Fever for Lefebvre

LudoBites Adding Even More Foie Gras to the Menu Tonight To Celebrate Final Episode

Ludo and Breezy at Casa Pulido: Time for our first drink!
Ludo and Breezy at Casa Pulido: Time for our first drink! Photo: KevinEats

Tonight will see the season finale of LudoBites America (sniff, say it ain’t so, Ludes). So far, we really dig this show, finding it a sharp break from most of the studio-based food television out there. The program manages to highlight the considerable smarts and humor of the chef and his wife, while celebrating regional cuisine and chefs, and reflecting real kitchen heat, as opposed to the canned fury we see on Fox. Plus…cussing! We can’t recall anyone cussing so much on food T.V. and we like what we hear. Tonight’s episode finds Ludo and Krissy winding down their cross-country experiment back in L.A., bringing their temporary restaurant to Redondo Beach’s Casa Pulido. What can you expect this time from the cantankerous and/or shiftless owners and better yet, how long is it going to take you to get completely shit-faced playing LudoBites America: The Drinking Game?

Krissy Lefebvre lights up our inbox with news that tonight’s episode will bring the capital-D Drama (we have been thirsting for another Gladys, haven’t we?), between foie gras protestors harassing people outside of the restaurant and, in Krissy’s words, “an owner that had no interest in us being there.” Ludo will also play volleyball with some locals and get trounced. Not quite as risky as eating a buffalo heart straight from the corpse, but potentially humiliating nonetheless. Meanwhile, Casa Pulido refers to the episode as “the invasion” on Facebook, surprising us that the natives are not friendlier than the rest of the owners who actually have a reasonable excuse for not knowing the chef.

To celebrate the episode, Downtown’s LudoBites 7.0 will up the ante on the menu’s foie gras levels, “in honor of the protesters getting more free publicity than they have ever gotten before,” Krissy fires, adding, “asking the French not to cook with foie gras is like asking the Koreans to give up kimchi.”

The chef already has foie gras French dim sum on the menu, and tonight will add the foie gras quesadilla that first got these protestors’ knickers in the aforementioned twist. If the chef’s prep goes according to plan, he may even bring back the foie gras chocolate cupcake. So there, people who care about stuff!

Oh right, but none of us will probably be there tonight anyway, oui? No? No. Not to worry though. Instead of sipping that Corralejo reposado to your own rhythm tonight, try Caroline on Crack’s LudoBites drinking game. In addition to swigging every time local food celebs like Bricia Lopez or Javier Cabral pop-up on your screen, rule number one is to take a drink every time Ludo lets fly a dirty word in French or English. We have a feeling it’s going to be a rough morning!

LudoBites America’s Redondo Beach episode airs tonight at 9:00 P.M. on Sundance Channel.

Drinking Game for Tomorrow’s Ludo Bites America Redondo Beach Episode [CoC]

LudoBites Adding Even More Foie Gras to the Menu Tonight To Celebrate Final