So Gingery

I'm a huge ginger fan. I love ginger essence and fragrance in a lot of foods. Not too spicy, but a tad of ginger really adds a lot to so many foods! Check out this interesting post on Laurent Gras' blog. If I could have some of this ginger oil, I'd use it in a steamed custard. Or perhaps a ginger snap cookie? Or best yet? Ice cream! YUM!

Photo borrowed from L2O

Welcome Home

Feels like it’s been a busy fall. I was gone for most of November, in New York and Australia. Before that? October was a busy month too. Weekends in Cazadero and Davis took me out of San Francisco. All of this time out of San Francisco was fine with me. I loved my time in each of these locations, and always enjoy exploring new places.

But after a little while, I start missing things at home. Among the things about SF I miss most? The Farmer’s Market. My Saturday routine. It's a good time for me to go and see what fruits and vegetables are in season, and also a fun way for me to learn about new ingredients. It seems like no matter how often I go, or how many cookbooks and magazines I read, there is always something new to be discovered at the market!

My sister and I like to go together, and we have our own little routine. I’ve written about the Farmer’s Market lots of times before, here’s a good recap from one of my fall trips to the market from earlier this year.

The first thing we do is stand in line for a cup of Blue Bottle Coffee. The weather this December Saturday was nice—chilly and brisk, but the sun was out. As we walked up to the market, we noticed that it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it usually is. It was kind of nice. The line at Blue Bottle was actually SHORT. We were thrilled. (And given the coldness in the air, we steered away from our standard New Orleans style coffee for a latte this time.)

My pretty coffee

Once we have coffee in hand. Michelle and I always go and pick up some type of breakfast sandwich to share. Sometimes it's a Prather Ranch breakfast sandwich, other times it's a Boccalone one. On this day, we decided to go for a Boccalone breakfast sandwich. Yum yum.

While we were at Boccalone, I got my water bottle refilled too. That's another must-do at the market. I always come with my water bottle in hand, and get my fill of delicious and refreshing sparkling water.

On this particular day, as we were walking towards Boccalone, I looked across the way and saw a familiar face. I stopped in my tracks and let out a gasp under my breathe. “Oh my god.” Michelle looked at me, looked in the direction I was looking at, and said, “What? What’s wrong? What do you see?”

It was Alice Waters. In the flesh.

She was signing books, and my loyal readers and friends will know, I have an obsession about getting books autographed. (Ok, I have a lot of obsessions, this is just one.) It was pretty neat to meet her (not my first time!), and to get a book signed. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a line, and not even a crowd of people around her.

After this pleasant surprise, we had to move on. Other things we love? We typically like to see which chef is doing the demo in the CUESA Kitchen. This Saturday? Staffan Terje from Perbacco restaurant was doing the demo. Perbacco is one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, and it was nice to see Staffan doing the demo. (Another familiar face! Gosh I love this place!)

We saw a lot of familiar chef faces, and stopped by some of my favorite farm stalls as well. I picked up some winter Clementines (yum!), and even a guava (that I wasn’t planning on buying, but because of the strong delicious smell, I couldn’t resist!)

We smelled some great fresh lavender. I had to refrain from buying about a billion of the little sachets—it made me think of one of my favorite people in the world, Miss Chloe Grace. My dear friend adores lavender, and I thought about buying a whole bunch and mailing them to her in New York.

I also made a stop at the tofu stand that I love. Hodo Soy Beanery is probably one of my favorite stalls (a favorite of Daniel Patterson’s too I believe, as we’ve seen him picking up items from this stall frequently.) My favorite item there? The tofu jerky. The fried tofu is marinated in Chinese five spices and I love eating them just plain. They are so delicious and I wish I could buy them every time (but at $7 a pop for a small container, it’s something that’s a splurge for me.)

One of these days, I’m not going to eat them all plain, I’m going to cook with them. I think slicing them up and tossing them into a stir fry or using them in a chow mein type of dish would be really good too. Sigh. Maybe I’ll have to buy two packages, one to eat plain, and one to cook with.

