Volunteer chef Jamie Lauren shows the class of aspiring chefs how to slice an onion the correct way.
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Aaricka Washington
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LAist
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Topline:
The Flavors From Afar restaurant has a new culinary workshop in East Hollywood that helps refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants new to Los Angeles gain skills and employment.
Why it matters: Moving to a new country can be a challenging experience for many refugees, who are often forced to leave their homes due to war, persecution or natural disasters. Some of them have multiple degrees and have left behind successful careers or businesses. In the U.S., they have to start over in entry-level positions because their careers do not transfer.
Why culinary skills? The restaurant industry can seem like an easier segue into a quality life because many immigrants grew up exposed to cooking. “It’s familiar. It's transferable,” says Julie Vautrot, the culinary training program coordinator. “A knife's a knife. Water boils at the same temperature. It doesn't matter what country you're in.”
Why now: The first 8-week course started it May. Another session begins Aug. 6.
The backstory: Founder Meymuna Hussein-Cattan is a former refugee herself from East Africa, and moved to the U.S. in the 1980s with her mother, Owliya Dima. In 2010, she and her mother created the nonprofit organization The Tiyya Foundation (“tiyya” means “my dear” or “my love” in the Oromo language) to help others like her and her mom resettle in L.A. In 2018, she opened Flavors From Afar.
What's next: This summer, Flavors From Afar is hosting a Friday night Global Dinner Series, featuring different cuisines from different chefs each week, many of whom have gone through the training program. The dinners will be held through Aug. 30.
When 44-year-old Montassar Dhaouadi decided to leave his home country of Tunisia to come to Los Angeles with his family three years ago, he started over completely.
“I spent 17 years in the army, then I resigned and came here,” Dhaouadi said. “Now, I drive Uber and I work as a delivery driver with OnTrac.”
But on one bright, scorching hot Tuesday in June, he was working on learning something new: cooking. Dhaouadi spent the day in an East Hollywood kitchen cutting up onions, garlic and shallots with three other people under the guidance of his teacher and chef Jamie Lauren, whom some may know from shows like Top Chef.
“I hope in the future, I will own my own restaurant,” Dhaouadi says.
The eight-week course aims to help refugees and other displaced groups, like asylum seekers, immigrants and even local Indigenous communities develop skills in the kitchen that can help them get work or, one day, own a catering company or restaurant. The program is free with the exception of a food handler certificate, which costs $15.
The aspiring chefs meet twice a week to learn knife skills, pan frying, plating and how to cook cuisines from all over the world. Those dishes are then sold as part of the Flavors From Afar catering menu, with the student chefs making back 5% of what is sold. Every dish they cook is halal because most of the chefs are Muslim.
Montassar Dhaouadi cuts a cucumber while another aspiring chef in class looks at his technique.
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Aaricka Washington
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LAist
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Moving to a new country can be a challenging experience for many refugees, who are often forced to leave their homes due to war, persecution or natural disasters. Some of them have multiple degrees and have left behind successful careers or businesses. Now, in the U.S. they have to start over in entry-level positions because their careers do not transfer.
For example, one of the participants was a bank manager in Ukraine. Now she’s an aspiring chef, says Julie Vautrot, the culinary training program coordinator for the restaurant’s nonprofit funding arm The Tiyya Foundation.
Vautrot serves as a liaison between aspiring chefs and potential employers at times, forging relationships with restaurants looking to hire and handing out her cards at job fairs to let them know about the cooks who have been trained by Flavors From Afar.
The end goal for many of those who go through the program is to eventually run their own businesses. The restaurant industry can seem like an easier segue into a quality life for these newcomers to L.A., Vautrot says, because the skills are universal and many of the participants grew up learning how to cook.
“It’s familiar. It's transferable,” Vautrot says “A knife's a knife. Water boils at the same temperature. It doesn't matter what country you're in.”
Why cooking school?
Flavors From Afar is an example of similar programs across the U.S. — and the world — that help support refugees and other migrants through culinary training. And with L.A. being a top destination for refugee arrivals in recent years, programs like Flavor From Afar’s provide a service.
“Finding employment is definitely a top need, and can sometimes be especially difficult for newcomers to the community — whether they’re facing language barriers or just having difficulty getting back into their careers,” says Carly Boos, the community relations manager for the resettlement agency International Rescue Committee in L.A., adding that programs like this can “remove those barriers to entry that normally face refugees and immigrants.”
