Dinner with Chef Michael Voltaggio of Ink and David Nayfeld of Eleven Madison Park

Chef Michael Voltaggio of Ink will take part in a collaborative dinner with David Nayfeld, former senior sous chef at Eleven Madison Park in New York, on June 4.  (Voltaggio is a partners with Michael Ovitz in Ink).  

The impetus behind the dinner is Nayfeld's hiring as executive chef of a yet-to-be-named restaurant opening in late summer at 7th and Sante Fe, near Church & State and Bestia and Bread Lounge.  

Nayfeld, who has never cooked here, has an impressive background.  A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he "has worked in the kitchens of Aqua in San Francisco, Joel Robuchon's Mansion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and Cru in New York, as well as Eleven Madison Park, which has three Michelin stars and six James Beard awards."

The six-course dinner will include three courses from each chef, showcasing their respective culinary styles, and is touted as a glimpse into what Nayfeld will be doing at the downtown restaurant.

The dinner is set for June 4 at 6 p.m. and costs $125 with an optional beverage pairing for an additional $75. Credit card reservations are required; call (323) 651-5866.

Read the entire L.A. Times article, Eleven Madison Park chef comes to Ink, offers glimpse of new downtown restaurant.

Secrets of Hollywood's Best-Dressed Male Agents

Whatever happened to the traditional dark suit? The legends all wore them: Michael Ovitz, Lew Wasserman, and others helped define the iconic dark suit as a Hollywood sartorial staple, a trend that has persisted to present day but appears to now be changing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, while most agents still style the traditional dark Hugo Boss or Zegna suit with Prada, Gucci or Bally shoes, an increasing percentage have turned to a flashier palette.

"There’s a group of agents that are very fashion-forward, so whatever the new style is -- slimmer-cut suit, skinny lapels or big, thick ties -- they are on that train," says UTA licensing agent Andrew Francis. For this new look, a patterned suit, a striped shirt and a paisley tie might show up in a single outfit, while "Mad Men-inspired pocket squares, tie clips and vests have made for more distinctive style".  As an example, THR describes the "impressive glances" attracted by APA partner Brian Dow as he strolled home in a "three-piece Donegal tweed with peaked lapels, his tie and shirt boasting different black-and-white checkered patterns".

Still, despite these impressive advances in tailoring, the paisley tie alone is not going to land the huge client or deal.  It's the agent that does that, not the suit.

Read more about the Secrets of Hollywood's Best-Dressed Male Agents in The Hollwood Reporter.

Hollywood Contributes to L.A. Mayor Electoral Race

Los Angeles Mayoral candidate and City Councilman Eric Garcetti has a number of Hollywood notables backing his campaign including Michael Ovitz, Michael Eisner, Salma Hayek, Sony CEO Michael Lynton, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kevin Spacey producer Steven Bochco CAA agent Kevin Huvane, and UTA agent Jim Berkus.

In last night's primary election Garcetti was the top vote-getter over Controller Wendy Greuel, receiving 33% of the unofficial count of ballots vs. 29% for Greuel.  A runoff between the two City Hall veterans during the May 21st general election will determine the next mayor of Los Angeles.

Read the entire BizJournal article, Hollywood Making Record Donations to Race for L.A. Mayor, or click here to follow the L.A. Mayoral race at the L.A. Times.

Hamasaku's Cod Sperm Sushi Roll

Michael Ovitz's sushi restaurant Hamasaku is now serving the seasonal delicacy, cod sperm sushi, provoking inevitable sophomoric quips from the Los Angeles food critic world; as one Squid Ink writer describes his intention to eat 'a lot of it.  Without gagging'.

Through February, this seasonal delicacy is being offered in short supply, both 'poached with ponzu and grilled on nigiri for true skeet-freaks, as well as in tempura form for those seeking a more cautious approach.'

The flavor is 'delicate, creamy, like a rich tofu or a mild monkfish liver.'

Read the articles in their entirety, Grub Street's Hamasaku Releases Limited Supply of Cod Sperm and Zagat's Sperm Sushi at Hamasaku.

The Dell Buyout Dealmaker

So just who is Egon Durban?  A 39 year old managing partner at private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Durban was the chief dealmaker behind the $24.4 billion dollar deal taking computer company Dell private.  Today's Financial News covers Durban in its story, The Hidden Dealmaker Behind the Dell Buyout, and his past includes interesting connections to Michael Ovitz.

