What chefs bring to a no-cook potluck party. Easy takeout ideas you can duplicate
More than 20 easy takeout ideas from chefs and food pros for your next potluck. Plus, Curtis Stone grows a lifestyle empire in Malibu wine country, the return of Miya Thai, making chicken in a rice cooker. I'm Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week's Tasting Notes.
The invitation via text message was brief: 'Having a 'potluck' at my house next Sunday. Bring your favorite takeout food.'
I looked at the sender's name: Nancy Silverton.
I've been to Nancy Silverton's house for parties many times. I co-wrote her bread book and first got to know her while writing a story for this paper on the making of Campanile, the restaurant she and her late ex-husband Mark Peel opened in the complex that is now Walter and Margarita Manzke's Republique. So the idea of Silverton throwing a party with only takeout food — nothing cooked by her or any of her chef or food-obsessed friends — was surprising.
It's not that Silverton favors complex dishes. One of her lesser-known cookbooks is 'A Twist of the Wrist,' with simple recipes made from jarred, tinned or boxed ingredients. And she sometimes augments her party menus with food from some of her favorite takeout spots like Burritos La Palma.
But Silverton is obsessed with details, even at a burger party where the patties are hand-shaped with a custom-blend of meat (20% to 28% fat, as writer Emily Green once described in a story on the chef's hamburger process), and she only entrusts grill duties to trusted cooks (frequently Elizabeth Hong, culinary director of Silverton's many Mozza restaurants, or Jar restaurant owner-chef Suzanne Tract). Even the burger toppings and condiments are precisely arranged. Her avocados, for instance, are almost always halved, loosened from the skin, which remains to protect the fruit, then sliced, drizzled with lemon or lime juice and seasoned with salt, pepper and often chopped chives.
I wondered how Silverton would react to the chaos that can ensue at potluck gatherings. What if everyone showed up with Burritos La Palma? (Well, maybe that wouldn't be so bad.)
Of course, Silverton and her partner, former Times reporter Michael Krikorian, eliminated some of the event's wildcard nature by making gentle inquiries over text to find out what people were bringing.
It was clear from the start that one of my favorite foods to bring to a party would not be an option: the football-shaped Armenian flatbread from Glendale's Zhengyalov Hatz — filled with more than a dozen different herbs, as writer Jessie Schiewe described in our recent guide to '15 L.A. restaurants where ordering the house specialty is a must.' Krikorian was already bringing some.
He was also getting brisket from Andrew and Michelle Muñoz's Moo's Craft Barbecue, which is one of critic Bill Addison's favorite L.A. barbecue spots; 'kuku sandeviches,' or house-leavened flatbread filled with herb-and-leek frittata, yogurt, cucumber, tomato and radish from Azizam, which Addison called 'L.A.'s best new Persian restaurant'; fried chicken and fish sandos from Mei Lin's Daybird, the shop that attracted columnist Jenn Harris' admiration soon after its 2021 opening and before Lin's most recent restaurant, 88 Club in Beverly Hills, previewed recently by Food's reporter Stephanie Breijo; and fantastic basturma brisket sandwiches from III Mas Bakery & Deli (pronounce it 'Yerord Mas') run out of a Glendale ghost kitchen by husband-and-wife team Arthur Grigoryan (who used to work at Mozza) and Takouhi Petrosyan.
Oh, and Silverton also arranged for Frutas Marquez (phone: 909-636-1650) to set up an umbrella-shaded cocos frios and cut fruit stand.
So before the first guest turned up, there was enough food for a hungry crowd. Then the chefs and other food pros started to arrive with food from all over city.
Chef Chris Feldmeier of the sorely missed Bar Moruno in Silver Lake and now back in the kitchen at Love & Salt in Manhattan Beach gave Silverton's guests a chance to try some of the Southland's greatest Indian cooking from Quality of Bombay in Lawndale. He brought goat biryani, butter chicken and palak paneer, with large pieces of curd cheese mixed into the gently seasoned spinach. People were raving over the butter chicken and I was so taken with the goat biryani that I stopped into the unassuming storefront this week and picked up some lamb biryani as well as two of the restaurant's naans, one flavored with green chile and one, Peshawari naan, baked with ground nuts and raisins. Feldmeier also brought crispy rice salad with Thai sausage from North Hollywood's Sri Siam, a place I recently rediscovered.