From Oct. 1, 2023 through June 30 of this year, California received 4,692 of the 68,291 refugees who came to the U.S. In that same period, L.A.-based resettlement agencies have helped about 1,100 refugees here, according to Martin Zogg, executive director of the IRC in L.A..
Vautrot says when refugees and newly arrived immigrants are first looking for work in L.A. — or, really, in any new city — a kitchen job is usually the first thing that pops into most people’s heads. “It's like, ‘well, what can I do? What kind of job can I have?’ And cooking is something immediate,” adds Vautrot. “They’re sharing their culture, they're doing something that's from home. It's a way to share. It's an opportunity for them to highlight their cuisine.”
The Flavors From Afar program also teaches its students how to get permits and insurance, and find affordable kitchen space. Vautrot says that the last part is often the biggest barrier because you can’t get a permit unless you have a place to cook.
A social enterprise
This story — of the food and the training — begins with Meymuna Hussein-Cattan. She is a former refugee herself from East Africa, and moved to the U.S. in the 1980s with her mother, Owliya Dima. In 2010, she and her mother created the nonprofit organization The Tiyya Foundation (“tiyya” means “my dear” or “my love” in the Oromo language) to help others like her and her mom resettle in L.A. and Orange County. Over the years, she says the group has helped people find entry-level jobs and build up their English-language skills. Tiyaa has also hosted community events like playdates at the park for families that include parenting workshops and donations of diapers, toys and school supplies.
Meymuna Hussein-Cattan founded The Tiyya Foundation with her mother Owliya Dima in 2010. In 2018, she founded the social enterprise Flavors From Afar.
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Meymuna Hussein-Cattan
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Hussein-Cattan started Flavors From Afar as a catering company and social enterprise in 2018. In 2020, it opened as a brick-and-mortar restaurant, receiving a Michelin Bib Gourmand nod two years in a row, until it closed temporarily to move locations. About 40% of the eatery’s profit goes to support The Tiyya Foundation's programs.
The goal for Flavors From Afar’s cooking program was always to help refugees and asylum seekers gain skills, while also sharing global cuisines with L.A. foodies. But only until recently has it been able to bring groups of people through its culinary program (due to the stay-at-home orders early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, she could only work one-on-one with aspiring chefs in the beginning).
“I'm really passionate about the program because growing up in a refugee household, I realized that there are cuisines out there that are at restaurants but don't really represent the food that we eat at home,” Hussein-Cattan says. Through the catering company and opportunities to cook for special dinners hosted by Flavors From Afar, the chefs in training are able to share meals they’ve prepared with the eating public and be compensated for it. “The foodie community out here,” Hussein-Cattan says of L.A. “They love what we're doing, they trust us and they know it's authentic.”
Learning in the kitchen
When class starts, the aspiring chefs stand in their own sections around the kitchen listening to Chef Jamie Lauren explain the plan for the three-hour class.
Today, they are making braised chicken with preserved lemons and olives, Lebanese couscous in the style of tabbouleh, with cucumber, tomato, onion and parsley and braised romano beans.
Before they can get to the cooking part, they have to do “mise en place” which is the chef’s discipline of knowing your recipe, preparing your ingredients, arranging all of your items and preparing your workstation. Lauren first teaches the small group how to hold a chef’s knife and cut ingredients, like onions, that brighten the taste profile. Some of the aspiring chefs need more practice than others.
Then they break down whole halal chickens in 10 pieces — two breasts, two wings, two tenders, two thighs, two drumsticks.
Lauren turns on the large pots to toast spices and sautee the aromatics with the ingredients the group sliced and diced. They start to make the couscous, the beans, the chicken and the stock. The dish is North African inspired, which is where all of the aspiring chefs in this current class are from.
“When I teach you Indian food, it’s going to be similar, but with different spices,” says Lauren.
She has the class try preserved lemons, Moroccan olives and Moomtaz date syrup, before choosing to add them into the pot. Nearly three hours later, the class has prepared a full, savory meal.
Volunteer chef Jamie Lauren and the aspiring chefs made braised chicken with preserved lemons and olives, Lebanese couscous in the style of tabbouleh, with cucumber, tomato, onion and parsley and romano beans.
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In class, Algerian-born immigrant Nawel Hadj-Arab, 36, is scribbling down notes as fast as Lauren is saying them, making sure she gets every single detail.
“While she's talking, she's giving us a waterfall of information,” Hadj-Arab says. “You're learning multiple things about how to cook or even about utensils or anything, so I learned a lot.”
