Fusion food used to mean cringe and eye-rolling; today chefs are bringing playfulness and innovation to combine cultures and create brand new dishes.
The back story: Chef Wolfgang Puck and others created "California cuisine" by combining American dishes with an Asian influence. By the time we arrived at pan-Asian corporate restaurants dishing out Chinese kung pao chicken, Japanese sushi, and Thai lettuce cups all on one glossy menu, fusion had become an icky word.
Why now: Restaurants are quietly reinventing food that intertwines different cooking heritages. We bring you four in LA that are worth visiting right now.
What's next: the sky is the limit; with at least 185 languages spoken in L.A. expect other cuisines to be combined into a happy marriage.
Growing up in a family of post-Soviet Jewish immigrants in Los Angeles meant fusing together our food with American food. This often meant making do with what we had. My Eggo waffles were topped with blackcurrant jam from Odessa Grocery. Trader Joe’s Chinese-inspired chicken gyoza potstickers were boiled, sprinkled with dill, and dipped in sour cream to stand in for traditional pelmeni.
The beloved Croatian seasoning, Vegeta, was generously added to everything, including buttered noodles and boxed mac and cheese. Whether intentional or not, we were dipping into the world of fusion cooking.
The history of fusion cooking is the history of the American kitchen. From the infamous Thanksgiving feast that fused together traditional English stuffed fowl with Native harvested beans and corn pudding, to the ‘80s and ‘90s fusion restaurant boom with Wolfgang Puck combining French cooking with Asian influences, resulting in the popularization of Madame Wu’s Chinese Chicken Salad.
By the time we arrived at pan-Asian corporate restaurants like P.F. Changs dishing out Chinese kung pao chicken, Japanese sushi, and Thai lettuce cups all on one glossy menu, however, fusion had become an icky word.
In a 2022 Los Angeles Times article, restaurant critic Bill Addison asked his readers, “Can we let go of the term ‘fusion cooking’ once and for all?”
Chicken and Mole made with Mary's chicken confit, orange gastrique, and sesame seeds, served with steamed bok choy and topped with seasonal citrus that's served with a 21 ingredients white mole and a handmade piadina (flour tortilla).
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WONHO LEE
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Courtesy of Amiga Amore
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His gripe with the word fusion was that it’s “a hydra slur” or “shorthand for 'Asian fusion,' which is insultingly reductive; Asian, Asian American and Pacific Island cultures are not monoliths.”
Addison continued: “It also carries a bad taste that suggests one is doing something silly or slapdash or nonsensical. No wonder chefs who are cooking to their personal narrative say in interviews, 'Don’t call what I’m doing ‘fusion.’”
Yet despite the body blow to the word itself, the idea of merging foods from distinct cuisines is still attracting chefs today, inspired by the limitless creativity it presents.
Here are four new-ish restaurants attempting to reinvent the concept — while tip-toeing around the unnecessary negative connotations of the word itself.
Pijja Palace puts an American spin on Indian classics, with chicken tenders, wings, and garlic bread
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Courtesy Pijja Palace
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These restaurants serve flavor combinations as unique as the people of Los Angeles, with a more playful and authentic take on the American immigrant and third culture experience. As cringe as the word can be, fusion — telling the food stories of multicultural Angelenos — is not going anywhere.
A traditional caesar salad is given a facelift with mango pickle, dried tomatoes, and a dusting of panko. Hardy lamb pasta is tossed with sumac, fennel, and creamy yogurt and feels like it was assembled by a sweet Indian-Italian grandma. Chicken wings are doused in a mixture of jalapeño, cilantro, mint, chives, and served with a cool yogurt sauce. But the star of the show is the classic chutney pizza.
A stoner invention with a thin crust pie, perfectly melty cheese, sweet tomato sauce, and a generous glaze of green chutney inspired by chef Miles Shorey’s Puerto Rican grandma’s sofrito and Lavineta’s Pizza that would offer under-the-table chutney to the growing Indian community in Lakewood.
