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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.