Chef That! Spaghetti alla Limone with Adam Leonti
Whip up a coastal Italian vacation in your kitchen with Alba chef Adam Leonti's bright, lightly smoky spaghetti with lemon.
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Eater
2 hours ago
- Eater
4 Restaurants to Try This Weekend in Los Angeles: June 6
Every Friday, our editors compile a trusty list of recommendations to answer the most pressing of questions: 'Where should I eat?' Here now are four places to check out this weekend in Los Angeles. And if you need some ideas on where to drink, here's our list of the hottest places to get cocktails in town. For a great pizza (practically) anywhere in LA: Prime Pizza LA's pizza scene has grown substantially in recent years, with shops around town serving New York-style slices, square pies, New Haven-style pizza, and practically every other style under the sun. However, many LA pizza shops have only a single location, making them more of a neighborhood destination than a widely accessible option for pizza night takeout or delivery. Prime is among those outstanding pizza parlors in LA, but it has locations across the city, making it easy to grab a slice no matter what part of town one is in. The vodka pizza is a standout among the round pies, topped with mozzarella, basil, and Parmesan. Square pies consist of a simple grandma pie, a Sicilian, a spicy pepperoni, and a meat lover's. Prime even offers gluten-free crusts for those avoiding wheat. 1900 Allen Avenue, Altadena, CA 91001. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Southern California/Southwest For a gorgeous Italian patio vibe in the middle of residential Mar Vista: Beethoven Market One of the loveliest dinners I've had in recent memory, at least in terms of pure ambience, was at Beethoven Market, a neighborhood gem right in Mar Vista's residential expanse. Restaurateur Jeremy Adler has made a name overseeing some of the Westside's busiest spots, like Santa Monica's Cobi's, working for years to transform this former bodega into a community hub. On this front, Beethoven is overwhelmingly successful, perhaps to the chagrin of some neighbors who were happy to park their cars in our spots upon departing. But the benefit of a breezy, casual hangout like this must surely compensate for the traffic. Chef Michael Leonard serves a familiar California Italian menu of fried squash blossoms, blimp-shaped fried arancini, personal-sized pizzas, and medium-sized pastas. Evan Funke fans will find a lot of similar dishes here, such as grilled prawns in salsa verde, linguini al limone, burrata panzanella, and pesto-laden foglie d'Ulivo. Beethoven does venture in a different direction with the pizzas, sporting pillowy soft New York-esque crusts that offer a sweet fragrance, and the grilled sea bass over an herbaceous Sicilian tarragon sauce doesn't have a tangle of shredded fennel slices like at Mother Wolf. For dessert, be sure to share the excellent housemade gelati. Most people coming to Beethoven probably won't mind the similarities, and there's something to be said about the very reasonable pricing here (pastas are all under $20, pizzas max out at $23, a good meal can be had for under $75 a person before drinks). And LA has never been a city to ever tire of California-Italian food. 12904 Palms Boulevard, Mar Vista, CA, 90066. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For an easy breakfast in Virgil Village: Virgil Cafe Lines at Courage and Sqirl may never truly die down, but Virgil Village now has another option for a more easygoing breakfast or brunch. Virgil Cafe is an unassuming breakfast spot near the intersection of Virgil and Melrose, serving all the classics like French toast, pancakes, and eggs, alongside huevos rancheros, chilaquiles, and breakfast burritos. The interior is no-frills, but service is warm and quick, and the portion sizes are very generous. Fresh-pressed juices and smoothies are also available, like a green juice and a peanut butter and banana smoothie. During the daytime, Virgil Cafe serves more lunch-y dishes, including a tlayuda, a mushroom burger, and fajitas. 709 Virgil Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Southern California/Southwest For killer arroz chaufa and a la brasa chicken: Rosty Peruvian Rosty Peruvian owner Maritza Gomez hails from Peruvian restaurant royalty. Gomez's mother, Alis Reañ, owned two notable Lima restaurants called Listo de Pollo. Listo de Pollo opened in 1969 and closed permanently in 1993, while a young Gomez and her sisters (Carmen and Flor Bermudez also operate Rosty) learned the inner workings of a restaurant. The family debuted their Highland Park restaurant in 2018, which has some of the best Peruvian food in the city. It's a casual and friendly spot that serves lunch through dinner with an incredible arroz chaufa, a Peruvian fried rice that takes fairly uninteresting vegetables and makes them sing in a saucy, hearty mixture of herbs, tomatoes, and a healthy dose of onions. The addition of chicken makes it an incredibly filling meal, but it is absolutely stunning, even without protein. Traditional la brasa rotisserie chicken is available, but go beyond and try everything, especially the fried yucca, lomo saltado, and incredible ceviche that packs heat. The pescado frito is a filet that's deep-fried and served simply with salsa criolla, rice, and plantains. The best strategy is to go with a group, share, and enjoy every bite. 5511 N. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest Related The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles Sign up for our newsletter.
