Southern California’s infamous Santa Ana winds were barreling through Los Angeles as Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson prepared to host a garden party to celebrate the May 7 release of their first cookbook, “Kismet.” But as seasoned chefs and restaurant owners — they opened their Middle Eastern-inflected East Hollywood restaurant, also called Kismet, in 2017 after bonding in the kitchen at Brooklyn’s Glasserie over a decade ago — the two women have plenty of practice keeping cool in stressful situations. “We were like, ‘It’s going to die down, it’s going to die down,’” said Hymanson, 37, of the gale. “And if it doesn’t, then we’ll figure it out.”

Indeed, just before 5:30 p.m., when guests were set to arrive at the Echo Park hilltop home that Kramer, 38, shares with her partner, the comedian Emil DeRosa, 34, and their goldendoodle, Kevin, the gusts subsided and the gray skies gave way to a golden sunset. Suddenly, the garden — which features a winding pathway scented by jasmine bushes and herbs that leads down to a grove of loquat, fig and Blenheim apricot trees — felt like an ideal place for a celebration. Chase Valencia, 40, who co-owns Lasita, a modern Filipino restaurant in the city’s Chinatown, took in the setting, admitting, “I came to this dinner because I really wanted to check out her house!”

Though they enlisted their friends and fellow chefs Kali Bush-Vineberg, 31, and Patch Troffer, 38, to help cook at the event, Kramer and Hymanson had prepped from sunrise to midnight the day before, making an early morning trip to the Santa Monica Farmers Market and then spending hours chopping produce and converting the measurements from their cookbook to accommodate a large party. “We tested the recipes plenty of times,” Hymanson said, “but we were still anxious about it.” The book, they said, was a labor of love five years in the making, a project they signed on for in 2019 but put on hold during the pandemic and the expansion of their business, which has grown to include three fast-casual Kismet Rotisseries over the past four years.

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