“The Michelin recognized, Family-owned Les Petites Canailles in Paso Robles is a French farm-to-table Bistro specializing in local Central Coast California ingredients. The food is sophisticated and modern served within a lively, casual atmosphere. The proprietors (Husband and Wife Team of Julien and Courtney Asseo) like to refer to themselves as the Winemaker’s son & the Butcher’s daughter… Courtney and Julien previously always loved hosting people at their prior house in Las Vegas for whole pig BBQs or paella. Entertaining and hospitality is part of their souls. While they often visited Paso Robles to spend time with Julien’s family, they always dreamed of someday leaving Vegas and opening their own restaurant in Paso Robles. For years people didn’t question whether or not they would ever do it, but it was a matter of when. Paso Robles is now their home with Les Petites Canailles. Les Petites Canailles translates to English as “the little rascals,” which represents their 3 children, Margaux, Maddox, and Phoenix.” Chef Julien Asseo takes a break from his busy kitchen to join us.
Watertable, celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary this year as a destination restaurant under the culinary direction of original Executive Chef Manfred Lassahn, is the signature restaurant located at Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa. “Watertable celebrates the union of rustic and refined, old and new – in both design and cuisine. The menu features seasonal, regional grill-centric American fare, paired with a distinguished selection of vintage world-class wines. Watertable’s beverage program also includes craft brews, hand-crafted artisanal cocktails, craft and naturally infused waters, in a unique nod to its name.” Executive Chef Manfred Lassahn takes a break from his busy kitchen to be with us along with Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach’s General Manager, Jon Benson.
Anne Marie Panoringan is Culture OC’s well-informed food columnist. She reports industry news, current events and trends. Anne Marie also contributes regularly to Eater Los Angeles, LAist, TASTE and a host of other well-respected publications. Anne Marie joins us in-studio to discuss her work as Food Columnist for Culture OC and discuss her current columns. Along the way Anne Marie will highlight her recent visit to Chicago to attend the James Beard Foundation Awards and also support the Nomination for Outstanding Wine & Other Beverages Program for Strong Water in Anaheim. She will also chat about experiencing Chef – Partner Riley Huddleston’s new menu at the Mayor’s Table at Lido House, an Autograph Collection resort, in Newport Beach.
Our own Chef Andrew Gruel, the menu-maker behind the full-service Calico Fish House (in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach) provides another timely and informative “Ask the Chef” segment where he responds to listeners’ thoughtful inquiries. We’re had a listener inquiry regarding Butterfish. The name alone suggests deliciousness. What other names is it known by ? What is the best way to cook it? Chef Andrew has the answers. Also on the menu are a few genuinely useful tips for 4th of July cooking.
All of this and heaping helpings of extra deliciousness on this week’s not-to-miss show!
Good morning Southern California and welcome. If you're food obsessed, you've come to the right place. Join us for the next two hours and you won't go away hungry. One of the first American culinary icons Julia Child said, "People who love to eat are always the best people." We agree. Live from the AMA 30K LAA studios at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, The SoCal Restaurant Show is on the air. And welcome back. It is The SoCal Restaurant Show and happily we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. until 12 noon right here on AMA 30K LAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024 and the halos are on a five-game winning streak. They look to extend that today. They're in Detroit. But that is pretty exciting. And you can also catch us on the AMA 30K LAA Angels app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show. Happy to be here. My colleague, restaurateur and chef Andrew Grulle of the Calico Fish House on Pacific Coast Highway in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach will be joining us a little later in the show. With as usual, ask the chef's segment as we're doing our pre-fourth of July show. And the subject of conversation is going to be we got a listener inquiry about what is Butterfish. They've seen that on some menus and are curious. Also want to know what some of the other names for Butterfish are and Chef Andrew's suggestion for the best way to cook it. So we'll be getting into that a little later in the show with Chef Andrew's Ask the Chef segment. Do appreciate you being out there sharing part of your pre-holiday week morning with us. Good to have you out there. Do keep up with us on social media. In addition to connecting Saturdays, what our social media platforms do is give you more visuals and information for what we do here on Saturday morning. So we're going to be talking about a couple restaurants this morning in addition to some new things on the Orange County restaurant scene. And what we'll do is post images of a lot of those restaurant dishes, some of the looks