Make a Perfect Pairing in LA

By admin
General manager Jacob Shure and chef Steven Fretz of XIV, Perfect Pairings founder Kevin Mark Lodie with Sophie Gayot and a glass of Nicolas Feuillate Champagne

General manager Jacob Shure and chef Steven Fretz of XIV, Perfect Pairings founder Kevin Mark Lodie with Sophie Gayot and a glass of Nicolas Feuillate Champagne

by Sophie Gayot

A few days ago, chef Steven Fretz and general manager Jacob Shure of restaurant XIV in West Hollywood opened their kitchen and bar to launch the Los Angeles portion of the Perfect Pairings campaign.

Perfect Pairings, founded by Kevin Mark Lodie, is a program benefiting local Meals-on-Wheels programs like St. Vincent Meals on Wheels that deliver food and other vital services to thousands of people in need every day.

 

Last October, the program was held in New York City, San Francisco and South Florida. For the first Angeleno edition, over fifty Los Angeles restaurants are taking part. During the month of April, they will feature special food-and-beverage pairings on their menus, flagged by the Perfect Pairings logo. Each time one of these pairings is ordered, a $1 donation is made. GAYOT.com is proud to sponsor the campaign. The full list of participating restaurants can be found at www.perfectpairings.org. There you will find all the details of each restaurant linking back to GAYOT.com and you will be able to make a reservation via OpenTable.

 

For the occasion, two drinks were created (Flying Dutchman and Ultimate Passion) and served at the terrace bar along with four different dishes, and Rosé Champagne from Nicolas Feuillate. After the reception, I moved to the dining room and took the time to taste the evolution of chef Fretz’s cuisine. After the departure of pastry chef Jordan Khan, who has been replaced by SBE corporate pastry chef Lincoln Carson, I also tried some new desserts. The least I can say is that the kitchen team at XIV is in a constant creative mode. It is never twice the same, and these slight improvements make it better every time.

 

Keep coming back to GAYOT.com for more Los Angeles Restaurant News, Los Angeles Restaurant Reviews, Los Angeles Culinary Events and Los Angeles Wine Dinners.

You can click on each photo to enlarge. All photos by Sophie Gayot.