Feldmeier's former Bar Moruno partner (and contributor to our wine coverage), David Rosoff, brought a sampling from Armen Martirosyan's Mini Kabob spinoff MidEast Tacos in Silver Lake. Many guests had heard about the Armenian-Mexican tacos and were happy to have a chance to try them.
Another hit from the party came from Jar's Suzanne Tract, who brought spicy shrimp dumplings and kimchi dumplings from Pao Jao Dumpling House started by Eunice Lee and Seong Cho in the food court of the Koreatown Plaza on Western Ave. In the dumpling season of Jenn Harris' video series 'The Bucket List,' she finds out that Cho developed the recipe for the spicy shrimp dumpling and isn't sharing the secret to its deliciousness — which will make you all the more popular when you show up with a batch at your next potluck.
Photographer Anne Fishbein brought many delicious things from chef Sang Yoon's Helms Bakery, including doughnuts and gorgeous breads with different schmears and butters, including the sweet black garlic butter that Harris included in her story about the Helms' foods that got her attention when the marketplace opened in Culver City late last year.
Times contributor Margy Rochlin arrived with swaths of the pebbly Persian flatbread sangak, so fresh from the oven at West L.A.'s Naan Hut the sheets of sesame-seeded bread burned her arm when she picked up her order. (Read Rochlin's 2015 story for Food for more on how sangak is baked on hot stones.) She then went to Super Sun Market in Westwood for French feta cheese, fresh herbs and the shallot yogurt dip mast-o musir, arranging everything on a wood board.
Silverton's daughter, Vanessa Silverton-Peel set out an impressive array of flaky borekas from the always-busy Borekas Sephardic Pastries in Van Nuys with various fillings. These included cultured cheese and za'atar; potato and brown butter; mushroom, caramelized onion and truffle; spinach and cheese, plus carrots and hot honey, which is an occasional special. With them, came pickles, tomato sauce and jammy eggs. And because she is everywhere, Harris has written about her love for this place too.
Taylor Parsons, once declared L.A.'s best sommelier when he was at Republique by former L.A. Weekly restaurant critic Besha Rodell, and Briana Valdez, founder of the growing Home State mini-chain of Texas-style breakfast tacos and more, brought cheesy Frito pies and tacos from Valdez's restaurant. And Pasquale Chiarappa, a.k.a. the sometime actor Pat Asanti, a.k.a. Patsy to his pals, brought his own Della Corte Kitchen focaccia, which he supplies to Pasadena's Roma Deli among other places.
Pizza and cake from another Addison favorite, Aaron Lindell and Hannah Ziskin's Quarter Sheets in Echo Park went fast, though I'm not sure who brought them since at this point it was getting hard to keep track of all the incoming food. The same goes for the bucket of Tokyo Fried Chicken that was quickly gobbled up. Jazz musician and composer Anthony Wilson had the good taste to bring a whole duck from Roasted Duck by Pa Ord, which I wrote about in this newsletter recently because I think it might be the best duck in Thai Town.
Claudio Blotta, founder of All'Acqua in Atwater Village and Silver Lake's Barbrix, which is undergoing rennovations at the moment, tapped his Argentine roots by bringing empanadas. I missed the name of the place he bought them, but a good bet if you're looking for some to bring to a party is Mercado Buenos Aires in Van Nuys.
Erik Black, founder of the recently revived Ugly Drum pastrami, broke the rules a bit by actually cooking something — spiced caramel corn from recipe in 'Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book.' And Mozza's Raul Ramirez Valdivia made tortilla chips, guacamole and wonderful salsa verde. Of course, Burritos La Palma showed up thanks to Mozza's Juliet Kapanjie.
