Walter Manzke
By Leslee Komaiko
For dineLA.com
During Walter Manzke’s tenure at Church & State Downtown, the restaurant became a local’s favorite. It also became a favorite with local chefs. This, even more than a critic’s stars, is perhaps the ultimate compliment. Chefs after all, know food better than anyone else. And they aren’t easily swayed by the niceties and fluff a typical restaurant goer might factor into their experience. Though Manzke had also done stints as the chef at Patina and Bastide, it was at Church & State that Angelenos seemed to realize their good fortune in having the guy here. Then, seemingly as soon as he arrived in the Church & State kitchen, Manzke was gone. Where to? Working on opening his own place of course.
What have you been up to?
I’m doing this catering party on Saturday so I’ve been running around.
Have you been doing a lot of catering lately?
Not a lot, but all kinds of different things. I did the Star Chefs Awards. I cooked for that and won an award. This private dinner is for some customers of Church & State and Bastide.
Is it weird to do these things without a restaurant roof?
It certainly makes it challenging: finding a place to prep all the stuff. You have to get a staff together.
You’re a local boy yes?
I’m from San Diego. LA has been an interesting place for me. I don’t know that I’ve ever considered it home. I kept coming back because everything worked. But we just bought a house here so maybe I consider it my home. I guess I can say I really like it now.
Did your family go to restaurants when you were a kid?
We did not go to restaurants a lot but I always ate pretty well. I’m not saying we were eating lobster and caviar at home on a regular basis. I grew up in a family that had a lot of respect for food. We always sat down together for dinner. My mom grew her own vegetables and baked her own bread. She’s from Germany. She grew up in the old world. To her that’s what you did: if you wanted bread you baked it. I’m sure that had an impact. I never ate too much McDonald’s.
Do you eat any junk now? Any guilty pleasures?
I don’t really like anything that’s processed. I can taste the flavor of corn syrup and I don’t like it at all. I eat In-N-Out burgers once in a while.
When did you start thinking cooking was something you might want to do professionally?
I never had a dream of being a chef. I started in the dining room in high school.
Bussing tables?
Yeah. And I was a waiter. But it wasn’t like I was a waiter at a place like Melisse.
Was it a half decent place?
It was alright. I did well at it and I always thrive off the energy of a restaurant. I think that’s what drew me to restaurants.
Did you ever flirt with other careers?
I thought of doing something like design or architecture which would probably make more sense. My father was an engineer. My brother was an engineer. I’m sure I could do well at designing restaurant kitchens. I’ve done a few of them and they’ve come out pretty good.
You have worked with some wonderful people in your career.
I have been very lucky to work with the people I have. I encourage everyone that I work with to really take advantage of working with the best people. I think me going to Europe was the best decision I ever made. It had the biggest impact on my career. I spent a little time with Ferran Adria at El Bulli. Joachim [Splichal] arranged that. I was only there for three weeks. I went back and worked with Alain Ducasse in Paris in 2000. I’ve tried so many times since then to eat at El Bulli and never could get a reservation. I finally got a reservation this September. I’m pretty excited to go back. They announced they are closing right after so I have one of the last reservations. Also, every chance I have, which I am sure I’ll do again in the next couple months, is work a stage somewhere.
You’ll do one in LA?
One place I know I want to work in LA is with Warren Schwartz at Westide Tavern. I’ve never worked in a place that does volume like that and I’m intrigued by how that works.
Are you hoping to do that sort of volume at your place?
No. But I think if you understand how to do 800 covers, it should make doing 200 covers easier. I would certainly do more covers than Bastide. I think 100 or 120 seats is really good. A 50 seat restaurant like Bastide is really difficult because of the lack of revenue. You can’t afford to get the right people working with you. I think doing something as big as Westside Tavern goes the other way. It’s hard to keep focused on the little things like the quality of the food. Not that the food is bad there.
Why did you leave Church & State, especially given the tremendous acclaim and attention you were garnering there?
