The chef's secrets: A conversation with chef Noah Rosen

June 6, 3:23 PMLA Cooking ExaminerErika Kerekes

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When I met chef Noah Rosen, a native southern Californian whose resume includes stints at Melisse, Patina, Wilshire and BLT Steak, he was running the show at the recently renovated Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica. (He left the Shangri-La in early June 2009.) He focuses on market-based dishes with locally sourced ingredients and clean, clear flavors. An example: wild Alaskan cod with fresh garbanzo puree, Carlsbad mussels, and a saffron-Pernod jus, for which he shared the recipe (thanks, chef Rosen!).

By the way, I learned about chef Rosen - and got a blow-by-blow on the menu at his last gig - when he Tweeted the entire menu, dish by dish, one day a few weeks ago. I was sitting at my desk in my office. Starving. And getting hungrier with every Tweet I read. He'll probably do it again, so if you want to follow him, he's @figsandconfit.

I sat down with him for a chat in the Shangri-La's courtyard. In no particular order, here's what I learned:

1. Rosen often surfs at Topanga before heading into the kitchen.
2. He changes out dishes on the restaurant's menu every few weeks, as ingredients come in and go out of season. The coastal rockfish, for example, had been paired with leeks, green almonds, Romesco sauce and fava tendrils; now he's thinking about doing it with cauliflower, caper berries, brown butter and raisins.
3. The secret to keeping fava beans green: Peel the skins off the beans before blanching, not after. Yes, it's harder. Yes, it's worth it.
4. When cooking fish, heat the pan with the oil, slip in the fish skin-side down, and then leave it alone for at least four minutes. Don't move it around; let it develop its color and sear properly before moving on to the next step.
5. There's great cultivated shellfish farmed in Carlsbad, right here in southern California.
6. Use grapeseed oil for sauteing; it won't burn at high temperatures.
7. In Rosen's kitchen, he says, there are "no lazy steps." If you're going to do it, do it right. And if you work in his kitchen, do it the way he says to do it.
8. Rosen's favorite ingredient in his walk-in: white anchovies, which he uses on his Caesar "Et tu, Brute?" salad. His take on the classic also includes grilled radicchio, Sonoma Parma (the closest thing to Parmigiano-Reggiano he's found in California), and croutons dusted with smoked paprika.
9. His wife ate at the restaurant and said, "This is the same stuff you cook for me at home!" And I thought: Lucky, lucky wife.
10. Why does Rosen like cooking? "It makes me happy. And it calms me down."