Volunteer professional chef Jamie Lauren teaches Montassar Dhaouadi, Nawel Hadj-Arab and other aspiring chefs how to cook braised chicken, couscous and romano beans.
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Soon after prepping the meal, Hadj-Arab went to the main dining area to take some professional pictures for the chefs’ website.
Hadj-Arab moved to L.A. in 2019 with her now ex-husband and her children. She says she was a victim of domestic violence and is now attempting to start over as a single parent.
“I didn't get a choice to move here in L.A.,” Hadj-Arab says. “I came here with my abuser, my ex-husband. He was working with people here in L.A.”
She thought about returning home to Algeria but after she found herself alone with her two kids, she decided to stay.
“I knew I could succeed,” Hadj-Arab says. “So I'm trying again.”
Her dream is to learn how to cook and become a chef so that she can eventually own a “big restaurant” with various global cuisines — from French to Middle Eastern to American — and that being a part of the Flavors From Afar culinary program has helped her get closer to that.
Aspiring immigrant chef Nawel Hadj-Arab poses for a picture for the Flavors From Afar website.
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“Back in Africa, a woman is very limited in her choices in life, especially if you're divorced or if you're a single mom,” Hadj-Arab says. “There’s no way for you to go as far as you want. That’s why I’m here now because I know I can and I will. It’s helped me to gain confidence.”
Flavors From Afar
Flavors From Afar has now worked with more than 23 chefs from 21 countries, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. This fall, Hussein-Cattan says she plans to open a full restaurant again, and says her goal is to hire the chefs-in-training to work there. “I’m looking forward to working with more chefs over time,” Hussein-Cattan says. “They need to put food on the table and this is a skill that they have and it's just a beautiful exchange for our chefs and foodies in Los Angeles.”
This summer, Flavors From Afar is hosting a Friday night Global Dinner Series, featuring different cuisines from different chefs each week, many of whom have gone through the training program. On the menu are dishes from Guatemala, Sudan, Congo, Ukraine, Zimbabwe and Lebanon. The dinners will be held through Aug. 30. Tickets for the Global Dinner Series are available on Eventbrite. Prices range from $25 for a tasting menu to $250.
The next culinary workshop starts Aug. 6. Find out more here.
The Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights on August 31, 2026.
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Brian Feinzeimer
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The LA Local
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Topline:
Lineage Logistics sued a solar power provider and its contractor Thursday, blaming them for the fire that destroyed its cold storage facility and plagued Boyle Heights and surrounding communities with polluted, foul-smelling air for months.
The lawsuit: The company accuses Altus Power, Inc., Los Palos Street Operating, LLC, and Pearce Services of failing to address faults in the massive solar array installed on the 500,000-square-foot facility’s roof. Lineage is seeking more than $1 billion in damages, alleging negligence and breach of contract caused the fire, forced the warehouse to shut down and led to a cleanup effort that has cost more than $100 million. Los Palos, an Altus subsidiary, disputed Lineage’s claims and said that since the cold storage company was the tenant of the building they were responsible for cleanup and debris removal.
The investigation: The fire remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Fire Department, and its cause has not yet been determined. But because both the June and 2024 fires appear to have started around the facility’s roof, the solar array has been long suspected of playing a role in the blaze.
Lineage Logistics sued a solar power provider and its contractor Thursday, blaming them for the fire that destroyed its cold storage facility and plagued Boyle Heights and surrounding communities with polluted, foul-smelling air for months.
The company accuses Altus Power, Inc., Los Palos Street Operating, LLC, and Pearce Services of failing to address faults in the massive solar array installed on the 500,000-square-foot facility’s roof. Faulty electrical in that array led to a fire in 2024, and the same problems sparked the fire on June 17, Lineage claims in the suit.
“This lawsuit is about Altus and Pearce starting this fire and then being nowhere to be found when the community needed help,” said Greg Lehmkuhl, president & CEO of Lineage, in a prepared statement.
The fire remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Fire Department, and its cause has not yet been determined.
But because both the June and 2024 fires appear to have started around the facility’s roof, the solar array has been long suspected of playing a role in the blaze.
Lineage is seeking more than $1 billion in damages, alleging negligence and breach of contract caused the fire, forced the warehouse to shut down and led to a cleanup effort that has cost more than $100 million.
