Rivera
Los Angeles
1050 South Flower Street, 213-749-1460; riverarestaurant.com
By John Mariani
Photo credit:Eddie Sotto It becomes very clear very quickly when a chef is having a ball, and John Sedlar is having a ball. You can tell by the fresh, hot tortillas with Yucatan-style charred-habanero "dog snout" salsa, named for the chiles that make your nose run like a Chihuahua's. But he is dead serious that Mexican food — careful, high-end Mexican food — should get as much respect as French and Italian cuisine, and he makes his case with wonderful dishes like braised barbecued pork short ribs with toasty, dried-guajillo-chile sauce. He corroborates it with sea trout suffused with aromatic, saffron-colored quinoa, which takes on a piquancy from yellow gazpacho sauce. Some of the food packs heat, but Sedlar is not interested in spiciness unless there are levels upon levels of flavor and texture. By the time you get to the crunch and heat of wild striped bass with tomatillos and tempura-fried chiles, Sedlar has ended any debate over whether true greatness can come from the humble food culture he so loves. Even if he does serve chapulines, which are grasshoppers.
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