Bon Appetit just released their 50 best restaurants in the country.  They will narrow this down to a Top 10 on August 14th and then name the best one.  I’m sure all of that will be great but until then, all I really care about are these five restaurants here in LA.  You already know that Hinoki & the Bird is one of my faves.  But there is another on this list who JUST MIGHT cook for an upcoming Eat+Drink Supper Club event.  Keep an eye out!

Bon Appetit’s 50 Best New Restaurant Nominees 2013

ALLUMETTE: 1320 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA; 213-935-8787 

ALMA: 925 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA; 213-244-1422 

BAR AMÁ: 118 W Fourth St., Los Angeles, CA; 213-687-8002 

CHI SPACCA: 6610 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA; 323-297-1133 

HINOKI & THE BIRD: 10 Century Dr., Los Angeles, CA; 310-552-1200 

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I love all the new, exciting foods coming out of Iowa and our country overall.  Amazing time to have a love affair with American food and the natural, healthy, organic American food business.

Some Prosciutto Fans Turn to Iowa

NORWALK, Iowa — The decision came down to this: Would people buy prosciutto from a guy named Herb from Iowa?

“It was a crazy idea, but we didn’t think it was a stupid idea,” says Herb Eckhouse, the Herb from Iowa who spent some anxious years weighing that question. Racks of raw pork rolling into the refrigerated chambers around him suggest the answer.

It is Wednesday, salting day, so Mr. Eckhouse is preoccupied with the central task of making his prosciutto: coating the carefully trimmed hind leg of a pig with sea salt. “This is kind of the key time, so we want to make sure it’s done right,” he says.  READ MORE

Awhile back I posted another New York Times article about Carl Edgar Blake and his award-winning Iowan Swabian Hall Pig.  He also showed up on the Colbert Report with a couple of his little piglets.  Stephen Colbert holds a piglet and eats prosciutto at the same time!