By Leslee Komaiko
For dineLA.com
José Andrés, a native of Asturias, Spain, is well known in Washington D.C., where he has five popular restaurants. But he is new to Los Angeles. That hasn’t stopped him from making a big impression in a short time with his new restaurant, The Bazaar by José Andrés at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills, where diners sip margaritas topped with salt air and move on to dishes like foie gras enrobed in corn nuts. Then there’s cotton candy served from dim sum style carts and more traditional Spanish fare such as tortilla Española. With a trippy, romantic interior by acclaimed designer Philippe Starck, it’s no wonder this is the restaurant people are talking about now.
You have the hottest restaurant in Los Angeles right now. How does that feel?
Who says that? You are very kind. The people who have been with me working on this project over two and a half years, they are very proud and happy.
Did you bring staff from D.C.?
More than 18 came from Washington. I am going to leave some of the cooks inside of the system. Two or three of my best guys will be coming back and forth.
Your bio mentions you “tended paellas” for your family. Were they in the restaurant business?
No. We cooked at home. Cooking in Spain is part of the culture. If you don’t cook you are lacking something very important.
I know you have three daughters. Do you think any of them will follow in your footsteps?
I have a nine, seven and four year old. They cook with me as often as I am home. The seven year old can make pancakes on her own. The four year old can flip pancakes on her own.
What is your impression of LA so far?
I always felt at home in California because of the influence Spain had in the early years. I love LA. For me this bridge between political and Hollywood is going to very unique. I feel very good in LA. My wife loves LA. My kids love it, too. We are not moving to LA, but I am pouring half my life into this restaurant. I think it shows.
Have you found any local restaurants you like?
Loteria is a great homey Mexican place that even the great Diane Kennedy recommended to me. I love to go to Mozza to have a great pizza with the queen of bread making and a great host. Wolfgang Puck has the big name. He’s also such a great guy. And Lee [Hefter, Spago chef]… I feel like it’s a home away from home, besides the food being excellent. Michael Mina is a partner. I’m so happy he opened XIV almost at the same time as me. It’s completely different from what I have been doing. I love Urasawa on the second floor. It can compete with any restaurant in Japan. People may say it’s expensive, but how many times do you see the chef doing every single thing you are eating with his two hands?
It’s a hard time to open a restaurant, with the economy.
It’s a hard time to do anything. The success of my restaurants has always been about charging what is right.
Had you been contemplating coming west or did this offer come out of the blue?
I was looking to do something with a hotel.
How come?
If you take a look at the last 10 years with the Las Vegas phenomenon, many chefs are going to hotels. Why? Usually the hotel pays for the concept. There are good benefits for a creative chef. For me, when Sam [Nazarian] called, at the beginning I was very hesitant. I never partnered with anyone besides my inner group. I was looking for that hotel that will enhance and support the kind of bigger concept I had always dreamed of: multi tapas like a food court. When he called me with Philippe Starck, and they had the same kind of idea, it caught my attention. I said I wish I could do it in D.C., but LA, I never thought about it. When I met Sam and saw his company, I thought man, maybe this is my partner.
What was it like working with Philippe Starck or did he do his thing independently from you?
We spent a lot of good time together. He gives great advice and also listens. He makes you a part of the process.
Most restaurateurs want to open fairly quietly but The Bazaar opened with a lot of fanfare.
We opened very quietly. We opened over two and a half weeks before the party. So I achieved what I wanted. We had three very good weeks of training taking a very small number of reservations. This is very serious to me. I have many family depending on me to deliver a good product. I was doing 50 to 100 people a day. This Saturday we did close to 300.
People are certainly excited about it. I don’t remember so much buzz about a restaurant since, well, I don’t remember when.
Excitement is always good. I want to control the hype. When there’s hype it’s more difficult to meet expectations. I am trying to be very humble. I only feed what I like to eat; what I am serving is what I like to eat. One of most important things was having my wife in Saturday night, looking at me with a beautiful smile and telling me, “Wow. You know José, I didn’t see you for the last three months. You’ve been working hard on this. But that’s good. I’m proud of you.” This for me is what’s worth it. It’s a difficult project, the over hype and over expectation, trying to bring them down.
You really can’t bring them down.
That’s right. You can only work hard on one dish at a time. If we do that, we’ll be fine.
How did the hotel location influence your conception of the project?
I am doing The Bazaar by José Andrés but also taking care of Tres [the three meal a day hotel restaurant], the swimming pool, banquets. I am trying to make sure the entire experience is amazing. The Bazaar is our way to communicate with the outside world. It gives you only so many more possibilities to do bigger things.
So you don’t feel constrained? I think of this very creative chef doing… oatmeal for instance.
There’s also a freedom because there are a lot of not very good oatmeals out there. I am trying to make it right.
And you’re going to be opening more, correct?
Yes, but not next week or next month. I doubt there can be another place like The Bazaar. The Bazaar is very special. It’s like, wow. Even if we open another SLS I don’t see how there can be two Bazaars. Maybe in two years I will tell you something different.
While we have some local chefs who dabble in molecular gastronomy, you’re the first person to bring this to LA in a big way.
Well yeah. If you ask Ferran Adria, he will say that I was the first to bring it to America. I was doing it in Café Atlantico so many years ago at a lower scale. But I don’t believe I do molecular gastronomy. We don’t call it that way.
What do you call it?
We call it Spanish avant garde. The press and bloggers call it molecular gastronomy.
The Bazaar by José Andrés at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills, 465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angles, 310.246.5555
Unmistakably Andrés
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Chef José Andrés, The Bazaar by José Andrés at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
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