We drooled over the pardon peppers from Happy Quail Farms (and even chatted about the wonders of the pardon with a nice man who also happened to be admiring them.) We eyed some specialty salts. We almost stopped at the salmon stall to get a ‘sample’ of the yummy salmon jerky we love so much. But too crowded. And sadly, I think we’ve tasted more samples than we’ve actually purchased, so again, we had to refrain.

We ducked into Recchiuti so Michelle could purchase some Christmas presents. While this isn’t normally a stop on our stroll, it was a treat. We looked at all of the beautifully wrapped boxes and gift sets. And the “Holiday Motif” boxed chocolates with the beautiful holiday images were so amazingly beautiful. Michelle drooled over the Obsession Box while I nibbled on the yummy chocolate covered apple slice. We didn’t leave with only presents for others. We bought two house made marshmallows and enjoyed them in the corner of the market along with the creamy hot chocolate sample they gave us. Perfect ‘dessert’ to our Farmer’s Market outing.

The familiarity of the market, knowing where the stalls are, knowing I will always see familiar faces and friends, my delicious coffee, seeing what’s in season...it makes for a nice say to kick off my weekend. I don't need to spend a lot of time there. Even in just a few short hours, I always leave with a smile on my face. And every single time I go to the market, I’m reminded of why it’s my happy place and why I'm so lucky to be living here in San Francisco!

Kitchen Excitement

Tonight my friend JT and I went to check out the new, much anticipated Pizzeria Delfina. Doors opened at 5 pm, and as I rounded the corner from Fillmore onto California, I could already see a huge line of people! I couldn’t believe it. I quickly got into line, and JT and I ended up with the two last seats in the house for this first seating. Not only did we grab the last two seats, they were seats at the bar that had prime view of the pantry line and kitchen. What luck!

We had a great meal: warm marinated olives, the insalata tricolore, and of course pizza. We had a hard time deciding, but ended up with the Salsiccia pizza—housemade fennel sausage, tomato, bell peppers, onions and mozzarella. YUM.

JT and I had a great time chatting and catching up. But even more than that? Watching the line. We saw two gals behind the pantry line—one seemed to be having a little bit of a hard time. The other? Totally rockin it. I felt a little bad for Girl #1—she was trying hard, but seemed frazzled and it looked like she wasn’t having any fun (and yes, you are suppose to have fun in the kitchen!) I wonder, is that how I’d be in the kitchen? Totally stressed out and always just a step behind? Hmm.

Another guy from the pizza area came down to help out. Although not the most difficult station, it was a busy station. Not only were they doing the salads, they were responsible for the hot appetizers (meatballs, grilled peppers, and soup), as well as plating dessert! With all the kids in the dining room, there were tons of gelato orders going out!

From our seats, we could also easily see the pizza area. There were four guys working this area (until the one guy went to pantry), but what was funny was watching one of the guys, I think he was the executive sous. He seemed to be expediting on this particular evening, and he had so much energy! He was jumping up and down in excitement as he was yelling out to everyone. It totally brought a smile to my face. You could just tell how passionate he was about the food he was putting out. I have never seen anyone so excited to take something out of an oven before either. I loved it.

Craig Stoll was also there working the line—much more than he was working the room. His watchful eye saw it all and he made adjustments as the night went on.

At one point, I was taking out my wallet to pay, and pulled 'Devil in the Kitchen' out of my purse. We had been talking about it earlier in the night. Pizza chef in pantry looked up at that moment and smiled when he saw the book. "It's a good one! But the end gets boring. Marco just goes on to open more and more restaurants!" Funny. Craig Stoll was watching the dialogue, and looked to the chef "You read??" Perfectly hilarious.

It was a great night—with great conversation, yummy food, and lots of excitement in the restaurant. Even as we were sitting there, we saw a line starting to form outside. Goes to show, people are still willing to wait for good food. Congrats to the Delfina crew—looks like we have a success on our hands. I can’t wait to go back!

Blame It on Liz...

