From Jet Tila to Daniel Humm, Crossroads Anchors LA Dining With a Decade of Collaborations

Las Vegas isn’t the first place you’d expect a celebration of vegetables. Yet when chef Tal Ronnen hosted a collaborative dinner there with Rocco DiSpirito and Michael Voltaggio, the tables told a different story. For Ronnen, who built his career redefining plant-based dining at the helm of the legendary Crossroads Kitchen, the evening was as personal as it was professional.

“When I started cooking, Rocco was one of the biggest names in New York. I always looked up to him and even tried to get an externship at his restaurant in the early 2000s, so it was a real highlight for me to cook with him,” Ronnen told VegNews.

Chef Tal Ronnen | Crossroads

The presence of Voltaggio, a longtime friend, made the night feel like a reunion. “Michael has been one of my closest friends for over a decade,” Ronnen says. Voltaggio used to have a restaurant down the street on Melrose Avenue near the flagship Crossroads location in Los Angeles, and he wrote the foreword to the 2015 Crossroads cookbook. “You would often see one of our staff members going down the street with ticket paper or a highchair or anything that each restaurant needed,” Ronnen says.

Voltaggio also remembers the time fondly. “Collaborating with Tal is like a conversation in flavors. His plant-centric lens challenges me to rethink texture and depth. My Italian foundations blend with his innovation—it’s spontaneous and rewarding,” he says. “At Crossroads, I learned how to coax richness from vegetables—there’s no compromise, just transformation.”

Crossroads as a fixture

Back in Los Angeles, Crossroads Kitchen has spent more than a decade proving that plant-based food can hold its own among the city’s best dining rooms. When Crossroads opened in 2013, it wasn’t framed as a vegan restaurant. Ronnen and his team set the tone with white tablecloths, a lively bar program, and a menu rooted in Mediterranean flavors. 

Over time, Crossroads earned a reputation not only among diners but also among critics. It became the only vegan restaurant in Los Angeles to make the Los Angeles Times’ best restaurants list year after year, while also landing multiple spots on Eater’s “38 Essential” roundup. It’s a hot spot for celebrities: Blink 182’s Travis Barker is a backer, and the restaurant has hosted a plethora of Hollywood’s elite, from Grammy winner Will.i.am to Oscar winner Forest Whitaker.

Chef Nancy Silverton | Crossroads

Ronnen says that while the menus rotate and the restaurant brings in new ingredients—it’s been a launchpad for brands like Impossible Foods’ vegan beef and Climax Foods’ dairy-free cheese—the menu has otherwise stayed true to the Italian and Mediterranean slant. It’s just food that happens to be plant-based, Ronnen says. “We wanted to create a space where vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores can all enjoy a meal together,” the chef-owner explains. 

That consistency has been key, especially as the broader fine-dining vegan world has wavered. New York City’s Eleven Madison Park famously converted to an entirely plant-based menu in 2021, only to reintroduce meat last month after struggling to sustain the model. Crossroads, meanwhile, has leaned into its meat-free identity—and thrived.

RELATED: As Eleven Madison Park Adds Meat, Legacy Vegan Restaurants Fight to Survive

Much of that success, Ronnen says, comes by way of the many collaborations over the years. The guest list at Crossroads has stretched far beyond a handful of marquee names. Ronnen has welcomed Daniel Patterson, the Bay Area chef known for his cerebral California cooking; Keith Corbin of Alta Adams, who has redefined what modern soul food can look like in Los Angeles; Art Smith, who brought his Southern comfort canon into a vegan frame; and Edward Lee, the Louisville, KY chef whose Korean-American roots and Southern influence have made him one of the country’s most distinctive voices. Each collaboration has underscored the same idea: that great chefs, regardless of their background, can find creative freedom in a plant-based kitchen.

When Humm brought mushrooms

Crossroads’ 10-year anniversary in 2023 was marked by landmark collaborations. Voltaggio joined, as did Los Angeles fixture and James Beard winner Nancy Silverton, and Michelin chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park joined the fun, too.

Chefs Tal Ronnen and Daniel Humm | Crossroads

Ronnen recalls, “Daniel and his team work with the best ingredients and meticulous techniques. That dish that they created took them days to prepare. Watching them work quietly through service that night for 400 guests was eye-opening. That evening was absolutely magical.”

For Humm, the event was a reminder of Ronnen’s influence. “Tal has always been very inspiring with the way that he makes plant-based cooking approachable,” Humm says. “Our techniques in the kitchen might be different, but the way that Tal has carried out his vision over the years has been incredible and motivates all of us in the industry to continue our work toward sustainability.” 

Jet Tila and the Asian turn

But long before Humm, one of the earliest chef partnerships for Crossroads came through Jet Tila, who first met Ronnen while they were both working at the Wynn and Encore hotels in Las Vegas. Ronnen had been brought in to teach the properties’ executive chefs how to create plant-based menus, and Tila was impressed.

Ronnen was Steve Wynn’s plant-based chef, brought in to teach executive chefs across the property. “I was fascinated by his knowledge and passion,” Tila says. “We worked together to create innovative Asian dishes and menus. We stayed friends over the years. I’d like to think I taught him a few things about Asian food, so we merged our expertise into some groundbreaking items like plant-based sushi and dim sum.”

Chefs Tal Ronnen and Jet Tila | Crossroads

That partnership has lasted. Tila calls Ronnen “a true genius” when it comes to making plant-based versions of dishes like calamari, steaks, and cheesy items. “He’s an ingredient master and innovator. I love eating plants, but he can make plants eat, taste, feel and react like animal products,” Tila says.

The way they approach cooking together has always been intuitive. “Tal and I just do what we love. I’ve spent my life making Asian dishes, and he helps me find plant versions of the impossible ingredient, like fish sauce and oyster sauce,” Tila notes. “Tal has single-handedly taught me there are no limits and no need to make shortcuts. If there’s no solution, create it.”

The next course

This September 16, Ronnen will host Iron Chef Cat Cora and Italian specialist Mark Murphy for a Mediterranean-themed collaboration dinner at the flagship Crossroads location in Los Angeles. “Yes, this one is also right in our wheelhouse,” Ronnen says. Cora will be the first Iron Chef Crossroads will have hosted. Ronnen is excited. “She loves to reach back to her Greek roots for inspiration, and Mark is a great Italian chef, so we came up with a Mediterranean menu that highlights both cuisines,” Ronnen says.

The dinner will add to a series that has showcased how far plant-based dining has come. Once considered limiting, vegan cooking has become a platform for creativity. “That’s exactly right,” Ronnen says. “Most people think that cooking without meat or dairy is restrictive, but for me, it’s always been a way to stand out.”

Crossroads

The opportunity has been beneficial in other ways, too, Ronnen says. “I was never a good student because I’m dyslexic and have other learning disabilities. So I’ve always had to be creative in everything that I do, and do it my own way,” he says.

Many of the techniques and recipes that have been developed at Crossroads are now things that you see in restaurants all over the world. “It’s really nice to hear from chefs from both vegan and non-vegan restaurants reach out for recipes and ideas on how they can incorporate plant-based foods into their own menus,” Ronnen says. “Some of the best vegan meals I’ve had have been in non-vegan restaurants.”

That perspective has carried Ronnen’s work beyond the plant-based niche. The key, he says, is simplicity: “It is by creating delicious food in a format that people understand.”