"Today, Culver City is the unlikely home of one of the country's most explosive dining scenes and is drawing eaters from all over Los Angeles."

"Beacon serves the vibrant fusion food of legendary chef Kazuto Matsusaka, who has just opened a takeout place, The Point."

// Oliver Schwaner-Albright, "Culver City—From Back Lot to Boomtown"

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"Located in Culver City’s fashionable Design District, Beacon has been dazzling customers for the past three years under the direction of husband-and-wife team Chef Kazuto Matsusaka and Manager Vicki Fan."

// Ron Bernthal, "And the Winner Is..."

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"Chefs Kazuto Matsusaka and Vicki Fan offer an intriguing array of traditional Asian dishes, spiked with the freshest contemporary ingredients. To my delight, every offering- from the Tasmanian Salmon Trout with stone ground grits and Chinese black beans to the Coconut Rice & Mango Brulee, boasted a rare, authentic ingredient or unique approach to a standard recipes."

// Alyssa Lloyd, "Brilliance at Beacon"

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Top 7 SoCal restaurants owned by couples

"Beacon, an Asian café in Culver City, has Chef Kazuto manning the back.

'And his wife Vicki sort of does split duty, part-time in the kitchen helping out as a chef and then the other part of the time is general manager, front of the house,' says de Lis.

'It's a difficult business, but when you have your spouse there, it's somebody to share the great times with, and then if you have a hard day, it's somebody to talk to," says Vicki Fan. "Plus, we see each other much more than if we both had separate jobs, I think.'"

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Laura Avery chats with Vicki Fan, chef-owner of Beacon, about cooking with silk squash (Chinese sing gua). On October 8, Vicki will be opening a new grab-and-go, healthy food eatery, The Point, in Culver City.

RECIPE: Sing Gua Salad with Ginger, Garlic and Redwood Hill Feta Cheese

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"Beacon Restaurant chef-owners Kazuto Matsusaka and Vicki Fan share a recipe for copper river salmon with sorrel sauce (a lemony French herb sauce), steamed veggies, and Weiser Farm potatoes. The sorrel sauce recipe is very simple: pureed vegetable stock, onions, garlic, and ginger.

Matsusaka and Fan will be opening their new restaurant, The Point, in Culver City this October. It will feature to-go salads with Farmers' Market ingredients."

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Next Stop, Culver City

"Spago veteran Kazuto Matsusaka prepares comfort food such as a ahi-tuna pizza and green-tea soba noodles."

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Gourmet 2005 Restaurant Guide : West Coast : Los Angeles

"The master Chef [Kazuto] has also returned to his roots with vegetable nabes and shrimp and green-tea soba noodles that distill the harmony and delicacy of Japanese cooking."

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"Once you've had Otafuku's soba, there's no sense going anyplace else," says Kazuto Matsusaka, chef at Culver City's booming Beacon restaurant. Matsusaka, who was chef at Chinois on Main for 10 years, says he and his wife Vicki Fan used to make regular pilgrimages to Otafuku before their restaurant got so busy.

"We'd go to exercise, then head down to Marukai to go shopping," he says. "And we'd stop at Otafuku for lunch. We'd do that two or three times a month. I really like it for dinner, too, when he makes all those special small plates to go with the noodles.

"Now because of running this restaurant, I haven't been in a couple of months," he says wistfully. "They really are the best."

RECIPE: Green tea soba salad with grilled shrimp

// Russ Parsons, "Art of the Noodle "


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"The grilled-chicken skewers are powerfully flavored... And you’ll probably never find anything like Matsusaka’s salad of perfectly ripe avocado..."

// Jonathan Gold, "Jonathan Gold’s 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants"

"Kazuto's cooking is fresh and modern, casual and inviting"

"The food at BEACON is a thrilling combination of Japanese and California cuisine, with occasional touches from Thailand or China"

"Indecently good food for the price"

// S. Irene Virbila, "Asian Bold"

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"Now he (Kazuto) and his wife, Vicki Fan, are back in Los Angeles with Beacon, a casual, easygoing place...."

"...green tea soba noodles shot through with shaved vegetables and grilled shrimp; a vegetable nabe with yam noodles and snowy tofu pillows in a finely calibrated dashi broth celebrate the harmony and delicacy of Japanese cooking."

"When Matsusaka distills the experiences of a lifetime, his clean, intelligent cooking raises the bar for Asian-fusion chefs everywhere."

// Caroline Bates, "When Tokyo Met Lyon, or the Rise and Rise of Asian Fusion"

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"The kaki fry chef Kazuto does at this stylish pan-Asian spot is worth a special trip..."

// Leslee Komaiko

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"[Beacon] is the kind of place one can happily return time and time again, which is the ultimate compliment for a Pan-Pacific restaurant in fickle L.A."

"At Beacon, Kazuto Matsusaka finds the balance between the sensation he created then and the food he wants to cook now."

" ...one of California's most influential chefs has come home."

// Russ Parsons

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"Formidable and intent, he [Kazuto] is crafting a formula wherein the prices are low while the quality is stunningly high."

// Andrew Knowlton

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// Jonathan Gold

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// S. Irene Virbila

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