Los Palos, an Altus subsidiary, disputed Lineage’s claims and said that since the cold storage company was the tenant of the building, they were responsible for cleanup and debris removal.
“Lineage’s statement is riddled with misinformation in a blatant attempt to deflect blame for their role in this matter, including any damage caused by the release of substances from the warehouse, not the solar panel,” a Los Palos spokesperson said by email.
A spokesperson for Pearce also disputed Lineage’s claims and said the company would be fighting the suit in court, adding they have been cooperating with the fire department’s investigation.
“Investigation into the fire’s cause, origin, and reasons for its spread remains ongoing, and it is premature for anyone to draw conclusions,” a spokesperson for the company said by email.
The company alleges in the suit that the solar provider used substandard equipment to connect electrical lines and that equipment started the Aug. 14, 2024 fire. The company told Altus, Los Palos, and Pearce, a subsidiary of real estate giant CBRE, to fix the faulty equipment before turning the solar array back on.
Altus and Pearce knew that about 200 faulty electrical connections had been identified by May 2026, including about 10 near the area where the June fire eventually broke out, the suit claims. Lineage says it told the contractors to delay turning the system back on until they provided proof the faults were fixed, but the contractors did so anyway.
“Altus and Pearce deliberately ignored Lineage’s request, prematurely re-energized the solar array, and negligently and recklessly caused this devastating fire,” the suit reads.
Mayor Karen Bass and other elected officials have said publicly that Lineage should not rebuild its facility and continue operating in Boyle Heights. The company missed a 45-day deadline to clean up the facility imposed by Bass in August.
Lineage has since announced it had completed cleanup of the remnants of the facility on Sept. 5. The suit also suggests the company could be planning to stay in Boyle Heights, rather than simply seeking reimbursement for the fire.
The city’s Department of Building and Safety has put its plans to rebuild on hold, and South Coast Air Quality Management District has also issued multiple notices of violation over pollution from food that rotted inside the facility for months.
“This was a solar fire, not a warehouse fire,” reads a press release announcing the suit had been filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court Thursday. “Cold storage is not a risk to communities — it is an essential service that lowers food costs, expands food access and creates jobs,” it added.
Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published September 10, 2026 3:58 PM
Flowers are left at the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum in 2024, which is located on the land where the Twin Towers once stood before they were destroyed.
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Spencer Platt
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Here's a list of events in L.A. and O.C. counties on Friday and Saturday remembering 9/11.
Read on... to see when and where events are scheduled near you.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
A new federal lawsuit filed Thursday accuses the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the FBI and other federal agencies of violating the First Amendment and privacy rights of observers.
About the lawsuit: The lawsuit describes disturbing encounters seven Common Cause members had with federal officers in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey after trying to observe immigration enforcement. They include being photographed, followed, reported to police, pepper-sprayed or threatened with a visit to their home by federal officers. Federal officers did show up at one Common Cause member's Minnesota home.
Other lawsuits pending: The new lawsuit follows a handful of other cases brought by observers arguing First Amendment violations, but it is the most sweeping to date, as it includes incidents from multiple states and seeks national relief. It is asking a judge in Washington, D.C., to bar federal agencies from intimidating or retaliating against observers.
For months, Minneapolis resident Michael Khalili drove around the Twin Cities area observing and documenting the activities of federal immigration officers after they swarmed his city last winter as part of an unprecedented surge.
He points out that when federal immigration officers fatally shot fellow Minneapolis observer Alex Pretti in January, it was bystander videos that debunked inaccurate information Trump administration officials were spreading about Pretti, such as that he had committed an act of domestic terrorism and was a "would-be assassin."
"That's the only reason why the government's lies fell apart," Khalili said. "And that's why it's critical that people are out there."
But the 47-year-old father of two stopped observing ICE in recent months due to mounting risk and pressure from his family. Khalili said he follows the law when he drives behind ICE vehicles and is exercising his constitutional rights. But he said he's had repeated tense exchanges with federal officers who have taken photos of him and his vehicle, and told him to stop.
A day after one such exchange in March, Khalili's Global Entry status was revoked (until a HuffPost journalist inquired about it, and it was reinstated). On another occasion in May, he said a state trooper threatened him with a harassment charge for following ICE. Then in June, after 15 Minnesota activists were criminally indicted for conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, Khalili realized one of the counts against a defendant in that case was for following ICE vehicles across state lines in May on the same day Khalili had been warned he could be charged for following ICE. Khalili's wife became worried.
