The one where The Knife tells Wolfgang Puck he should open a vegan restaurant

...And he may have even listened.

This is the scene: Keri Selig and Keith Addis are hosting a Humane Society benefit at their Los Feliz home (one formerly owned by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Will Durant, who wrote an 11-volume something called "The Story of Civilization"). And, as is the custom at Los Angeles charity events of this ilk, Wolfgang Puck is the caterer.

The wine is Bonterra (eco-party wine --organic, not bad, about $120 a case). The food is good, of course: Puck is king of feeding Hollywood troops. Only as I start to fill my plate -- butter lettuce with fennel and orange, soba noodle salad, Israeli couscous with roasted vegetables, red pepper stuffed with lentils -- the obvious dawns on me.

"Is this all vegetarian?" I ask the server, knowing the answer as I speak. Of course it is, you dink. It's the Humane Society.

"Actually," she smiles, "It's all vegan."

That's when I got excited. I'm an omnivore who loves good vegan restaurants like M Cafe de Chaya, Madeleine Bistro and Real Food Daily. And now Wolfgang Puck?

And the food was great. All of it. So much so that when I saw Puck threading his way through the crowd, I tracked him down to ask just one question: "So, when are you going to open a vegan restaurant?"

He laughed. "You think there enough people would go to it?"

Yes! I said, babbling about the crowds at M Cafe and how they were opening another in Culver City and the woman who drove from Malibu to Tarzana to pick up vegan brunch at Madeleine Bistro.

"The thing is," he said, "you have to find people who know how to cook. Fast food, you can have a deep fryer and drop it in the oil and it will taste fine, but for this kind of food..."

That's when another woman interrupted us: "Wolfgang! So when are you going to open a chain of vegan restaurants?"

He laughed again and asked me, "So, where did you say the M Cafe place was?"

Comments

[Foodeater]

If he ever does end up opening a vegan joint, I am so there!