Wallpaper 10

PHOTOGRAPHY: SERGIY BARCHUK WRITERS: CAROLE DIXON, CHRISTOPHER STOCKS

When conjuring up images of body-conscious LA,

huge slabs of beef might not be the first thing that

comes to mind, but the city is home to a bevy of

meat-centric restaurants where in-house bespoke

butchering, curing and high-tech storage chambers are

the order of the day. From Michelin-starred outfits to

more commercial enterprises, such as Meat on Ocean

in Santa Monica with its massive meat locker on display

for customers watching the sunset, tinseltown has

turned carnivore. If you want to learn more, chef

David LeFevre, at The Arthur J in Manhattan Beach,

offers a class on grade, cuts, ageing, seasoning,

temperatures, resting and basic butchery, followed by

a tasting of 10-12 steaks. Here are a handful of fresh

offerings in LA where the chef is doing double-time as

the butcher, often with the choice cuts on full display.

Calling Gio Ponti a polymath is like

calling Mozart a musician – the term

hardly begins to do him justice. He was

a creative dynamo, yet his work’s wit

and playfulness has, perhaps, led

critics to undervalue his importance.

Opening this autumn, a major new

show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs

in Paris offers a chance to reassess the

full range of Ponti’s output. Supported

by Molteni & C, this is Ponti’s first

retrospective in France and will include

more than 500 items from public and

private collections, some never shown

before. The exhibition, designed by

Wilmotte & Associés in collaboration

with graphic designer Italo Lupi,

will be accompanied by a 320-page

catalogue compiled by curators

Sophie Dumas, Olivier Gabet,

Dominique Forest and Salvatore Licitra.

‘Tutto Ponti: Gio Ponti, Archi-Designer’

is at Musée des Arts Décoratifs from

19 October-10 February, madparis.fr

AGENDA

STEAK OUT

In the latest West Coast restaurant trend, diners

can have a butcher’s at their dinner before it’s cooked

APL RESTAURANT

Adam Perry Lang’s steakhouse has an

underground chamber that takes the art of curing

and dry-ageing meat under controlled humidity

and temperature to a new level. Lang (pictured)

butchers all the meat and even hand-forges steel

knives for precision cutting. aplrestaurant.com

GWEN

Gwen’s storefront case displays everything from

boar prosciutto and aged culatello to venison and

antelope. Nearby, carcasses hang from hooks in

a locker, and you might find chef Curtis Stone or

head butcher Andrew Sutton in an ageing room

carving up a hazelnut-fattened pig. gwenla.com

TESSE

At Tesse (short for delicatessen), 18 charcuterie

varieties are on display in an ageing and curing

refrigeration system behind the bar. There is

also a stuffing and casing machine, and an area

where sausages are salt cured and hung until

ready for wood smoking. tesserestaurant.com

ROSSOBLU

Rossoblu has a temperature-controlled butcher

box room where all meats are on show for private

dining guests via a glass window. Chef Steve

Samson is hands on when breaking down a whole

pig or wood-firing a mixed grill with tomahawk

pork chops and house sausages. rossoblula.com

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