Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [36]
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COOKING COURSES
If the proliferation of cooking shows on TV, fancy kitchen supply stores and gourmet food emporia is any indication, cooking at home is, well, hot. Immerse yourself in the local foodie scene and bring your SoCal trip back to your table at home by checking out any or all of these culinary schools.
California Sushi Academy (Map; 310-559-0777; www.sushi-academy.com; 2835 S Robertson Blvd, Mid-City, Los Angeles) You can study to be a professional sushi chef here, but most people just come for the 2½-hour basic seminars offered Saturdays for $80.
Chefmakers Cooking Academy (Map; 310-545-9111; www.chefmakers.com; 451 Manhattan Beach Blvd, Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles) In addition to more standard offerings, Chefmakers invites local celebrity chefs like Joe Miller of Joe’s in Venice to teach classes ($125).
New School of Cooking (Map; 310-842-9702; www.newschoolofcooking.com; 8690 Washington Blvd, Culver City, Los Angeles) Seasoned instructors run multiweek courses or single-session three-hour classes ($75 to $95) built around a theme, technique, ingredient or dish (eg summer pies, wok, fish, paella).
Laguna Culinary Arts (Map; 949-494-4006; www.lagunaculinaryarts.com; 845 Laguna Canyon Rd, Laguna Beach, Orange County) Besides comprehensive home and professional chef courses, this outfit also offers three- and four-hour classes ($75 to $95) in which you learn how to prepare a particular specialty or full meal.
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In Spanglish (2004), Adam Sandler plays a chef in a top LA restaurant, who learns a thing or two about life from Flor, the family maid, played by Paz Vega. Top chef Thomas Keller, of the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, consulted on the food scenes.
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Environment
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THE LAND
WILDLIFE
NATIONAL PARKS
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
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THE LAND
When Cecil B DeMille and DW Griffith started making movies back in the early 20th century, they didn’t set up their cameras in New York, Chicago or San Francisco. They came to Los Angeles. Why? The land, of course. Southern California packs more landscapes into its relatively small frame than most countries. The Santa Monica Mountains have stood in for Korea, Batman parked his car in Griffith Park’s Bronson Caves and the Paramount Ranch has been passed off as the Indonesian island of Java.
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Los Angeles lies at the same latitude as Atlanta, Georgia; Beirut, Lebanon; and Osaka, Japan.
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For visitors, this is a pretty exciting prospect. It’s no myth that you could greet the sunrise while surfing in Malibu, spend the afternoon skiing in Big Bear, then have dinner alfresco in Palm Springs (though nobody really does). With 250 miles of coastline, three peaks soaring over 10,000ft, fertile valleys where fine wines grow, pine forests, sand dunes, parched canyons and wildflower-draped hillsides, nature has been as creative in SoCal as Picasso in his prime.
We all know Southern California ends at the Mexican border, but ask 10 people where it starts and you’ll get 10 different answers. Geographically speaking, though, it’s pretty obvious. Looking at a map, you’ll see a chain of east–west-trending mountains (no more than 5000ft high) just north of Santa Barbara, which divides the state in two. These are the so-called Transverse Ranges and include the lovely Santa Ynez Mountains.
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If you look at a map of the California coast, you can see the outline of a man’s profile just north of Santa Barbara. Republicans call it Ronald Reagan; Democrats, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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South of here is the vast Los Angeles Basin, wedged between the Pacific and a bunch of north–south-running mountains that extend past San Diego into Mexico. On the other side of these mountains is the desert, well, two deserts to be precise. First