In October, LA Street Food Fest co-founder Shawna Dawson gathered dozens of local, sustainable and food-forward vendors for the first Artisanal LA. Last weekend, she shifted from the Cooper Design Space on the Cooper Building’s top floor to the DTLA structure’s street level.
Cowles went to school in upstate New York in the ’70s, back when Buffalo wings hit the scene. He was hooked and started experimenting with spices and heat. His Caribbean spice sauce includes nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon, similar to Jerk. Chipotle Garlic is the company’s best seller. He also makes a sauce with the ghost chile, which was the hottest pepper in the world up until last week, when Naga Viper crushed the record by a whopping 300,000 Scoville units.
Business partner John Lesko developed a line of chile-spiked caramel popcorns, including jalapeño, habanero and ghost pepper varieties, with a lingering spice that creeps up on you. They’ve also got a chipotle olive tapenade made with California-grown Kalamata olives, capers, rosemary, garlic and lime juice.
For Artisanal LA, Klemens made persimmon bread, smoked almonds and chewy sheets of smoked cheddar spiked with Anaheim chilies. She also had jars of pickles, including Moroccan preserve Meyer lemon and sweet pickled orange, apparently a traditional Christmas morning offering.
Innamorato got started while living in Barcelona, where she ran an underground supper club by the same name. Now that she’s in Los Angeles, the chef expects to host dinners every two or three months.
Blog Comments
Latoya Bridges
December 22, 2010 at 12:49 AM
All Spice Café hot sauce is the business! My favorite is the habanero. However, I once got into trouble with my girlfriend for making chili with his Ghost chile spice rub and it came out too spicy. Oh well more for me!
Lee
December 16, 2010 at 4:35 PM
All Spice Café hot sauce is the business! My favorite is the habanero. However, I once got into trouble with my girlfriend for making chili with his Ghost chile spice rub and it came out too spicy. Oh well more for me!
Joshua Lurie
December 16, 2010 at 4:50 PM
Lee,
If you can handle their ghost chile spices, more power to you. Glad to hear you like All Spice.
Nick
December 14, 2010 at 5:47 PM
The Chili Meat Pie was even better than the original I think. Great flavor and a steal at $5
Joshua Lurie
December 14, 2010 at 9:46 PM
Nick,
The chili meat pie was better than the original? Sounds like I may have missed out. I liked the Flying Pie Man’s pork belly pie pretty well, but it sounds like you got to taste the grand champion.
Tweets that mention Food GPS » Artisanal LA Rings in the Holidays Downtown -- Topsy.com
December 14, 2010 at 5:37 PM
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jo, julie Wolfson, All Spice Cafe, All Spice Cafe, Daniela Galarza and others. Daniela Galarza said: I read this and I regret (not attending!) http://www.foodgps.com/artisanal-la-rings-in-the-holidays-downtown/ (via @foodgps) […]
Daniela
December 14, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Wish I had gone just for that S’more Pie. Oh, and the Missouri Butter Pie. Oh wait, the Orgasmo de la Boca sounds like it’s worth a taste as well…
Joshua Lurie
December 14, 2010 at 5:33 PM
Daniela,
The Missouri butter pie was pretty awesome, and with a name like Orgasmo de la Boca, it’s impossible not to try a sample, at least. TOTALLY different flavors. You probably wouldn’t want to eat them back to back.
Vxronica
December 14, 2010 at 5:06 PM
Awesome round-up Josh. Even seeing pics of Creme Caramel and that bacon chutney is making me drool all over again.
Joshua Lurie
December 14, 2010 at 5:27 PM
A drool-worthy post? That’s quite a compliment. Glad you enjoyed the recap, Vxronica. Thanks.