Part of the reason I haven't been blogging? I've been busy! It's summer time, a gal's got to go outside and enjoy some sunshine! From walks, to baseball games, to just spending time outside--we've got to enjoy it while we can. Fall is already in the air, and after a quick Indian Summer, the winter and rain will be here before you know it!

On top of that? Well, there's work. Boring. And then making ice cream (there's a reason my Peanut Butter ice cream's getting better and better, and I still have to try the bourbon ice cream recipe!) What else? Spending some time cooking in a restaurant kitchen (which has been AWESOME, but also tiring! More on that soon.) And what else? This book:

"Chefs to Know", published by StarChefs

My colleague Liz just came back from the Star Chefs conference in New York City. What did she bring back? This amazing DICTIONARY style book of chefs to know. There are hundreds of chefs in here, listed with not only their photo, biographical information, and restaurant information, but also with some fun questions that the chefs had to answer.

For example, "Kitchen Tools: the most indispensable kitchen tool?", "Interview Questions: Favorite question to ask a prospective employee", "Chef to cook for you-the chef you'd most like to cook for you, alive or dead", and "Culinary Travel: Where you'd most like to go for culinary travel".

Can you see from this photo just how thick the spine is? Yea, we're not messing around, this is a serious book--and a GREAT resource. So basically, I've been reading this, as if it was a real novel. Page by page, in order. A to Z. So far, I'm at L.

And what else is cool about this? After the chefs section, there are pages on International Chefs, Mixologists, and Sommeliers! I think it shows have far we've gotten...a whole section devoted to Mixologists? How cool is that?

Then, it goes onto recipes from these chefs, pretty pictures, and then a crazy Index section. Sorted by Chef Last Name, Chefs by State/City, Mixologists, Sommeliers, Pastry Chefs, Restaurants, and then even by answers to their questions. For example, under the Mentors/Protegees section, you can see that under Thomas Keller, 21 chefs are listed. 21 people that either listed him as a mentor, or was listed as one of his protegees. So cool.

I hope to write more in the next few weeks. There's so much to share!

Quick Thought on Desserts (again), and Many Thoughts on Books!

See? I’m not the only one ranting about desserts. Even Anthony Bourdain says “pastry chef always gets fucked in the process, because nobody wants to eat four types of desert at the end.” Well there you have it. Pastry chefs may finally get the respect they deserve. And check out the rest of the blogosphere, tons of commentary on this Bourdain/White panel.

On another note, I bought Marco Pierre White’s book “The Devil in the Kitchen” months and months ago, but up until now, it was sitting on top of a HUGE stack of books that I’ve been meaning to get to and was just collecting dust. I had promised myself I’d finish the other books I was reading FIRST, before starting yet another one (I am currently in the middle of “The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry”, almost done with “Babes in Beijing”, almost done with “Women Who Eat’” and just finished “Turning the Tables”). But after reading about the Tony/Marco debate/discussion at the StarChef’s International Chef Congress, I had to pick up the book and start reading right away. And it is an amazing book. MPW is actually really reflective in his book, and a lot of the information about his childhood is fascinating. Add him to the top of the list of people I want to meet!

And you all already know my love for books and cookbooks. I was walking to my friend’s house for dinner the other night, and in a neighborhood that I’m not normally in, and walked by this store:

Can you read the sign? "Books & Bookshelves"!

My dream! A place filled with book and bookshelves? I was running late, so didn’t duck in, but may try to next time.

See all the empty shelves in there? They’ve got a bookshelf for your every need. Amazing.

Rather than what I’ve currently got. Just a small bookshelf with two rows of books on each shelf—and then stacks of cookbooks and travel guides on my coffee table (that’s essentially turned into a second bookshelf!) Nuts!

Part of one stack of cookbooks...

Part of another stack of cookbooks, my ice cream books on this side...

Other books in my stack to read you ask?
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
Julie and Julia: A Year of Cooking Dangerously
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Glass Castle
In My Mother's Kitchen
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper
Running with Scissors
A Pig in Provence
French Women Don't Get Fat
A Year in the World

And other books on my wish list?
Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter
My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals / Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter
The River Cottage Meat Book
The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating
Beyond Nose to Tail
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore

Now you know all know what to get me for Christmas! Hee hee.

