Cool Hunting

by Julie Wolfson

Dreaming up chicken liver mousses and pairing foie gras with maple syrup, talented chef Ludovic Lefebvre's summer pop-up restaurant LudoBite makes other food taste boring in comparison. The graphic sign, an angry rooster sporting a heart tattoo and wielding a large knife, lets diners know they have found the right Los Angeles locale.

Ludo aims to both challenge and please his customers, coming up with creative and unusual dishes that still delight. The menu features ingredients prepared with innovation and flare, but with attention to subtlty and taste. His cold Chorizo Cantaloupe Cornichon soup (pictured above) features a chorizo base with cubes of cantaloupe and cornichon ice, garnished with orange flowers. Somehow, he makes the combination of spice, sweet, and salt work. A focus on fresh and local ingredients caters less to current trends than it does to the time-tested tradition of seasonal French cuisine; as Ludo reminds, French chefs cook seasonally all the time.

Ludo's own experience includes a stint as the executive chef at L'Orangerie and Bastide, as well as a recent spot on an episode of Top Chef Masters. In the episode, faced with making street food from pig's ears, he made quesadillas. Not only does the show highlight his creativity, but in his accompanying home video highlights his joy in the kitchen, intensity at the gym working out and a big smile during a volleyball lesson.

This summer Ludo's focusing his devotion to his food at Ludobites, housed it in the casual, modern atmosphere of Silverlake's BreadBar. Prices range from $10-28. with opening hours on Tuesday-Saturday evenings. Visit OpenTable to make reservations.

LudoBites
Through 22 August 2009
BreadBar
8718 West Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 94008 map