Cucina Rustica,"the rustic 'kitchen,"is Italian food at its simplest and freshest. With more than 250 recipes that use readily available ingredients in deliciously creative combinations, La Place and Kleiman offer a style of cooking and eating that's inviting, easy, and elegant.
Evan Kleiman is a true culinary multi-tasker. Chef, author, radio host, and restaurateur, she has been called "the fairy Godmother of the LA food scene" for her central role in bringing a community of food people together through her radio show Good Food. As host of the radio show Good Food on KCRW since 1997, Evan has interviewed more than 6000 guests ranging from celebrated chefs to local farmers enabling her to explore every aspect of food and how it intersects with human life.
As proprietor and chef of Angeli Caffe for 28 years Evan's improvisational style, while rooted in the Cucina Povera of Italy shows her reliance on simple ingredients and economical ingenuity to produce delicious and satisfying food with a fresh, honest, pared down aesthetic that people intuitively understand and appreciate. People just get it. The heart stays focused on who is across the table. It's good eating, not haute cuisine dining. When Angeli opened in 1984 Evan was credited with reintroducing rustic Italian cooking to the U.S.
As a natural extension of her longtime exposure to everything to do with food, Evan's interest now extends to issues of food policy and agroecology. The founder of LA's Slow Food Chapter, which she ran for eight years, Evan now serves on the Stewardship Council for Roots of Change and is a member of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. She is an active speaker on issues of food culture and sustainability and just to maintain a balance, is also attempting to become the Queen of Pie.
Evan is the author of six books on Italian food and one video app, Easy As Pie.