I ended up bringing a tray of fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, a party offering that has never failed me, from Golden Deli in San Gabriel. There were three kinds: shrimp and pork, beef and tofu for vegetarians.
And just when it seemed that the party could not take one more food offering, in walked former L.A. Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila and photographer, wine aficionado and cook Fred Seidman with a box of burgers from In-N-Out. Because no matter how full you are, there's always room for In-N-Out.
Food reporter Stephanie Breijo got a look at the inner workings of Curtis Stone's Four Stones Farm in the Santa Monica Mountains, where the Australian chef of Hollywood's Gwen and the Pie Room in Beverly Hills has established a base for his burgeoning lifestyle empire. This includes TV-ready testing and production kitchens for taping live HSN cooking demos promoting his cookware, plus a winery that uses grapes grown on the property's vineyards and a set up for events, including the upcoming Great Australian Bite in collaboration with the L.A. Times and Tourism Australia. On May 31, Stone and visiting chef Clare Falzon of Staġuni in South Australia's Barossa Valley are teaming up to prepare a multicourse meal in the area becoming known as Malibu wine country. Tickets cost $289 and are on sale now.
Regular readers of this newsletter know that I have been keeping watch in my Altadena neighborhood for signs of recovery following the firestorm that destroyed so much of the area. I'm thrilled to report that Miya — David Tewasart and Clarissa Chin's Thai restaurant, which survived in the section of Lake Ave. that saw major destruction — has quietly reopened and is happily busy. We ran into friends from the neighborhood and sat with them at a table to catch up. It felt like home. And the fried chicken with hand-pounded papaya salad? It's as good as ever.
Have you seen that woman who cooks an entire chicken in a rice cooker?' style pro Joe Zee asked columnist Jenn Harris recently, as she wrote in our most recent Cooking newsletter. He was referring to the Instagram video made by London content creator Shu Lin, who showed her followers how to make Hakka-style salt-baked chicken with not much more than a seasoning packet sold in most Asian supermarkets and a rice cooker, plus ginger, green onions, shallots and oil. The technique isn't new, but Lin's recipe is very simple and inspired Harris to try it.
Gefen Skolnick tells Food contributor Jean Trinh that she wanted a 'fun and funky' Gen Z-friendly space when she opened Couplet Coffee in Echo Park this year. That means 'limited-edition product drops, community-building, storytelling and social media.' As Skolnick put it to Trinh, 'There needs to be great coffee made more approachable.'
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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
As war spreads, local Iranians finding comfort in L.A. Persian restaurants
Late last week, before the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear targets, Shaheen Samadi sat inside the minimalist dining room of Azizam restaurant in Silver Lake, sipping ceylon tea with cardamom, a drink that reminds him of the tea he grew up drinking. Born in Connecticut to parents who immigrated to the United States after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Samadi moved to L.A. in hopes of connecting with its Persian diaspora community — the largest in the world outside Iran. Samadi, who describes himself as 'your friendly neighborhood Persian rapper,' has long criticized the Iranian regime in his music. All last week, he has felt terrified and angry as Israel and Iran traded deadly attacks. 'Right now, the entire Iranian diaspora community is in this weird phase of fight or flight and crippling anxiety,' said Samadi, sitting near the Azizam counter as servers walked back and forth with plates of barbari bread and khoresht. 'We like to see [the Iranian regime] getting killed. What we do not like is the casualties that come with it.' Azizam — which Times restaurant critic Bill Addison recently named one of the 101 best restaurants in California — began hosting complimentary tea and backgammon on its cozy Sunset Boulevard-facing patio in hopes of providing Iranians with a safe space to relax and come together. As Samadi explained, 'most people, their bodies are filled with blood — with us Persians, it's tea.' 