foie gras, foie gras, and
foie gras.
No, we got to get this party
started though dude.
We got to get some shots at least.
We're going to be out for at least eight hours.
Eight hours?
Oh, I don't know if I can make until the end.
Fuck. You just certainly
celebrate a little in your belly now.
I know.
They of course, rolled out a lot of,
you know, tureens for us, and French pates.
One of the best chicken liver
mousses I've ever had.
He had a foie gras taurine,
he had kielbasa sausage, which was awesome.
Congratulations.
Love you guys. Thank you,
thanking you for joining me tonight guys.
Yeah, Michael.
This is good tasting.
Bone marrow, fried beef cheeks, beets, and
horseradish.
This is Kris' take on salad nicoise,
instead of being seared tuna it's veal tongue.
Right.
How many seats do you have out here?
Outside 62.
How many in there?
I think 60. It only rains what
15 days a year at the most?
How do you say make it rain in french Duvon?
That's what we need to know.
If you translate it, it would be.
That sounds good, that sounds good, no,
that sounds good.
We're gonna tonight.
It's very, it's a very African expression.
Yes it is.
No, that would be a weird thing to say.
I don't know. It's starting
to catch already.
Gentlemen, shall we continue?
So, your entrees for the evening.
Sadie's best fish and
chips with a local house-made tartar sauce.
A salad flam base with local trickery.
You have the agnolotti with a truffled rice
filling, truffle and hazelnuts, and
wood mushrooms.
We also have the rossini which is super classical
dish with petite filet mignon, on top,
spinach and just a classic bordelaise sauce.
You know that's really the strength of Terrine
is that you have all these great classical
dishes that are just executed, you know, to,
to perfection.
From there, we went to Union Pasadena to go see
Bruce Common who's an awesome chef.
For most of us, it's our first time, so
we are very excited.
Are we close?
How far are we?
We're maybe 35 miles.