John Sedlar
Photo: courtesy of the restaurant
Chef John Sedlar may have earned his stripes under the French legend Jean Bertranou at L'Ermitage, but he came into his own with the introduction of Modern Southwest cuisine at his first restaurant, St. Estephe, a notion he explored further at Abiquiu and Bikini. His latest concept is the wildly popular Rivera (his middle name), which sits a block away from the Staples Center and the LA Live complex. The new venture is on its way to being one of Downtown's dominant destinations – though like the development of Downtown itself, it's taken awhile.
Merrill Shindler: You've been gone from the culinary scene. John – where've you been?
John Sedlar: I was going to take a couple of months off and travel. I wound up taking off 15 years. I did absolutely every single thing I'd dreamed of doing. I had the time to do it all. I went a lot to Spain, Mexico, South America and spent lots of time in Peru, in Central America.
MS: And what brought you back?
JS: I went to a charity dinner at Chez Mélange, where I was invited to cook with other chefs. I found myself wondering why they had asked me. I hadn't cooked in so long. I hadn't been in a kitchen. Working that night with people like Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, I was reminded how much I had missed it. I decided it had been long enough, and I had a lot of new ideas.
MS: How does a chef stop cooking? Isn't it in your blood?
JS: Well, I guess I never really stopped – you're right, there's no way to stop. And people kept knocking on my door, asking me back. I was approached with so many concepts, and I had to relearn a lot of things. I hadn't managed a restaurant kitchen in 15 years. So much had changed. The foods that were available had changed – they were so much better. The vendors and suppliers have so much passion now for what they sell.
MS: Had you kept up with the restaurant scene?
JS: I had. But I also had to reintroduce myself. I was dazzled by the level of quality that had become the standard in Los Angeles. We used to have a few great chefs. Now, we have a lot of great chefs, masters of fusion, highly creative people who work wonders when it comes to transforming raw ingredients. I was dazzled by how good the food had become. And I realized the bar was set very high.
MS: How much does food drive your life?
JS: I take four or five trips a year, and they're always about food. They're always driven by the restaurants, the markets, the street vendors. I love art, I go to the museums. But really, they're a way of filling in the time between meals. If I could, I'd eat all the time.
MS: So, when you were in Peru, did you taste all 2,000 types of potatoes?
JS: Every one I could. The ingredients down there are so earthy, every bite tastes like it comes from the soil – the dried potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the blue potatoes and the many chiles, so many chiles. Coming from New Mexico, I thought we had a lot of chiles. But Peru has so many I'd never seen before. And I tasted all of them.
MS: Did you try the guinea pig?
JS: If you're in Peru, you have to try guinea pig. It has about the same amount of meat that you'll find on a quail.
MS: So ultimately, what brought you to Rivera?
JS: I wanted to get back in the kitchen. I had so many ideas. And then, we found this space, this long space – it's very unusual. I found some wonderful partners, hypercreative. The design of the restaurant is a function of my sense of food. Our designer, Eddie Sotto, he understood that the restaurant had to reflect my life. The bullfighting photos on the wall, the glow from the bottles of tequila – it's all so imaginative. I feel very much at home here. The windows are floor-to-ceiling. The light is amazing. Every ingredient is visible. This restaurant is very much alive.
–Merrill Shindler