An innovator in the LA food scene, Jeff Strauss, chef/owner of Oy Bar and Jeff’s Table, had a whole other creative life before embracing his culinary path.
For 30-plus years, Strauss, now 63, worked as a comedy writer and producer with credits on shows, such as “Friends,” “Dream On” and “Reba.” However, his cooking habit – and love of bringing people together through food – was something he constantly nurtured.
“I have cooked with joy and passion and love for most of my life, since I was about five or six years old,” Strauss, who grew up on the East Coast – and whose mother loved exploring different cuisines, told the Journal. “I spent my life cooking for friends, for parties, for catering, for people, just for fun.”
Encouraged by his wife, a producer in the entertainment business, Strauss – at age 56 – took the leap to pursue his culinary dreams. In 2019, he officially opened Jeff’s Table, a sandwich shop located inside the liquor store Flask in Highland Park. He followed that up in 2022 with the opening of Oy Bar in Studio City.
“I have this thing where [whenever] I would eat something, it would always remind me of something else,” he said. “I would eat some brisket and it would remind me of shredded beef in a taco, or whatever it was … these little bridges of flavor and food style … floated around in the soup of my brain.
“What I’ve come up with is my understanding that food is a way that cultures speak to each other, even when sometimes the cultures themselves won’t talk.”
Foods also transformed over time. For instance, the potato pancake didn’t exist until the 1800s. Yet, the concept of the latke started evolving way before that.
“Our potato latke was not a potato until potatoes went from the New World to Germany,” he said. “Before that, the latke was just a pancake, and, before that, that pancake didn’t even have wheat; that pancake historically was cheese and it was then buckwheat… it was a fried thing that came out of the Middle East, but it was not a potato pancake.”
Los Angeles, he said, is a great example of the multi-cultural intersection of food.
“Los Angeles is like this incredible, massive, international food court, where people are cooking for themselves and sharing it with each other,” he said. “For me, there’s this constant source of inspiration.”
In LA, he explains, you could go to a strip mall and there would be five businesses: four restaurants and a mailbox store.
“The four restaurants would each be something different: there would be an Indian place, a Salvadorian spot, a Korean restaurant maybe and a deli,” he said. “They can all be in the same place, and the smells and the ideas live next to each other.”
Strauss’ menus, which showcase Los Angeles’ authentic blend of many cultures, are his love letters to this multitude of flavors, ingredients, cultures and people he’s encountered. Dishes at Strauss’ restaurants include Cured Salmon Yaki Onigiri, Wagyu Pastrami Quesadilla, Yuzu Kosho Turkey and Hainan-Style Turkey Salad sandwiches. One of his favorite recipes is his emergency Jewish deli dill pickles. That recipe is below.
You can also see the influence of his writer-background on his food.
“As a creative person, I try to talk about stuff that’s meaningful to me,” Strauss said. “Stuff that feels joyful and fun or profound in some way.”
He likes to draw connections between things that are not that obvious. When he was writing comedy, he thought the best way to mine a joke was to make a bridge between two ideas, where no one would normally make a connection.
“Then maybe you could get a laugh,” Strauss said.
“Then the other piece … I learned in writing for half-hour television is [how to] provide for people a moment in their life when they could just be there, and maybe let go of all of the other things that are stressing them out,” he said. “They were watching a show with a chance to laugh, a chance to think for a moment.”
Strauss tries to do that at Oy Bar and with Jeff’s Table,
“I just try to create something that’s its own little experience that’s engaging not just of your taste buds, but a tiny bit of your mind,” he said. “And [it’s] just engaging enough to give you that break, give you a thought, give you a moment, give you something to share with the person you’re with.”
Learn more about chef Jeff Strauss at OYBarLA.com and JeffsTableLA.com. Follow @OyBarLA and @Jeffs___Table on Instagram.
For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:
Jeff’s Emergency Jewish Deli Dill Pickles
Makes about 1 cup
These are great for snacking, or you can use them on burgers and sandwiches. It’s really a slightly sweet, slightly salty, garlicky cucumber salad pretending to be a pickle. While nothing matches the magic of a truly great, traditionally-fermented deli pickle, the freshness brings a playful flavor that beats many bottled/store-bought pickles. I think the last two words in the instructions: “taste” & “adjust” (use your senses, think, use your skills) are the essence of cooking. I think they’re so important that I have them tattooed on my wrist. So don’t just learn a recipe, learn to taste and adjust.
Ingredients
4 Persian cucumbers, medium large
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large clove of garlic grated on a microplane or finely minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
Instructions
Slice off the ends of cucumbers; then slice them into roughly 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Make them look like sliced pickles, or just slightly thicker. Actually, you can make whatever pickle shape you like: spears, halves, chunks… Larger pieces take a little longer to pick up the flavors, but they all work!
Combine these with the other ingredients in a nonreactive bowl and stir gently once or twice over 10 minutes.
Taste. Adjust.
Serve immediately, or refrigerate to use within a few hours.
Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.
