Heather Platt

Los Angeles

Food and Travel Writer at Freelance

Food and Travel.🍳✈️📸💻

Articles

Inside the Kitchen: Seven Questions with Mei Lin

5 days ago | finedininglovers.com | Heather Platt

Despite spending her childhood in the kitchens of her parents’ and relatives’ Chinese restaurants, chef Mei Lin says she initially had no interest in cooking Chinese food. “But as I grew up, and as I started cooking more, I began going back to my roots. I started cooking the familiar, nostalgic flavors I grew up with.
Zen and the Art of California Cooking

1 month ago | finedininglovers.com | Heather Platt

By rejecting imported ingredients and embracing nature’s rhythms, Junya Yamasaki creates a uniquely Californian expression of Japanese cuisine. Chef Junya Yamasaki doesn’t think his story is special. “It’s awfully boring,” he says. To him, his self-taught journey—from a childhood in the Japanese countryside to Tokyo, then Paris, and eventually to London, where he became chef of the acclaimed udon noodle bar Koya—was simply the result of needing a job.
Where to Dine Outdoors in Los Angeles — Resy | Right This Way

1 month ago | blog.resy.com | Heather Platt |Kelly Dobkin

Today 2 Close Remove 2 Add Update Close Tacolina map Silver Lake Inspired by the charming seaside town Todos Santos on Mexico’s Baja peninsula, this Silver Lake newcomer’s lush, vibey, and completely outdoor setting is the perfect way to teleport to a beach vacation. Get into the tropical spirit with Baja fish tacos, a massive grilled skirt steak, or starters like shrimp aguachile and ahi tuna tostada. Wash it all down with margaritas, palomas, or signature cocktails like the Jaguar Paw (gin,...
What to use instead of eggs this Easter? Golf balls, potatoes or pierogis?

1 month ago | latimes.com | Heather Platt

With a bird-flu-induced egg shortage that has caused prices to skyrocket — and consumers, for lack of a better word, to scramble — the term “egg hunting” takes on new meaning this Easter. But will the dearth really have an impact on the pastel-hued spring holiday? According to the internet, where baskets of abound, the answer is yes.
Not Your Grandma’s Wine: Why Los Angeles Is Experiencing a Sherry Boom

2 months ago | foodandwine.com | Heather Platt

Photo: Courtesy of Emily Ferretti When Heather Sperling set out to open her newest restaurant, Bar Siesta, a Spanish tapas bar in the heart of Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood, she was eager to launch the beverage program. “I get to push my sherry agenda,” says Sperling, who also operates nearby seasonal California restaurant Botanica along with co-owner Emily Fiffer.
Capvaxive’s EU Approval and Impact on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention: A Focus on At-Risk Populations

2 months ago | contagionlive.com | Sophia Abene |Heather Platt

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended the approval of Capvaxive (Pneumococcal 21-valent Conjugate Vaccine) for adults aged 18 and older to prevent invasive disease and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. A final decision from the European Commission (EC) is expected by Q2 2025, which, if approved, will extend Capvaxive’s authorization to the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Merck's Capvaxive Pneumococcal Vaccine: EU Approval Progress and Global Access

2 months ago | contagionlive.com | Sophia Abene |Heather Platt

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended the approval of Capvaxive (Pneumococcal 21-valent Conjugate Vaccine) for adults 18 and older to prevent invasive disease and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. The European Commission (EC) is expected to review the recommendation, with a final decision anticipated by Q2 2025. If approved, the vaccine will be available in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Running a restaurant in L.A. seems impossible. So this chef has one employee — himself

2 months ago | latimes.com | Heather Platt

Chef Okay Inak, who grew up in Turkey and spent time in New York cooking at fine-dining institutions Per Se and Eleven Madison Park as well as Mélisse in L.A., is alone in his tiny 16-seat restaurant on an industrial stretch of 12th Street in downtown L.A. It’s his “day off,” which he spends prepping food for the week. Inak has no other staff at Sora because the financial landscape for restaurants in L.A. is soberingly challenging. His only employee is himself.
The best farm-to-table restaurants in California

Nov 14, 2024 | roadbook.com | Heather Platt

To talk about farm-to-table restaurants in California, which grows more produce than any other US state, is to talk about Californian dining as a whole. Here, a locavore ethos began to materialise in the 1960s in response to rapidly industrialising food systems and really took off a decade later when Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse.
'Sideways' turns 20. A generation later, are the kids drinking Merlot?

Oct 11, 2024 | latimes.com | Heather Platt

When director Alexander Payne set out to create the 2004 film “Sideways,” based on the then-unpublished novel by Rex Pickett about two friends’ wine-fueled visit to the Santa Ynez Valley, his intention was just to make a funny film. “I just wanted to make a movie and I loved the fact that it was about wine,” says Payne, who acknowledges he had no way of knowing what the film would become.