A goal I had to focus on this year was opening my own place. Obviously, the economy slowed us down like it did to everybody. It was a tough decision. I just feel like we were getting busier and busier there. It takes everything out of you. If I am going to do something myself, it’s not going to happen if I’m there [at Church & State] 12 to 14 hours a day.
I must say I had a good feeling about that going into it. I like the building. That’s really what I like: those rustic junky buildings. You don’t judge the food and the restaurant on the $900 chairs. Everything is about food, wine and service. I like being in a place that’s a destination. I think that’s always worked.
I was also faced with: I went to several interviews and I got consistent answers. The economy was at its worse and everybody was telling me, “You’re a fine dining chef and fine dining is dead and we need someone who can do casual and we don’t think you can do it.” I don’t like to be told I can’t do something so part of it was proving I can do the simplest, most rustic French bistro.
Did you enjoy focusing on that cuisine?
It was a little restricting on the creative end. I like food that’s a little lighter, stronger flavors for sure. Other than that, I love Church & State. I think that’s the kind of vibe and dining room that fits me more so than a Bastide place where you go once on your anniversary: kind of a bunch of boring dates. Bastide was the worst and Church & State was the best clientele. Maybe because of the location, you have to want to be there to be there, on any given night we had a great mix of young and old. There were lots of Japanese people because we were next to Little Tokyo, lots of everybody and more restaurant people than any place I’ve ever been.
Why so many restaurant people do you figure?
Wolfgang Puck taught everyone an open kitchen is great. The kitchen is right in front of the dining room and what you see is what you get. I tried to say hello to everyone I knew, but my first priority was cooking the food. Every time I had a break between plating something, I would run to the dining room or just wave. Everyone wanted to walk into the restaurant and see that the chef is in the kitchen. I think that fits the times too. It follows a time when everything was fake and blew up, from the restaurant market to the real estate market. The restaurants having a hard time are those built on image rather than someone passionate in the kitchen. When you look around LA, the busiest places have one thing in common: normally they’re unpretentious places and they have a chef in the kitchen: Osteria Angelini, Gjelina, Mozza. I never talked to Nancy Silverton about it, but I am willing to bet a lot of people who go to Mozza go because they see Nancy Silverton every day behind the counter cooking. It’s real and it’s assuring.
Tell me about the process of finding your own place.
I haven’t signed any papers. I have something I am working on. I am very hopeful.
How do you find a space? Word of mouth?
A lot of that. And I am working with a real estate broker who showed me spaces. You look at 25 spaces before you see one good one. There’s a lot of bad stuff out there, at least for I what want to do.
I assume it’s a half decent time to be looking.
Good and bad. Certainly there are probably less people out there looking and there are a lot places struggling. But you also have to pay for it and that is much more difficult.
Do you have a long list of criteria?
I don’t have to pay a lot of money for rent to be right in the middle of the busiest street. I would rather be a little bit of destination place.
Almost every restaurant that has become my favorite anywhere in the world has passion and great food but is more or less in a dumpy place or feels very unpretentious. If I have to pick my favorite restaurant in LA it would be Pizzeria Mozza. I’m always very well taken care of. I always get a good glass of wine. The food is always great. I can go there any time of day. I can go there without a plan. It has nothing to do with design and décor there. It’s kind of simple.
Is there a negative to being in a popular location?
I think you’re better off putting money into the quality of food than rent. I don’t think I would be busier if I were right in the center of Beverly Hills or somewhere on the outskirts of Hollywood. Part of me thinks if you have to work for your clientele, you get a better clientele.
When will we see your restaurant?
Most likely at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.
Here’s a hypothetical. You can eat anywhere in the world tonight. Where do you want to go?
There’s one restaurant I have to go to sometime. It’s called Etxebarri and it’s outside of Bilbao. It’s not an extremely famous place. But everybody I do know who has been there says it is the most amazing meal they have had in their life. It’s in an old house and they cook everything on a wood fire.
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