Los Angeles Magazine

April 2008 Issue:

L.A.'s 75 Best Restaurants

“CIVILIZED AND REFINED,

Josie exists outside trends. Its two dining rooms, hung with framed botanical prints, invite conversation without being hushed. Chef Josie Le Balch is as comfortable using a copper sauteuse as she is working the wood-burning grill. She can do frog legs amandine and not make it seem like an ironic statement. Dishes such as the skewered seppie with lentils and the tagine of beef short ribs go out along the razor's edge of inspiration. The desserts of Jonna Jensen - the hazelnut-pear frangipane is particularly gratifying - match Le Balch's meticulous style.”

Los Angeles Magazine

March 2008 Issue:

Review by Patric Kuh

“JOSIE LE BALCH'S

restaurant isn't new or trendy, and that's only part of the reason it's clientele is so devoted”

click here to visit www.losangelesmagazine.com and read the full article.

Angeleno Magazine

August 2006 Issue:

2006 Restaurant Awards - To Live and Dine in L.A.! (by Brad A. Johnson)

RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR 2006 

“I’ve always argued that L.A. doesn’t really have any true “neighborhood restaurants” (because in our car-centric society, any restaurant with a great chef eventually outgrows its neighborhood charm and becomes a destination for serious food-lovers throughout the city). But, in truth, Josie just might be L.A.’s ultimate neighborhood restaurant.”

and

PASTRY CHEF OF THE YEAR 2006 

“Just one bite of practically anything, and it's clear that Jonna Jensen puts a little piece of her soul into everything she creates”

Los Angeles Magazine 

January 2005 Issue:

Review by Patric Kuh

“JOSIE 

is a nice place in Greenwich, Connecticut, that happens to be on Pico Boulevard. Upholstered and softly lit, draped and discreet, it is the ideal setting for Josie LeBalch's restrained and nuanced cooking. The daughter of a French Chef - he was the toque at L'Escoffier at the Beverly Hilton - Le Balch received her early training under his sharp eye. She then spent years working in other people's restaurants, most notably, Saddle Peak Lodge, before she and her husband Frank Delzio found this corner location. Le Balch's cooking can be bucolic American, with entrees such as butterflied campfire trout. It can also be exotic, with appetizers such as baby cuttlefish with lentils and merguez sausage. But with great game sauces and herbed nage on the menu and her dad's copper pots in the kitchen, you soon realize that the soul of the restaurant lies in deepest France. ”

Bon Appétit 

October 2001 Issue:

The Restaurant Reporter (by Tanya Wenman Steel)

“Los Angeles probably has more woman chefs per square inch than any other city, and JOSIE in Santa Monica adds another great one to the list. Co-owner and chef Josie Le Balch (formerly of Remi and Saddle Peak Lodge) opened the restaurant with her husband Frank Delzio. In a comfortable setting with a fireplace, Le Balch cooks up American dishes with French and Italian influences, like Texas Wild Boar with flageolet beans.....”

USA TODAY 

May 25, 2001

By Jerry Shriver

USA TODAY

"LOS ANGELES -- For the first time since Wolfgang Puck was a relative pup, restaurants are competing with summer blockbusters as the city's entertainment topic du jour.

Tinseltown will never give way to Utensil Town, of course, but food critics are applauding some of the recent openings, and drooling over other imminent ones. A few are even murmuring about a dining ''renaissance,'' though that seems premature given the dicey economy and California's energy crisis.

Still, there are some encouraging signs that the stagnation of the past decade is lifting: Campanile won the outstanding-restaurant award at the recent James Beard Awards, the culinary Oscars. Other landmarks such as Spago Beverly Hills, Patina, Michael's and Valentino continue to draw crowds and funnel new talent and ideas into their kitchens. And younger places such as Lucques and Melisse are showing staying power.

Most tellingly, the crop of restaurants that has opened during the past year or so contains several gems with great potential. Here are some of the newcomers worth checking out the next time your taste buds draw you westward:

Josie

Santa Monica

Josie is one of those rare restaurants that appears to have emerged from the womb wholly formed and ready to wrap diners in its tender embrace. Just 4 months old, its seamless service, hearty American/Italian/French menu and warm, laid-back ambience harmonize like a veteran doo-wop group.

Executive chef Josie LeBalch has won acclaim at several area eateries, including Saddle Peak Lodge and Remi, and here she adds to the legacy. Most of the dishes incorporate some inviting little twist that lets you know she's doing more than simply assembling fresh ingredients from top-notch producers. Cod, for example, is prepared ''tagine style,'' arriving in a pretty ceramic bowl filled with saffron-scented broth, couscous and baby vegetables. LeBalch's signature venison chops are accented with an unusual savory hawthorn-berry sauce and accompanied by a giant crimson poached pear. Even the simple endive-baked pear salad incorporates an outstanding aged English Stilton cheese. Such touches argue for Josie to enjoy a long and prosperous life."

Los Angeles Magazine

May 2001 Issue:

by Patrick Kuh

".....After Tying On Aprons In Myriad Kitchens, Josie LeBalch Is At The Top Of Her Game In The One She Can Finally Call Home...

"...Josie LeBalch likes to begin talk of her career by remembering herself as an eight year old helping to chop parsley at her father's cooking school in West L.A. All the good ladies  would almost pass out when they saw such a little girl holding such a big knife. After that early start came a period of learning and exploration. The tenets of haute cuisine were instilled in her by her late father, chef at L'Escoffier at the Beverly Hilton and then at his own Chef Gregoire. The ability to tweak that style came from working with Wolfgang Puck at Ma Maison when he was still in his beurre-blanc-and-sculpted-vegetables phase. A master of game cooking came from her time at Saddle Peak Lodge, and then her palette broadened to allow the cooking of Italy's Veneto region when she was at Remi. She most recently cooked at the Beach House in Santa Monica Canyon. Now she's finally opened Josie on Pico and 25th Street - after so many restaurants, the first she can truly call her own.

...LeBalch's husband, Frank Delzio, runs the dining room. A graduate of one of those fancy Swiss hotel schools, he is an elegant man given to checkered tweed jackets, and his demeanor sets a tone that is at once professional and welcoming."

LA Times 

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1/18/2001

"Finally, an Opening: Josie, the Santa Monica restaurant project from chef Josie Le Balch (of the Beach House, Saddle Peak Lodge and Remi before that), is close to its opening night. Le Balch has been remodeling the space for more than a year, and Josie will finally be open for dinner Jan. 31. Expect food influenced by Le Balch's background in Italian, French and Californian cooking, such as her classic wild mushroom tart, a fennel salad with kaki persimmons in lemon and olive oil and whole trout in lemon."

Bon Appétit

January 2001 Issue:

Most Anticipated:  

"People are talking about Josie RESTAURANT in Santa Monica. Executive chef and co-owner Josie Le Balch was chef at Saddle Peak Lodge and more recently at The Beach House in Santa Monica, and avid restaurant-goers are looking forward to seeing what she'll do with her own place."