Independence Day may be long gone, but don't put the grill away quite yet. July is National Grilling Month and when the weather is this good, there's no reason to heat up the house with your energy-sucking oven. If the summer's got you feeling lazy and you don't want to stand over the BBQ in the heat, here are a few grilling events worth checking out. more ›

The 7th season of Bravo's Top Chef will give viewers two opportunities to root for the home team thanks to the casting of two Los Angeles-based chefs who will be going knife-to-knife with their fellow hopefuls for the accolade. more ›

One sure fire way to make a Happy Hour even happier is to make the beer free, right? Of course, offers like these are often too good to be true, but an event next week at Ford's Filling Station might just be too good to pass up. Chef Ben Ford and his Culver City restaurant are hosting the first Taste of the Nation LA (TOTNLA) Happy Hour Ticket Sale Event, during which time anyone who buys their ticket to June's big TOTNLA event gets bought a beer by Chef Ford himself. more ›

At a Zocalo food panel focused on defining Los Angeles' cuisine moderated by the Pulitzer Prize winning Jonathan Gold last year, there was no specific dish or item that could be defined as owned by this city. Tacos, burritos, sea food, sushi were all brought up (mind you, this was before Kogi BBQ and the mobile food truck culture ever existed, so much changes in less than a year, right?), but none felt like the quintessential L.A. food. But one consistent theme was apparent with Gold and others: a chef's long-term relationship with farmers and farmer's markets. In other words, what L.A. should be known for is not one specific food or dish, but the locally grown and sustainable food trend, the panel seemed to agree. more ›

Ben Ford, head chef and owner of Culver City’s Ford’s Filling Station speaks of the farmer’s market and its farmers with great reverence. Chef Ford grew up with his hands in the soil, gardening from a very young age so his respect for the food grown by the farmers comes naturally. more ›

Late night radio isn't typically where you'll find an energetic sportstalker -- much less one who would easily reference Brett Favre's retirement to the ‘80s movie “Can’t Buy Me Love.” ESPN radio host Jason Smith does that five nights a week (Sunday through Thursday.) Heard locally on 710AM, from 10:00 at night to 2:00, All Night with Jason Smith is high quality radio at an hour where most station's broadcast as though their audience is half-dead. more ›

Is food better when the progeny of a celebrity makes it? Nah, not likely (although if you're Chef Ben Ford, son of Harrison, being cute might help). But good food can be had at Culver City's Ford's Filling Station, as discovered recently by LAist Featured Photos' and foodblogger oranges are not the only fruit who went for a celebratory meal recently at the eatery. more ›

As much as we like to give love to LA's many veg-heads, once in a while, you've got to give equal billing to good old meat. "Snout to tail" cuisine, which encourages the use of every single little bit of the animal, has long been a way for us omnivores to practice a more ethical approach to meat-eating. Now you can enjoy a four-course "Head to Tail" menu, along with a lecture on the practice, at Ford’s Filling Station next Monday night. Leading the lecture will be none other than chef/owner Ben Ford himself, alongside star chefs Neal Fraser (Grace, bld) and Nate Appleman (from San Francisco’s A16). So what does the head-to-tail philosophy espouse?

By using all parts of the animal or vegetable, from cutlet to cockscomb, diners will not only experience new tastes and textures, they will meditate upon the art of butchery and the environmental impact of modern factory farms. “Considering the recent beef recall and the growing demand for locally produced, artisan food products, I felt like creating a Head to Tail event would be a great jumping-off point for a discussion about the factory farming techniques of today compared to how our forefathers farmed and ate,” said Ford. “I feel that it is disingenuous not to use the whole beast and there are a growing number of chefs who feel the same way. Nate and Neal are both supremely talented chefs and we had a great time creating this menu together.”

It was an inauspicious start for L.A.'s first Restaurant Week: when first we arrived at Ford's Filling Station for lunch (the first stop on our two-week tour of the event's featured restaurants), the rain was falling, the wind was blowing, and tables were not being filled. But thanks to a brief respite from the storm, and to a hearty, delicious prix-fixe menu, the day redeemed itself. more ›