I love food, I love cooking, I love reading about food and most of all I love eating food from a great clam roll to a 5 hour gourmet dining experience.
I am lucky that I have been indulging in this extraordinary passion for a long time – over 38 years. Hope you enjoy the ride.
My mentors
Michel Richard
David Kinch
Thomas Keller (taken from a book)
My two loves (excluding my son and husband)
Now 3 loves
My purse that gets the most attention – a gift from my husband
Refined Palate 
Love your new site my friend! It’s much easier to navigate and search.
Robert
Thanks, Robert. I am slowly adding new and some older content.
Lizziee:
My apologies but I don’t have your direct email address so I am positng this here. Cathy Loup, a good friend, referred me to your site for information on LA eats. We just moved from NYC to LA (I’m a corp and ent lawyer) and are always interested in great restaurants. Thanks for the wonderful site and please feel free to contact me at tdorros@mrllp.com
All the best,
Torin Dorros
Liz!!!!! Its me david santos! Please email me. I miss you guys! When are you coming my way? chopjwu12@gmail.com
did you used to post on Steve P’s food board?
Yes.
I’m with Robert. The new layout of your website is great. Just a joy to read your posts as always.
Thanks Aaron. It is a lot of fun.
Wow. You’ve been to some amazing restaurants. I’ve been fortunate to go to a few, but it looks like you’ve had some amazing food experiences in your lifetime.
I’ve never seen a caviar purse and it’s truly extraordinary.
Great site!
i am so happy to stumble upon your site while “researching” a piece i’m writing on my blog about annecy. i love food, too, but alas…i can’t usually work gourmet food into my meager budget. but hell, i’ll just live vicariously through you (and your delectable photos)! i’ll be sure to put you on my blog roll as a fave! cheers, jen.
Thanks, Jen.
Are you the Lizziee who can eat everyone under the table while still weighing 102 pounds ? Robyn (used to be on OA but got kicked out)
Same person and still can eat everyone under the table,
Hi Lizziee,
Wonderful blog! I truly admire every post that I’ve read of yours! It is evident that you possess a wealth of knowledge so I have to ask…do you have any openings for a protege?
To be a protege is simple, love food, respect the people who make it and serve it and then say thank you and mean it.
I’m a frequent reader of your reviews and it is clear that you are a big fan of the French Laundry and Per Se. I was curious if you were going to be attending the upcoming Thomas Keller/Grant Achatz event at TFL. I’ve read Frank Bruni’s comments on the meal Keller/Achatz at Per Se in the NY Times and I was curious if we could be expecting a review from you of this event.
Michael, I would love to go, but we will be in Oahu during that time. For a retrospective meal at FL to celebrate their 10th anniversary, see here:
Lizziee
I’m a culinary student and it is soooo great to see what is out there. I live near Chicago and I’ve been to Charlie Trotters and Tru. I was expecting to see these on the site, however the restaurants that you’ve been to here in Chicago are so neat!!! I want to go to mercat a la planxa, was it pricey for lunch when you dined? no prices on the website… thanks so much for eating! keep it up so we can all learn of great food!
Chelsea – good luck in culinary school. I haven’t been to Trotters or Tru, but my husband has. I have been to Alinea, but it was 2 years ago. Mercat is not at all pricey, but I suggest you go with a group and share a lot of items.
Nice picture of Kintch, great blog.
http://bestbyfarr.wordpress.com
Hey folks, love the way you guy’s write. Would love to have a story or article or 2 or 3 posted at http://www.theworldrecipebook.com if you’d like to post one.
Well done , a great blog
Stephen
When I started reading your posts this morning, I was not hungry…but when I finished not only was I hungry, but I also (due to your fine writing) felt well nourished. Thank you for your lovely descriptions and enthusiasm for fine food!
I enjoy reading your articles about French restaurants.
Can you please leave the phone numbers and address details.
We want to go to them but have no details.
Thanks
Go to this site for information re phone numbers, addresses and if the restaurant in question has a website:
http://www.dininginfrance.com/
Hello Lizzie:
I actually was researching some chinois I was planning to sell when I happened on your blogs. Blown away by your review at Per Se. I have friends who live in that building and keep threatening to take me there for dinner. As I have my own cooking school and restaurant(www.torteknox.com) getting away is near impossible. As I tell my 12 diners around the Grand Chef’s Arena on Saturday nights, if I were a younger woman, I would throw myself at the feet of Thomas Keller. In any event, I wanted to share how much I enjoyed reading your reviews. I don’t blog much, I felt compelled. Oh, love your handbag….looks like something from Judith Lieber. Happy Healthy New Year. Fondly,
Sheelah
I was doing a random search when I stumbled upon your blog. I was once a very popular, not to mention skilled, chef in Seattle. I got tired of the low wages and lack of respect so I decided to drop my passion driven career and move forward to a more lucrative career!
