Glen Tinsley, Executive Chef, Comedor, Laguna Beach, Calif.

“Being in California, we’re spoiled with citrus like green satsuma, yuzu and kumquats. Kumquats are great; they’re sour and citrusy. I use them almost as a seasoning, choosing citrus fruit over vinegar. We’ll pickle kumquats and put them in a crudo, with local otoro, white soy, fermented Thai chile, onion, red apple, avocado and yuzu kosho. Our Taste of Winter dessert features Meyer lemon curd with huckleberries, candied kumquats and honeycomb with Marcona almonds crushed overtop. Candying the kumquats is easy. We slice the fruit, take the seeds out, cook them in vanilla-scented simple syrup until soft and then finish with rhubarb syrup.”