"She was concerned that federal agents could show up at our home and could arrest me in front of our children," Khalili said. "And so I agreed to stop doing this."
But Khalili hasn't given up his quest to hold the federal government accountable. He is now a named plaintiff in a new federal lawsuit filed Thursday, along with the nonprofit Common Cause, that accuses the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the FBI and other federal agencies of violating the First Amendment and privacy rights of observers.
The new lawsuit follows a handful of other cases brought by observers arguing First Amendment violations, but it is the most sweeping to date, as it includes incidents from multiple states and seeks national relief. It is asking a judge in Washington, D.C. to bar federal agencies from intimidating or retaliating against observers.
"The right of citizens to criticize and hold our government accountable is the backbone of American democracy – and it is under attack," Common Cause's vice president for litigation, Maryam Jazini Dorcheh, told NPR. "We want to make sure we're promoting participation in the political process. And obviously, if government officials are criminalizing peaceful observation, that hinders our mission," Jazini Dorcheh said.
NPR did not receive an immediate response from DHS or DOJ about the lawsuit's allegations. The FBI declined to comment.
The lawsuit describes disturbing encounters seven Common Cause members had with federal officers in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey after trying to observe immigration enforcement. They include being photographed, followed, reported to police, pepper-sprayed or threatened with a visit to their home by federal officers. Federal officers did show up at one Common Cause member's Minnesota home.
Observers film as ICE agents leave a residence on Jan. 28, 2026 in Minneapolis. NPR has documented numerous instances of other people legally observing ICE, describing intimidation and threats from the federal government.
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In another instance, the suit alleges that ICE officers told local police to ban an unnamed Common Cause member from a public parking lot outside of an ICE facility in Maryland, where the member was observing, and told the member they knew who they were because they had put their face through a facial recognition database.
The 94-page complaint also draws from declarations filed in previous cases on behalf of observers in additional states, including Illinois, Maine and Tennessee.
The events described in the complaint are "not one-off activities. This is not about, like, 'Oh, some folks got out of hand in one place,'" said Danielle Lang, the vice president of voting rights and rule of law at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, which is litigating the case. "This is a top-down policy of retaliation and it needs to be addressed as such."
The lawsuit lists multiple directives from the Trump administration, including President Trump's National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) and the DOJ's memo to operationalize it, which link impeding immigration enforcement and extreme views on migration to domestic terrorism. The NSPM-7 memo was the basis for the federal government to investigate and spy on activists in Minnesota, which ultimately led to the charges against 15 people for conspiracy to impede ICE.
Additionally, the suit lists public statements and internal memos that equate observers who record federal officers with "violent rioters" and "domestic terrorists," to argue there is a national policy in place to retaliate against observers. Furthermore, the Trump administration repealed guardrails that could have prevented federal officers from using facial recognition and license plate readers against peaceful observers, and DHS dismantled its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the suit argues.
The suit alleges that the federal government's retaliation against observers includes threatening force or arrest, collecting observers' personal information to intimidate them, using force, pursuing criminal charges, and imposing civil penalties such as administrative subpoenas or revoking observers' Global Entry or TSA PreCheck status.
Michael Khalili was eager to join the Common Cause lawsuit to help fellow observers, since in his case there is documentation of some of his encounters.
"If the paper trail for the petty things that they did to me can keep somebody else from being pepper-sprayed or murdered, like, why would I not do that? How could I not do that?" he told NPR.
Last month he requested access to his state motor vehicle records on the number of times law enforcement officials have queried his license plate, driver's license or name and date of birth. Before he started observing, there were only two such queries. But since March 2026, law enforcement queried him 55 times, a detail that is included in the lawsuit.
In addition, he has a March email from Customs and Border Protection notifying him that his Global Entry membership was revoked. Though the email only stated that the reason given for the change was "Your Global Entry has been revoked," it came one day after ICE officers stopped him, took photos of him and his license plate and told him to stop following them. Other observers in other states have also had their Global Entry status taken away, and some, like Khalili, had theirs reinstated after a reporter inquired.
Khalili still suspects he is on a federal list of some kind, or that there is a flag on him. He recently went on vacation to Ireland with his family and when returning to the U.S, he was referred for additional questioning by U.S. immigration officials.
He hopes this lawsuit can help bring about corrective changes and guardrails after what he calls a "nightmare" that the country and Minneapolis have been through.
"And so that not only will I be able to go out and observe if I so choose, but that there's no reason why I have to go out and observe," Khalili said.