I’ve not been moved so strongly in a decade, as I was a few minutes ago when I stumbled upon your blog from the French Laundry! My officemate actually got up and left as I was making him feel uncomfortable, moaning and making noise I would normally never make, as I went from stunning picture to picture of, what is now, my favorite online blog!!
Thank you for taking time to document the fabulous foods you’ve managed to have the pleasure of enjoying, and I too hope someday to have the time to travel and enjoy the dining at the caliber you’ve shared with us on your blog!
“Au bon vin, à de grandes histoires, et à belles expériences !”
Chris, what a lovely and moving post. You made my day.
Hi. love your blog…been addicted to it over the past few months since we just had our first child and going out to eat nice has been out of the question. Wondering if you guys have gone to eat at Jinpachi in West Hollywood — its in the middle of a culinary wasteland, but Taka-San is doing some really amazing things. He takes care of us when we go and the omakase is wonderful…our favorite sushi in LA (never been to Urusawa, though…)
davesch – I have not tried Jinpachi, but I did major google searches re the restaurant. Discovered this: “Sushi chef Hirotaka “Taka” Fujita is accustomed to creating delicate morsels from expensive fish at high-end sushi bars like Nishimura and Takao.” We have been friends with Takao for years and in fact, we were his very first customers. Glad you like the blog.
Hi Liz,
Maybe I’m not recalling correctly but did you use salt blocks(plates) at Bin? I am trying to find a whole sale source for them.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Robert
Yes we did use salt blocks.
See here:
http://www.poshsalt.com/wst_page8.html
Thanks so much Liz.
A mutual friend from “the boards” gave me the link to your blog, as we’re off to Oahu in May. Great job! We’ll definitely hit several of the places you reviewed. Last time there, we had a much better experience at Alan Wong’s so we’ll try again and see. If you feel like talking about Oahu, I’d certainly appreciate it…. you have my e-mail address.
Steve R.
the menu collection is priceless, and we get such little opportunity to sahre them. Thanks for saving. Keep it up.
Love, Rupert
Could you tell me if Carre des Feuillant measures up with the better restaurants in Paris for lunch – It seems more reasonable with the price of 85 euros including wine – thanks
Marla, It wouldn’t be fair to comment on Carre des Feuillant as the last time we were there was in 2003. I will say that I wasn’t impressed but that was 6 years ago.
Hi Lizzie,
Enjoyed reading your blog – living in bay area I fortunately can relate to many of your postings. The wife and I are visiting LA area come Memorial weekend and we wanted to give Providence a try. However, the host informed us that Chef Michael is offthat day – what would be to your experience, the likelihood of having a great meal like yours, without Chef MC manning the kitchen?
Being out-of-towners, we have been wanting to give this Providence a try.
Thanks for your advice and happy eating!
Will
Hi Lizzie,
Love your blog, often find inspiration and date recs here… I suppose I’m close to graduating to Epicurean and have a blog http://oignonsetail.blogspot.com/. And would be beyond honored if you did a guest blog post for me. If interested please me nikkiif@gmail.com.
Shine on,
Nikk
I just heard about your blog last night at Grace at 5 by 5 dinner.
I was looking for a blog on Rivera. Have you been there? I will be an avid follower of your blog.
rena
Rena – glad you like my blog. It is just a hobby and fun. I have known John Sedlar for years and we went to his restaurant in Santa Monica very often. I have not been to his new restaurant Rivera yet.
Great to see you & John in Yountville again. Welcome. I just had the opportunity to look at your Refined Palate website and was fascinated reading your reviews. Great job, Liz. And all this talk of food has me starving so I’ll have to decide where in the world to eat tonight……
Love to you both.
Ronda
Thank you Ronda. For those of you who get to Yountville, you must visit her gallery RAS Galleries at 6540 Washington Street – incredible glassware – sculpture, vases, handcrafted items – definitely worth a stop.
My first visit here
Congratulations from a wine professional!