Sam IS Smokin

Seriously. Sam Mason is hot. Anyone in NYC next Wed? Wish I could be there to check out this BBQ event (as posted on Grub Street.)

The last two times I've been to NYC, I've gone and checked out Tailor Restaurant. Just to give it some love. Had the pleasure of meeting Marshall behind the bar there...check out the cocktails. Eben Freeman is amazing.

And the best bread I've ever had. Seriously. Leave it to a pastry chef turned executive chef to have fantastic bread.

Go Sam!

Dinner at Poleng Lounge...and A Lesson in Composting

As my friend Josh was starting to get tired of Italian food on his Tour de San Francisco, we decided it was time to check out another cuisine. He mentioned wanting something Asian...so I took my him to Poleng Lounge. A place you can always count on for some good food, yummy cocktails and good vibe. It was the perfect place for a meal his last night in SF.

My friend Tim Luym is the chef there, and is probably one of the hardest working chefs I know.
Josh and I enjoyed dish after dish of amazing food. And did ya know Tuesday night is half off bottles of wine and sake? :)

In any case, more importantly, the food!

Walu Kinilaw: A Filipino “Ceviche” with butterfish cooked in sugarcane vinegar, lime juice and coconut milk, with thai chiles, toybox tomatoes and cilantro. SO GOOD. It was one of our favorite dishes of the night. (Note, the poor photography skills are mine...no reflection of how the food looked!)

Sizzling Sisig: Pork medley with coconut vinegar, onions, peppers, and fresh calamansi. We added an egg, and it came perfectly sunnyside up, and was mixed in table side. They did it so quickly, we couldn't capture a 'before' photo. But this was good.

Long Life Garlic Crab Noodles: Pan fried egg noodles with garlic and fresh dungeness crabmeat. Yummy! A favorite of mine. Note the photography skills getting a bit better? Josh grabbed the camera and started snapping...he even staged the photos so that you can see the bottle of the “Summer Snow” Kamoizumi Nigori Ginjo sake we had in the background (I'm holding it up by the way.)

Cebuano B.B.Q. Pork Belly. It was a yummy dish, and no offense to Tim, but the best part of this dish was the accompanying salad...

Salted Duck Egg Salad...with thinly sliced pieces of shallots and tomatoes. YUM! We were starting to get so full, but still managed to eat all of it.

I don't remember the full details/description of this dish. I am so embarrassed. HELP! Tim? Josh? Anyone out there? It was yummy...but it was also the last dish (that we didn't order)...of a long night...with lots of sake...sigh.

It's always fun seeing two chefs get together and hearing what they talk about. In the case of Tim and Josh, the topic moved to composting and gardens. It was pretty interesting stuff...what you can and can't compost. Do restaurants compost? Do certain cities make it easier than other cities? What about those worms? Different types of containers to store the compost. Could you go into the business of composting? How does it affect your garden? Do you have a garden? What are you growing? What do you want to try and grow? Why don't you plant these chilies? And on and on and on.

In any case, a conversation I would have probably spent 10 on, lasted closer to 30 min (maybe over...I swear, I'm not exaggerating). Seriously. They had bonded. I was left to sipping my Fernet. Tim even showed Josh his walk-in (get your mind out of the gutters people! Walk-in refrigerator!!), and gave him some Thai chilies and limes. Lucky guy. Where were mine?

Josh and Tim talking about composting. They weren't this smiley for the whole conversation, although they were pretty animated in their conversation, but here they're just posing for the photo.

In any case. It was a great night. Great food. Great company. What more could a gal ask for?

