La Copine's music-fueled desert cooking comes to Cookbook Live

It all began with a business contract signed inside a pickup truck in the desert — with little more than a dream and a song — and became something far bigger than anyone could have imagined.

That's the story of La Copine, the cult-favorite restaurant that helped redefine what dining in the Mojave Desert could be.

"I would not advise anyone to do what we did," says Claire Wadsworth, who, along with her wife and partner Nikki Hill, bought the restaurant with a $5,000 check from their honeymoon fund — no lawyers, no inspection, and seven days to come up with the rest of the money.

At the time, Wadsworth and Hill were ready to sign a lease on an L.A. restaurant space. Hill was working as a sous chef under Antonia Lofaso at Scopa in Venice, a chef she still counts among her closest mentors and friends. Wadsworth was in the music industry: a musician herself, trained at Berklee College of Music, who also ran the front desk at the Village recording studio in West L.A. There, she mastered the craft of hospitality, learning the food and drink orders of the high-profile clients who came through — Elton John's non-alcoholic Heineken, Weezer's penchant for vegan fare.

A cult favorite in the desert

Eleven years later, La Copine has become the kind of place people plan whole trips around — a remote desert restaurant that draws road-trippers, locals and a steady stream of famous fans alike. Set near Joshua Tree, it pulls in music from every direction: over the years it has fed and hosted the likes of Big Thief, Jenny Lewis, Courtney Barnett and Patti Smith, with neighbors like Pappy & Harriet's and Rancho de la Luna feeding the same creative current.

La Copine's hand-lettered sign stands roadside in Flamingo Heights, near Joshua Tree.

(

Sheva Fafai

/

Courtesy La Copine

)

What keeps people making the drive is a globe-hopping but unfussy menu — dishes pulled from France, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and beyond, built on fresh ingredients and a come-as-you-are spirit that treats a curious first-timer and a longtime regular exactly the same. It's food that's adventurous without being precious, the kind that has earned the restaurant a cult following and a reputation as one of California's most singular places to eat.

Inside the cookbook, each chapter opens with its own illustration.

(

Sheva Kafai

/

Courtesy La Copine

)

That sensibility is now a cookbook. La Copine: New California Cooking from an Oasis in the Desert , written with James Beard Award–nominated author Ben Mims, translates the restaurant's dishes — and its philosophy — for the home kitchen.

On June 25, Wadsworth and Hill bring it to Pasadena for Cookbook Live, an onstage conversation and live cooking demo presented by LAist in partnership with the James Beard Foundation. Wadsworth will also be giving a short performance under her alias St. Claire.

The food

The menu at La Copine refuses to sit still. Take the bánh mì, which started as a special, born from a craving for Southeast Asian flavors and an unwillingness to drive two hours to the San Gabriel Valley for the real thing. Their version leans indulgent: pork belly with a house five-spice-and-brown-sugar rub and yuzu kosho — a spicy Japanese citrus-chile paste — folded into house mayo. The galette complète, inspired by Gabrielle Hamilton's writing on the savory buckwheat crêpes of Brittany, is naturally gluten-free and built with ham, gruyère, a fried egg, and a tangy apricot gastrique. And the Sichuan noodles, a loose riff on dan dan, swap fermented black garlic for pickled mustard greens, tahini for Chinese sesame paste, and mushrooms for pork — vegan-friendly by design.

Staying affordable for their community

Beyond the food itself, Wadsworth and Hill consider affordability part of their mission at La Copine. In a town where, by their estimate, the median income is around $25,000, they aim to appeal to both diners accustomed to high-end prices and locals living on a fixed income.

The pair share the story of one of their favorite regulars, Patty, who lives on Social Security and comes in once or twice a month. She's open about what she budgets — about $50 a visit for the salad Copine, a glass of wine, a panna cotta, and a cup of gazpacho. "Patty needs to be able to come in here and afford the meal," they say.

Their goal, they say, is to make food so good that people forget what they spent, without making it so expensive that they're afraid to walk in.

Dessert lined up on the pass — proof the sweet end of the menu gets the same care as everything else.

(

Sheva Kafai

/

Courtesy La Copine

)

Music + food

When speaking with the La Copine couple, one thing becomes very clear: music is almost as central to the restaurant's concept as the food itself. Recalling the night they met, Hill says she was working a catering gig when Wadsworth put on a song by the band Devotchka — a group they both loved — a moment that signaled to each of them that they'd found their type. It now opens their cookbook.

To them, music is "woven into the fabric of our restaurant."

When it came to laying out the dining room, Wadsworth gave up a table to make space for a piano, so that she and visiting musicians could perform. She plays under the name St. Claire and hosts cabaret nights; a nomadic piano tuner now shows up to tune the instrument for free, won over by the fact that they sacrificed a table for it.

Ultimately, what Wadsworth and Hill hope visitors take away has less to do with any single dish than with a state of mind. Slow down, they say. Take in the view. Do nothing for a while.

"La Copine is a happy place in the universe," Wadsworth says.