Chefs

For those of us who love food and study its history, one of the most vexing questions is how an ingredient of humble origins suddenly becomes a sought-after delicacy that appears on fancy tables from L.A. to London. As often as not, the ingredient's original purpose is forgotten because chefs don't bother to find out how it is used in its native land.

You can cook live lobsters, but I prefer to kill them first. There are a lot of theories about the best way to do this, but I like the one recommended by Trevor Corson, seafood expert and author of "The Secret Life of Lobsters. " He chills the live lobsters in the freezer for 15 minutes or so. Lobsters are coldblooded, and this slows their metabolic rate and dulls their response to pain. Once they're well-chilled, place them belly-up on a cutting board. Thrust a sharp knife into the belly of the lobster between the first pair of legs and pull the knife down toward the head.

It's a sign of the times: Anisette's Alain Giraud will be handing out free samples from a food truck on the Third Street Promenade. "I've never worked inside a truck so I don't want to get too ambitious," he says of the French delicacies he will prepare. That's not a permanent change of venue, of course. Giraud is one of five well-known Southern California chefs who will be participating in a promotion in advance of dineLA's first fall Restaurant Week, which will begin Oct. 4. But while Giraud may not be ambitious, that's certainly not the case with dineLA, which hit on the canny idea of tapping into the food truck fad that has taken the city's popular imagination by storm.

I ate my share of lobsters while spending summers in Rhode Island. My family still talks about the 10-pounder we bought from a shop in Galilee. We spent an hour scouring the neighborhood looking for someone who owned a pot big enough to cook it. Lobster is still one of my favorite foods of summer - that's when it is the cheapest, when they move closer to shore and the fishing conditions are better. A good lobster is something to be relished, eaten with your hands, the buttery juices wiped from your chin and licked from your fingers.

Margaritas made with volcanic ash. Braised oysters with chipotle bearnaise. Foie gras with habanero-spiked guava. There's a revolution afoot in this city's restaurants. The eyebrow reflexively shoots up. The first thought is globalization, that creeping sameness that threatens cultural individuality when tradition fades in favor of pop sensibilities.

I promise you this isn't a story about dog treats. If you've been dining out at some of L.A.'s hippest chef-driven restaurants lately, you might have noticed a recurring ingredient on the menu. Pig ears. You heard me, pig ears. Recently, at the L.A. Times Taste event, I decided to serve a pig ear terrine dish from my restaurant Lukshon. Cold, thinly sliced pig ears marinated in black vinegar, Sichuan spices and white sesame oil with thin slices of pickled carrots and scallions.

Cecilia Chiang probably doesn't have the name recognition of a lot of chefs and restaurateurs, but the 93-year-old is certainly one of the pioneers of modern California cooking. The long-time owner of the Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco (and, from 1975 to 2007, in Beverly Hills), Chiang was honored last weekend by a culinary who's who at a tribute dinner during the Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival. Among the speakers were chefs Thomas Keller, Gary Danko, Corey Lee and Daniel Boulud.

Cole Dickinson, the chef de cuisine at Michael Voltaggio's soon-to-open West Hollywood restaurant, Ink, got his culinary education the old-fashioned way: in the kitchen. That might sound obvious, but it makes him something of an anomaly as the number of culinary schools multiplies, drawing legions of novice cooks with the promise of turning them into top chefs. Yet the less-touted, less-glamorized path of working one's way up through the restaurant kitchen ranks is starting to sound more appealing.

Our waiter was staring at us in disbelief. Finally, he leaned forward and, ever so politely, asked my husband to repeat himself. Although we had just ordered three appetizers, a soup and two main courses (we did eat every bite), my husband was, indeed, inquiring about where we might go later that evening to try more of Charleston's culinary delicacies. Most tourists are drawn to Charleston for its graceful, grand homes and hauntingly beautiful gardens. But an increasing number are going for the food, as the rich and varied cuisine of the region undergoes a renaissance propelled by an interest in locally grown ingredients and an influx of new chefs.

Ellen Bennett launched an apron company last year not knowing how to sew and not knowing how to run a business. Now she has the world, so to speak, by the strings. "There was just the idea," says the diminutive, consistently buoyant 25-year-old who also works two days a week as a cook at Providence restaurant in Hollywood, "that there could be a better (and better-looking) apron. " Her own first apron had two slightly angled pockets - one for her Moleskine notebook and the other for an orange - and another specifically for her tweezers.

Health experts estimate that as many as a third of us have some level of intolerance to gluten -- a protein found mostly in wheat. And gluten shows up in more than bread and cake -- foods you might not guess, such as sauces and herb mixes. On Thursday, at 11 a.m. Pacific time , we'll talk with Kristine Kidd, who has been gluten free for years and has written a cookbook called "Weeknight Gluten-Free. " She spent two decades as an editor at Bon Appetit magazine. We hope you will join us live, or if you can't, please listen to the archived conversation.