Happy to discover you
Alex, just saw this. Glad you enjoy my attempts at documenting each and every meal. My poor husband is the photographer and each and every course is prefaced with the words, “Did you take a picture?”
hi lizziee ~
my fiance and i stumbled upon your blog as we researched paris to death for places to eat and splurge on our honeymoon.
we were wondering if you’d be kind enough to give your 2cents on which 2 restaurants you would recommend for a 3 star michelin, most bang for buck experience?
it will be our first time in paris and want to make it memorable, but not fall into touristy/trendy restaurant traps!
thanks so much in advance for your thoughts!
jennie
jennie,
Can you give me an ida of your likes and dislikes? Do you like more traditional cuisine, contemporary, old-world elegance, minimalistic? Also, check out the pictures on Arpege, Guy Savoy, L’Ambroisie, L’Astrance and Ledoyen on this site – all 3 stars. I will go into more detail when I have an idea what you like. I haven’t written up Pierre Gagnaire, but it can be a roller coaster ride.
hi lizziee!
thank you so much for your reply! we chewed on it for a bit, and decided that we like more old-world elegance with perhaps a venture into the contemporary. we are quite equal opportunity diners and a big part of the meal for us is the ‘experience’ — such as dining at Alex in Vegas.
after going thru the posts you recommended, is it wrong that i absolutely loved the chicken and truffle sandwiches that you guys made at the airport?? 🙂
Ledoyen and Arpege particularly stood out to me… i tried to envision sitting there and seeing these dishes come out, and those two made me salivate.
we’ll be there in the holidays (christmas) and i hope it doesn’t change things too much. is there a difference between lunch vs dinner? did you find it hard to split a tasting.. i noticed that you share a tasting and we will likely try to do the same.
thank you again Lizziee.. we can’t wait!
jennie, our favorite restaurant in Vegas is Alex so I can identify your tastes. Christmas is perfect – you will be there during black truffle season – perfect! We don’t do a tasting – we do splits and ask for one for 2 – that way we get exactly what we want, but in tasting portions. If you go to Arpege, make sure that Helene helps you out and you must have the egg (not a split) and the lobster – a split. Ledoyen is a gorgeous room and again, we did one for two on everything. Lunch and dinner tend to be the same – although some 3 stars do a dejeuner cheaper menu. Have a wonderful time and I am happy to answer any and all questions.
Ahh.. thank you for clarifying, otherwise I’d be asking to split a tasting! Goodness! We are beyond thrilled to have found you as a resource and will be salivating until we too, can experience Paris as you have!
Thank you again.
Jennie
Hi guys,
Hope your holiday season was great! Just wanted to wish you both a Happy New Year. You guys will have to come and see me at Lilly’s when you get a chance.
Liz,
Just discovered yur site. I spent almost all day on it. Would love to catch up from the last 38 years.
Best,
Donna Dubrow
Hi Liz,
This is Izumi. I met at Valentino tonight when we were getting to leave. Thank you for your business card.
I am a Japanese and from Kyoto in Japan. I married my husband several years ago, and live in Marina and work in LA.
I visired your blog and fount out we had many common thoughts regarding the restaurants and food. For example, A.O.C. was the terrible and one of the worst resaturant we have ever been to. Many people we know told us before we went there that food was great. Therefore, we were so surprized that their food was terrible and very hard to share. So it was nice to hear that you agree with us.
I also saw your some recipies, and was surprized that you like “Natto” beacuse even though many Japanese do not like it including my mom who lives in Japan, but I really like it. I love to cook, and explore new restaurants with my husband. I very much enjoy your comments on your blog, and will consider your comments when we go to a restaurant next time.
By the way, my husband wants to take me to Spago’s for our wedding anniversary. I have never been there. It appears from your blog that you like Spago’s. Is it right? Do you happen to know how far ahead of time we need to make a reservation? Can you recommend your favorite dish that might be good for my female palate?
Any way, it was very nice to meet you. Hope we can share curinary experience in the future.
Warm regards,
Izumi
What a great site! I love it.
Great foodie website and fantastic, wallpaper-worthy pictures. A minor correction though: the plural of blin is “blini” (in Russian), not “blinis.” The Anglicized plural of this world is “blins.”
I was married to a Russian for three years and her grandmother used to make blini for us every Sunday. If a chef ever attempts to correct you on what I have just said, I don’t care how good they are, correct them back.
All Best,
Edward
Thanks!
You don’t know me but I’ve been an avid reader of your blog for the past two years now. I’ve jealously read your posts of such wonderful dinners at French Laundry, Cyrus, Manresa and your countless dinners at Urasawa.
