Newsletter: Noma Mexico, and Massimo Bottura cleans out our fridge

Welcome to your weekend, and to the end of the first week of May — and thus our month-long food festival. Hopefully you’ve found something to eat among all the panel discussions, public events and pop-up dinners. If not, you’ve got the rest of the month to explore local restaurants and farmers markets. Speaking of: Cherries have hit the stands, as well as mulberries and the season’s first stone fruit, if you can believe that.

And this week, Jonathan Gold goes a bit farther afield — to Tulum, Mexico, where he visits Noma Mexico. If you can’t make it to Quintana Roo, Noma Mexico co-chef Rosio Sanchez will be in town next week, to make tacos with Sqirl’s Jessica Koslow as part of Food Bowl. Massimo Bottura has been in L.A. too, and he dropped by the Test Kitchen — to clean out our fridge, of all things. In a similar vein, chef Michael Cimarusti tells us how he uses all of the fish that come through his restaurant kitchen, including the fins and bones. We also visit Helen Johannesen’s wine project, and give you a list of restaurants doing pretty great Mother’s Day brunch. Yes: It’s that time already.

— Amy Scattergood

Noma in the sand

What happens when the best chef in the world does a pop-up in Mexico? This week, Jonathan considers Noma Mexico, chef René Redzepi’s temporary restaurant in Tulum. Oysters wrapped in chaya leaves, grilled avocados with ant paste, and suckling pig tacos. “Was the meal a sort of graduate-level introduction to the culinary opportunities of Mexico’s south? In a way.”

Massimo Bottura on food waste

Chef and Food for Soul founder Massimo Bottura visits the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen to discuss food waste and tips for using leftover ingredients.

(Christina House / For The Times)

The Italian chef and owner of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, has been in town for Food Bowl this last week. So we asked him to come by our Test Kitchen — and clean out our fridge. Bottura gave tips on what to do with less-than-stellar produce, among other things, and talked about his soup kitchen projects, as well as what we can all do — the best chefs in the world as well as the rest of us — to cut down on global food waste.

Michael Cimarusti on deconstructing your fish

Providence chef Michael Cimarusti cooks Columbia River king salmon fillet over a Japanese charcoal grill.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Cimarusti knows what to do with a fish: His restaurant Providence is the best seafood restaurant in town, his take on an East Coast crab shack, Connie and Ted’s, is an ode to more casual seafood, and he’s got a seafood shop that’s a sustainability object lesson. This week Test Kitchen director Noelle Carter goes into Providence’s kitchen, where the chef tells her, and thus the rest of us, how he uses every part of those fish.

Helen Johannesen’s wine room

Helen Johannesen, third from left, in her wine shop, Helen’s Wines, with Molly Kelley, Bethany Kocak and Heather Newman.

(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Wine writer Patrick Comiskey talks to Helen Johannesen about her tiny wine room, Helen’s Wines, in the middle of Jon & Vinny’s restaurant. It’s a giant wine box, really, and the center of Johannesen’s wine program — which she runs with three other women and which pours into the restaurant empire from Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo and Ludo Lefebvre.

Mother’s Day brunch

Mother’s Day is next Sunday, May 14. If you haven’t made plans for your mother (!!), we’re here to help. Food deputy editor Jenn Harris has a list of restaurants serving special brunch menus. Croque Madame and sourdough waffles; caviar and carving tables; butter lobster ramen and okonomiyaki burgers; so many bottomless mimosas.

The Los Angeles Times Food Bowl: Want to spend all of May exploring the food of this city, through a Night Market, forums, dinners, films, pop-ups and more dining and drinking? Our month-long food festival is here. Check out our live blog, which includes up-to-date daily events.

The Daily Meal, the food and drink website under the editorial direction of Colman Andrews, is now one of our partners. Check out its 101 best pizzas in America and other stories, recipes and videos.

Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers and now features his 2016 Best Restaurants. If you didn’t get a copy of the booklet, you can order one online here.

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