Pasadena Lifestyle — Firefly Restaurant
Loud Food and Spicy Music

Located in quaint neighborhood in South Pasadena, FireFly Bistro is a family-friendly restaurant that serves up “loud food and spicy music,” according to Proprietor Paul Rosenbluh, who opened his restaurant in 2002 after serving as cook with Campanile Bakery and Restaurant. With a strong desire to create tantalizing cuisine and an entrepreneurial spirit, Rosenbluh came up with the concept of a small eatery that focuses on worldly cuisine with North African influence in a unique atmosphere—under a lavish tent that offers alfresco dining. FireFly Bistro offers eclectic cuisine with popular dishes such as Caribbean Curried Seafood Stew, Fennel Seed Lamb Rack and Pan Seared Duck. Popular side dishes include Plantain Dumplings, Yams, Red Beet Hash Browns and Sautéed Onions and Pecans. Recently, PSS reporter Noah Dewey caught up with Ronsenbluh to discuss all things flavorful.

Where do you get your culinary influences?
My influences are flavor and spice and I pull these flavors from all over Europe and Africa. Countries like India, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia all have cuisines that really inspire me to create new and unique menu items. Those regions focus on spice and aroma and those big and bold flavors are rare in L.A.

What is your culinary background?
I attended the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco before they were bought by Cordon Blue. When I was there San Francisco was the epicenter of food. Artisan bread had just come out of Berkley and it was right before the dot com boom and the gentrification of the city. I learned a lot about culture and it was there that I realized I needed a mission.

Who in your life has influenced your cooking the most?
My wife, I met her when I was her sous chef in Chicago at Soul Kitchen. From her, I learned what I could and I found my voice. She introduced me to soul food and inspired me to not follow trends or recreate the wheel.

Which three cooking tools or gadgets are your favorites?

1. First would have to be my side towel. It is the first thing I make sure I have with me in the kitchen and the reasoning for that is, you are never guaranteed that what you are grabbing in the kitchen will or will not burn you. The side towel is a skin saver.
2. The second tool would be my tongs. They are the best because they are a multipurpose tool. They can be used to grab hot food, stir a sauce and can pretty much be used for anything else in a kitchen.
3. Lastly I would have to say… a whisk; sometimes you need to whip things.

Which are the most overrated — and underrated — seasonings?

• Overrated: Fleur de Sel is the most overrated seasoning. Fleur de Sel is a French sea salt and translated means flower of the sea. Basically it’s just a fancy salt that has a little more flavor then table salt and when used with a combination of other seasonings the flavor gets lost. I will admit that when my wife sprinkles some fleur de sel on bread with butter or olive oil it is really delicious.
• Underrated: The most underrated and underused seasoning is salt. Salt is the hardest seasoning to teach people to use. I pride myself in understanding how to use salt and that is why there are no salt or pepper shakers on our tables. Our dishes come out of the kitchen done.