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LA Times: Carlos Salgado’s Taco María is The Times’ 2018 Restaurant of the Year

Yet no restaurant in years may have had quite the impact that Taco María and its chef Carlos Salgado have had on the Southern California scene. The restaurant, which serves tasting menus of Salgado’s Mexican-influenced cooking, is at the center of a culinary movement that seems to grow in importance each year. By regarding tortillas with a seriousness familiar to any fanatical French baker, by using perfect seasonal produce and by treating regional Mexican dishes with both imagination and respect, Salgado has propelled California-Mexican cooking into the jet stream of abstracted modernist cuisine.

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Daily Pilot: Small Business Saturday brings big crowds and savings to SOCO and OC Mix in Costa Mesa

Big crowds gathered in search of sizable savings during Small Business Saturday at South Coast Collection and the OC Mix in Costa Mesa.

The annual promotion, first sponsored by American Express in 2010, is meant to shine a spotlight on brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop-style shops nationwide, as opposed to big-box and online retailers.

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Daily Pilot: Portola Coffee Lab and other shops will be featured at Small Business Saturday

(Christa Duggan and husband Jeff Duggan run Portola Coffee Lab, which will be featured during Small Business Saturday on Nov. 19 at SOCO and the OC Mix in Costa Mesa. (Kevin Chang / Times OC)

Jeff and Christa Duggan are passionate about coffee — almost to the point of obsession.

That deep enthusiasm about the intricacies among coffee beans is what drove the husband and wife to open Portola Coffee Lab, which has taken root as a favorite among Orange County coffee drinkers who prefer an alternative to mass-produced java.

Portola, along with other Orange County businesses, will be featured Nov. 25 at Small Business Saturday at SOCO and the OC Mix.

 

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At Designer Camp’s first O.C. session, students get a taste of fashion 101

Whhen Kristen Dees and Mercedes Curran made high school visits on behalf of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles to speak with adolescent students, many of the pupils seemed unsure about pursuing a future in the industry.

“It was almost too late, like they were too scared to know if this was something they wanted to do for the rest of their lives,” Dees said. “Some parents wanted tutoring and mentoring geared toward the college-bound kids. But what about the age before that?”

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(Photo by Kevin Chang / TimesOC)

Pastry chef’s sugar sculpture sweetens the pot for O.C. Fair visitors

 

Orange County Fair visitors with a sweet tooth can find a lot to satisfy it on any given day. But most confections on the midway don’t require a blow torch to create.

On Sunday evening, however, award-winning pastry chef and master chocolatier Stephane Tréand wielded fire, canned air and plastic molds to forge an exotic tropical-looking sculpture out of sugar.

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(Photo by Daily Pilot Staff)

OC Pregnancy & Beyond, Ultimate Costa Mesa Stay-Cation

OC Pregnancy & Beyond this Sunday at SOCO!
Calling all mamas and mamas-to-be: The 7th Annual OC Pregnancy & Beyond Event is back again to celebrate pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Enjoy food and music, be introduced to the best of OC’s mother-baby services and products and celebrate the journey of pregnancy, birth and beyond! We’ll also have AMAZING giveaways during the event! Click here to RSVP to this FREE event.
Plan the Ultimate Stay-cation in Costa Mesa!
Stay two nights at one of the participating Costa Mesa hotels – and receive a complimentary $100 dining gift card to SOCO and The OC Mix! Packages starting at just $278, valid when you stay two consecutive nights at a participating Costa Mesa hotel between April 7 – May 29. Act now to take advantage of this amazing promotion. Visit LINK to learn more and book your stay!
LA Times Food Bowl – May 30!
Meet the Chefs and culinary experts at SOCO and The OC Mix on Tuesday, May 30th, 5PM-8PM, as part of the LA Times’ Food Bowl. Enjoy Chef Talks, taste their creations, and then stay for dinner at our award winning restaurants. The OC Food Bank will be hosting these progressive tastes and talks, along with live music in the courtyard. This event is free and open to the public, but we ask that you RSVP here.

LA Times: Celebrated Taco Maria chef heads to Palm Springs

Desert tacos: Chef Carlos Salgado, whose Costa Mesa restaurant Taco Maria has been among the top five restaurants on Jonathan Gold’s best restaurants list for the last two years, is heading to the desert. Salgado was recently named a culinary partner at the Ace Hotel Palm Springs, and he’ll be responsible for revamping the hotel restaurant and bar. The chef took over for Brooklyn’s Five Leaves, the hotel’s former food and beverage partner. Salgado’s new menus will be available Feb. 1. 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 325-9900, www.acehotel.com/palmsprings

 

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Bennett: Think you know Mexican food? Think again

taco-maria

Carlos Salgado doesn’t see borders. Or, rather, 2016 is the year he feels more comfortable crossing them.

It’s something he does both literally and figuratively as one of the main flag-bearers of Alta California cuisine, a creation of Mexican American chefs in Southern California who, in the last few years, have been fusing the skills and techniques honed in California’s fine-dining kitchens with the flavors and pride of their Mexican roots.

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LA Times: Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants

taco-maria

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but I think the coming thing may be nasturtiums, and everything nasturtiums represent. Or wait: It could be vegetarian menus for carnivores. Or activated cashews, or $185 tasting menus that include spot prawns, seaweed and an interesting way to braise carrots.

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