(cheery music)
- [Nicolas] Too many restaurants are the same.
The only thing, you know, that actually makes a
big difference is big things.
I think you make big differences
with details; a little touch.
My name is Nicolas Meschin and we are The Little Door.
That's where Hollywood eats.
(piano)
We decided to create this enchanting garden, basically.
That was a bit of the idea of, you know,
you go through the little door
and all of a sudden, it's like Alice in Wonderland,
basically this magical thing.
Not feeling like you're at a restaurant is very important.
If you feel good, your appetite will be better.
If you see good things, if you hear good things..
- [Man] Beautiful, huh? All those flavors.
This is really so good.
- [Nicolas] You will actually have a better appetite.
You feel like you're home.
Jim Carrey is a very good friend and supporter.
Laurence Fishburne, very, very good friend as well,
was with him, you know, last week here.
People are just simply free
and you bring that freedom somehow
in a way that they can feel super relaxed
in being able to be themselves.
The climate we have in Los Angeles is very similar
of the one we have in Morocco, all the Mediterranean basin.
So we're gonna do same season
and we're gonna do the same produce basically.
- [Nichols Peter] A lot of the texture is kind of weird.
- [Nicolas] This food is very easy to actually pick.
What's been going on over there for
a thousand years, you know, and bring it here
and do it with the produce you find here.
- [Nichols Peter] What we're gonna do today is roasted
monk fish wrapped with pancetta.
We're gunna serve it with a cauliflower and mustard mash.
Everything that I've got on the menu is seasonal.
From the blood orange to the romanesco, from the carrot-
This is in for all those ingredients to be on the market.
- [Nicolas] To me, a chef, in a business like this,
is immortal. It's definitely the ingenuity of your car.
You know, without that, you can't move.
Nichols Peter has been here for 22 years.
At the time, he had a lot of hair.
- [Nichols Peter] Don't. Don't go there.
- [Nicolas] Too many people, I hear, "Oh, I am a chef.
I know how to cook. I am a chef."
- [Nichols Peter] Oh, man. That's the joy of cooking.
- [Nicolas] There is a big difference between
knowing how to cook and being a chef.
- [Nichols Peter] We have some beautiful Spanish octopus
that today we are going to prepare.
It is a very popular dish here at The Little Door.
I do it with different variety.
See how beautiful it is? It's gorgeous.
So all this is going to go in a pot here,
with a little bit of tomatoes in there for extra flavor.
We're gonna add a liquid,
which is white wine, to braise- not a lot
and we're gonna cook this octopus, that we just poached,
into an oven for a couple of hours.
There you go! All right.
Just gonna grill this, get some nice char on it.
It's ready to go. This is full of flavor.
- [Nicolas] The octopus is something you find
a lot in Greece,
basically in this entire Mediterranean Basin.
It will actually go very well with all the type of herbs
or produce we find, you know, in California.
(soft music)
I came here with my brother, Frederic from France.
I'm very proud, actually, of the team we have now here
for, you know, basically 22 years.
- [Nichols Peter] You want to give me a strainer? Thank you.
- [Nicolas] Every night is different. Every night.
It's a day to day operation.
It's like a new movie every day.
You can't predict anything, and at this point, you know,
if you don't have a strong team work, you can't last.
It's too many moving parts to be left to
keep that quality regardless, you know.
That's how you actually make people come back.
It goes beyond making money or beyond all of this.
It has no price to me. It's my life.
(ambient music)