Meteora Rising: Is Jordan Kahn's Melrose restaurant ready for 2 Michelin Stars? Plus, Opening Cafe Esca Part 4, AKA the ins and outs of designing a menu.

Is Jordan Kahn's Meteora on track for a second Michelin star? On this episode of The LA Food Podcast, we dive deep into LA’s most ambitious fine-dining jungle—Meteora. After falling for Chef Jordan Kahn’s futuristic tasting menu at Vespertine, we head to his Melrose Avenue follow-up to see if the hype (and the hefty price tag) is justified. Is this lush, high-concept, nature-driven restaurant actually deserving of a second Michelin star? We break it down, course by course.

Plus, it’s Part 4 of our Opening Cafe Esca series with chefs Luke Reyes and Reilly Cox. This week, they walk us through the creative (and chaotic) process of building a food and beverage menu from scratch for their upcoming coastal Italian spot in LA’s Arts District.

And don’t miss our rapid-fire Chef’s Kiss / Big Miss segment, featuring TikTok-famous olive oil squeeze bottles, Apple TV’s new chef series, and maybe the most aggravating pizza guy on the internet.

Helpful Links:

Meteora https://meteora.la/

TASTE on those pesky squeeze bottles https://tastecooking.com/the-big-squeeze/

Careme preview, per The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/arts/television/careme-french-chef.html

Eater on Texas Strip https://ny.eater.com/2025/4/25/24416858/texas-renaming-new-york-strip-steak-bill-texas-strip

Opening Cafe Esca Part 1 https://open.spotify.com/episode/19HDiV4o0i2dP9ZZ7B7E9B

Part 2 https://open.spotify.com/episode/7DoKDMtS74ngrVzjBBkzXI

Part 3 https://open.spotify.com/episode/7J8MZ7HGuMIdRvq6zYezUy?si=hXmPzXKrQ9uwKktH3tIEuw

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