Aleksandra Crapanzano is a Brooklyn-based food writer who's also a screenwriter, so she considers Los Angeles her second home. She's the author of "The London Cookbook" and a new cookbook titled "Eat. Cook. L.A."
For the new cookbook, Crapanzano collected 100 recipes from Los Angeles restaurants, food trucks, coffee shops, juice bars and cocktail lounges, retooling the recipes as needed for home cooks. The book provides an insider's view of how L.A.'s culinary culture has evolved in recent years. "The City of Angeles is now sparkling with culinary stardust," she writes in the book's introduction. "It has, in a remarkably short time, transformed itself into the most exciting food city in the United States."
This recipe from the cookbook is by Ted Hopson, chef and co-owner of the Bellwether, a gastropub in Studio City. Crapanzano describes it this way: "This is, to me, the taste of Los Angeles today: homegrown avocados spun into a luscious green hummus and topped with a fresh za'atar salad."