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published September 10, 2026 2:06 PM
A finished pan of Chef Joshua Whigham's paella at Casa Leo's monthly Paella Drop, ready to be served to guests.
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Courtesy Casa Leo
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Topline:
Chef Joshua Whigham's monthly "paella drop" at Casa Leo in Los Feliz has grown from a 20-guest experiment into a waitlisted fixture.
Tell me more: Each version of his paella — from market mushrooms and truffle to chicken and langoustine — is rooted in a different Spanish region. Casa Leo was added to the Michelin Guide California this year — just over a year after opening.
Why is it important? Most Angelenos' idea of paella starts and stops at chicken, shrimp and saffron rice — the version built for tourists. Whigham, a 15-year veteran of award-winning chef José Andrés' kitchens, is using his monthly drop to highlight the dish’s variety with Southern California produce.
Mark the date: The next drop is on Sept. 20 and features a cuttlefish paella.
Casa Leo is a small Spanish restaurant located in Los Feliz near Griffith Park, where Chef Joshua Whigham is quietly bringing his own fresh approach to Spanish cooking — one that's specific and ingredient-driven in a way you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the city.
Whigham spent 15 years working under José Andrés — the Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning Spanish chef — before striking out on his own a little over a year ago with Casa Leo. The restaurant has already been added to the Michelin Guide California and has built a reputation for a seasonal, genuine, personal approach. That shows up across the menu, from cocas (Iberian flatbreads) to a trout en escabeche dish inspired by Martín Berasategui, the Basque chef often credited as a pioneer of modern Spanish cuisine.
Paella drop
One Sunday each month, Whigham hosts a "paella drop," cooking the paella outside the restaurant on a propane rig built to fit the giant pan he uses. Originally open to just 20 guests, the pop-up has grown in popularity as word has spread — Whigham has incrementally raised the cap over time, and now cooks with an even larger pan that can accommodate up to 70 guests.
It’s a setup that gets a lot of attention. He recalls a group of cyclists zipping by one day, with one of them yelling, "Holy shit, that smells good."
Chef Joshua Whigham stands beside the finished paella, cooked on a custom propane rig large enough to hold his oversized pan.
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"Paella is Spain's national dish," Whigham says — and for many Americans, it's the only regional dish they know by name. Most Americans picture one version of paella — chicken, shrimp, saffron-yellow rice — but the dish looks different depending on where in Spain you are. While the dish has roots in the southeastern region of Valencia, its ingredients and preparation vary widely throughout the country.
Showcasing that variety is one of Whigham’s aims. And he does it with strict adherence to tradition — he'll never include chorizo, since its heavy smoke and paprika flavors, he says, completely overpower the subtle, delicate taste of the saffron, broth and rice.
In August, the paella included market mushrooms, summer truffle, chicken and langoustine.
The next drop, on Sept. 20 (which just so happens to be World Paella Day), is a cuttlefish (sepia) paella.
Whigham wanted the drops to serve as an opportunity to activate the space in ways beyond regular brunch and dinner service.
Not a tourist menu
Whigham says people's exposure to Spanish cuisine often stops at gazpacho, jamón, and that one paella experience they had while studying abroad in college.
His approach, honed over almost two decades of cooking Spanish food, involves first surveying a dish's regional origins and then adapting it using Southern California ingredients, in a process Whigham calls "giving a traditional dish a sense of place."
"That's the path I'm on — taking traditional dishes and making them ours,” he adds.
A plated portion of Casa Leo's paella, served with a side of aioli and topped with edible flowers and microgreens.
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Casa Leo
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For example: marmitako, a humble Basque fisherman's dish traditionally made with tuna and potato, with a base consisting of tomato, bell pepper, red onion and fish stock. Whigham noticed poblano peppers were "exploding at the market" and swapped them in for the green bell peppers, using the same process and proportions — resulting in a richer tone, more of a capsicum flavor and a "nice low-key heat." Paired with the chili de árbol spice, it made the dish "warmer and richer and a little deeper in flavor."
Less than two years in, Whigham says the Michelin recognition was a lovely surprise. "We weren't looking for it," he says. "This is what I do. I don't know how to do anything else but this."
Still, he feels the weight of its importance: "A good restaurant, you feel it — the pulse of it, the heartbeat. That's what I want for people."
Casa Leo
Location: 4500 Los Feliz Blvd., Suite C, Los Angeles
