Sona - CITY's 101 Favorite Restaurants

Sona

401 N. La Cienega Blvd., (310) 659-7708

www.sonarestaurant.com

GALLEY CAT

Want a job on the line at L.A.’s Sona? Better brush up on your culinary classics.

“What book are you reading?” is David Myers’ favorite question to ask a potential
new line cook during an interview. Myers, who was among the Best New Chefs selected by Food & Wine magazine in 2003 and whose L.A. restaurant, Sona, most recently received Wine Spectator’s “Grand Award,” insists that a chef’s philosophy is the most important determining factor when buying a cookbook. “It has to have some philosophical quality to it that I could use,” he says. “I look for what it has that’s unique and that maybe I could learn from, that would benefit the restaurant, my team, and me.” Here, Myers selects his own favorites.

—CELESTE MOURE

Charlie Trotter’s

“[This book] just blew me away: his personal philosophy behind what it would take to run a restaurant and be a chef; his commitment to excellence and his drive was remarkable; and the food itself, which is so beautiful. I love that everything about this book was done with such high quality. That really drove me to go up to his restaurant, have dinner, and then see if it was really as good as the book looked like. And it was. I loved it.”
Buy now.

The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller

“This is a great example of modern American French cooking done by a chef who has such a high level of integrity with his work. He really created something from a deep technique with a very clear-cut way to cook or to make something.”
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The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

“I also gave this one to my team to open up a dialogue. I think it’s important to have a philosophical discussion and enjoy the benefits of debate and know that there’s not one closed view. I think it’s extremely important for my team, especially the people in the kitchen, to have the ability to think for themselves.”
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El Bulli 1983-1993 by Ferran Adria and Juli Soler

“It’s essential to understanding the beginnings of one of the most talked-about styles of cooking ever. Nobody’s done what he’s done, used gelatins to the extent that he’s used them, or tapped into temperature contrast like he has. He has created a symphony of Willy Wonka–type elements that are just mind-boggling. I think the culinary world all evolved from him.”
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Letters to a Young Chef by Daniel Boulud

“Inspired lessons told by a master. It’s a really sensitive study on what it takes to be a chef from a very fatherly sort of projection. And it’s great reading. Even if I weren’t in this business, I would read it if I enjoyed cooking. He sent this to me after it printed [in 2003] and then I bought a copy for everyone in my team. I wish I’d had this one before, when I was younger.”
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Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters

“This is a classic that really embodies the heartfelt relationship between organic ingredients and simple cooking. Alice Waters opened a restaurant in the 1960s and it was this little bastion of the intelligentsia of Berkeley coming in and discussing politics and doing it over great wine and locally grown ingredients that were prepared as simply as possible to really showcase the foodstuff itself.”
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