Chicago Tribune
3 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
CSO hires a new chorus director; cancels next season's MusicNOW series
This week, Symphony Center saw a one-two punch of good news and bad news. On Tuesday, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced that Donald Palumbo, the former chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera, would lead its award-winning chorus on an initial three-year contract — a cheering development for an ensemble that has been without a director since 2022. That was followed on Thursday by word that MusicNOW, the CSO's contemporary music series, would be 'paused' next season. A statement from Cristina Rocca, the orchestra's vice president for artistic planning, said the organization intended to 'imagine new possibilities for connecting Chicago audiences with new music.' Once the domain of the CSO's composer-in-residence, MusicNOW programming is typically unveiled after the bulk of season programming has been announced. Instead, series subscribers were notified of the cancellation via a mailer. Palumbo will prepare the 2025-26 season's previously announced Chicago Symphony Chorus programs: Mozart's Requiem (Nov. 20-23), an Italian operatic potpourri conducted by music director emeritus Riccardo Muti (March 19-21, 2026) and Poulenc's 'Gloria' (May 14-16, 2026). He will also work with the chorus for 'Merry, Merry Chicago!', a CSO holiday tradition (Dec. 19-23). Palumbo spoke with the Tribune by phone between sessions with young singers at Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera Center. Rehearsals were well underway with the Chicago Symphony Chorus for Verdi's Requiem (June 19-24), his debut as chorus director designate. 'The rehearsals of the Verdi have gone really, really well so far,' Palumbo says. 'If I sound like a kid in a candy store, well, I kind of am.' Palumbo is only the third director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus in its nearly 70-year history. At 76, his tenure will doubtlessly be shorter than predecessors Duain Wolfe and founding director Margaret Hillis, the latter leading the chorus for a whopping 37 seasons. But Palumbo — whose remarkable career trajectory saw him ascend from being a primarily self-taught hobbyist musician to the most in-demand choral director in the country — says he's approaching the job like any other. 'I'm going to do my job, and it's going to go on as long as I'm doing a good job, I want to do it, and they want me,' he says. Palumbo's résumé made him a contender to watch after Wolfe's mid-season departure from the chorus in 2022. Prior to his appointment at the Met, the country's most storied opera house, Palumbo directed the Lyric Opera chorus from 1991 to 2007. He is still a known quantity to scores of local singers, including some who sang under him during his Lyric tenure. 'He prepares you in such a way that you feel so understanding of the piece of music that you're doing,' says Chicago Symphony Chorus alto Emily Price, whom Palumbo also hired to the Lyric Opera Chorus in his final season there. 'The language is so important, and the intensity of each line has to be so specific.' Palumbo's preparation of the chorus for two Muti-led programs in 2022 and 2023 — an unstaged 'Un ballo in maschera' and Beethoven's 'Missa solemnis,' respectively — sealed the deal. Muti made his affinity for Palumbo known when, after 'Missa solemnis,' the outgoing CSO music director implored Palumbo to consider leading the chorus 'permanently' in onstage remarks. 'That was very unexpected,' he recalls, laughing. But in time, the prospect began to make natural sense. Palumbo feels he'd done his time in the opera world, where margins are getting ever tighter. At this stage in his career, he prefers to focus on the music — a stated position of Muti, once again his collaborator in the forthcoming Verdi Requiem concerts. The CSO post, Palumbo says, allows him to get down to fundamentals. 'I was just in Japan for a month doing a 'Traviata' production with a chorus of young singers. … I told them, 'For better or for worse, this could be my very last 'Traviata,' and it's your first,'' he says. 'It's a progression.' The appointment comes at a time when the CSO is in need of steady leadership. Klaus Mäkelä, the CSO's music director designate, does not begin his term at the organization until 2027. While he continues to spearhead orchestral hires, Mäkelä did not participate in Palumbo's search committee, owing to the timing of his own appointment, in 2024. 'When we engaged Klaus, we informed him of any number of things artistically that were going on here, including the search for a new chorus director. Knowing that he wouldn't be working with the full chorus for quite a while, he agreed that we should just move ahead and have the committee make the selection,' says CSO president Jeff Alexander. Mäkelä will, however, be part of Palumbo's renewal talks in 2028, which were intentionally timed to the end of Mäkelä's first season. Though Mäkelä and Palumbo are not working together next season, Alexander confirmed they would begin working together on programs beginning in the 2026-27 season. The CSO has pointed to the same contractual awkwardness in its curtailing of MusicNOW, its contemporary music series. Last year, the CSO did not appoint a composer-in-residence, citing the interregnum between music directors Muti and Mäkelä, who have hiring power over the position. (Despite this, the CSO filled a similar gap between Muti and former music director Daniel Barenboim 20 years ago with a twin appointment of composers Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage.) Alexander reaffirmed the CSO's commitment to hiring a new composer-in-residence, 'probably' during Mäkelä's first season in 2027-28. But he acknowledged that MusicNOW, or anything like it, may not be under that person's aegis. 