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Cafe Tunes In and Finds Quick Success

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Times Staff Writer

Other eateries have failed miserably on that lonely stretch of Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles.

But not Authentic Cafe.

This itty-bitty diner with a bright Southwest face and even brighter menu became a hit right off the bat. Bang. Here today and flourishing the next.

Why?

Because owner Roger Hayot is tuned in to the taste and tempo of the Los Angeles neighborhood he serves. “Living in Los Angeles and working in kitchens for the past 11 years you can’t help feeling the Latin presence, yet we haven’t been exposed to as much of the cuisine as the French, Italian and Chinese. I just felt we have a lot more to learn from this type of cooking. Besides, I’m part Moroccan and have a strong kinship with Latin flavors,” Hayot said .

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That’s why you’ll see among the appetizers on the blackboard menu the Moroccan bastilla (filo pastry chicken bits) and mergez, a hot and spicy Moroccan sausage used in omelets, salads, pizzas and pastas. But then, you’ll also find an excellent, hot and spicy Sichuan dumpling among the appetizers.

There are other things on the menu at this exciting stools-only diner where the eclectic cooking is upscale and the prices downscale (around $6) per entree that will make fascinating reading, much less eating.

You get things like fresh corn tamales (slightly dry but tasty), meat loaf, a Yucatecan chicken in a citrus marinade, a chicken casserole pie covered with a fabulous cornmeal crust served in a souffle dish. There is a healthful ragout of fresh vegetables (squash, peppers, corn and zucchini) among the regulars on the menu, and Santa Fe-style soft tacos.

There are bunches of pizzas--and very good ones, too--that include chicken sausage, smoked chicken, mushroom and barbecue chicken. There is even a cheeseless pizza made with tomato and basil sauce. All are prepared on the spot.

Among the salads, which come to the table in huge, beautiful mounds enough to feed two, I particularly liked the Santa Fe salad made with sauteed chicken, corn and jicama.

In the pasta department, fettuccine, linguine and angel hair pasta, ingeniously cooked in individual caldrons fitted into a tub of common bath water, are offered with a number of sauces. I loved the fettuccine with chicken, corn, peppers, onion and chile chipotle cream sauce.

The cooking is especially light on fat and slightly undersalted for health reasons, according to Hayot. So be prepared to season to taste on occasion.

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The homemade desserts by the chefs are surprisingly good. There is marjolaine and opera cake, fruit tart and pudding. Try the creme brulee. It’s outstanding.

All the food is fresh. In fact, you’ll often find Hayot peeling jicama or sapotes, cleaning mushrooms and the like, to keep things fresh.

The head cook, Gerard Burgos, a Puerto Rican, was called on board by Hayot after they worked together at the Cheesecake Factory. Burgos is fast, and it’s fun to watch him turning out one saute dish after the other the way short-order cooks turn out pancakes or hamburgers.

One rarely sees that kind of one-man-show virtuoso cooking these days. It’s like watching a ballet performance where the dancer is in place and only hands and feet move. Short-order cooking is taxing, demanding work that calls for utmost concentration for a prolonged period of time. This is not the restaurant line where one cook covers for another. The short-order cook is it. He’s on the firing line and he had better not flub up or else the remaining orders fall behind like dominos.

Authentic Cafe, 7605 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 939-4626. Open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and from 6 to 10 p.m. weekdays and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday. No reservations. Street parking only. No checks or credit cards accepted. A minimum of $2.50 per person required. Takeout and catering also is available. Smoking not encouraged.

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