Ben Starr

The Ultimate Food Geek

Tag: Los Angeles

  • “Ambassador Hotel” Black Bottom Pie

    The “black bottom pie” is an ancient staple of Southern home cooking…most often found at church potlucks, family reunions, and Sunday suppers.  It’s not common in home kitchens these days, but a unique institution in Los Angeles, of all places, gave this regional favorite a solid spot on the national dessert roster.  The Ambassador hotel…

  • MasterChef Where Are They Now: Tracy Kontos

    For the next installment of my MasterChef: Where Are They Now? series, I’ve chosen one of my personal favorites from Season 2…Tracy Kontos.  Tracy is one of those people that, upon meeting, you instantly feel like you’ve been bosom buddies for decades.  She immediately sweeps you into this comfortable familiarity and makes you feel like…

  • Burning Man 2012: The Pilgrimage

    If you’ve been following me since my season of MasterChef aired last summer, you know how fanatical I am about the Burning Man festival.  Trying to describe this event is practically impossible.  Each summer 60,000 people from all over the world assemble on a dry desert lake bed in northern Nevada and build a city…

  • Los Angeles and Burning Man

    So I am so sorry that it has been so long that I have posted a blog. At the moment I’m in my car heading north on I-15 towards THE BURNING MAN Festival. My bestie Chris AKA Doug Jacobson is typing this as a dictate. But first things first… Los Angeles! I arrived on L.A….