Miguel and Jeremy Fall Break Down LA Food Culture
BY Hena Sharma
“LA is so large, your experience will always depend on who you're with. Different LA people are tapped into different scenes, so it really depends who you’re surrounding yourself with. Make sure you’ve got some good people around you when you come to LA and you'll have a great time.” - Miguel
Grammy Award winner Miguel and restaurateur and Chef, Jeremy Fall may work in completely different fields, but they are brought together by their love of food. Both LA-born and raised, they have witnessed the city’s culinary scene expand and evolve over the years and become one of America’s main food hubs.
“Los Angeles is a cultural melting pot by nature so we have food from all over the world,” says Jeremy, a key personality in LA’s food scene who has three restaurants. The city has a diverse range of immigrant communities which has enriched the culinary landscape and allowed a myriad of cuisines to flourish. From Korean to Japanese and Mexican, Miguel loves that “you can really find great renditions of any food type” in LA. Cross-cultural fusions aren’t uncommon either.
Such fusions in food have been explored in new show “Beats for Breakfast,” a short format cooking show which launched in April on Facebook Watch. Conceptualised and created by Miguel, the series features Jeremy cooking up a dish as Miguel produces a beat. In Episode 5, Jeremy makes a gratin fudido burrito which combines elements of his French, Caribbean and Tunisian heritage with Miguel’s Mexican side -- "a love letter to Los Angeles," said Jeremy on the show.
As LA natives, Miguel and Jeremy have some advice on the best ways to explore the city for the first time:
Find a local with good vibes
“Find someone who knows the city well,” Jeremy says. “There’s such an inaccurate perception that Los Angeles is Hollywood and a three block radius surrounding La Cienega.”
Miguel would agree, and says “LA is so large, your experience will always depend on who you're with. Different LA people are tapped into different scenes, so it really depends who you’re surrounding yourself with. Make sure you’ve got some good people around you when you come to LA and you'll have a great time.”
Explore east
“Venture out to the East Side, there’s a whole world that people don’t know as much about. It’s such a big city and it’s hard to take it all in at once,” says Jeremy.
Skip the touristy stuff
“I’d mix all the touristy activities and try to peel more of the layers back to discover the beautiful cultural melting pot that this city is,” says Jeremy.
Eat!
Jeremy recommends steering clear of Instagrammable avo-toast and opt for LA’s great sushi options. “I may be biased because it’s my favorite food but we just have so many amazing Japanese restaurants here. It’s not necessarily a specific dish but I’d say that anywhere you’re staying in Los Angeles will have access to an amazing local hole-in-the-wall sushi spot.”
Miguel suggests a different but equally as popular cuisine to get stuck into once you’ve landed and exited LAX:
"One word, TACOS. It's all about the quality of the meat and the SALSA at the end of the day."
Whether it’s salmon nigiri or smoked salmon pizza that you’re after, Miguel and Jeremy’s LA food guide has got you covered. Using their local insider knowledge, they take us on a culinary journey around the city, picking out their favourite eateries in their guide.
