Caterer Lisa Fielding brings disparate Angelenos together for private dinner parties at exotic locations, including Malibu.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to the Malibu Times
Here in car-centric Los Angeles, where people have a harder time meeting people, there is an “underground dining experience” that enables professionals of all kinds to come together for interesting conversation and gourmet food in a unique setting.
On a recent Saturday night in Malibu, Lisa Fielding, founder of Secret Ingredients, and her staff took over the kitchen of Tami Orloff’s ocean-view home in the shadow of The Getty Villa. About 20 foodies, including Disney marketing executive Jonelle Forte, food writer Diana Lin and Dr. Nicole Hausman drove in from all parts of Los Angeles-from Pasadena to Pacific Palisades-to make new friends, network and share some laughs over a multi-course meal that included braised lamb, ahi tuna, hors d’oeuvres, Champagne and wine.
“The social highlight was being able to have a leisurely conversation over drinks with an interesting group of people and then continue over dinner,” said another guest, Maria Cozzi of Santa Monica.
For Forte of Silver Lake, the evening’s highlight was “leaving with new friends whom I never would have met otherwise… An event like this brings all sorts of different types of uniquely fantastic individuals.”
That’s the goal of Fielding’s “secret table” dinners, which take place across the Westside.
Secret Ingredients began one day out of frustration. Fielding, tired of working as a development executive and producer in Hollywood, where things more often moved too slowly for her impulsive, animated spirit.
So, in 2009, while working on some screenwriting projects, she launched a passion business that channeled her knack for cooking. The concept behind Secret Ingredients is simple: at a dynamic house in a stunning neighborhood, Fielding will cook a nine-course meal. The beautiful backdrop provides a lush atmosphere where professionals, for a fee, can eat and meet in a relaxing atmosphere. Secret Ingredients hosts weekly, salon-style evenings that are reservation-only. Fielding, who has been cooking since age 8, has lived in Malibu and Santa Monica, and now resides in the Palisades Highlands.
Fielding finds her epicurean adventures refreshing compared to her previous experience as a development executive, during which she worked for such people as producer Lynda Obst (“Sleepless in Seattle,” “The Fisher King”).
“After years in purgatory, i.e., the film business… at least cooking and entertaining provides immediate gratification for a job well done,” Fielding said. “My clients shower me with praise and gratitude in a manner that is almost overwhelming at times. People truly love good food and a great time.”
Fielding once attempted to open a restaurant on the troubled Swarthmore Avenue called Picnic, which did not live up to its name.
“Starting out as a private chef required no overhead and after the financial disaster of Picnic this was a much safer way to explore my passion for food, cooking and entertaining,” Fielding said. “Michelle joined [Secret Ingredients] last summer. She is my older sister by two years.”
“In this kind of economy, to reinvent themselves, I envy that,” Orloff said of Fielding’s career rebirth.
Orloff, a fashion consultant for Saks Fifth Avenue, is one of several Malibu residents who did not hesitate to open up her home to a Secret Ingredients experience, as she did for the first time on March 26 and on Easter Sunday for a special brunch. The reason she did, Orloff said, is because “I also have a passion for cooking and the creative outlet that the kitchen offers. The whole concept enticed me. I’ve been known to entertain often. To have someone else come in and do it for me, it tickled me. The views are spectacular and this particular home is conducive to entertaining.”
Lin, a former online newspaper food blogger who recently launched her own site, found the secret table concept alluring.
“I was drawn to the sense of adventure of the whole process, from registering for the dinner, to anticipating the email regarding the location, to finding the physical address,” Lin said. “Everything came together better than I could imagine.”
Karin Rogers said of the gourmet event: “What a lovely evening: full of new friends, great food and a perfect Malibu sunset.”
“It’s a nice, safe, comfortable way to interact with strangers,” Orloff said of Fielding’s enterprise.
At Orloff’s table, there were “two women who had come together of a more mature age and loved the experience. One had come from Los Feliz. One had been in the film business, a producer; the other was in casting. In another group, there was a makeup artist and a shop owner from Abbot Kinney [Boulevard] in Venice.”
By coincidence, the two men at Lin’s table realized they had both attended Cornell University but had graduated during different decades.
“Everyone had a story,” Orloff said.
The next secret table dinner will take place in Malibu on Saturday. More information can be obtained online at secretingredients.us.