Ari Taymor is an American chef.
In his own words he cooks...
“to feed people.”
ALMA, Downtown LA
“He's helped transform gritty downtown L.A., turning a pop-up into the city's most sought-after dining experience.”
Food & Wine
Newsweek
"My food is personal food," Taymor explains. "It's really about putting flavors and textures and temperatures together in a way that's inspired by memory, or is perhaps something that I want to say. That way I can share a part of my life with people, and leave it open for them to interpret however they want."
Newsweek
“You may have seen dishes like this at Manresa or Coi in the Bay Area, but nobody is cooking quite like this in L.A. at the moment.”
Jonathon Gold, Los Angeles Times
"the...maverick chef responsible for some of the most fascinating and forward-thinking food of 2013"
Newsweek
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
Winner
Best New Restaurant in America
Alma
Bon Apetite Magazine 2013
Winner
Best New Chefs
Food and Wine Magazine 2014
Semifinalist
Rising Star Chef of the Year
The James Beard Foundation 2014
Nominee
Rising Star Chef of the Year
The James Beard Foundation 2015
ALMA at The Standard Hotel
Photos by Julia Stolz
"But while the idea might make half the creative chefs in the world grind their teeth in rage — Alma at the Standard is probably a better restaurant than Alma: more consistent, more evenly paced and more fun. It is filled with people who want to have a great dinner rather than with gourmands looking to tick another famous restaurant off their list. You can have a cocktail if you want one. You don't have to reserve a month in advance.
Taymor's cooking is less precious than it was at his last restaurant — still technical, still digging deep flavors out of plants you have never once bought at Whole Foods, but less fussy somehow, more direct. His clam chowder may be basically an earthy root veloute where the clams (two) share space with cubed celery root and diced ham, but the diced vegetable has the hint of tartness and texture the soup needs."
Jonathan Gold for the Los Angeles Times
via Eater
A Pause
Weakness is something we are taught to be allergic to as cooks. The ideal cook is stoic, unmoved in the face of pain and pressure. I hoped that by sharing this with my cooks, they would see an alternative...we must teach our cooks the value of community — teach them how to cope with stress and depression and support them when they need to prioritize their lives at the cost of our menus and our legacies.
Without the identity of my restaurant and my position, I was forced to start anew, and I created a sense of self that was separate from work. I learned compassion and patience and tried to let go of ego and ambition. I cooked at home again for the first time in years, just purely for the pleasure of it. I started meditating. I opened myself up to advice and guidance from friends and professionals. Instead of burying my hurt, I exposed it.
Ari Taymor
LA Weekly / Eater Los Angeles
Best New Los Angeles Restaurants 2018
Timeout
"In Antoine de St. Exupery’s beloved children’s tale “The Little Prince,” a fox talks to the little prince about taming others through friendship and love and encouraging responsibility towards one another. That’s the philosophy that drives Little Prince restaurant on Main Street in Santa Monica. The owners have set out consciously to create a warm, inviting space that creates community, both in the dining room and behind the scenes."
Sarah A. Spitz
Santa Monica Daily Press
"...wood-fired restaurant that’s pumping out some of Taymor’s most exciting dishes yet. Dinner service was the natural evolution, but feels entirely unique: On weekends, fashionable crowds pile into the Contemporary American restaurant for green chia pudding and the salmon hash with seaweed hollandaise—in the evening, the menu is harder to pin down, each dish clearly a creation of Taymor but distinct and almost always surprising in its own way. Japanese sweet potato topped with coconut chips lulls you into a mellow sense of security before you’re hit with the base sauce of coconut yogurt packed with fresh citrus and Indonesian spices. The sunchoke split is easily one of the most intriguing and confounding desserts in L.A. right now, with its candied sunchokes, smoked ice cream and ash meringue perplexing the tongue"
-Timeout
Photos: Andy and Tegan Noel of Lover Lover
Little Prince, Santa Monica
Hospitality in Mexico
A Gastronomic Journey
Operations and Mentorship in Miami
"Taymor has become a vocal advocate for protecting mental wellness in an industry that can be relentless"
