Culinary SOS: Three chefs level up asparagus

I have a binder full of clipped Culinary SOS columns. Some have faded, some are spattered with oil, all have my notes in the margins. This column taught me how to cook and gave me a taste of Los Angeles restaurants at home. I hope this revival of it will do the same for you.

We're keeping it the same at its core: Write in and ask us at cooking@latimes.com to get you the Southern California restaurant recipes you want. We'll track them down, adjust them to home kitchens in quantities, ingredients, techniques and tools, and publish the tested recipe along with your request. But we're expanding it too: Call us - SOS! - with any cooking help you need. Our answers may be through recipes, tutorials or both.

To start, here's a question from Karen Ng in Brentwood, Calif.: I see all this amazing asparagus at the farmer's market! I usually just roast it with