Three-Alarm Fire Burns Through Restaurant Building

Orange, CA -

(FOX 11 / CNS) A three-alarm fire ripped through an Orange commercial building housing a restaurant this morning but no injuries were reported, authorities said.

The fire at 800 N. Main St. was reported at 12:51 a.m., said Capt. Ian MacDonald of the Orange Fire Department.

First-arriving crews encountered heavy smoke and fire shooting through the roof of the one-story building and were soon forced into a defensive posture, meaning they fought the flames from outside the structure, he said.

The building's primary tenant was Ruby's Grill Baja Style restaurant, which sustained the bulk of the damage, MacDonald said.

The blaze eventually went to a third alarm, bringing a total of 57 firefighters to the scene, MacDonald said, adding that the fire was knocked down around 2:15 a.m.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. Main Street was shut down between Collins and Walnut avenues as firefighters fought the blaze.

From Hal Eisner:

What a tough morning for Armando Arredondo, his family and workers. He's owned Ruby's Baja Style Grill for 7 years on Main St. in the City of Orange. Just after midnight his restaurant - which is named after his grandma - was destroyed by fire. His lip quivering he told me "Thanks God no one was hurt."

He explained that he got that disturbing middle of the night call that his business was on fire. His heart, he says, was racing all the way from his home in La Habra to Orange.

Orange City Fire Captain Ian MacDonald says this was a tough fire. It took over an hour to knock it down. When they got there they got up on the roof, but the quickly had to get off when flames started blowing through the roof. The Incident Commander, he says, very quickly switched to master hoses raining down from high elevations to soak and subdue the blaze. His business was totaled. So was the wedding planning shot on one side of it and a catering company on the other side.

Ruby's, he says, was named after his grandma. He says there will be a Ruby's TWO. 

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Chef Simon Rogan abandons plans for London restaurant

By Laurence Fletcher

CARTMEL, ENGLAND | Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:50am EDT

CARTMEL, ENGLAND (Reuters) - Simon Rogan, one of the UK's top chefs, has abandoned long-awaited plans to open a permanent restaurant in London, for fear his two Michelin-starred L'Enclume restaurant could suffer.

Rogan, who has regularly appeared on TV and who is well known for "foraging" ingredients from the surrounding countryside, told Reuters he abandoned plans for a London outlet after a recent restaurant opening in Manchester "almost killed" him.

The decision stands in stark contrast to moves by other well-known chefs who have built up large restaurant empires on the back of growing interest in good food among the UK public.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, for instance, has opened restaurants throughout the UK and abroad, and has TV series, cook books and merchandise. Other top chefs with large restaurant businesses include Gordon Ramsay, who runs a string of restaurants in London and abroad, and Marco Pierre White, who has steak restaurants in London and other UK cities.

"I was always determined that I wouldn't have a restaurant that I would never step foot into," Rogan told Reuters in the conservatory of L'Enclume, situated in the medieval village of Cartmel in northern England. "How much do you need? How greedy do you want to be? Quality-wise, it's the right decision.

"I don't want to feel that L'Enclume is being neglected, which it certainly felt like to me, because I have been away from it for four weeks now (in Manchester). Although the team here are perfectly capable - you wouldn't know I've been away - I know I am away."

Rogan has run a temporary restaurant called Roganic in London for nearly two years, and had been planning to open a permanent outlet that was "a bit more grand" when the lease for Roganic expires in June, before deciding against it in recent days.

He added that he didn't want to have to depend on "an army of investors" for a London launch, while funding the move from his existing business "would maybe be to risk what is bordering on what we see as perfection here".

"COOKED ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGLY"

L'Enclume - French for anvil - is situated in a former smithy and is rated Britain's second-best restaurant, behind Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck, in the current Good Food Guide. The two restaurants were the only ones to achieve a top score of 10 out of 10.

Rogan said he will now concentrate on his outlets in northwest England. At his recently opened restaurant in Manchester, The French, food will be developed to "incorporate the historical element of Manchester".

In one recipe taken from 18th century Manchester businesswoman Elizabeth Raffald, he lards veal with fat to make it more succulent before cooking it on a barbecue (Raffald used a trivet in front of an open fire).

And after eliminating foreign ingredients from his menus around four-and-a-half years ago, Rogan said he was inspired by Raffald to begin using lemons again in a lemon pickle to go with a mushroom ketchup for the veal.

Rogan, whose techniques also include cooling with liquid nitrogen, said the rest of the world has been "so far ahead" of British cuisine but said TV shows such as "MasterChef" and "Great British Menu" had had a "a massive effect on our food culture".

However, it is France, where he has previously worked and where he felt "totally at home", that he rates "head and shoulders above anywhere else in the world".

"I was struck going back to Lyon this year and going into simple brasseries and bistros, by the very simple food cooked absolutely amazingly," he said. "Beef cheeks with pommes purees, mushrooms ... that's the type of food I really, really love."

Among his favorite chefs he names Pierre Gagnaire - "an absolute genius" - while this year he plans to eat at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain that is run by the brothers Josep, Jordi and Joan Roca.

Rogan adds that he hopes the trend away from processed food and towards locally sourced, organic fare that has become more popular in Britain in recent years will continue.

"This is the way I see (going) forward," he said. "We go that one step further by taking one step back down the food chain, to make sure we've got the perfect ingredients in the first place that you don't have to do much to."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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