During our visit to Los Angeles for the Australia Week Gday LA Food and Beverage Trade Day, Vic Cherikoff and I were invited to dinner at Chinois Restaurant by a senior executive from Westfield America.

Chinois restaurant which is located in Santa Monica is and owned by the famous American Celebrity Chef, Wolfgang Puck. I knew Wolfgang Puck owned and managed many restaurants in California including the world famous Spago, but I had never heard of his Chinois Restaurant previously.

Chinois on Main first opened in 1983 where Wolfgang Puck created the first example of American fusion cuisine with his unique menu of dishes created with California’s fresh ingredients, French culinary techniques and Asian flavours.

Wolfgang’s chef Luis Diaz has created a menu featuring a combination of both Chinois classics and seasonal specialties in the open kitchen which provides a high level of excitement and fragrant aromas all night. Some of the dishes we sampled included ;

Fried pacific oysters with cucumber wasbi dressing
Whole sizzling catfish with ponzu dipping Sauce
Mongolian lamb with cilantro-mint vinaigrette

After dinner we were both introduced to Wolfgang Puck and gave him a copy of our Dining Downunder Cookbook together with a selection of Australian Herbs and Spices . We hope we will see some of our flavours on his menu soon.

Wolfgang’s cookbooks include Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen, The Wolfgang Puck Cookbook, Adventures in the Kitchen with Wolfgang Puck , Pizza, Pasta and More!, and Live, Love, Eat.

To learn more about Wolfgang Puck visit his website www.wolfgangpuck.com