a lot more structured. We have power in numbers and never struggle for staff and it’s very organised in the sense that money is spent where it is needed. The biggest difference, of course, lies in the labour laws. In England it was all about the long hours - as a young chef you had to work 16-hour days and that really drilled into me the importance of getting your job done before you go home. In the USA with the eight-hour labour laws, it’s different. Half the jobs take eight hours to do and you might be in the middle of teaching a young chef something and then his shift is up and he has to go home, which can be tough.
LA is known around the world for its great weather, which also means that there is phenomenal fresh produce here. But are there any ingredients from the UK that you miss?
The strawberries here don’t compare. I still love English strawberries - they’re the best! Things here are pretty much available all year round and I can get strawberries even in December. In England having that wait and anticipation for the season to start around Wimbledon is what makes it so special. That’s the only thing I really miss here: if LA could be perfect it would be seasonal.
LA’s food scene has, until recently, not had a particularly great reputation but there seems to have been a real transformation. What do you most love about the industry here?
The food culture in LA has exploded, which I am extremely relieved about. When I moved here five years ago, I looked at it thinking: “Wow, there’s nothing here!” But it’s changed so much. There’s competition now, which is great. It’s friendly competition and I love that there are more and more chefs coming in and we all share the same passion. The scene in LA is very casual, it’s refined food in a relaxed setting. To me that’s amazing because it breaks the boundaries and people aren’t intimated to come through the doors. The other side of it is that without all the frills the costs are reduced so you can really concentrate on the quality of the food and service.
Where do you like to eat?
I really love the ethnic restaurants here in LA. They seem so much more authentic than in other cities and I love going down to the Vietnamese places in Alhambra or San Gabriel or to Little Ethiopia or Little Tokyo on my days off. The one restaurant I love because it reminds me of England is Mélisse in Santa Monica. Josiah Citrin does everything classically in the way that I was taught in England.
How easy would it be for a UK chef to come and work here at Bouchon Beverly Hills?
They’ve got to have the willpower to do it. If they really want it and show commitment, passion and determination then we’ll go for them, absolutely. But it takes a commitment on their part because it’s a commitment on our part. I made the commitment of coming to New York and working for free for five weeks to get the job. If we take the risk of employing someone from overseas and getting them a visa, they need to be a part of our team and commit to learning our culture.
Kerstin Kühn is a freelance food and travel writer, specialising in restaurant and chef stories. The former restaurant editor of
Caterer and Hotelkeeper, she relocated from London to Los Angeles last summer, where she lives with her husband and two cats. With a vast network of chefs from around the world, Kerstin has profiled the likes of Michel Roux, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, the Roca brothers and Massimo Bottura. She has been a contributor to publications including
FOUR Magazine, the
Evening Standard Food and Travel Magazine,
M&C Report,
Design Week,
Frame Magazine and
City and
Canary Wharf Magazines and also writes her own blog,
La Goulue. You can follow Kerstin on Twitter
@LaGoulue_
