L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants

George Geary is an award-winning chef, best-selling author, and renowned educator. A former pastry chef for the Walt Disney Company, Geary is a Certified Culinary Professional, and was recently chosen as the Culinary Educator of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He is perhaps best known for creating all of the cheesecakes for The Golden Girls and other top-rated television programs. Geary has worked as a critic and/or judge for ABC’s The Taste with Anthony Bourdain, The American Baking Competition with Jeff Foxworthy, Hell's Kitchen, Supermarket Superstar, and many other popular television shows. He also taught cooking classes aboard Holland America Lines. From 1982 to 2010, Geary was theculinary coordinator of the Los Angeles County Fair. Geary is theauthor of L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants and Made in California, as wellas nine cookbooks including Fair Foods, The Cheesecake Bible, and TheComplete Baking Cookbook. He lives in Los Angeles. Charles Perry is a culinary historian, food columnist, and journalist. He spent 18 years as a staff writer for the food section of the Los Angeles Times and is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on medieval Arabic cuisine. A native Angeleno, he has co-authored and translated many cookbooks, including Joachim Splichal’s Patina Cookbook and Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook. He is the co-founder and president of the Culinary Historians of Southern California.

“L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants is truly a treasure, especially if you grew up in Los Angeles like I did. I loved the stories of how these classic restaurants got their start, and the recipes of some of my all-time favorite dishes I enjoyed both as a child and as an adult are included. The fabled L.A. debate—Who invented the French Dip, Philippe’s or Cole’s?—is retold here and is a legendary Los Angeles culinary tale. I love L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants!”—Nancy Silverton, chef, baker, author, and past winner of the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award“George Geary’s delightful L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants takes you on a tour of an almost forgotten city; it is the food history of Los Angeles—complete with recipes!”—Ruth Reichl, former food editor of the Los Angeles Times and former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine“As in so many other matters, Angelenos have a fine old tradition of not giving a rat’s patootie about what burgs like New York or San Francisco think of us, and George Geary shows us that that goes double for where we choose to chow down. Reading Geary’s grand tour of L.A. gastronomy, I realize that I’ve eaten or drunk in at least a dozen of these places—quite a record for a vegetarian. And if we are where we eat, as well as what, then I’m an L.A. girl all over!”—Patt Morrison, journalist, best-selling author, and radio-television personality“Master chef and culinarian George Geary has combined his dual passions for history—and for food—into a delicious journey through the culinary past (and present) of Los Angeles. It’s a book filled with tasty trivia and yummy memories from the City of the (Very-Well-Fed) Angels.”—Merrill Shindler, editor of the Zagat Los Angeles Restaurant Survey and host of Feed Your Face“Chef Geary’s latest book feels like an exclusive outing to L.A.’s favorite classic dining spots with insider secrets from generations of owners and founding families. The supersize photos and bounteous menus are transportive and hearten us to revisit historic restaurants, while his chef’s collection of recipes offers the promise that we can once again taste favorite flavors from lost legends like Little Joe’s and the Pacific Dining Car.”—Chris Nichols, columnist, editor, preservationist, and author“It’s not simply a dining guide to LA’s oldest eateries and it’s not merely a tribute to the hot spots of yesteryear. Instead, it’s a love letter to those restaurants that helped shape LA.”—LA Explorer“A wonderful illustrated history of over 50 famous Los Angeles restaurants from throughout the 20th century that were not featured in Geary’s first book.”—Entrée Travel“Filled with captivating stories, recipes, and historic photographs, L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants is a must-read for food enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone with an appetite for the extraordinary.”—Luxe Beat Magazine“A delicious, fun-filled trip through the historic Los Angeles food culture scene. . . . It is a work of art! For historians, Angelenos, culture buffs, and fans of food and the City of Angels.”—Haute-Lifestyle.com“Part history, part cookbook, entirely entertaining. . . . I highly recommend this book for the person in your life who loves history and loves to cook.”—The Valley Herald