Lady Chef Cooking up Savory American Cuisine at Zax
Generous Portions, Homestyle Ingredients Highlight Restaurant Near Brentwood
EXECUTIVE DINING by Fifi Chao
Last week, Mako in Beverly Hills was my L.A. thrill for you to try; this week the other good find that will serve you well when you happen to be near Brentwood is Zax. A very young lady chef, Brooke Williamson, is cooking up savory, contemporary American food in a friendly little setting and she’s being rewarded with lots of attention. It was some fine reviews, in fact, and the recommendation of a friend that narrowed our dining choices to this one.
Unlike Mako, whose food is totally unique compared with anything we have in OC, this food is homestyle cooking whose ingredients we’ve encountered throughout our lives, just never quite presented in this way. Here, you are cosseted in an oblong room with used-brick walls, side-by-side smallish tables napped in white, an open kitchen and a tall wood and wire wine cabinet and four large works of art as the major components. You are fed generously.
We, of course, always have trouble considering how our entire meal might unfold. So many times we order appetizers first, then decide on entr & #233;es, and tag along with dessert depending on how much appetite room we’ve saved. Thus, wine is often a red that will not fight with most of what we might end up eating. Their wine list is nicely dotted with a range of reds that fall into this category, so we settled on the 1999 David Bruce Petit Syrah, a full, but not overpowering, food,friendly wine.
The one,page menu works its way through seafood, meats and poultry described in such a way that you want to try many things. For instance, a charcuterie plate is usually nothing more than several sliced, preserved meats and sausages with names we know well. Here, Brooke ups the ante with a combination of lomo embuchado, a Spanish sausage made of fatless, marinated loin of pork that’s been air-dried; bresaola, air-dried beef rubbed with spices from Italy; chorizo Lyon, based on the popular Mexican sausage we know, but a more redolent flavored meat from Lyon, France, rather than Latin America; and burrata. The latter is an Italian cheese from the Puglia region of Italy, made from buffalo milk. It’s an entirely different cheese, however, from what we know as bufala mozzarella commonly used in the tomato and cheese salad. This dish is a wonderful way to open up the palate, and I must say, would be well at home with a bottle of beer.
We had her soup made of red kuri squash. It was creamy thick and ribboned on top with pumpkinseed oil. I am always tempted by a French salad of curly frisee lettuce with crispy bits of bacon and an egg on top, but this I can have many places, so a plate of red beet carpaccio was ordered instead. Beets were sliced paper thin to line the plate, atop which were sections of orange, peppercress greens and ricotta salata, a dried and saltier version of the cottage cheese-like ricotta we use in lasagne. Superb dish. Then, there’s the crispy peppered rock shrimp that come sided with both a cayenne pepper r & #233;moulade sauce and some ginger-tomato salsa. I first ordered the appetizer of rabbit and eggplant gratin and am still lamenting that it was not available, even at 7:30 in the evening. Then, I found out from diners nearby that they would call early to reserve a dish as it’s a “must have” and the restaurant always runs out of it. Ah, my loss.
I am a pushover for lamb and found it impossible to pass up the lamb potpie. My goodness, beneath its pastry crust is sufficient food for two: root vegetables atop so much tender lamb. Had we not been staying in a hotel for a couple of nights, the remainder of this would have come home with me. Recommended, but not ordered, was the manly double-cut pork chop on pumpkin grits with brussel sprout accompaniment. We did order saut & #233;ed black cod: a chunky piece of fish atop wilted mizuna (a mustard green favored in Japan) and brandade (mashed potatoes mingled with salt cod bits. Around it all was a lemony moat of broth and a few Manila clams. The desire for something Italian can be sated with tagliatelle strewn with plenty of wild mushrooms and sottocenere, Italian sheep’s milk cheese with truffles in it. Other interesting sounding dishes we had to miss included grilled halibut with baby turnips and French green beans, Maine sterling salmon and stewed chickpeas, and maple-leaf duck breast. We shared a dessert of banana profiteroles with some crunchy macadamia nut brittle but there’s also the possibility of a nice cheese plate.
The customers at Zax obviously enjoy visiting with this dynamic young lady chef when she walks through the room. She’s down-to-earth and accessible, like her food. Zax is casual and friendly and it’s very affordable. Entr & #233;es are all priced at $10 to $12 for lunch and $18 to $23 for dinner. Zax is a little tricky to find. Going west on Wilshire, turn left on San Vicente. It’s a divided street, so you will end up at Barrington as the first stoplight. Make a U-turn and go back one block. The address is 11604 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, phone (310) 571-3800.
