Look The Part. Plus Another Vegan Burger...This One With A French Laundry Connection!

For the second time in a matter of months, I've been mistaken for somebody who knows what he's doing on a surfboard. No joke. The first time I was headed to the water in my wetsuit, board under my arm. I was almost at the shoreline and a couple was seated there in the sand. The girl looked up at me and said, "Are you our surfing teacher?"
     "Huh?" I answered.
     "We're waiting for our surfing teacher," said the girl. "I thought you might be him."
     Well, needless to say, I set her straight. Later, I texted this incident to a real surfing teacher, the one who did his best with me for a really long time.  He got a good chuckle out of it, for sure

Then, just the other day, I was out again. It was a pretty mellow morning surf on some pretty small waves, so a good day for me. There was a long time between sets and so lots of downtime. At one point this girl on a board nearby said something that sort of made me laugh.  "I'm just going to watch you," she said.
     "Really?" I answered.  "Why?"
     "Well, because you kind of look like you know what you're doing."

So I set her straight too. I can sometimes look like I know what I'm doing, and sometimes, if everything comes together right, I can even impress myself, but most of the times I'm still in the Kook category.

Knowing what one is doing is good thing, both on a surfboard and in the kitchen. One chef who way  more than knows what he's doing is Timothy Hollingsworth, whose career I've been following for a while. Hollingsworth (who also surfs, btw!) was for many years Chef de Cuisine at the French Laundry in Yountville, and he may even have been there when we were lucky enough to be chosen as guests to attend a meal at the French Laundry by a dear friend. This was a multi-course menu, complete with different wines for each course.  It started around lunch time and we all rolled out of there several hours later. In short, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and anybody interested in cooking or food should definitely make a journey to Yountville, if you ask me. But back to Chef Timothy. He's now in LA, with two restaurants under his belt -- the barbecue-oriented Barrel and Ashes in Studio City, and Otium, downtown next to the Broad Museum. I haven't gotten to Barrel and Ashes yet, and we're reserving Otium for a special occasion like an anniversary or a birthday, so I was happy to hear that Chef Timothy was doing a partnership with Burgerlords, which is a really awesome little burger spot in Chinatown. I've had both their regular cheeseburger, and the Vegan version.  Burgerlords has begun doing monthly partnerships with chefs around town, available I believe on Mondays only, and Chef Timothy was the first.  He created two burgers, one featuring eel, and a Vegan burger that included shaved carrots, carrot top pipian (kind of like a mole), avocado spread and habanero pickled onions, which you see here, along with that heaping mess of crisp, delicious fries. I chose it because I like to eat vegetarian or vegan when I can, and it was a great combination -- it totally satisfied, and I didn't miss the meat at all.

So keep an eye on these guys. I, for one, can't wait to see who they'll collaborate with next.  More on Burgerlords here--

http://www.burgerlords.com/#new-page-1