of some of the restaurants just to kind of give it all added visual component that just adds to what we do here on the air. We like to think we paint a pretty good verbal picture, but it's great to have photographs of the interiors of these restaurants and also see the plating of some of this incredible food. As we like to say on the SoCal restaurant show and it's a real truism, we do eat with our eyes. Think of your last restaurant experience where you saw something very tempting coming out of the kitchen and said, "What is that?" Which is a frequent reaction. And then of course order it. So again, the visuals are all part of this. Website's easy at SoCalRestaurantShow.com. Facebook is SoCal restaurant show. Send us a Twitter and X if you like and many of you do at SoCal restaurant. And as we love to say for the very best and provocative food imagery, Instagram to @SoCalRestaurantShow. And what we're trying to do on Instagram sent short videos are becoming much more popular than still images where we can and where it makes sense. We do try to shoot some short videos of restaurants that we go to and other activities. And we are proudly presented as we have been for the last 12 years by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. Hope you're making your holiday plans for the fourth. A lot of people are taking a couple extra days off. Some are lucky enough to take the whole week off. I kind of wish I could do that. But whatever your plans are, enjoy. And of course also include dining out in there. A little restaurant note. Something that we have been following for a while in California. Starting on Monday, there is a new law that goes into effect about junk fees. And this is a pretty wide category. But really the idea behind the law and it's probably a good one is when you're buying an airline ticket or you're renting a hotel room. All of what the costs of your either ticket or your room need to be presented to you up front. None of this getting to the point where you put your credit card down on and all of a sudden their occupancy taxes, their other taxes. You know, there is that fund resort fee, which is a subject for another conversation, which is kind of ridiculous. It's just a way for a hotel to get more money and to try to make their nightly rate look less. Anyway, all of that starting on Monday now needs to be presented in advance. And where the wrinkle was for restaurants was is for a restaurant that either has a mandatory service charge or a restaurant that might have a 3 or 5% fee to benefit employee healthcare. Under the provisions of the law that goes into effect Monday, that couldn't be there. That had to all be built into menu prices, which meant for dinner houses and above all of a sudden their restaurant prices, the menu prices would have been a lot more expensive. An emergency ordinance was passed that will also take effect on Monday that for restaurants, they don't have to do that. Just as long as upfront, very clearly to the diner, they know on the menu, conspicuously posted is if there are extra fees, meaning a mandatory service charge, which is also subject to sales tax, by the way, or a 3 to 5% fee for employee health, this just all needs to be clear upfront. And I think it's probably a good compromise in terms of what's coming in. And we'll be talking about this further on the show. Pre-holiday 4th of July is always, we're going to try to pack two pounds of flour into a one pound bag. First, we're journeying back up to Passa Robles. And we're going to be chatting with the chef owner of probably the best restaurant up there that happens to be French, that being late canylus, late petite canylus. Really wonderful restaurant that I finally had the chance to experience this year. And a great story in terms of family ties into the French community in Passa Robles. This winery, or actually this restaurant, also has family connections to three of the most prominent wineries that are in the Passa Robles area. So definitely kind of fun. Hotels are trying to always create destination restaurants that can be frequented by the locals. And sometimes they really don't put the effort into making that happen. And it's not too surprising that it doesn't work. A great exception to that story is the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach. Their destination restaurant is Watertable, which this year is celebrating their 10th anniversary and is frequented probably more by locals and non-hotel guests than hotel guests. Why? Because people like it. So we're going to get a chance to talk to the general manager of the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach who actually was involved in creating this restaurant 10 years ago. And their longtime executive chef there, Chef Manfred Lassen. Really a great success story there. And says what you can really do with a hotel restaurant if you put the resources into that. Then we will conclude with our roving Orange County correspondent, the food writer for Culture OC, Ann Marie Panerungen, who is no stranger to the show, just back from Chicago and the James Beard Foundation Awards. So again, a lot on our plate this morning. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. When you return, it's up to Passa Robles. We're proudly presented by Melissa's world variety produce and West Coast Prime Meats.