Build your own pizza at Pijja Palace
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Courtesy of Pijja Palace
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Pijja Palace translates to Pizza Palace, a play on the Indian accent. Naran grew up in Los Angeles as part of a third culture, “eating everything” along with his Indian auntie’s chicken curry served with not naan, but tortillas.
Naran is most inspired by LA legend and father of the beloved Kogi truck, Roy Choi.
“One of the cool things about Roy is that [his food] never felt like fusion. He was a Korean guy who grew up in Koreatown, around a lot of Hispanic culture, so the whole thing was super organic,” Naran said.
Pijja Palace feels super organic, too. A reflection of the second generation’s melding of familiar flavors: American pub food and Indian delicacies.
Location: 2711 West Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles Hours: Wednesday-Thursday 5pm-9:30pm | Friday 5pm-10:30pm | Saturday 11am-2:30pm and 5pm-10:30pm | Sunday 11am-2:30pm and 5pm-10:30pm
As cultures converge and weave into intricate tapestries, food serves as a medium for storytellers, as well as an opportunity for marginalized voices to have a platform
— Rhea Patel Michel, Saucy Chick Goat Mafia
Amiga Amore
Carbonara ravioli with duck egg and requeson, pancetta and micro cilantro
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Courtesy of Amiga Amore
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Amiga Amore is co-owned by husband and wife duo Alessandro Zecca and Chef Danielle Duran Zecca. The cozy Italian-Mexican fusion restaurant was a natural combination of flavors as Duran Zecca grew up in a Mexican-American family near Frogtown, while her husband grew up in a small town near Verona, Italy.
After a traditional French culinary education and 10 years of cooking in Michelin star restaurants in New York City, Duran Zecca “felt stagnant” and moved back to Los Angeles to open her own restaurant.
“The real influence [for Amiga Amore] was my husband, because he didn't like Mexican food. I didn't really realize that until we moved to L.A.…So, I started to put Mexican ingredients into pasta and other dishes and I kept creating, and I kept noticing so many similarities between Mexico and Italy,” Duran Zecca said.
The combination of flavors from both their childhoods worked, and led to a successful pop-up and the opening of Amiga Amore in Highland Park, with mouth watering dishes like Chorizo y Clams, a mixture of clams, brothy cannellini and pinto beans, Meyer lemon, and jalapeño butter served with homemade bread, and Elote Agnolotti, "street corn" filled pasta with crumbly cotija cheese, zesty finger limes, and house made tajin.
Like other chefs working in the realm of fusion, before opening Amiga Amore, Duran Zecca asked herself, “Is it going to be gimmicky?” It was hard not to associate fusion with the ramen burger and the sushi burrito. But buoyed by success, Duran Zecca is leaning into fusion with a new brunch option that includes an eggs and bacon breakfast sandwich on a housemade basil concha, a breakfast burrito with eggs, tater tots, pico de gallo and Italian cannellini beans, and a classic Italian panzerotti stuffed pizza with potato, chorizo and tomatillo salsa.
Chefs these days are cooking their own personal narratives, which are surprisingly relatable. What has surprised the Zeccas most after opening Amiga Amore is how many of their customers relate to the Italian-Mexican experience. “There are so many people that come in, and say, 'We're just like you … your restaurant is like our story and we love to eat here because you feed us both.'"
Location: 566 York Blvd., Los Angeles Hours: Wednesday-Thursday 5pm-9:30pm | Friday 5pm-10:30pm | Saturday 4:30pm-10:30pm | Sunday 10am-2:30pm
Taco/Social
Tacos at Taco Social
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Steve Stroud
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Courtesy of Taco Social
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Of all the restaurants we’ve featured, , Taco/Social is one of the newest on the list (it opened on Oct. 10) and the most corporate. The website copy defines the food as “inventive, freeform tacos [that] break all the rules. Inspired by flavors from around the world, we use fresh ingredients to serve up tacos that are as unique as they are delicious.”
