Photo Credit: Nastassia Clucks Ari Taymor has resurrected Alma—the restaurant Bon Appetit named best new restaurant of 2013—for a short time only inside the Standard Hotel, Hollywood.
Fans of the brick and mortar restaurant, which sadly shut its doors on Oct. 24, will flock to the pop-up, which runs through the end of February. In a bid to become more accessible to all, Taymor and partner Ashleigh Parsons’ are offering a la carte selections only, unlike the high-end tasting menu available at their former downtown location.
Here, Taymor is making himself (and his fare) even more accessible, by sharing the secret recipe to one of his most beloved dishes—his english muffin with uni, burrata, caviar and licorice herbs. He also gave Haute Living an inside look into what goes on in his kitchen…and what tunes he rocks out to when preparing his award-winning fare.
Photo Credit: Nastassia Clucks
ARI TAYMOR’S RECIPE FOR ALMA’S ENGLISH MUFFIN WITH UNI, BURRATA, CAVIAR AND LICORICE HERBS
These are our most popular snack and are the perfect highbrow-lowbrow mash up. (Any leftover dough can be used to make breakfast sandwiches when hungover from NYE festivities the next day, just double each portion of dough).
600g bread flour
22g yeast
5g water
400g buttermilk
70g butter
22g salt
50 g sugar
One large tray of uni (sea urchin can be found at most high quality Japanese grocery stores)
One container of burrata gently mashed with a fork
One small tin caviar
One small bunch of fennel picked
One small bunch of tarragon picked
One small bunch of dill picked.
- Mix the flour and salt together
- Pull the butter out to come to room temperature
- In a sauce pan, gently warm the buttermilk water and sugar together. bring to around 105 degrees (warm to the touch)
- Add the yeast to the liquid and let bloom 5-7 minutes
- Place dry ingredients into a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Turn on and in a slow stream add the liquid and yeast mixture. Mix for about 5 minutes until the dough appears smooth. Add the room temperature butter in small pieces making sure each piece is completely mixed in. Let dough mix for 3 more minutes until smooth and tacky.
- Set in fridge overnight to proof.
- When ready to bake
- Preheat the oven to 350,
- Roll out each muffin in a 30g ball.
- In a warm cast iron skillet brushed with a little butter place each ball and gently push down. Let muffin cook on that side (like a pancake) checking after 3 minutes for the first hint of color. Flip muffin, continue flipping back and forth until each muffin has an even golden coating. (up to 5 or 6 can be done at once depending on the size of the pan) Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes turning the tray after 5
- Cool.
- To serve for 30
- Slice each muffin in half and toast. Top with a small spoon of burrata, one tongue of uni, as much caviar as you like and top with herbs.
Photo Credit: Nastassia Clucks
ARI TAYMOR’S KITCHEN PLAYLIST
The Growlers: Big Toe. This is a really awesome band one of my managers Celina played for me. Nostalgia is a big part of cooking for me and these guys bring that feeling out in me.
Howlin Wolf: Back Door Man. I was raised on music like this. My dad loves this song, I do too. Its just packed with energy.
Allah-Las: Every Girl. Another LA band. These guys have an incredible retro sound, and the music they play makes you feel deep in the southern california vibe and culture.
Vince Staples: Lift Me Up. One of the newer generation of southern ca rap artists. He has a lot of emotion behind his lyrics and the energy is really infectious. This always gets my cooks really excited even if they are exhausted.
Kool John and P-LO: Blue Hunnids. I am from the Bay area, I love Bay area rap.
G-Eazy: Almost Famous. Really unique sound and vibe. Old school, great style and killing it. Im always stoked when people from northern ca blow up. And he’s a really nice person on top of it all.
Party Baby: Everything’s All Right. This is my friend Noah’s band. They are loud and cynical and somehow it still feels like pop music. Its really, really good
Travis Scott: Mamacita. A bunch of my friends work at the DFM in LA. They are always way more clued in than me when it comes to new music so thats how I fist heard of Travis Scott, who i think is one of the best artists period right now.
Nancy Sinatra and Keith Hazelwood: Summer Wine. Just a really rad, dreamy song.
Marilyn Manson:Tainted Love. I really like his cover of this song. It has a completely different feel than they original but you can still feel it under there. Plus everyone knows the words to this song so you’ll catch people singing along more often than not.
The Alma pop-up runs from December 8 through the end of February, Sunday to Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to midnight.
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