He's the guy your girlfriends warned you about. Look at him, emerging from the surf like a chef-Adonis, kelp fairly dangling from his biceps. He caught those big fish with his bare hands!
The guy's gorgeous. And he can cook. What could be sexier?
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Honest, we got it for the recipes
Cooking | COOKBOOK WATCH
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday April 16, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 40 words Type of Material: Correction
Cookbook photographer -- An article in Wednesday's Food section on "Crave," a cookbook by Ludo Lefebvre, identified Steve Wayda as a photographer for both Playboy and Penthouse magazines. Wayda is a photographer for Playboy; he no longer contributes to Penthouse.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday April 20, 2005 Home Edition Food Part F Page 3 Features Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Cookbook photographer -- An article in last week's Food section on "Crave," a cookbook by Ludo Lefebvre, identified Steve Wayda as a photographer for both Playboy and Penthouse magazines. Wayda is a photographer for Playboy magazine; he no longer contributes to Penthouse.
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The guy is Ludo Lefebvre, the daring renegade chef of Bastide, on Melrose Place. The book is called "Crave: The Feast of the 5ive Senses" (Regan Books, $50). On the jacket photo, Lefebvre, who had hitherto been known professionally by his given name of Ludovic Lefebvre, has slipped out of his whites into something a little more comfortable, as well as slipping into the more familiar "Ludo." He peers at you with an MTV come-hither stare. He's holding, quite tenderly, a papaya filled with pomegranate seeds. But you're not looking for symbolism.
He's beautiful, with his white teeth and downy beard and all those vivid tattoos. The gold earring is set off by a nose stud. Curiously, there's no photographer credited for the book, though in the acknowledgements, Lefebvre thanks Rachel Weill for "making the food look beautiful" and Steve Wayda and his team "for making me look the best I can look." Wayda, incidentally, is a photographer for Playboy and Penthouse.
Lefebvre (luh-FEH-vruh) is clearly of the Nigella Lawson school of selling cookbooks. He's not the first male chef to bank on sex appeal: Since the late Jean-Louis Palladin broke ground in 1999 by wearing nothing but a Vita-Mix in a blender ad, chefs from Bobby Flay to Rocco Dispirito to Jamie "The Naked Chef" Oliver have strutted their stuff. But Ludo does it so convincingly.
Even without the glamour shots of him, this book would be food porn -- the dishes themselves look irresistible. You want it. All of it. You crave it.
Red wine-poached beef with star anise, long pepper and cardamom infusion with caramelized Belgian endive with lemon. Chicken Etouffee in dried verbena and curry leaves. Ile flottante with praline and mocha sauce.
You crave it, but can you have it?
You can't have the chef: He's married. "For Krissy," reads the dedication, all on its own big white page. "I was only a rumor, but you believed in me; Los Angeles was a mirage, but you've made it my home; This book was a fever dream, but you've made it real. I love you."
So that's out.
But the food -- at least you can have the food. Right?
