Professor Gourmand — My Ten Favorite Dishes of 2022

I did this in at the beginning of 2018, and I decided it would not be a bad thing to do at the beginning of 2023, Three of the restaurants are the same, the other six are new, in almost all cases because restaurants closed during the pandemic, but Los Angeles continues to be an excellent eating city, and here is my proof.

We begin in March, when I went to the third restaurant in the Augustine empire, Melanie, on West Third Street, expecting to see my chef friend Dro Dergevorian who was responsible for Melanie’s opening menu. No, because he’s working on a new project in the San Fernando Valley which he’ll tell me about as soon as it’s announced. But it’s not like I didn’t know anyone. Andy Paxton, the managing director, I knew from Sushi Note, and Austin Ferrier, the beverage director, after he poured me the first of my three glasses of Melon de Bourgogne, looked at me and said, “I know you from Scratch!” Yes, he was the wine guy at Leviathan, the seafood place that didn’t survive the pandemic. I had already looked at the menu, and I knew I wanted the crab fettucine with bay scallops in a lobster broth with Thai basil. I’m going to do a ten best dishes of 2022 because of that dish, it was so good. I texted Dro a picture of it and asked him if it was his, and he said yes, so there we are.