ARC Restaurant Is Smmmmokin'

Noah Blom, who now has two restaurants at Costa Mesa's SOCO, cooks everything with wood—and I do mean everything. The four-layered cakes? Baked in an oven with a crackling fire at the back. The fries? Cooked in a cast-iron pot heated by burning...

Leonard Chan might be Costa Mesa's youngest, most prolific restaurant mogul. Though I don't know exactly how old he is, I'm pretty sure Chan has more eateries in this town than anyone in his age group. He began with an outpost of California Shabu...

If the SOCO Collection in Costa Mesa weren't already a cool scene with its permanent farmers' market sheds; the OC Mix; and its eclectic grab bag of hip eateries such as Jeff Duggan's Portola Coffee, Leonard Chan's Shuck Oyster Bar and Noah Blom's...

When I pull the cassoulet from the oven, my kitchen fills with the warm, heady aroma of white beans and duck fat. I know this is going to be good — better than good — even before I poke a spoon into the crisp, crackling skin of the duck confit...

If you watched the Peruvian chef Virgilio Martínez’s episode of “Chef’s Table” last season, you probably remember his encounter with a huatia, the earth oven built as both a celebration of the harvest and as a good if laborious way to cook dinner....