Michael Cimarusti

Especially at this time of year, when relatives roll into town eager to live it up. It's fun to introduce them to L.A.'s ethnic dining scene, chase food trucks around town and stop in at the latest cutting-edge venues. But at some point, they may want to indulge in a celebratory holiday meal at one of L.A.'s fine-dining establishments. Here's your crib list: Hatfield's. Quinn and Karen Hatfield have created a new wave fine-dining restaurant in the old Citrus space on Melrose Avenue, a block from Osteria Mozza.

In our latest Master Class, Michael Cimarusti shares the basics of great clam chowder: "While testing recipes a few weeks ago, something strange happened. A deep whiff of the Manhattan-style clam chowder I had just made transported me for a brief moment to my grandmother Josephine Cimarusti's kitchen in Lindenhurst, Long Island . A white-and-green striped sugar bowl with a stainless, hinged, flip-top lid sat on the kitchen table; the scent of clam cakes and chowder filled the air. Perhaps you can relate.

In our latest Master Class, Michael Cimarusti shares the basics of great clam chowder: "While testing recipes a few weeks ago, something strange happened. A deep whiff of the Manhattan-style clam chowder I had just made transported me for a brief moment to my grandmother Josephine Cimarusti's kitchen in Lindenhurst, Long Island . A white-and-green striped sugar bowl with a stainless, hinged, flip-top lid sat on the kitchen table; the scent of clam cakes and chowder filled the air. Perhaps you can relate.

While testing recipes a few weeks ago, something strange happened. A deep whiff of the Manhattan-style clam chowder I had just made transported me for a brief moment to my grandmother Josephine Cimarusti's kitchen in Lindenhurst, Long Island. A white-and-green striped sugar bowl with a stainless, hinged, flip-top lid sat on the kitchen table; the scent of clam cakes and chowder filled the air. Perhaps you can relate. We all have foods that we 're nostalgic about. For me, chowder is one of them.

THERE'S more to a menu than meets the eye. A carefully designed one, such as this dinner menu from Providence, chef Michael Cimarusti's high-end seafood palace on Melrose Avenue, conveys as much about food fashion, the L.A. dining scene and even the diners themselves as it does about the food. -- Laurie Winer CIRCLE GAME: To suggest an aesthetic direction for Providence, which opened last June, designers Satoko Furuta and Stacey McCombs produced a 64-page book of photos, drawings and word play, all reflecting images of the sea. This they boiled down into the restaurant's logo.

Valentine's Day is one of the biggest restaurant evenings of the year. Here are some places that are offering special menus and deals. Alegria: Long Beach's Alegria combines a four-course dinner for $65 and live flamenco dancers. Offered from February 10 to 14, the pan-Latin menu includes chicken mole, Spanish paella and Brazilian rotisserie chicken. 115 North Pine Ave., Long Beach; (562) 436-3388; http://www.alegriacocinalatina.com Campanile : A five-course prix-fixe menu Feb. 13 and 14. For $75, the dinner includes dishes like baked oysters with creamed spinach, grilled prime rib with a black olive tapenade and a chocolate truffle cake with Armagnac ice cream for dessert.

What's a week or two more to get things just right for a restaurant opening? A little delay is par for the course. But lately, a number of high-profile Los Angeles area restaurants-to-be seem to be stuck in some kind of quicksand. Since last year, the food world has been buzzing about the imminent openings of ex-Water Grill chef Michael Cimarusti's new restaurant, a new Thomas Schoos-designed spot on the Westside, a Dodd Mitchell-designed steakhouse in Beverly Hills and several more.

Whenever my friend Roberta comes to town, we try to have lunch at Providence on a Friday. That's the only day the Michelin two-star restaurant is open for lunch, in fact. Lunch has a different character than dinner. You tend to talk about different things, maybe because you're more alert at 1 p.m. than at 9. Restaurants are usually less crowded then, so it's quieter. I have a sneaking suspicion that chefs enjoy lunch too, because of that more leisurely pace. I'm not talking about grabbing a sandwich, I mean a meal at a good restaurant.

AFTER months of anticipation and weeks of gossip, Michelin issued its first ratings of New York City restaurants Tuesday, and the results were mostly safe, with a few surprises. Four restaurants -- Alain Ducasse, Le Bernardin, Jean Georges and Per Se -- were awarded three stars, the top honor, while four received two: Bouley, Daniel, Danube and Masa. Thirty-one others were deemed worthy of one star, including two off the island of Manhattan, in Brooklyn.

* The chef at the downtown seafood restaurant Water Grill also worked at the original Spago. Old Spoons and Wacky Spatulas: Many times, my family and I have gone to the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena, which is the second Sunday of every month. We've gotten all sorts of things there. I've picked up some old albums and we'll find things for our kitchen. Being a chef, I collect funky little utensils like automatic spatulas that flip things over by pressing them or old spoons or knives.

