“When you imagine a chef creating a dish, you don’t immediately think of a trip to the beach with friends. But that’s exactly what makes Ari Taymor different from so many of his contemporaries. Alma, the restaurant he co-owns with partner Ashleigh Parsons in downtown Los Angeles, serves food that’s personal: pared-down, ingredient-driven dishes made from foraging trips up the California coast and mornings scouring local farms. The style has amassed accolades (Ari was named Food & Wine’s Best New Chef of 2014), and tables at Alma are as hard to come by as a wild chanterelle in a dry spell.
This month, in collaboration with director Andrea Sisson of Lauren-Edward Film and Culture Studio, we traveled up to Rincon Beach with Ari, Ashleigh, and farmer/forager Courtney Guerra to uncover the inspiration behind one of the restaurant’s most beautiful dishes, Central Coast. Named after the shoreline from which its components originate, it features cod, radish, verbena, and coastal herbs. Or, at least it did the morning we made it—the mix shifts depending on what exciting ingredients the team finds. Watch the above video to see how it all unfolds…” Opening Ceremony
Find out more about Opening Ceremony at vimeo.com/openingceremony, and about Alma atwww.alma-la.com.