Don’t worry. Not a stalker or anything. I simply wanted to tell you about a new website http://www.tripline.net that my sister’s fiance just launched this week. Tripline is an amazing new way to show off your travels in a shareable animated map that you can post right into your Facebook feed or embed on your blog. You can plan trips with your friends, share links and notes, access your plans on your phone, and tell your stories together from the road. And, when your friends join Tripline, you can see where they’ve traveled and get their advice on what to do…and what to avoid. Simple, useful, social, mobile and fun – Tripline makes travel better. Not only just for trips, It occurred to me that it would be really cool to see your entire culinary adventure laid out on a map, with links to each of your reviews, along with a few pictures.
Launched just Thursday, Tripline has already made some waves in the news http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/06/draw-your-itinerary-on-a-tripline-map/
I hope you take a moment to check out Tripline.
Happy eatings 🙂
Hi Lizziee,
Long time reader of your blog here. Just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your blog posts and seeing all these fantastic restaurants that you have been to.
I like that you throw in the occasional recipe here and there too.
May I make a friendly suggestion for your blog? Your blog takes a bit of time to load each and every time I enter your blog. I believe this is due to the amount of blog posts that you have showing on your home page which is default set at 10 blog posts.
To shorten the loading time for your blog you can change the amount of posts showing on each page to say 4 or 5.
If you would like to know how to change this setting, feel free to email me back or mention it in a blog reply. Very simple and easy to do. Or if you like the way it is, I apologize and please disregard this message.
Tony, I would be happy to oblige. How do I do it?
WOW!! Your writing style and attention to detail, along with THE most fabulous photos, test my self-control to not leave my office and run (not drive) to any one of these fab restaurants.My only “complaint” is that there are too many great choices.
And if that’s not enough, you offer great recipes. You not only know the key to your man’s heart, it’s the key to mine (and probably many many others.)
Thanks for taking the time to present consistently engaging and informational comments.
Hi Lizzie
Stumbled on your site through a google search for persimmon pudding. I have made this recipe for over 15 years, my mother before me! I appreciated your note regarding adding the wet mixture before the flour and will try this this year.
I love your blog and your comments. Haven’t been all the way through but noticed you had a bad experience at Drago…sorry to hear that. I will bet Celestino was not in the kitchen that night!
Btw: a friend in Oregon is recommending black and white truffles..he swears by them and I am going to try this holiday season oregonwildedibles@hotmail.com. Again, this is my first time trying so I cannot vouch. I have had the Alba white truffles many times as we used to go every year for the truffle festival. It was heavenly. I have not had anything here that matched the fragrance.
hi,
always have been a big fan of this blog…we live in pasadena now so don’t get to enjoy as many westside restaurants as we used to so tend to live vicariously through you. i had been pretty disappointed in the quality of cuisine out here for awhile (outside of great asian in some of the east suburbs) but i think that we have a huge hit at the new restaurant at the langham called the royce. have you guys tried it yet? some of the most refined food and service i’ve had in all of la — felt like i was at a michelin 2 or 3 star, much better than when voltaggio was at the helm. if you haven’t gone yet, i can’t recommend it enough — chef feau is doing some amazing things…think your readers would benefit from a review.
keep up the great work!
dave
Thanks,
will you marry me?
Sorry, already married!
Lizziee, just lucky to have found your blog. Planning to celebrate my 60th at Jose Andres’ Le Bazaar. Thanks for all the good tips, I’m so hungry already!
daniella, glad you like my blog – happy eating and happy 60th!
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definitely enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.
I don’t use Twitter. Glad you enjoy my posts.
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Hi Lizzie –
I’m working with a start-up for food bloggers in Southern California called Tabelog (www.tabelog.us). They’re a subsidiary of the largest company in Japan Tabelog.com (similar to Yelp here in the US).
We’re bringing their annual restaurant awards to the US that are judged solely by a panel of local food bloggers (all online). The winning restaurants get a framed 2014 award and the food bloggers get an “official judge” icon/etc and related PR for their blog. We’re looking for bloggers from the Southern California area to invite as an official judge. Is this something that you would be interested in?
Thanks in advance!
Brock
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Very impressed with your blog. That’s real commitment to consistently post for so many years. Cheers!
Hi there! I came to your blog by way of food snob blog and I was impressed by your list of reviews but confused by one thing, how can you have such a great travel log and obvious appreciation for food and not have been to New Orleans yet??? May I suggest that you bump NOLA up on the to do (ASAP) list? It will be a life changer, there is no other city like it and you will find your happy foodie self there, I promise.
*If you need dining recommendations feel free to contact me:)
My apologies, I just saw that you had 3 NOLA restaurant reviews, but still, I almost missed it.
Hi There, Hope you’re well. We have a great PR opportunity we’d like to get you involved with, please do drop me an email on hannah (at) lucre (dot)com for further information. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Hannah
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