'Whether you are full, half or a fraction, you are still Iranian,' read the restaurant's Instagram post Wednesday. 'Azizam was born to celebrate that and our doors are open to all.' Local Iranians all week have been finding solace in restaurants like Azizam and neighborhoods such as L.A.'s Tehrangeles, which are providing much-needed spaces to commune with their culture. While many of them fear for their families and friends in Iran, they also have hope that, as Iranian Americans, they can bridge a decades-long divide. Sal Mousavi, who visited Azizam for the first time Thursday, said that many of the menu items 'remind me of home' and that the event helped him 'focus on something else other than what's going on.' Like many Iranian Americans in L.A., Samadi doesn't condone the leadership of Iran, which his parents fled the country to escape. But he said that Persians in the United States still remain divided over the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, and now the United States. 'I hate to say it, but it doesn't feel like a community,' Samadi said of the Persian diaspora in L.A. 'We're not united. We all have very strong opinions about things.' Since June 13, Israel has launched airstrikes on Iran that have killed at least 657 people. Iran immediately retaliated with airstrikes that have killed at least 24 people in Israel, including one that hit a hospital in southern Israel on Thursday. The United States entered the conflict Saturday with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, authorized by President Trump. 'Many Iranians, especially those who are living here in L.A. and are living in diaspora, are deeply dissatisfied with the current regime,' said Peyman Malaz, chief operating officer of the PARS Equality Center in Sherman Oaks, a nonprofit that supports Persian immigrants. 'But of course, war is war … So what we are hearing from the community is feelings of fear and anxiety, and also uncertainty.' Adrian, who declined to give his last name, immigrated to L.A. from Tehran in 2011. He came to Azizam, which he described as a restaurant that serves the 'Persian dishes that only your mom makes at home,' for backgammon and an albaloo or sour cherry spritz. 'My mind is very preoccupied, I can barely sleep at night,' said Adrian, who has family living in Tehran. 'Just seeing the names of all the neighborhoods that I grew up in … all these places, they're being bombed. It's just so surreal. It feels like a dream — more like a nightmare.' Meanwhile in Tehrangeles — the Persian neighborhood in Westwood that became a hub in the '80s for immigrants fleeing the Iranian Revolution — shop owners report feelings of fear among their Persian customers. 'They are very worried right now,' said Ali Perkdas, the owner of Super Sun Market, a Persian grocery store that opened its doors more than 20 years ago. '[The Iranian government] cut the internet, so they cannot reach their family or friends.' Laila Massoudnia, who recently moved to L.A. from the Bay Area, said that she was struck by the welcoming, supportive communities she found. 'If anything, with all the events that have happened in the past week, I've seen so much of a united front here, regardless of whatever background we come with,' Massoudnia said. 'I didn't grow up in a community with a lot of Iranians in America, and so just to have that means the world. It doesn't make me feel alone. And I know a lot of Iranians, internally and externally, are feeling very, very isolated and alone.' Many Iranian Americans are hoping for a peaceful resolution abroad. Massoudnia emphasized that Iranians — a group of people she described as 'all about love' — have the same concerns as practically any other American, even in times of war. 'No one wants to be born in the pathway of missiles and bombs,' Massoudnia said. 'These are people with aspirations, with dreams, with hopes, who wake up every day, go to work every day ... want their kids to go to university and become educated … They have the same exact struggles as every single thought that's ever passed any American or any other person's mind.'
