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Michael Voltaggio serving sandwiches

Not only will the LA Film Festival feature prominent cinematographers, directors and movies, but the annual week-long string of events will celebrate other art forms -- like food. To that end, Los Angeles chef Michael Voltaggio (Ink, Ink.sack) has been chosen to be an Artist in Residence for this year's festivalT.

On June 20 at 7:50 p.m., Voltaggio will present a screening and discussion of Dinner Rush (2000), an independent film directed by Bob Giraldi that follows one evening of a New York restaurant whose staff works both in the kitchen and with the mob. Voltaggio will discuss how films like Dinner Rush inspired his work as a chef.

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Ryan Abelman

Chef Michael Bryant

In Los Angeles, hitting the 40-year mark usually means it's time for a facelift. So when 41-year-old West Hollywood restaurant Mirabelle announced it would be closing for some updates, customers needn't have been shocked.

What could rightfully come as a surprise, though, is the culinary direction the former Californian/Mediterranean restaurant is taking: Owners George and Lenore Gemanides have brought in chef Michael Bryant (Palihouse, Father's Office, Norman's), who will be developing a "seafood charcuterie" menu for the restaurant.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Pastry Chef Sally Camacho's Ovaltine Candy Bar at WP24

These past six months have been a game of musical chairs in the pastry department at two Wolfgang Puck restaurants. When pastry chef Sally Camacho left WP24 to oversee the pastry program at the reopening Wolfgang Puck at the Hotel Bel-Air, Cassie Ballard stepped in at WP24 with her own dessert menu. In late November, the two flip-flopped; Ballard shifted to the Hotel Bel-Air and Camacho returned to WP24. (Changes in the main kitchen, too: Chef John Lechleidner recently replaced Sara Johanes.)

After cooking her way to the finals of Top Chef Just Desserts and winning third place in the Valrhona C3 World Competition in Madrid (the highest an American has ever placed), Camacho is, once again, reworking the dessert menu at WP24. She has a few new tricks, including a fantastic Ovaltine "candy bar" inspired by a Quickfire challenge she won on Top Chef.

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JeremiahTower.com

Jeremiah Tower on the beach

Cookbook collectors, get moving. Speed is necessary if you're going to snag a choice book from the collection that celebrity chef Jeremiah Tower has sold to Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco.

"They've gone fairly quickly," says rare book expert and store owner Celia Sack. But you can still pick up such hot items as Tower's 1912 edition of Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier ($400) and La Cuisine de Tous les Pays by Urbain-Dubois ($450).

Even better, you could grab Tower's beat-up, taped-together copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which bears the tangible imprint of hands that turned out brilliant food at Chez Panisse and Santa Fe Bar and Grill in Berkeley, Stars in San Francisco, the Peak Café in Hong Kong and other top spots. "You can tell it really inspired him," Sack says. Tower's signature is inside, which makes it a steal at only $75.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Pizza!

Chef Bruce Kalman recently took the reins as exec chef at Urbano Pizza Bar in downtown L.A., replacing chef Brad Winnaman. Kalman was the opening chef at The Misfit in Santa Monica, where he favored a market-driven menu, specifically a Santa Monica Farmers Market-driven menu.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Mussels at Mohawk Bend

[Update: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that St. Clair and Pele had been replaced at Golden Road Brewpub by chef Adam Levoe.]

When beer-centric, vegan-friendly Echo Park mega-bar Mohawk Bend opened in July 2011, it was with chefs Sera Pelle and Randal St. Clair. The new executive chef is Mike Garber, formerly of BLD and Whist at the Viceroy. (St. Clair oversees the menu at Tony Yanow's Tony's Darts Away while Pele still consults on the vegan menu at Mohawk Bend.)

Since taking over the kitchen in January, Garber has begun revamping the menu, adding items like vegan Buffalo-style cauliflower and PB&J pizza (topped with pineapple, bacon and jalapeno). Along with beer queen Paige Reilly, he also launched a monthly beer pairing dinner featuring a different out-of-state brewery.

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John Lechleidner; Chow Fueng rolls at WP24

WP24 has a new chef de cuisine in John Lechleidner. A veteran of the Wolfgang Puck group who has cooked at Postrio at the Venetian, Spago at the Forum Shops at Caesars, Wolfgang Puck American Grille at the Borgata and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at L.A. LIVE, he replaces Sara Johannes. Lechleidner will work under executive corporate chef Lee Hefter.

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A. Scattergood

chef Evan Funke at Rustic Canyon

Chef Evan Funke is leaving Rustic Canyon, where he has been executive chef since 2008, and Milo & Olive, which he recently opened, effective Feb. 28. Funke (pronounced Funky) confirmed late last night that he's resigned, very amicably he'd have you know, to work on his own projects, about which more later. But before he's opening anything, the chef is going to Spain. Of course he is. "I'm incredibly eager and excited to be moving forward with my own projects," Funke emailed, "which will begin after I return from Spain." As for who Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan will get to fill Funke's very large clogs (well, not literally), we'll let you know.

Lobster photo by e*star LA

Chef Damon Gordon (left); lobster at the Water Grill (right)

Recently reopening after an extensive renovation, Water Grill also has a new face behind the stoves: executive chef Damon Gordon. He takes over the kitchen of the posh seafood restaurant after 16 months of musical chairs.

Longtime chef David LeFevre, who left in September 2010 to open MB Post, was replaced by Top Chef alumn Amanda Baumgarten. She lasted only eight months. Since September 2011, the restaurant has been without a new chef.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Raspberry Royale

Known more for its unabashed luxury, its vertigo-inducing views of downtown L.A., its "tiny, crunchy triangles of the best shrimp toast you have ever had," WP24 has always had a secret weapon: its desserts.

Courtesy of WP24

WP24 pastry chef Cassie Ballard.

Though they didn't garner a ton of attention, the desserts under former pastry chef (and Top Chef: Just Desserts competitor), Sally Camacho, were stunning. Now that Camacho has moved to the Bel Air Hotel to oversee the pastry program at the new in-house restaurant Puck plans to open, the mantle has been passed to Cassie Ballard.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas who spent several years working under Jean Francois Suteau at The Beverly Hills Hotel, Ballard has incorporated the restaurant's loose pan-Asian theme into six new desserts, which she will roll out gradually over the next month. So far, only the Tobu Bananas and Bird's Nest have hit the menu, but we got a sneak peak at the new sweet treats about to hit the menu.

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