Inside M.A.K.E., L.A.'s Hottest New Raw Food Eatery

This story first appeared in the Jan. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

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Hot New Restaurant -- M.A.K.E.

Raw food is known for being hippie, not haute.

Enter classically trained chef Matthew Kenney, whose plant-based cuisine gets a high-tech makeover at M.A.K.E., his three-month-old cafe dedicated to the uncooked and the unprocessed at Santa Monica Place mall.

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Modernist cooking tools like thermal immersion circulators and high-speed blenders are brought to bear on such dishes as an appetizer of sous vide portobello mushrooms with avocado and coconut “bacon” ($12) and kimchi dumplings with sesame foam ($12).

Kenney -- whose private clients have included Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady -- also has an adjoining cooking school, where pro and amateur chefs can take weekend-intensive classes ($575) in his rigorous raw style. 395 Santa Monica Place.