I'm inspired by the flavors in Southern cooking, but also like the healthy aspects of California's cuisine...I learned to use ingredients straight from the farm...I'll be using lots of seasonal ingredients, and [TART's new] menu will be ever-evolving
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) February 17, 2011
TART Restaurant (http://www.tartrestaurant.com) at Los Angeles boutique hotel, Farmer’s Daughter (http://www.farmersdaughterhotel.com), will officially launch their new, lighter and more refined menu on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. The new menu, created by TART’s head chef, Jamie Colboth-MacLeod, will retain its Southern food roots, but will feature healthier, California-style options with a heavy emphasis on seasonal and farm-fresh ingredients. The new menu will be accompanied by an overhauled cocktail menu, paired perfectly with the new cuisine.
A Tennessee native, Chef Colboth-MacLeod began to cook alongside her grandmother at just nine years old. A Le Cordon Bleu® alum, Colboth-MacLeod’s career has included stints at a country-French restaurant in Los Angeles where the menu changed daily, and at an Illinois nursery/restaurant called “Fragrant Fields”, where the menu included farm-raised fare straight from the on-property farm. Colboth-MacLeod’s cuisine has almost always been centered on seasonal, farm-to-table, country-inspired dishes.
Colboth-MacLeod joined the TART crew just one year ago, starting out on the salad station and quickly moving on to become the restaurant’s pastry chef – a path that is also near and dear to the chef’s heart. During her stay in the Midwest, Colboth-MacLeod started her own dessert catering operation after word about the success of a few of her smaller dessert catering gigs rapidly spread throughout her community. And her reputation for delightful pastries has carried over to her Los Angeles residency: Not only has she popularized TART’s pastries, but in the fall of 2010, the Food Network’s hit series, “Cupcake Wars”, approached Colboth-MacLeod to submit an audition video.
When TART and the Farmer’s Daughter Hotel owners, Peter and Ellen Picataggio, decided to take the restaurant’s menu in a different direction, Colboth-MacLeod seemed the perfect fit to take the reigns as head chef; they wanted to lighten up the existing Southern cuisine-oriented menu, while keeping ingredients local and organic, wherever possible.
“I’m inspired by the flavors in Southern cooking, but also like the healthy aspects of California’s cuisine,” says Chef Colboth-MacLeod. She continues, “In the Midwest, I learned to use ingredients straight from the farm, and plan to carry that practice over to TART’s new menu…I’ll be using lots of seasonal ingredients, and the menu will be ever-evolving.”
And evolution is no stranger to TART and the Farmer’s Daughter Hotel. The Picataggios have always placed an emphasis on keeping things modernized, while maintaining a homey, neighborhood feel throughout the property. While the hotel’s guest rooms have wood flooring and denim bedspreads reminiscent of the “country”, they also feature free Wi-Fi and flat-panel HDTVs. And while TART’s new menu will retain its Southern roots, it will be a more refined, modernized take on the region’s often hearty cuisine.
In addition to TART’s new menu and updated cocktail list, the restaurant will be revamping their wine list to feature a selection of organic wines. The cocktail list will also include home-made infused liquors, along the lines of TART’s own, refined take on “moonshine”.
In keeping with the sense of community and neighborhood that the very word “farm” inspires, along with the new menu launch the Picataggios plan to start a regular series of charity dinners/events to be held at TART, which will each benefit a different local cause (more details and dates TBA).
TART Restaurant is located adjacent to the Farmer’s Daughter hotel, at 115 S. Fairfax Avenue (between 1st and 3rd Streets), Los Angeles, CA 90036. Valet parking is available. TART is open Monday through Saturday for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, as well as Sunday brunch. The restaurant also features a discounted food and drink menu during their “Afternoon Delight”, Monday through Saturday, from 2:30 PM – 7:00 PM. Please check the restaurant’s web site for specific hours of operation: http://www.tartrestaurant.com.
For more information about the restaurant or the new menu, or to make reservations, please call TART Restaurant at 323.556.2608. TART Restaurant can also be found on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tart-Restaurant/29292136997. For Farmer’s Daughter Hotel reservations and/or inquiries, please contact the front desk at 323.937.3930, visit http://www.farmersdaughterhotel.com, or follow the Hotel on Twitter at http://twitter.com/farmdaughthotel.
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