The beach-themed Eagle Rock restaurant with big open-air windows and extra loud music feels like you’ve stepped into a Hollister or Abercrombie and Fitch. A full bar serves up margaritas or whatever you want, and there are two big-screen TVs for the sports fans.
Embracing Wolfgang Puck and P.F. Chang’s approach to fusion, it takes it to the next level by including a wide range of cuisines beyond French, American, and pan-Asian cooking, reflecting the people of Los Angeles who speak at least 185 different languages.
There’s a long list of those flour tortilla “freeform tacos” — post-fusion in overdrive — ranging from Vietnamese Banh Mi tacos, to Mexican barbacoa, to American cheeseburger, Indian tikka masala, and even a take on the Greek chicken pita.
Tacos from around the world include crispy cauliflower taco and K-BBQ taco made with braised beef
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Luciano Picazo
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Courtesy of Taco Social
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“We’ve taken signature dishes from cultures across the world and altered them to rest inside a tortilla,” says executive Chef Jonathan Paiz. “What other taco spot can take you on a culinary journey that spans from New Orleans to Vietnam? Los Angeles is a melting pot of people from all across the world and we wanted to embody that aspect into distinct, delicious tacos.”
Sadly though, the flavors are muted. The Greek Life taco, inspired by Paiz’s Greek ancestry, is filled with juicy chicken, tzatziki, pico de gallo, pickled red onion and surprisingly crispy french fries, but lacks a sufficient amount of spice, perhaps not surprising from a restaurant that is trying to cover too many cuisines at once.
Taco/Social is the ultimate fusion family restaurant. Sure it’s gimmicky, but it has something for everybody, including the opportunity for a tired parent to enjoy a cocktail with dinner.
Location: 1627 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11am-10pm | Friday-Saturday 11am-11pm | Daily Happy Hour 3pm-6pm
Saucy Chick Goat Mafia
After rave reviews and a loyal following at the beloved Smorgasburg food fest in DTLA, pop-ups Saucy Chick and Goat Mafia have joined forces, soft opening a new restaurant deep in Pasadena this week called, what else, but Saucy Chick Goat Mafia.
Juan Garcia of Goat Mafia and Saucy Chick owner’s Rhea Patel Michel and husband Marcel Rene Michel — who opened their pop-up after being furloughed from their jobs during the pandemic — did not hesitate when the opportunity arrived to combine Indian-Mexican rotisserie chicken with traditional Mexican goat birria to create something new.
The casual flavor-packed restaurant serves unique dishes like the birria de chivo bowl with Garcia’s signature century-old family goat birria recipe and Saucy Chick’s Indian jeera rice, hearty mayocoba beans, and hand-pressed corn tortillas.
The hand-brined 24-hour marinated rotisserie chicken is served with a selection of sauces like the Mexican-leaning creamy pibil with achiote, garlic, citrus, and oregano or the pungent jeera sauce made from caramelized onions, garlic, ginger, and packed with cumin. There are also plenty of sides to choose from, such as a truly unique “kachumber salad” combining cucumber, mustard seed, coconut, peanuts, lime, and mint, as well as an array of refreshing agua frescas with an Indian twist, like the ginger jamaica.
Rotisserie chicken, taco and burritos galore at newest location of Saucy Chick Goat Mafia
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Courtesy of Saucy Chick Goat Mafia
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The chefs come from immigrant families and encountered fusion early on in their lives. “Growing up, we would eat grilled cheese with a garlic chutney paste and masala egg omelets,” said Patel Michel. Garcia’s first mind-blowing encounter with fusion was Pizza Loca’s asada pizza — a rare treat as his Mexican-American immigrant family rarely ordered take-out.
Fusion is the future and a no-brainer for the owners of Saucy Chick Goat Mafia. “There is creativity and strength in diversity. As cultures converge and weave into intricate tapestries, food serves as a medium for storytellers and an opportunity for marginalized voices to have a platform,” said Patel Michel.