A word of advice. Never use the phrase "just a burger" with Nancy Silverton. I did and was promptly challenged on every aspect of burger-making, starting with where to buy the meat, what grind, size of patty, how to cook it, what to serve with it, what pickle, what bun, what ketchup, what mayonnaise, what mustard, what cheese, how thick to slice the avocado, what bacon, what smoke on the bacon, what occasion. The co-founder of Campanile restaurant and La Brea Bakery may be famous for more sophisticated food, but to her, the burger is one of the great American dishes, and exactly the thing that she likes to give friends for an end-of-summer barbecue.

Ellen Bennett launched an apron company last year not knowing how to sew and not knowing how to run a business. Now she has the world, so to speak, by the strings. "There was just the idea," says the diminutive, consistently buoyant 25-year-old who also works two days a week as a cook at Providence restaurant in Hollywood, "that there could be a better (and better-looking) apron. " Her own first apron had two slightly angled pockets - one for her Moleskine notebook and the other for an orange - and another specifically for her tweezers.

The neighborhood on the eastern edge of downtown's Arts District, already home to Church & State, Bestia and Bread Lounge, is attracting another restaurant newcomer. Come late summer, the hospitality group behind the Churchill, the Hudson and Clover will open a new restaurant at 7th and Santa Fe in the building that once was a loading dock for food company Heinz. The group Cardiff Giant says it has tapped David Nayfeld, former senior sous chef at Eleven Madison Park in New York, as executive chef of the yet-to-be-named restaurant.  A representative for the restaurant says that, like the name, no details about the concept or menu are available yet. But to introduce himself to Los Angeles, Nayfeld, who hasn't cooked here before, will take part in a collaborative dinner with chef Michael Voltaggio of Ink restaurant on June 4. The six-course dinner will include three courses from each chef, showcasing their respective culinary styles, and is touted as a glimpse into what Nayfeld will be doing at the downtown restaurant.

When it comes to dreaming about a perfect Mother's Day, Los Angeles' top chefs turn out to be just like working moms everywhere -- sleep and perfectly behaved children are at the top of the list. Suzanne Goin is chef and owner at Lucques, AOC, Tavern and the Larders at the Tavern and on Burton Way. Married to Hungry Cat chef David Lentz, Goin has three kids - 4 1/2-year-old Charles and 6-year-old twins, Alexandra and Jack. What does she want for Mother's Day? Goin summed it up succinctly by email: “Sleep in, big breakfast, nap, massage, play with kids, dinner with David, sleep (did I mention sleep?

Gordon Ramsay, the temperamental British chef, has been a fixture on Fox since the 2005 debut of "Hell's Kitchen. " Now the network is extending the relationship with Ramsay even further with a multiyear deal that includes a new fifth show to star him, this time with a group of budding child chefs. Will kids be enough to break the gruff Ramsay? As with "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares," the premise of "Junior MasterChef" has been road-tested already in the U.K. and deemed a hit, so it's coming to our shores.

It was "Top Chef" extreme chef edition on Wednesday night's episode. There was a helicopter ride, racing around in the snow, dog-sledding and a baby was born! To start the quick-fire challenge, Sheldon Simeon, Josh Valentine (aka "The Stache") and L.A. girl Brooke Williamson boarded a helicopter en route to a dog sledding training camp. Williamson, who admitted she is afraid of heights and tight spaces, cried during the ride but eventually lightened up once she realized she was in a helicopter ... in Alaska ... on "Top Chef"!

What do some of Southern California's top bowls of ramen - the tsukemen at Tsujita, tonkotsu ramen at Daikokuya and kotteri shoyu ramen at Asa in Gardena - have in common? Their noodles come from the same place: a small factory near the Compton-Gardena line called Sun Noodle. The L.A. branch of a Honolulu-based company launched nine years ago, making just 10 kinds of fresh ramen noodles. Now, in the midst of a global ramen boom, the factory makes 160 kinds, to customers' exacting specifications - 31/2 tons a day, or enough for 30,000 servings, says Vice President Keisuke Sawakawa.

Daniel Rose, the American-born chef of Spring restaurant in Paris, says he doesn't get out much. But in the last week, he taught cooking classes in New York as part of the James Beard award festivities , sat down for an interview with Charlie Rose and cooked dinner at AnQi in Costa Mesa with chef Helene An. It was the first time he'd cooked professionally in California. Six years ago, Rose opened a tiny 16-seat restaurant not far from Montmartre, the first incarnation of Spring.

"Hell's Kitchen" and Chef Gordon Ramsay must have some pretty big secrets to hide -- and Barret knows all about them. That's the only explanation, right? For why Barret gets to stay another week while Amanda, the tuna destroyer, goes home? No one is defending Amanda, mind you. She definitely botched the extra-special dinner service for a smiley 15-year-old's quinceanera -- and then blamed Nedra for many of her culinary woes. But Barret is like a cat with nine lives, and everyone knows that cats don't belong in the kitchen!