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
The perfect summer corn fritter to welcome you back to downtown L.A. restaurants
Returning to downtown L.A. restaurants after the curfew. The spirituality of red Fanta. 'The most exciting place to eat in the South Bay in recent memory.' And a Crunchwrap Supreme plot twist. I'm Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week's Tasting Notes. I was happily eating a light lunch of poached chicken with an array of radishes, tarragon mayonnaise and buttered milk bread toast dusted with sea salt when our friendly and attentive waiter, just four days on the job, walked up holding a plate of sunshine: three beautifully fried corn fritters with flash-fried basil, a wedge of lime and a mound of salt for dipping. There was a dish of chile sauce too, but the corn's sweetness, salt and herbs were all I needed on the day before the official start of summer. I was at chef Giles Clark's Cafe 2001 with the editor of L.A. Times Food, Daniel Hernandez, and every table in the place was filled. The cafe's big brother restaurant, Yess, from chef Junya Yamasaki, was boarded up at the front entrance facing 7th Street — the dinner-only spot closed during the recent downtown L.A. curfew — but we saw activity in the kitchen when we peeked through the glass blocks on the side of the restaurant and were hopeful that Yess would reopen that night. As columnist Jenn Harris wrote this week, the seven-night curfew left downtown L.A. streets empty: 'All along 2nd Street, the windows and doors were hidden behind plywood. ... The frequently bustling Japanese Village Plaza, where shoppers dine at a revolving sushi bar and stop for cheese-filled corn dogs, was desolate.' Now there are tentative signs of recovery. 'Hours after the curfew was lifted Tuesday, downtown started to show signs of coming to life again,' Harris wrote. 'Just before 7 p.m., a line began to form at Daikokuya in Little Tokyo ... known as much for the perpetual wait as it is for its steaming bowls of tonkotsu ramen. It was a hopeful sight.' Yet, as Harris also reported, Kato, the three-time No. 1 restaurant on the L.A. Times 101 list, whose chef, Jon Yao, was named the best chef in California at this week's James Beard Awards, 'was still looking at a 70% drop in reservations for the upcoming week' after the curfew's end. 'The direct impact of the media's portrayal of DTLA being unsafe, which it is not, has impacted Kato,' Ryan Bailey, a partner in the restaurant told Harris. Certainly downtown is frequently portrayed, 'as a sometimes dodgy place to live and work.' But 'despite myriad challenges,' reported real estate specialist Roger Vincent this week, 'downtown L.A. is staging a comeback. ... Occupancy in downtown apartments has remained about 90% for more than a year ... slightly higher than the level before the pandemic. ... In fact, the downtown population has more than tripled since 2000, reflecting a dynamic shift in the city center's character toward a 24-hour lifestyle.' On Tuesday night, I met reporter Stephanie Breijo at Hama Sushi, another Little Tokyo spot where the wait is usually lengthy, and was able to get a spot at the sushi bar by arriving before 6 p.m. The place quickly filled up behind us. Though some were at Hama to support downtown, many came to pay their respects to the memory of recently deceased owner Tsutomu Iyama. Breijo will be reporting on the life and legacy of Iyama in the coming days, but on Tuesday night the longtime staff was on top of its game, serving affordable but excellent sushi, without gimmicks as Iyama intended. Two days later I was at Cafe 2001, which has become one of my favorite — and most useful — restaurants in the city, open all day and into the evening on weekends. In our recent brunch guide, I wrote about Clark's red-wine-poached egg, my partner, John, swears by Clark's caponata, and deputy food editor Betty Hallock loves 'his versions of a quintessential yoshoku icon, the Japanese potato salad ... [sometimes] kabocha pumpkin and puntarelle with blood orange and fermented chiles [or] a verdant pea and potato salad with lemon-y pea tendrils.' But my current favorite Clark dish? Those light and crisp corn fritters. They were the perfect welcome back downtown gift after a tense week of closed restaurants. 'I've ... had customers come in and tell me, 'The American dream doesn't exist anymore.'' That's Evelin Gomez, a juice bar worker at the Carson location of Vallarta Supermarket, speaking with reporter Lauren Ng. Ng checked social media accounts and conducted interviews with people in grocery stores and restaurants founded by immigrants and the children of immigrants about what they are witnessing with the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement actions in Southern California. The independent-minded Casa Vega owner Christy Vega, who supported Rick Caruso over Karen Bass for mayor in the most recent election, 'has been an outspoken critic of ICE,' Ng wrote. 