It turns out that Durban's largest deal before today's Dell blockbuster was the purchase of a ' majority stake in video calling company Skype for just over $2bn in cash and loans, including $975m from the private equity firm's funds. When Microsoft agreed 18 months later to buy Skype for $8.5bn, the deal made Silver Lake and other Skype investors a multi-billion dollar profit.'  One of the major players in this purchase was venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

We've talked here before about how Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz created their business culture by modeling it after Ovitz's approach at his Hollywood talent agency CAA (Creative Artists Agency).  The firm aimed to 'flip the venture industry on its head by acting more like a talent agency' and worked closely with Ovitz, who shared his secrets with the two partners when they served together on Opsware's board from 2000 to 2007.

Thus just as the job of CAA agents is to serve their clients, Andreessen Horowitz employs partners whose job is to serve the entrepreneurs.  'Instead of book and movie TV deals, the partners, each specialists in their fields, find engineers, designers, and product managers; the best marketing and public relations; and relationships with key customers...'

While Andreessen, a board member of Dell rival Hewlett Packard, declined to discuss the potential Dell buyout, he did discuss Durban's past with the Skype deal, including the straight shooting approach of 'deal junkie' Durban, who delivered news of the Skype sale "like a cold shot of vodka." 

The connection to Ovitz doesn't end with Andreessen Horowitz.  Known to 'conduct meticulous research on potential deal targets', when Durban was researching investing in Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, he read books by Michael Ovitz and other film industry leaders.  He must have liked what he read - Durban's Silver Lake later purchased a 31% stake in WME.  

Congrats to Egon Durban and Silver Lake Partners for the Dell deal.

Read the entire Financial Times article, The Hidden Dealmaker Behind the Dell Buyout.

Kimberly Ovitz Releases New Jewelry Line

Photo Credit: Kyle Ericksen

Michael Ovitz's daughter, fashion designer Kimberly Ovitz, has released a new jewelry line in her premier Kimberly Ovitz With Shape collection, to debut Feb 7, 2013 at New York Fashion Week. The collection was most recently covered in this WWD article, Kimberly Ovitz's Tech Take on Jewelry (subscr. only).  The line is decidedly unorthodox and modern, featuring 'a more alternative take on contemporary jewelry, such as a ring that extends and hugs the area between the index finger and the thumb or a bracelet that wraps around the wrist and connects to the hand with a ring.'

Natural Inspiration

Photo Credit: Kyle Ericksen

Ovitz's aesthetic is often driven by themes and motifs gathered from the natural world, accompanied by an abstract, creative twist.  For her jewelry line, Ovitz says she 'didn't want to do your typical foray into jewelry'.  She took as her inspiration 'natural defense mechanisms' and 'innate protection systems' of the animal and insect world.  '...I saw a lot of armor, camouflage and colors I would expect to be synthetic but you actually see in nature,' Ovitz said.

Tech Savvy
The production of Ovitz's jewelry is remarkably tech savvy.  'Most of the pieces... are created via 3-D printing from structured, lightweight nylon and produced through a partnership with 3-D printing marketplace.'   This technology 'allows talent to digitally manipulate the materials in a way not possible using traditional design processes'.  The advantage of this cutting-edge approach is also its immediacy; Ovitz plans to allow customers to order jewelry directly from kimberlyovitz.com the moment it debuts on the runway, and also will 'use crowdsourcing to get input from followers about colors and will even let them personalize their own pieces.'

Read the entire WWD article, Kimberly Ovitz's Tech Take on Jewelry (subscription only)

Hollywood's 25 Top Power Lunch Restaurants: Hamasaku

Michael Ovitz's Hamasaku was recently voted one of Hollywood's 25 Top 'Power Lunch' restaurants by The Hollywood Reporter.

"Its industry bona fides are obvious, from the site of owner Michael Ovitz at his favorite table to the menu, which features more than 60 creations named in honor of such loyal patrons as Christina Applegate (baked salmon, crab, avocado and sweet soy nigiri) and Robert Pattinson (whose "Twilight" roll features spicy tuna, crab, avocado and seared albacore).

Hamasaku, located at 11043 Stanta Monica Blvd. in West Los Angeles, recently transformed its menu with the additions of new executive chef Wonny Lee and head sushi chef Yoya Takahashi, both of whom we will be featuring later this month on this blog.

To earn the power lunch moniker one would expect a few big ticket items on the menu, and for this Hamasaku delivers.  You might order the 'still unnamed $100 roll packed with langoustine, toro, uni, truffle and caviar and dusted with 24-karat gold flakes' or enjoy a rare bottle of Flying Pegasus sake for a mere $500.

Read the Hamasaku review in The Hollywood Reporter's 25 Top Power Lunch Restaurants, or read through the entire list.

Visit the Hamasaku website.