'It may still include some curation of some kind regarding our contemporary music offerings, and the rest will probably remain pretty much the same: writing a new piece for the orchestra each year, et cetera,' Alexander says. Above all, economic factors prevailed. Alexander noted that MusicNOW — essentially a chamber series featuring members of the CSO — tended to follow the ticket-sale trends of those programs, filling just a fraction of Orchestra Hall's capacity. That's despite having costs not usually associated with those programs, like music licensing fees or guest artist expenses. (Featured composers and, occasionally, soloists and conductors were typically flown out for the series.) Instead, Alexander signaled that a short-term strategy may be to program more contemporary music on the CSO's mainstage. Though the CSO's 2025-26 season includes just one premiere (Matthew Aucoin's 'Song of the Reappeared' in December), subscription concerts feature works by 16 living composers: Camille Pépin, Carlos Simon, Thea Musgrave, Unsuk Chin, Jörg Widmann, Paquito d'Rivera, Gabriella Smith, Kevin Puts, Joel Thompson, Jennifer Higdon, Erkki-Sven Tüür, John Adams, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Hisaishi and former CSO composer-in-residence Jessie Montgomery. 'The word we're using is 'pause,' because, as we thought about it, we're a symphonic organization first of all,' Alexander says. 'If we put a contemporary piece on a CSO subscription program and it's performed three times, on a good week, 6,000 people are hearing it. If we put it on a MusicNOW concert, maybe 300 people were hearing it. … Part of our thinking is, let's beef up the contemporary offerings on the CSO main (series). Cautiously, of course. But more than normal.' Rocca's written statement went on to say that 'conversations with the artistic planning team' and Mäkelä 'are underway to guide future plans' for contemporary music programming at the CSO.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Disney+ series showrunner denies hit ‘Star Wars' show is a ‘left-wing' political story
'Andor' series showrunner Tony Gilroy said Thursday he does not believe his 'Star Wars' series is 'left-wing.' In an interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat on his podcast 'Interesting Times,' Gilroy denied that he wrote the show to represent a left-wing revolution against fascist authoritarians. Advertisement 'I never think about it that way. It was never- I mean, I never do. I don't,' Gilroy declared in response to Douthat asking if he agreed the show is a 'left-wing work of art.' The second season of the critically acclaimed series debuted on Disney+ in April. It follows the adventures of Cassian Andor, a key player in the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. He was a main character in the hit 2016 movie 'Rogue One.' Advertisement The show, which lasted two seasons, provides a dark and realistic depiction about how individuals band together to resist a creeping authoritarian government that uses deception, censorship and violence to cement its own power. 4 The second season of 'Star Wars' series 'Andor' released on Disney+ in April. The cast of the 2nd season sat down for an interview on April 14th. Getty Images for Disney In the interview, Douthat said he believes Gilroy's depiction of the rebellion against the empire in the series is distinctly left-wing. While introducing his guest, he said, 'The 'Star Wars' serial 'Andor' has somehow managed to pull off originality within the constraints of a familiar franchise, pleasing obsessive fans and critics alike. Part of its originality is that it has an explicitly political and, to my mind, left-wing perspective on its world, without feeling at all like tedious propaganda.' Advertisement Gilroy admitted the work was political in that it was inspired by his fascination with revolutions in world history. 4 Tony Gilroy (left) told New York Times columnist Ross Douthat that his show is not explicitly 'left-wing.' Interesting Times with Ross Douthat 'The canvas that was being offered was just a wildly abundant opportunity to use all of the nonfiction and all the history and all the amateur reading that I'd done over the past 40 years and all the things I was fascinated by, all the revolution stuff that not only I would never have a chance to do again, but I really wondered if anybody else would ever have a chance to do again,' he said. Elsewhere, he told Douthat that he was particularly inspired by dictatorships throughout history, like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's regime. Advertisement 'I want to pay as much attention to the authoritarian side of this, the people who've cast their lot with the empire, who get burned by it all,' he said. 4 The ''Andor' showrunner revealed the inspiration behind the show in an onstage interview. Getty Images for Disney 4 Andor characters Alastair Mackenzie as Perrin Fertha (left), Genevieve O'Reilly, as Mon Mothma (middle), Stellan Skarsgard as Luthen Rael (right). ©Disney+/Courtesy Everett Collection However, the showrunner denied he meant to portray the empire as a right-wing authoritarian government being undone by left-wing freedom fighters. 'But it's a story, but it's a political story about revolutionary ––' the conservative columnist protested. Gilroy interjected, 'Do you identify with the Empire? Do you identify with the Empire?' 'No, I don't,' Douthat said. 'But I don't think that you have to be left-wing to resist authoritarianism. I see the Empire as you just described it: It's presented as a fascist institution that doesn't have any sort of communist pretense to solidarity or anything like that. It's fascist and authoritarian, and you're meditating on what revolutionary politics looks like in the shadow of all that.'
