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LIFESTYLE

Watching someone cut a cucumber by whacking it with the bottom
of a large knife or expertly preparing stuffed roasted trout dressed

with tarragon and lemon might sound like a scenario right out of a
4-star kitchen, but it’s really home cooking from a Hubli or Tbilisi-
born immigrant woman in Glendale or Palms.

Learning how to cook from these say ‘Oh, you should go study.
women may sound surreal, but it is Studying is more important,’”
now possible to do in Los Angeles Gross said.
thanks to the League of Kitchens, She added that she thinks this is
which aims to foster connections a very common experience for
across different cultures and show children and grandchildren of
the value of immigrant and home immigrants.
cooking by recruiting exceptional
immigrant home cooks to teach “I really appreciate and
how to cook family recipes in their appreciated that she wanted me to
own homes to strangers. have opportunities that she didn’t
have,” she said. “But what that
Lisa Gross, League of Kitchens also meant is that I never learned
CEO, said expanding to Los to cook from her and neither did
Angeles from New York City, my mom for the same reason. I
where the business is based, also think she didn’t value her
felt like a natural choice, both own cooking skills.”
because of the density of its
diverse immigrant population After college, Gross said she
and of people who are passionate wanted to cook Korean food and
about food and willing to pay tried to teach herself, but without
a premium for interesting food her grandmother’s guidance and
experiences. tips, the food did not taste the
same as she remembered it.
Gross said appreciation of
immigrant food in Los Angeles “Nothing tasted as good as what
is so strong here thanks in part Elmira Avetian dresses a stuffed trout with fresh tarragon. my grandmother made,” she said.
to veteran food writer Jonathan “This became kind of a fantasy of
Gold. and immigrant cooking the value gently corrected a student on how ‘I wish there was another Korean
grandmother that I could cook
“With Jonathan Gold’s legacy, it deserves. to remove tarragon leaves from with and learn her family recipes
because he’s been writing for 20 “Home cooking is such a big the stem properly. and cook with her in her home
years in L.A. about immigrant part of people’s lives in so many “Try to do it like this. See? It’s kitchen.’”
food and immigrant cooking and different cultures, yet the food better than the opposite,” Avetian
valuing a Sichuan restaurant in we normally talk about and said. With the League of Kitchens,
a strip mall in the San Gabriel highlight is that of the chef For Gross, finding someone to Gross sought to correct that.
Valley on the same level as the world, so showing the importance teach her how to cook in this She thought it would be amazing
fanciest French restaurant in of immigrant home cooking way became a dream after her to not only find a Korean
Beverly Hills, there’s really a sense and the value of that skillset [is grandmother passed away, never grandmother who could teach
here of people understanding and important],” Yoon said. teaching her the family’s cooking her to cook, but also find women
valuing immigrant food and being Elmira Avetian is one of those secrets. from all over the world who could
willing to pay for it,” she said. immigrants. Tall and extroverted, “My Korean grandmother lived share their own family recipes in
Besides the experience of she is confident in her cooking in my family when I was growing their home kitchens.
learning to cook, Los Angeles skills but maintains a motherly up and cooked all this amazing “[It] would be an opportunity
manager Jessica Yoon agreed that demeanor towards her students. Korean food all the time, but for it to be as much about cross-
one of the goals of the League of At a recent workshop, as she whenever I would want to help her cultural learning and exchange as
Kitchens is to give home cooking explained how to dress a fish, she in the kitchen she would always it could be about cooking and