Coming to the Taste: David LeFevre

M.B. Post chef David Lefevre started cooking because he was hungry. “I loved the food my mother made,” he says, “and I realized that if I knew how to cook, I wouldn’t have to wait for someone else to cook for me.”

He trained at the Culinary Institute of America then went to work for famed Chicago chef Charlie Trotter. In addition, he’s worked with such chefs as Bernard Louiseau, Jean Bardet and Roger Verge.

LeFevre came to Los Angeles in 2004 to take over the kitchen at downtown seafood landmark Water Grill and left in 2011 to open his own place, M.B. Post (set in the old Manhattan Beach post office, hence the name), which has been a roaring success from the start.

“With M.B. Post, a highly trained chef has decided to zero in on the casual instead, capturing some of the beach town’s irreverent spirit,” wrote Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila. “Right now, the crowd at M.B. Post seems to be celebrating the fact that there’s such a terrific new restaurant in town, one that can hold its own against anything in Southern California.”

He will be taking part with Fig chef Ray Garcia in a Market Basket cooking challenge during the Field to Fork portion of The Taste on Saturday, Sept. 1. Tickets are $65 and are available on the website.