How to eat like the Rich and Famous without Floating a Loan

I met a fellow chef, yesterday at the Interim Café (previous chef owner of Newsroom on Roberston) located on Wilshire at 6th Street inside the Verona building. What a cool place, very varied menu with spot on flavors. Reasonably priced. Take out type of atmosphere with small sit-down area inside and outside. Place is jammed but service is quick! Worth the wait and a lot better than the take out at Whole Foods, in my opinion.I also love the fact that I can always find 2 hour parking right there.

Anyway, my friend who is a fellow private chef gave me a tip on $9.99 a pound of Maine (actually Canadian) lobster, on sale at Santa Monica Seafood, a few blocks away on 10th Street at Wilshire. After lunch, I ran over there and grabbed two 1-1/2 lb live ones.

That evening, I prepared a toned down version of Lobster FraDiavolo with a high quality semolina linguini from Italy. Basically, I was able to put together a restaurant-quality meal for four of us, for less than $40. including the $7 pound of pasta.


2 Lobsters (3 lb total)
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
½ tsp. Chili Flakes (optional)
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Shallot, minced
128 ounce can Muir Glen Crushed Tomatoes (or tomatoes of choice)
2 tbsp. Chiffonade of Basil
¾ lb. pasta cooked, al dente and drained

Place a stockpot with 2 inches of water on stove, salt (2 tsp) and cover; bring to a rapid boil. Quickly drop live lobsters into the pot and cover. Try to keep the boil high so that you don’t let the lobsters suffer more than they need to. Steam the lobsters for approximately 10-14 minutes. Remove and let cool. I save the shell and freeze it for future bisque use. Pull all of the meat out of the tail and claws, chop into bite-size chunks and combine with the juice from the shell. Meanwhile, get your sauce started - sauté garlic and chili peppers in olive oil until lightly browned, then add crushed tomatoes straight from the can. Season the sauce with a little salt and lower the flame to a simmer. After 10 minutes add the basil and continue cooking for another 10 minutes. Now toss the lobster and juice mix into the sauce in pan and heat through. Finally, toss the cooked pasta into the pan and swirl. It’s ready to serve.

We had the pasta dish with toasted Buona Forchetta baguette, rubbed with raw garlic and Vermont Creamery butter. This meal took ½ hour to prepare. Not a bad choice for a Tuesday night. Brought me back to my days of living in Maine.