DOUGLAS RANKIN
Having worked in professional kitchens since the age of 16, Rankin tried his hand at culinary school but dropped after being hired to work at Aureole, Charlie Palmer’s Michelin-starred restaurant in NYC. He then moved to Costa Mesa to open Palmer’s restaurant in South Coast Plaza before taking the stage at Saam at The Bazaar by Jose Andres where he helped create the 22-course molecular gastronomy tasting menu. Rankin went on to work with Michael Voltaggio at Ink., and help Chris Cosentino open Pigg at Umamicatessen.
Rankin received Zagat’s “30 Under 30” at age 27 before being hired as the opening Chef de Cuisine of Ludo Lefebvre’s Trois Mec – named #4 of Jonathan Gold’s “Top 101 Restaurants,” #1 “Best New Restaurant” by Los Angeles Magazine, #1 Restaurant in Los Angeles of 2014 by LA Weekly, and #1 “Best Restaurant Dish” by Food & Wine in 2013. Rankin was promoted to Culinary Director of Trois Mec and Petit Trois in 2014 – “Restaurant of the Year 2015” by Food & Wine, #3 of Bon Appetit’s “Hot 10,” and the James Beard Award finalist for “Best New Restaurant” in 2015.
Rankin consulted for a number of L.A.-based restaurants including Michelin-starred Chef Daniel Patterson’s Alta before opening Bar Restaurant in Silverlake in November 2019. Rankin’s “French-infused 80’s fantasy restaurant” received a glowing Los Angeles Times review, was awarded Los Angeles Magazine’s “Top Ten Best New Restaurants” in 2019, and was nationally recognized in American Way magazine as one of Los Angeles’ best restaurants where “his modernist cuisine is absolutely flawless.”
Rankin continues to redefine haute Parisian cuisine through the lens of bistronomy with his newest culinary concept, Bar Chelou.
In 2023 Chef/Partner Rankin opened Bar Chelou, the first neo-bistro to land in Pasadena, CA. Bar Chelou has been named one of the “12 Best New Restaurants in America” and “Best New Restaurant in Los Angeles” by Eater, and was recognized as an “innovative newcomer” by The New York Times on this year’s “52 Places to Go in 2024” list. Bar Chelou is one of 23 newcomers to the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. guide, Los Angeles Magazine’s “Top Ten Best New Restaurants” in 2023, Vogue’s pick for “Where to Eat” and one of “25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now” by The New York Times.
“Rankin’s spin-the-globe imaginings know few borders,” said Bill Addison, James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic for The Los Angeles Times in his restaurant review of Bar Chelou. “He bounces across continents in his bravura approach to vegetables… Snap peas wallow in anchovy cream under a shower of grated cured egg yolk and crumbled chistorra, a thin Basque sausage. The gist is Bacos and vitello tonnato out together on a farmers market run; the result is uncanny and delicious.”
Combining cultures through food and his rule-breaker approach, Rankin’s culinary wizardry is truly unique and deserving of recognition.
