A flash in the pan at Valentino

News flash! Valentino hired a new chef: Don Dickman. Dickman, who earned a loyal following as chef-owner at Santa Monica’s Rocca until it closed late last year, took control of the stove at Piero Selvaggio’s elegant Santa Monica Italian restaurant earlier this month.

News flash! Dickman has already left Valentino.

Says the chef, who spent a good part of the 1980s working under Michael Roberts at the West Hollywood eatery Trumps, “It wasn’t the right thing for me. What is the right thing for me is having my own place. It’s a hard one having your own baby and then going to work for someone else. Long story short, it wasn’t my cup of tea.”

“It was an experiment,” says Selvaggio. “I said, ‘Come over and see how it goes.’ It was a little dating.”

“I thought it was a good opportunity,” explains Dickman. “I had never met Piero Selvaggio before. It was a great experience, meeting and working with him. My style is just different. What made Rocca so much fun for me is the real trattoria level experience. Valentino is very much a ristorante. It’s just maybe a little too formal for me. That’s really it in a nutshell.”

Dickman, who says he is determined to open his own place, is looking for investors and a location. He characterizes his departure from Valentino as amicable, if “kind of delicate.” He’s baffled, though, that word got out at all that he was there.

“I kept it quiet on purpose because I wasn’t sure about it,” he says. “I didn’t want my Rocca stampede coming down there. It was a very different thing for me. Instead of going into it and blasting it all over the place, I wanted to take baby steps.”

Since chef Angelo Auriana left Valentino in 2003 after 17 years heading the kitchen (he opened his own place, Masque Ristorante, in El Dorado Hills outside Sacramento) none of the subsequent chefs has stayed for long. Ezio Gamba, who preceded Dickman, was at Valentino for one year, from March 2005 to this month. He says he left to return to his family and home in Sacramento; he’s now executive chef and partner at Il Fornaio in downtown Sacramento. His predecessor, Stephan Samson, stayed at Valentino for about two years.

So who will take Dickman’s place?

News flash! According to Selvaggio, Auriana is coming back. “He’s out of Masque. It didn’t work out for logistical reasons. He’s coming down Monday to start officially.”

Leslee Komaiko

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Small bites

* Rockenwagner Bakery is open in Culver City. All the favorites are offered, including pretzel baguettes and European loaves such as the Rudolph Steiner loaf, along with scones, muffins and streusels. It’s a takeout and retail operation, with some outside tables. Three sandwiches are featured: a croissant with brie and sauteed mushrooms; a five-grain roll with turkey, blue cheese and cranberry sauce; and a pretzel bun with prosciutto, asiago and plum jam.

Rockenwagner Bakery, 12835 Washington Blvd., Culver City, (310) 578-8171. Open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.; weekends, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

* Fred Eric, chef-owner of the defunct Vida, is opening Tiara Cafe on April 10 (or possibly earlier), in the New Mart Building downtown. “On the window of the restaurant, it says, ‘Nourishment salon,’ ” says Eric. “The whole angle is to eat healthy more often and have to diet less.” Open for breakfast and lunch only, Tiara will also feature a marketplace.

Tiara Cafe, 127 E. 9th St., L.A. (213) 623-3663.