“Ever heard of a gastro mechanic? This is what Stewart Levine and the rest of the Gastro Garage pop-up dinner crew call themselves. Why? Because they cook things — salmon, short ribs — with blowtorches, in front of seated dinners for 10, or for crowds of hundreds.

“We are not chefs. We are gastro mechanics!” says Levine at the start of his pop-up dinner events, which routinely involve “Ghostbusters”-ish outfits, with goggles and backpacks, drills and, of course, blowtorches. It’s more dinner theater than your average pop-up dinner. And you’d be wise to ditch all hair product before the show.”

“These guys set up a pretend mechanic’s workshop. Then they prepare dinner using blowtorches and nitrogen…Or if you prefer a personal touch, hire them to come over. They’ll bring the blowtorches, goggles, welding masks and nitrogen tanks. So you don’t have to use yours.

They’re deconstructing famous dishes into personal-size, sweet and savory brioche donut things that see a blowtorch before they get to you. For example, a lobster tail and caviar on a béarnaise-foam-filled one. And a s’mores kind. And a Philly-flavored one with torched New York strip steak and nitro aged-cheddar foam.”

“Blowtorches and welding goggles aren’t typically what you envision when you think of food, but Gastro Garage is changing that image one industrially crafted dish at a time…serving gourmet sandwiches and desserts while wielding work gloves and active blowtorches…this crew may literally be L.A.’s hottest food sensation.

On the savory side, there is the Cubano (12-hour roasted pork, Gruyère foam, Applewood smoked ham, mustard caviar and dill plank), while on the sweet side, there is the s’mores-like Campfire (double chocolate foam, torched marshmallow, graham cracker powder, milk chocolate chunk).”