Lafayette Cafe was a legend. It opened in 1972 at what is now the location of Thai Nakorn in Garden Grove and fed the county coq a vin, steak tartare and other French delicacies for 30 years, finally closing in 2002 when its chef and owner, Chef Edmond Sarfati, decided to retire at 71.
Chef Sarfati is now 83 and his grandson, Remy Velardez, is helping him write a “Secret Recipes of Lafayette Cafe” cookbook that will put to paper at least 50 of his recipes.
There's a Kickstarter page, of course, which gives you the book when it's completed at the $20 level. At the $380 level, you get an invite to a planned dinner that Chef Sarfati is hosting at the Anaheim White House, which is billed as his “one final public dinner party.”
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For more information and to see more pictures of Chef Sarfati: there's the Kickstarter page and the official website for the project at http://www.secretrecipesoflafayette.com/
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.