'I protested in honor of my Mexican immigrant father, Rafael Evaristo Vega, and the very people Casa Vega was built on since 1956,' Vega wrote on Instagram of her attendance at a 'No Kings' protest. 'I will always remember my roots and ALWAYS fight for the voiceless immigrant community.' Some restaurateurs, as Stephanie Breijo reported, have been coordinating grocery handouts and deliveries for those fearing being swept up in ICE raids. 'We understand the feelings that are happening in our community right now, even if we are legal,' said Xochitl Flores-Marcial, a partner in Boyle Heights' X'tiosu with its chef-founders, Felipe and Ignacio Santiago. 'Even if we have documents, that doesn't exempt us from the danger that so many people are facing right now and in our culture.' Meanwhile, assistant food editor Danielle Dorsey, put together a guide to 15 different food fundraisers and events to support those affected by ICE actions. Many are happening this weekend. The young and ambitious staff at Vin Folk — with two alums of Aitor Zabala's Somni leading the team of chef-servers — charmed columnist Jenn Harris during her visits to the Hermosa Beach restaurant created by chefs Kevin de los Santos and Katya Shastova. 'The dining room crackles with the hopeful, earnest energy of a start-up company, ripe with possibility,' she writes in her restaurant review published this week. 'And with food that has all the technique and precision of a tasting menu restaurant with less of the fuss, it is without a doubt the most exciting place to eat in the South Bay in recent memory.' Some of the dishes she highlights: a savory tart that could be 'a love child of mussels in escabeche and pot pie'; headcheese toast, 'a loose interpretation of the patty melt at Langer's Deli'; pritto, 'a take on Taiwanese popcorn chicken'; 'exceptionally tender' beef tongue, 'an homage to Shastova's childhood in rural southern Russia,' and a risotto-style interpretation of Singapore chili crab. Vin Folk is also nurturing a new generation of chefs and restaurateurs: 'Staff are trained in multiple positions, both in and out of the kitchen,' Harris writes. 'Everyone helps with prep, then De los Santos and Shastova [place] members in positions where they may be strongest.' 'We are teaching them,' Shastova tells Harris. 'You go through everything because we believe it's important to learn every single detail of the restaurant if you want to have your own one day.' In her latest Grocery Goblin dispatch, correspondent Vanessa Anderson examines why strawberry red Fanta — 'known as Fanta nam daeng, or 'Fanta red water'' — is seen in so many Thai shrines or spirit houses, many of which are set up at local grocery stores and restaurants. 'Much like those on this earthly plane, the way to a spirit's heart is through his or her stomach,' Anderson reports. 'In the past when we would do offerings to ghosts, it would be an offering of blood,' Pip Paganelli at Thai dessert shop Banh Kanom Thai, tells Anderson, who concludes that 'the bubbly strawberry nectar has since replaced animal sacrifice.' Paganelli, Anderson adds, also posits that red Fanta's 'sickly sweetness ... is beloved by ghosts because of just that. Most spirits have a sweet tooth.' The anniversary none of our social media feeds or TV news anchors will let us forget this week is the release 50 years ago of Steven Spielberg's 'eating machine' blockbuster 'Jaws.' But columnist Gustavo Arellano has another anniversary on this mind this week — the debut 20 years ago of Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme. 'The item has become essential for American consumers who like their Mexican food cheap and gimmicky,' he wrote this week, 'which is to say, basically everyone (birria ramen, anybody?)' The plot twist is that Arellano, author of 'Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,' had never actually eaten a Crunchwrap Supreme until this month. And when he finally did try it? Let's just say it lacked the crunch he was looking for. I'll let you read his column to find out why he prefers the bean-and-cheese burritos and Del Taco. Bonus: Arellano references Jenn Harris' 2015 story and recipe for a homemade Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme, to be enjoyed in the comfort of your home, without the 'bad playlists, scratchy paper napkins and fluorescent lighting' of a fast food restaurant. I think hers would have the crunch Arellano seeks.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Why 'Fountain of Youth' continues to be an Apple TV+ hit adventure movie: 'It keeps my inner child alive'
