Chef Bobby Flay, professional gourmand—an enviable vocation if ever there was—recently purchased a tastefully renovated home in Los Angeles. The 1959-built house hit the market at $9.8 million and closed at $7.6 million.

Containing four bedrooms and five baths in its 5,764 sq. ft. of interior living space, the house features exterior architecture that favors the minimal. The glassy entry hints at the manner in which the house blossoms in back, where ceiling-high glass doors put a refreshingly graceful spin on the indoor/outdoor living style.

The interiors are as slickly refined, and a naturalistic centerpiece defines the interiors: an elder of an olive tree in a terrarium-like enclosure, with an open ceiling above. Built-in shelving, a wet bar finished with a lighted marble wall, and an appealingly spare kitchen with floor-to-ceiling cabinetry and a counter-to-ceiling stone backsplash for an enhanced sense of scale.

More sliding glass in the corner master—both walls open generously to the patio—and a Japanese-inspired master bath with a furo tub to compliment it. All in all, an unusually meditative home.