Saint Estephe? John Sedlar?

[Will Owen]

Got a cookbook full of really silly neo-Southwestern fusion madness by a guy who had an area restaurant called Saint Estephe, back in 1986. I'm not gonna waste bandwidth on it here, but if you want to read my post on the Not About Food board the URL is attached. I would like some feedback if anyone knows anything about any of this...and thanks!

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

[Jerome]

Sorry - haven't gone to the other board - but I did eat at St Estephe a few times in the 80's. One time, it was paying off a debt.
The food was beautiful. The kachina masks of three caviars was delicious and probably the most beautiful presented plate I've seen (that includes carvings at Chinese banquets). Many of the things he started were later adopted by other chefs, esp. the platings. The food was fanciful, unusual, but unlike much of the 80's nouvelle madness, actually worked. It's no different than the japanese heavy marriage that was going on in French with cuisine nouvelle, and cuisine minceur -the Eugenie-les-bains trend.

The oddest thing was the location, a shopping mall, next to a dry cleaner. Inside, there were no windows, and you really had the feeling of being somewhere quite apart and special. Walking out the door into a shopping center was quite a kick in the head.

How sad that the book is such a disappointment. I have fond memories of that place.

[condiment]

I also had some amazing meals at St. Estephe. Twenty years on it seems a little odd to say, but Sedlar was the very first guy to marry Southwest ingredients and French technique: he had cooked at l'Ermitage, and his first St. Estephe menus were purely French. He predated Mark Miller's Southwest menus at Fourth Street in Berkeley (and later at the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe); he predated Dean Fearing. And the mainstream may have gotten around to blue-corn tortillas, black beans and chiles in expense-account restaurants, squirt bottles of chile sauce and green-chile vinaigrettes without Sedlar, but then again they may not. His plating has never been equaled.

``Modern Southwest Cuisine'' was, I think, always intended more as a souvenir of the restaurant than anything a casual cook might actually make dinner from, but I am pleased to have it in my collection.

[LesThePress]

I thought the presentation at St. Estephe was quite elaborate but there was no taste to it.

Abique had terrible food AND service.

I actually liked Bikini, but it didn't last long.

He was the 'hot chef' in the 80's, but sort of faded into oblivion.

[EAO]

Saint Estephe was cutting edge for Los Angeles dining during its heyday. John Sedlar went on to open and close several short lived restaurants like Bikini which turned into Abiquiu.

He was the concept/consulting chef for Encounters restaurant at LAX - then I heard that he was producing gourmet tamales that were being sold at Bristol Farms and Whole Foods...

[budlit]

I also have the book (although I think I gave it away). Beautiful photographs, I have eaten at Abiqui when it was in Santa Monica. The platings were beautiful, but the food was very ordinary tasting. I went with 6 people and I remember none of us enjoyed the food. We were all wondering why the food was so mediocre, when we noticed that Chef Sedler spent his time preening about the dining room instead of in the kitchen. We never went back.

[sel]

I only went to St. Estephe once and I remember having a wonderful time, the food was plated beautifully AND it tasted so good. I was a full time student at the time and this was too expensive but if I could have gone more often I would have! I wish that I had John Sedlar's cookbook and the one that he wrote with Stephen Pyles!

St. Estephe was very highly regarded by my very first chowsource, the long gone, who knows where, Paul Wallach of KIEV 870 AM radio and several restaurant guide books fame. I followed his recs on what dishes to order, memory isn't what it used to be, actually it never was that great, but both the Chile Relleno Stuffed with Mushroom Duxelle and Corn Husk Tamales Filled with Sea Bass and Cilantro followed by a Cactus Pear Sorbet would be worth a repeat performance if available today.

As the place that J. Gold liked for SW grub closed the day after I went, where else is there within the confines of this board, for good to great SW chow?

Former location (What's there now?):
St. Estephe
2640 N. Sepulveda Bl.
Manhatten Beach, CA

[carter]

Reed's restaurant has been in that space since 1993, and is quite a good restaurant, yet hardly the stuff of Sedlar's stature.
310.546.3299

[sel]

Although I haven't been to Reed's for about 2 years, I have been there for probably nearly a dozen excellent lunches. Ya know, I didn't even remember that St. Estephe's was in there!

[FED]

st. estephe was a very amazing restaurant. truly beautiful presentations and very, very pure new mexican flavors. of course, this was before plating became a fetish and half of la had santa fe summer homes. it did well, but he wanted to try a bigger pond than manhattan beach and went to santa monica. he also branched out into cuisines with which was not quite so familiar. perhaps predictably, the restaurants did not last.

john is now doing a line of gourmet tamales and he is putting together a tamale museum of border foods. i understand there is a small portion of it on display at the pico house near olvera street.

[jose]

Sedlar had no staying power. He was one of those guys who got lucky and rode the wave restaurant popularity in the early 80's. Nothing to write home about.

[mlgb]

He's back, at the highly-regarded Rivera restaurant downtown, near LA Live.

Apparently he was off selling tequila!

Amazing cocktails there, and a recent lunch was quite good ( I had basic salmon filet that was highlighted by lime rind confit). And the crema catalana dessert, yum!

They now have a reduced price late night menu.

-----
Rivera Restaurant
1050 S. Flower Street, #102, Los Angeles, CA 90015

[PlonkMan]

St. Estephe was good, Abiquiu was good, the cookbook was a flippin' nightmare. Labored for miserable hours on one recipe and it came out badly. And I swear it wasn't our fault...