HotelChatter

We can’t blame S. Irene, as she’s affectionately (or passive-aggressively) called. Los Angeles is not exactly known for its chemistry of the kitchen, despite the latest trend in many upscale restaurants around town to throw everything in their brand new sous vide cookers. This is a different form of cuisine than “farm-to-table,” the oft-repeated mantra of California fusion.

Instead, Andrés’ focus is on concentrating the essence of flavors through culinary manipulation. It involves a level of playfulness and showmanship that Virbila, and the rest of L.A.’s food community, have clearly been missing.

Virbila gives a giddy account of the dishes she tried, like caviar cones with crème fraiche or paddlefish with cauliflower cream. Then there are the foie gras lollipops with vanilla-scented cotton candy on a stick. She giggles at Andrés’s version of Adrià’s mythical “spherical olive” that concentrates the essence of green olives and olive oil into a thin gelatinous shell. “Magic,” Virbila sighs.

In the midst of this gloomy restaurant climate,” effuses Virbila, “the Bazaar arrives like fireworks bursting in the night. Bite by bite, the restaurant delivers an intoxicating magic.

Well, it certainly has put her under its spell.

All cattiness aside, we do credit Verbila’s masterful description of the cuisine, but perhaps our favorite moment of the review is her description of the “blinged-out hip-hoppers” sitting nearby whose “stony-faced” silence was only “thawed” by some “magic mojitos” that involved more smoke, or “dragon’s breath” as Andrés calls it, to shoot out your nostrils after each sip.

Pretentious? Maybe just a little, but get your own blinged-out posse together and head down to the Bazaar, and see just how many times you can get wisps of “fog” to swirl from your nose. [Photo: Eater LA]