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.¿ - Isak Dinesen Salt is the one ingredient that every person has in his or her cupboard. If you are like me, you might have several varieties from various far-flung sources. I've got smoked salt, mined salt, salt from the peaks of the Himalayas and salt derived directly from the sea, including my three favorites, fleur de sel , Maldon salt and sel gris . One of salt's most miraculous attributes is its ability to preserve foods.

Whenever my friend Roberta comes to town, we try to have lunch at Providence on a Friday. That's the only day the Michelin two-star restaurant is open for lunch, in fact. Lunch has a different character than dinner. You tend to talk about different things, maybe because you're more alert at 1 p.m. than at 9. Restaurants are usually less crowded then, so it's quieter. I have a sneaking suspicion that chefs enjoy lunch too, because of that more leisurely pace. I'm not talking about grabbing a sandwich, I mean a meal at a good restaurant.

Especially at this time of year, when relatives roll into town eager to live it up. It's fun to introduce them to L.A.'s ethnic dining scene, chase food trucks around town and stop in at the latest cutting-edge venues. But at some point, they may want to indulge in a celebratory holiday meal at one of L.A.'s fine-dining establishments. Here's your crib list: Hatfield's. Quinn and Karen Hatfield have created a new wave fine-dining restaurant in the old Citrus space on Melrose Avenue, a block from Osteria Mozza.

Valentine's Day is one of the biggest restaurant evenings of the year. Here are some places that are offering special menus and deals. Alegria: Long Beach's Alegria combines a four-course dinner for $65 and live flamenco dancers. Offered from February 10 to 14, the pan-Latin menu includes chicken mole, Spanish paella and Brazilian rotisserie chicken. 115 North Pine Ave., Long Beach; (562) 436-3388; http://www.alegriacocinalatina.com Campanile : A five-course prix-fixe menu Feb. 13 and 14. For $75, the dinner includes dishes like baked oysters with creamed spinach, grilled prime rib with a black olive tapenade and a chocolate truffle cake with Armagnac ice cream for dessert.

"Take one," the waiter says, proffering a vase sprouting savory lollipops. Each stick holds a round of squid sitting on a cube of dark red chorizo. "Eat them in one bite, so you get both tastes at once," comes the further instruction. I do. The sweet meaty squid and the spicy paprika-streaked chorizo are terrific together. These savory lollies are the opening flourish in a beautifully paced tasting menu at Providence , the Los Angeles seafood restaurant that celebrates its fifth anniversary this year.

WHEN most of us think about going out to a great restaurant for a meal, we're usually thinking dinner, not lunch. I would, however, like to tout the pleasures of a leisurely lunch at Providence. For most of us, spending a couple of hours over lunch can be only a very occasional indulgence. It feels like playing hooky -- and it is, in a way. It's time spent outside the pressures of the everyday. You're more alert and relaxed than at dinner.

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.¿ - Isak Dinesen Salt is the one ingredient that every person has in his or her cupboard. If you are like me, you might have several varieties from various far-flung sources. I've got smoked salt, mined salt, salt from the peaks of the Himalayas and salt derived directly from the sea, including my three favorites, fleur de sel , Maldon salt and sel gris . One of salt's most miraculous attributes is its ability to preserve foods.

While testing recipes a few weeks ago, something strange happened. A deep whiff of the Manhattan-style clam chowder I had just made transported me for a brief moment to my grandmother Josephine Cimarusti's kitchen in Lindenhurst, Long Island. A white-and-green striped sugar bowl with a stainless, hinged, flip-top lid sat on the kitchen table; the scent of clam cakes and chowder filled the air. Perhaps you can relate. We all have foods that we 're nostalgic about. For me, chowder is one of them.

THERE'S more to a menu than meets the eye. A carefully designed one, such as this dinner menu from Providence, chef Michael Cimarusti's high-end seafood palace on Melrose Avenue, conveys as much about food fashion, the L.A. dining scene and even the diners themselves as it does about the food. -- Laurie Winer CIRCLE GAME: To suggest an aesthetic direction for Providence, which opened last June, designers Satoko Furuta and Stacey McCombs produced a 64-page book of photos, drawings and word play, all reflecting images of the sea. This they boiled down into the restaurant's logo.

AFTER months of anticipation and weeks of gossip, Michelin issued its first ratings of New York City restaurants Tuesday, and the results were mostly safe, with a few surprises. Four restaurants -- Alain Ducasse, Le Bernardin, Jean Georges and Per Se -- were awarded three stars, the top honor, while four received two: Bouley, Daniel, Danube and Masa. Thirty-one others were deemed worthy of one star, including two off the island of Manhattan, in Brooklyn.