Do you think the price of dining in Vancouver is high nowadays? Try Los Angeles

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maude

Where: 212 South Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills

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When: Dinner, from Tuesday to Saturday.

Kali

Where: 5722 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles

When: Dinner, from Wednesday to Sunday.

Information: 323-871-4160. kalirestaurant.com

I once interviewed cookbook author Curtis Stone in the newsroom. The female heads turned in unison, watching the tall and handsome chef walk towards the interview room. Today, he has more than a cookbook and kitchen utensils.

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When I was recently in Los Angeles, I went to one of their Michelin-starred restaurants. He operates two and both are named after his grandmothers: Gwen is a steakhouse and Maude, the one I visited, is all about the bounty of California.

Let me start with this. It’s easy to complain about the high price of dining in Vancouver these days, but we have nothing on American cities. I would compare Maude to the one star published in Main in Vancouver for her innovative thinking and showcasing local ingredients. At Published, the tasting menu, with 11 courses, mignardise and take-out chocolates from Beta 5, costs $165 per person. My nine-course dinner at Maude cost $292 Canadian and is one of the 18 most affordable Michelin-starred restaurants in Los Angeles. There are five two-star restaurants and no three-star restaurants in Los Angeles. Vancouver has nine one-star restaurants.

But I have no regrets: dinner at Maude was a superlative experience with delicious food and painstaking, meticulous technique. Even the three one-bite snacks that started the meal showed surgical precision. They included pai tee shells, filled with mashed avocado, blue corn, fermented fresno pepper, and trout roe; and yellowfin tuna toast with blue corn, passion fruit chili gelée, tomatillo and coriander flowers: they express the DNA of chef de cuisine Osiel Gastelum, with roots in Mexico and extensive experience at the three-Michelin Atelier Crenn in San Francisco and the two-Michelin Somni. in Los Angeles The menu is largely that of Gastelum, with the final approval of Stone, who is busy running several other businesses.

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The second course at Maude was a beautiful still-life tribute to Santa Barbara lobster. A lobster tartare topped with slices of Persian cucumber and purple flowers, set against a bright red aguachile. On one side, a lobster-shaped tuile, topped with smoked lobster head aioli.

Purple sea urchins, an invasive “zombie” species that is damaging local seaweed that is crucial to marine life, were served in their shell, atop sabayon sea lettuce, white sturgeon caviar and Page mandarin orange. Zombies can be delicate and tempting.

Next, local beets shone in the prism of cut glass glasses: smoked beetroot, Golden Kaluga caviar and beet vinegar were layered on toasted buckwheat chawanmushi.

The cultured red abalone and cabbage looked like edible jewels framed against a plate that looked like seaweed. The roasted abalone and cabbage, each thinly sliced, were rolled and cut to form yin-yang semicircles. Oaxacan mole and abalone liver sauce were spread over the abalone; tiny flowers flickered against the silky cabbage.

Homemade scones and cultured butter were served next. I wondered why, in the middle of a tasting menu. “It has a purpose,” Gastelum said in an interview. “It’s like the Italian scarpetta. The next plate has sauce and I really want you to clean the plate with that bread.”

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The live-caught black cod, commonly called sablefish in Vancouver, was served with a beautiful deep, smoky, blackened morita chile ash sauce, and the bread drained every last bit from me. That plate was rimmed with cocoa beans and clams.

The next dish separated the gourmands from the gourmets: a whole quail, boned and stuffed with a farce of their fillets and charcoal-smoked black trumpet mushrooms. He scoffed, sitting on a silky sauce with hints of foam and a group of three sandwiches to accompany it. I just jumped in and reached the finish line.

And then another dish, too tempting for a no thanks: a plate of luxurious local triple cream cheese, cream and milk, injected through a CO2 canister and served with black truffle and celery root on the bottom and black truffle on top. Too delicious to snub.

For dessert, guests go up to the wine cellar. Surrounded by 3,000 labels, we were treated to desserts: three in total. A chamomile and makrut lime honey ice cream with candied kumquats on olive oil ground; white chocolate and lemongrass namelaka ravioli filled with pistachio cream served with buttermilk ice cream; and the spectacular, a transparent sugar sphere filled with whipped vanilla yogurt, rhubarb and hibiscus compote with microwaved tarragon sponge cake. Making the glassy sphere requires glass blowing skill. “You have to do it quickly and at the right temperature,” says Gastelum. “By putting air in the sphere, if you press too hard, it can explode.”

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We finished our desserts, but asked that the mignardise (macaroni, chocolates and profiteroles) be packaged for a midnight snack.

Maude’s spectacular wine list focuses on France, California and Italy. The cellar is especially deep with Burgundy, Sangiovese, Chardonnay and sparkling wines, including an impressive number of vintage champagnes. It may seem surprising that Australian wines are so well represented (here’s your chance to choose from several vintages of Penfolds Grange if your pockets are deep enough) until you remember that it’s Stone’s home country.

• Kali in Hollywood is another good value one star restaurant I visited. A nine-course tasting menu costs about CAD$340 per person, but we opted to order it a la carte. Less was more after dining at Maude’s the night before. Entrees run $43 to $68, but meat and poultry dishes from the dry-aged refrigerator run $65 or more. This, in a casual, free room with waiters in jeans and relaxed guests in T-shirts and sneakers.

The farmers market salad screams your stance on local, seasonal farmers market ingredients. The Santa Monica farmers market ingredients, alive and floating fresh, included blackberries, peas, blackberries, baby greens, as well as nuts and seeds.

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The velvety leek and potato soup had grated potato chips lurking at the bottom of the bowl and dots of fresh cream and herb oil on top. My main course, a sea urchin pasta with homemade spaghetti, was another use for those zombies. A delicious dish, with uni mixed into the creamy sauce and a whole one on top of the pasta, hidden beneath a foamy ricotta buttermilk.

The local duck breast was presented simply with jam and carrots. It was wonderfully tender and ducky.

Dessert was meringue ice cream with grated sugar-cured egg yolks. I asked how the meringue was included in the ice cream, but was told offhandedly, “It’s just eggs, cream, and sugar.” Was the server referring to whipped egg whites? But he was no longer there.

The wines focus on California and France, with a strong selection of Burgundies. There are also many German wines, including a great selection of Riesling.

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