Behind the Scenes of "Private Chefs of Beverly Hills:" Chef Sasha's Baklava and Grilled Watermelon and Halloumi Cheese Recipes

Tonight's episode of Private Chefs of Beverly Hills holds a special place in my heart for two very important reasons.

Reason Number One: the day we filming it, I discovered why our outstanding art department smokeshow, Trent, looked so familar to me. That's right, ya'll, he's Trent Ford of "How to Deal" fame.


You remember "How to Deal," don't you? It's from Mandy Moore's prime "Walk to Remember"-"Candy" days and it co-starred Tropical Trent. See! That's him on the DVD cover.

Reason Number Two: We filmed the episode the day before my birthday.

At the end of the shoot, totally oblivious to what they had in store, the producers and crew surprised me with a birthday cake that was a replica of the Tahitian Vanilla Cake from last season, probably the most contraversial item ever featured on the show (and, yes, I am still proud of it).

Carried out by Chef Stuart, who led everyone in a Happy Birthday serenade, I was so shocked and deeply touched, I turned fuschia and burst out laughing, which quickly moved to tears.

It was a moment I will never forget. I know I'm a loud, gregarious, roaring Leo, but the truth is, I'm tough like a cream puff and stuff like that means the world to me.

Grilled Watermelon and Halloumi Cheese “Croutons” with Herbs, Feta and Arugula

makes four servings
4 slices sweet seedless watermelon, with rind
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, preferably sheep’s milk
1/2 cup baby arugula
1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons Italian parsley leaves
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Zest of one lime
1/4 cup Halloumi cheese, cubed
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Heat a grill pan over high heat until very hot.

Sprinkle each slice of watermelon with salt and a pinch of sugar and grill quickly on each side, just until grill marks show and the fruit is lightly caramelized, about 1 minute per side. Arrange on serving plates and sprinkle with crumbled feta, salt and pepper. In a small bowl, toss fresh herbs and arugula with olive oil, vinegar, lime zest, salt and pepper. Place small mounds on top of grilled watermelon and feta. Just before serving, heat a small skillet over medium-high heat and quickly sauté Halloumi until golden and crispy. Garnish each plate with Halloumi cheese croutons and serve immediately.

Rose Water and Orange Blossom Baklava
makes 16 servings

1 pound walnuts, lightly toasted and roughly ground in a food processor or blender
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 package phyllo pastry
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup honey
Zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon Rose Water
1 teaspoon Orange Blossom Water

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine walnuts, cinnamon and sugar and set aside. In the bottom of a greased 9 by 13 pan, place one layer of phyllo and brush liberally with butter. Repeat six more times, buttering each delicate layer, until you have 7 layers of phyllo. Spoon 1/3 nut mixture over phyllo and top with 5 more individually buttered sheets of phyllo. Repeat the process two more times and finish with 7 layers of phyllo. Brush final layer with butter and bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown.

While baklava is baking, make syrup by boiling all ingredients together for 10 minutes.

Remove baklava from oven and pour syrup over it. Cut into squares or diamonds and serve.

One Night at Cleo...

What started as a biff this week, turned into one of the best nights I've had in a while.

My wonderful friend Howie designed the titles for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps and invited a bunch of folks to get together, watch the movie and celebrate his success with drinks afterward. So me and my girl Rachel head to the Arclight only to discover that not only were we 18 minutes late for the movie; we're a week late for the party. D'oh! Howie changed the date and I was so swamped with work, I didn't realize. Starved for both food and each other's company, it'd been weeks since we'd had a good catch-up, Rachel and I set out for the new Redbury at Hollywood and Vine to get drinks and tapas-sized munchies at Cleo instead.

We saddled up to the bar (no waiting and loads of individual attention from our wonderful bartender, Dan) and got to perusing the menu. But they only gave us one so this was my view as Rachel read the drinks and I read the savory courses.

Dan documented our ordering teamwork with the gentle glow of Cleo behind us.

Unlike some of SBE's locations, Cleo feels warm and homey, less of a club and more like the living room of a stately manor, complete with your grandma's china. The restaurant's dinnerware was all ordered from Ebay so it's mismatched but beautiful and oddly familiar. The Chateau Marmont used to do the same thing with their tea cups and, in my opinion, lost a great deal of their charm when they switched to more modern, matching, streamlined cups.

Cleo's menu is tapas by way of the Mediterranean with leaning into the Middle East thanks to ingredients like Za'atar, a favorite since I was a child. When I was a kid, my family would take trips to Israel and we'd always have to stop by the Old City so my parents could buy baggies of the spice, which consists largely of sumac, sesame, cumin and oregano, to bring back to New York. It was treated like sacred olive green dust in my house.

At Cleo, Za'atar clings to melted butter brushed over hot housemade bread fresh from their wood-burning oven. Fragrant, doughy and glistening with just the right amount of grease, the bread can be plunged into a variety of dips, the most popular being labneh (a Middle Eastern strained yogurt) and feta. A little bit of Greece with a detour through Persia, if you will.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we got into food, we had to get into drinks and Cleo is part of the current mixology trend to use all fresh fruit juices and wild flavor combinations. Looking at a drink menu where everything in $14 bucks, it gives me pause. But when we took the first sip of this strawberry and basil cocktail, every penny seemed worth it.

Refreshing and deceptively strong, this bad boy had danger written all over it. It's the kind of thing you could slurp down in five minutes, have three of and suddenly realize you can't feel your legs. So damn good.

Next, we had the beet salad (I've yet to meet a beet I didn't love) which featured golden and red beets, candied walnuts, arugula, frisee, avocado and fennel fronds in a sweet-tart pomegranate molasses vinaigrette...

...Which was so delicious, I dipped the ultra-thin crust of our wood-fired flatbread with mini artichoke hearts, potatoes and wilted dandelion greens that blended a slight bitterness with creamy earthiness, into the leftover dressing.

Next, dessert arrived; a baklava-inspired apple strudel, with walnuts and honey syrup resting inside the phyllo crust, and yogurt sorbet, light and refreshing.

Happily sated, the only thing left to do was a mini-Cleo photo shoot. Our bar-mate buddy Michael tried directing us, but his ideas included things like, "Grab each other's boobs," and we weren't about to go there. This was as close as we got for his viewing pleasure.

We abandoned the bar and headed home, but not before a quick stop in the lobby for some atmospheric posing...

And a little executive realness. FYI: Those shoes I'm wearing are from Ebay too.

Rose Water and Orange Blossom Baklava
makes 16 servings

Baklava:

1 pound walnuts, lightly toasted and roughly ground in a food processor or blender
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 package phyllo pastry
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup honey
Zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon Rose Water
1 teaspoon Orange Blossom Water

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine walnuts, cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

In the bottom of a greased 9 by 13 pan, place one layer of phyllo and brush liberally with butter. Repeat six more times, buttering each delicate layer, until you have 7 layers of phyllo. Spoon 1/3 nut mixture over phyllo and top with 5 more individually buttered sheets of phyllo. Repeat the process two more times and finish with 7 layers of phyllo. Brush final layer with butter and bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown.

While baklava is baking, make syrup by boiling all ingredients together for 10 minutes.

Remove baklava from oven and pour syrup over it. Cut into squares or diamonds and serve.