Photography by Peden + Munk for Angeleno magazine.
I’m lifting the first spoonful of celery-root soup to my lips when a camera flashes. Then another. I swivel to see if a celebrity has arrived, but the front door is silent, just a couple of hostesses scrunched over the computer screen. Flash! I turn to look. A young couple is photographing their appetizers: charred Japanese mackerel, and scallops with an apple froth. The mackerel’s silver skin is singed and crinkly. The fish is sliced and propped like dominos, entwined with mizuma, dried pineapple and fried shallots. Flash! I turn the other way. Four elderly women, wielding iPhones, are snapping pictures of their beignets…
