Zov Karamardian: Dining at Life’s Table
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 8:18AM 
Since opening her first restaurant in 1987, Chef Zov Karamardian has become a Southern California culinary legend. Zov’s Bistro & Bakery blends contemporary cuisine with Eastern Mediterranean influences in a casual setting, while her flagship Tustin bistro offers an upscale, chic ambiance.
Building on the success of her Bistro concept, Zov opened Zov’s Neighborhood Cafés & Bars in Irvine and Newport Coast. The new locations offer many of the signature dishes from her bistro during lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and happy hour.
Along the way, Zov published a cookbook, launched a series of cooking classes, and expanded her catering division. She also garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, including being named Restaurateur of the Year by the Southern California Restaurant Writers and the California Restaurant Association.
Now, with a second cookbook hot off the press and plans to open not just one but two restaurants at John Wayne Airport, Zov sat down with Stasha Surdyke and Christopher Trela at the Newport Coast café to talk about her new book, the concept behind Zov’s restaurants, and her culinary career.
1. What is the difference between Zov’s Bistro in Tustin and this Newport Coast restaurant?
Zov’s Bistro is more of a fine dining experience. People come with friends and have a night out - it’s a destination restaurant. People come from all over the world to dine, and they make reservations before they fly out. Our award-winning bakery is next to the bistro. The Newport Beach restaurant is more of a neighborhood café that’s very healthy, fast, family friendly, and no reservations are required. Everything is made from scratch, no processing. The dressings, the sauces - everything is made with fresh ingredients and the produce is locally sourced. If you want your kids to have a healthy meal, this is the place to come. We do have a kids menu.
2. What are some of your more popular menu items?
The seared salmon with Moroccan spices is the most requested item, which comes with braised spinach. The herb-crusted whitefish comes with pearl couscous, and is loaded with corn, carrots, beans, peas, and of course, white wine sauce. Our kabobs are very popular, and our pastas are wonderful - the pasta with chicken is delicious. We also make a killer meatloaf. Another popular item is our Mezze plate - Mezze means tidbits of food. It’s an appetizer sampler of hummus, baba ganoush, rice-filled grape leaves, tabouleh, spicy sweet walnut dip known as muhammara, and pita bread.”
3. What is in your newest cookbook?
It’s called “Simply Zov” and I’m very proud of this edition. It’s 385 pages and has 150 recipes using easily accessible, everyday ingredients you find in the home. It has mostly family-type recipes. You only need one recipe and you never have to look for another one. Let’s say you want to make a killer meatloaf. Most meatloaf is tomato-y. I never liked meatloaf until I created my own - so that recipe is definitely in there. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes, and each one has a photo to go with it. I have recipes for mothers, lots of comfort food and vegetarian food recipes.
4. What is the inspiration behind your cuisine?
My inspiration is always ingredient driving. When I see an ingredient, I come up with ideas of how to use it. I love using herbs and spices. I have a really good palate, which I think is ornate, like a wine maker and his nose. It’s God given, and I’m happy that I have that. My mother was a fantastic cook. Even though her repertoire was very limited, it was always delicious. She had a great palate and taught me well.
5. So you pursued a culinary career after starting at home?
I never went to a culinary arts school. My hero is Julia Child. I can honestly say we became very good friends. We used to visit each other a lot. She was the inspiration for my career. I owe it all to her, and my mother. They were my heroes in the food department.
6. What made you want to get into the restaurant business?
I started as a caterer first. I knew food was my passion, so I started catering out of my house more than 30 years ago. I did it from home so I could be with my children, who were babies at the time. Eventually it got to be really crazy, so I needed to either make it a profession or quit, and I’d worked too hard to quit. The Tustin location was available, so we went for it. It was a tiny little place. I never expected it to grow into all of this. Never.
7. As busy as you are, do you ever get to dine out?
For me, to dine out is a pleasure, but I have so little time. I have Sundays off – my only day off – and sometimes I’m still working. I don’t usually enjoy going out because it feels like I’m working. So, the best time for me to dine out is when I travel. I try to do that as often as possible. That’s when I really go crazy and try all the local cuisine.
8. If you were not in the restaurant business, what would you be doing instead?
I would be a teacher, any kind of a teacher, because I’m good at it—I like to share knowledge. I hold cooking classes at the Bistro regularly, and last week 40 people showed up to attend. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration.
9. Do you watch cooking shows on TV?
I don’t have much time, but we had Iron Chef Michael Simon, and Chef Anne Burrell, at the restaurant. We all cooked together and raised money for the James Beard Foundation. They have a scholarship with my name on it. We do a lot of benefits for them, which help people who don’t have the means to study cooking.
10. Are you surprised by everything you have accomplished?
I look back at my life and realize I have done a lot. I just go and go and go, and then stop and look back. That’s life. It’s pretty amazing.
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