Apple TV+ subscribers can't stop watching adventure film Fountain of Youth, which has been one of the most popular titles on the platform for weeks, starring John Krasinski, Natalie Portman and Eiza González. Guy Ritchie's story didn't get the most glowing reviews from critics, but it continues to find interested viewers. Fountain of Youth is largely centred around estranged siblings, Luke (Krasinski) and Charlotte Purdue (Portman), who reconnect and assemble a crew for a global adventure to find the Fountain of Youth. It all stems from what they learned from their late father, a famous archeologist. "The story was so fun and cool, ... a nostalgic type of movie that doesn't exist anymore, really. Not in the way that I think ... we were trying to go for," Arian Moayed, who plays Inspector Jamal Abbas trying to stop the group from getting to the Fountain of Youth, told Yahoo Canada. For Laz Alonso who plays Patrick Murphy, working alongside Luke and Charlotte on their quest, The Boys star has lots of experience with impressive ensembles, but he also has a personal goal to work on movies and in genres that he was "obsessed" with as a kid. "It keeps my inner child alive," he said in a separate interview. "I feel like a little kid when I'm on set and I get to tell these magnificent what-ifs. And it really changes the storytelling when you can do it in these insanely gorgeous, real backdrops." Fountain of Youth takes on the adventure genre with a long history in Hollywood, including the Indiana Jones series. "Everybody keeps talking about, Hollywood is doing nothing but remakes," Alonso highlighted. "While that is true, you also have the opportunity to tell a brand new story in the genre of the remake, ... the genre that has already proven to have an audience." Moayed highlighted that, in the context of the search of the Fountain of Youth, there's an inherent human curiosity and fear around death. "Deep down, we're all kind of a little worried that we're all going to die. We've all got to die, but [the fear is that] we're going to die too soon," Moayed said. "And so the quest for something that keeps us immortal is universal." "It's not just something that's a western concept. In Persian we have, it's called the cheshmeh javani, which means, literally, the fountain of youth. Because even in Persian culture, thousands of years ago, the idea that we can live forever or pass down our ideas is something that never goes away." But an added element to the show is that it has Ritchie's signature style, a blend of witty dialogue with strong elements of mystery. The Fountain of Youth stars also highlighted how collaborative and spontaneous he is as a filmmaker. "He's probably one of the most collaborative directors that I've worked with," Alonso said. "There were times during this film where he would bring in John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, myself, and Carmen and Ejogo into his trailer, and now we're in there rewriting a scene, all of us together. ... That's something that rarely happens on a film set, where actors are allowed to be part of the creative process." "It's a butterfly effect. ... I think that's what happens in a lot of films when people say, 'Oh, well, there was a plot hole here' or 'they never addressed that.' It's because something changed and they didn't carry that change throughout the end. Well Guy really pays attention to that." Moayed echoed her co-star's comments, adding that Ritchie also really wants to lean into the personality that each actor brings to their character. "What's cool about Guy Ritchie is that he really always is trying to make it fresh and alive," he said. Moayed recalled a moment filming Fountain of Youth in Liverpool and he didn't have any lines in the portion of the script being filmed that day. But then Ritchie had an entire monologue for Moayed at the last minute, leaving the actor with only about 30 minutes to learn it. "He's seeing it in a bigger scale and sometimes when you see an edit on a large scale, you're like, oh, this actually needs to fill in this as well," he said. "I enjoy that kind of like spontaneity and freshness to the piece." And the final element that plays a role in the interest in the film is the commitment to using a practical set as much as possible, from Vienna to the pyramids in Egypt. "A lot of what I felt was most exciting about a piece this is that it's practical," Moayed said. "I had the privilege of doing Spider-Man: No Way Home, ... it's all make believe around you." "[Fountain of Youth] felt like you're walking into those old movies of like [Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade], where you see and feel all those things. So that's kind of like a joy, a little bit, to have a big budget Hollywood, Apple movie that like feels all those things." For Alonso, he said those elements contribute to what makes Ritchie's visual storytelling "incomparable." "The colours, the wardrobe, he really tells a story with the palette that he uses to paint his entire frame, not just words on a page," Alonso said. "I love being able to now take the performance and match the painting. ... It's picturesque, and without having to say a word, you immediately get drawn in. ... And he's a master at that."
