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Food

The Los Angeles Food Scene Is Better Than New York's

I've lived in LA since I left the Israeli army at age 21, and have been cooking in restaurants ever since. Ten years ago, the food scene here wasn't so hot. But with the high quality produce and amazing chefs that are here now, we're inching towards...

I love what's going on in the LA food scene right now. Compared to different cities that are in the top tier of the restaurant world, I feel like LA is right in the thick of it. But ten years ago, it wasn't. It used to be more about the 'scene'—now it's truly focused on the food.

Obviously, there are restaurant patrons who care about what actor is eating there—that's kind of inevitable when you own a restaurant in an actor-filled city—but I don't really get excited about those things. I treat movie stars like any other customer. It should be that way.

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It was always my plan to end up in LA. I was born in the US and lived here until I was eight years old, then moved to Israel. We lived in a place called Herzliya for two years and then moved to Ramat Hasharon, which is between Herzliya and Tel Aviv. Israel is an amazing country and I have a ton of friends there—whenever I go, my cell phone is ringing nonstop. It's so much fun, but it's difficult to create a future there because there's less possibilities . People are focused on family and living the day there, not on your career. But here, you live an idea every day.

Every summer, my family would come back to visit LA. My brother moved here right after his time in the military—same with my sister—so I was next. Now, I go back to Israel once a year, though since we opened Bestia, I haven't been able to since we've been so busy.

When I got out of the Israeli army, I started selling clothing in Venice Beach to save up for a trip to South America. I was there for nine months, just snowboarding with friends. And every night, they ate my food and would say things like, "What's going on? I never had something like this. This is better than my mom could make it." That was the turning point for me, when I thought, I'm gonna go to culinary school, I'm going to start working in kitchens—and that's what happened. I did go to culinary school, but I quit after three months because I was bored and couldn't sit in class when I could get real world experience from actual kitchens. I ended up getting a really good job at a prestigious restaurant that normally wouldn't hire without a diploma or some sort of paperwork. I had to make the decision to leave school or take this job, so I opted for the latter.

Five or six years ago, I would visit New York and appreciate the restaurants that are there—and I still do—but I feel like LA is finally on an equal level of quality now. We're getting better. The product here is much nicer than in New York, and I know that this is going to be one of the top food cities in the world in the next ten years because the chefs are super driven around here. Since there's a lot of focus on LA chefs right now, each one has to bring their game higher and higher. I don't want Bestia to be better than all the rest: I want other restaurants to push me to get better all of the time.

Check back tomorrow for Ori's episode of Munchies: Chef's Night Out.