Patina

Each year around the Christmas holidays, my husband Peter and I spend an evening at the L.A. Philharmonic. Instead of giving each other Christmas gifts (since we have everything we need), we share a nice dinner at Patina (which is next to the Disney Hall) and it makes for a special yearly event. This season we had tickets to hear the Count Basie Orchestra, and it was a lively evening filled with jazzy holiday fun.

The show started at 8pm, so we had an early 5:45 reservation at Patina. This was on December 22, which coincidently fell in the middle of their famous truffle dinners. The Black and White Truffle dinner was held a few days before our reservation (on 12/19), and I knew there were upcoming truffle dinners scheduled. I was hoping there were truffles leftover from the event because I’d never tasted a WHITE truffle.

No such luck! We did get to feast on some beautiful black truffles though and I made sure the rolling cheese cart never left our table for too long. It was another wonderful holiday celebration that included our two favorite things in life … food and music.

Black Truffle Risotto

The LOVELY Cheese Cart

Cheeses

Soumaintrain (on the left) is a really stinky French cheese with a taste that is both sweet and salty. It tasted similar to Epoisses but was actually creamier. It was my favorite cheese of the night. more info

Whisky Cheese tasted like whisky and cheese! I liked it. more info

Toma Bleue was a sharp blue cheese.

Ski Queen (the brown cheese) is soft and sweet. more info

Monte Enebro (far right) is made from goat’s milk and very pungent. Rolled in ash, it was really soft and spreadable. more info

Saint Pierre for Two. Saint Pierre (aka John Dory) baked with a grilled sage, sunchoke-sesame puree, wild arugula, toscane extra virgin olive oil jus.