Eat. Good. Clean. Food.: Zadi, Park & Haskell To Open a Restaurant in Culver City

Susan Park

braised baby carrots

As it is always a good thing to practice what one preaches, Farid Zadi, Susan Park and David Haskell, who recently formed the restaurant management company FOH/BOH³, are opening -- and managing -- a restaurant of their own. Eat. Good. Clean. Food. (yes, that's the name, not a bumper sticker, although that's a thought) will open in Culver City in mid-September in the Cake Divas space on Venice Boulevard.

The project will combine a restaurant -- think American diner meets French brasserie -- with a retail and prepared foods section and a second kitchen that will eventually be the home of Ecole de Cuisine, the cooking school Zadi and Park opened a year ago. The space will also include a butcher and charcuterie section, and an enclosed patio in the back that will be used for private dining, special events, cooking classes and guest chef demos.

The restaurant will open for lunch in September, then breakfast and dinner sometime in October. Zadi describes his new project as having "a cozy, mom and pop feel, that is if your mom and dad are really great cooks who've traveled a lot and have an international group of friends who are also great cooks." Which pretty much describes Zadi, who is French-Algerian, Park, who is Korean-American, and Haskell, and their circle of friends and family and students. Eat. Good. Clean. Food. will showcase special menus and events on the weekends, says Zadi, that celebrate international cuisines as well as American regional cooking.

As for the restaurant's name, instead of saying something pithy about the joys of minimalism, we just asked Park, who emailed the following explanation: "Because over the years that's what Farid has heard the most about his cooking style, regardless of cuisine. 'It's so good and clean tasting.'" No word yet on bumper stickers.

Eat. Good. Clean. Food.: 9626 Venice Boulevard, Culver City.

A note: Both Farid Zadi and Susan Park are occasional contributors to this food blog. This writer was also a student at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena when Zadi was a chef instructor, although (sadly) she was never in any of his classes.