Dinner at Jack Falstaff Restaurant

I had a chef friend, Josh, in town from Denver, and we have been on a Taste of SF—Italian style. We’ve eaten at SPQR and Bar Bambino, and A16, Incanto Restaurant, and Delfina are also on his list. He’s one of the chefs at Denver’s Panzano restaurant and so was doing a bit of inspirational dining (sounds so much better than just plain old research). Well, when trying to think of where else we should go (that wasn’t necessarily Italian), I thought of my friend Jonny’s restaurant, Jack Falstaff. Wise choice. Definitely didn’t regret that decision! Josh and I met up with my friends Jason and Eric and we had our fearless foursome, ready for some serious dining.

Chef Jonnatan Levia was a 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Rising Star Chef, and was even just featured again in the paper today! In any case, Jonny spoiled us. We started off with bubbly, Friend Oysters with Corn Fritters, Grass-fed Bison Tartare, and a Chorizo and Cantaloupe salad. The bison tartare was my favorite, surprisingly tender given how lean that meat is.

Before our main courses arrived, Jonny treated us to fresh oysters as well as his Heirloom Tomato Salad which was served with fava beans and corn with a cresenza cheese. Oh my god. The corn was so sweet (as Josh said, especially for so early in the season!) I could have eaten everyone’s portion and would be perfectly happy eating that salad every day for the rest of my life.

We moved on to our main courses. The table ordered the Pacific Halibut with a Dungeness Crab and Corn ‘Chowder’, the Local Black Cod with Roasted Tomatoes and Zucchini, the Kobe Style Beef Sirloin served with Roasted Bone Marrow, Spinach and Piquillo Stuffed with Morels, and the Heritage Duroc Pork served with ramen and a sunnyside up Partridge egg. Everything was delicious, the crab and corn ‘chowder’ was very good—with a spicy kick! The fish were both prepared perfectly, the beef sirloin was awesome—the spinach was good too.

HOWEVER. The most amazing and perfect dish of the night was the pork ramen. The server poured the ginger-soy broth tableside, and the egg was perfectly cooked. The pork was super tender, the ramen perfectly cooked, and all of the flavors blended very well. I’m disappointed to say, that was not the dish I ordered, and only had a taste. I regret not being able to eat the whole thing for myself. (Reason to go back!)

As if all of that wasn’t enough…we splurged on dessert. As we were still salivating over the dessert menu, the kitchen sent out the Yellow Peach 'Muffin', which was literally like biting into a peach. It was a combination of a peach compote and peach sorbet. And then as I was chatting away with Jonny and not paying attention, the table also ordered the chocolate tasting dessert as well as the Frangelico Root Beer Float. All of it was so good. The chocolate was amazing…and the root beer float I could have finished by myself (and should have just grabbed it…it was a little challenging to share and everyone was being too polite!) I asked chef about the signature doughnut holes, and being the good man that he is, Jonny also had those sent out. Perfectly fried and dipped in cinnamon and sugar, the doughnut holes came with three dipping sauces, a berry one, caramel and crème anglaise. Amazing!! So good.

We literally had to be rolled out of the restaurant and couldn’t eat another bite. Thank you to Jonny and Jack Falstaff for such a memorable meal!

Photo of Jonny with his niece, borrowed from the San Francisco Chronicle

Dinner During My Detox

I'm suppose to be on detox...you know, no drinking and only eating healthy and working out. The last few weeks have just been INSANE. Party after party. Excessive drinking and eating. Horrible work-out habits. And totally not enough sleep. (But boy oh boy, it sure was a fun week!)
In any case. I wanted to have a week of detox, but between SF Gay Pride (umm, saving those adventures--and photos-- for a different post!) and then July 4th long weekend (and a trip to one of my all time favorite cities), I was lucky to get 3 days of detox squeezed in there.

Well. How about 2 days and we call it all good? :)

The middle day of my detox was ruined by a sudden urge for a bourbon cocktail. Well. There is just no where else to go, but Alembic. They've got some of the best cocktails in San Francisco, and not to mention one of the best bourbon/whiskey lists in town.

Oh. And did I mention a good friend, just happens to be the very talented chef of the place? So I should have known that my urge for that one cocktail would turn into two (and I didn't even end up drinking my favorite, but going out on a limb to try a delicious new cocktail--Southern Exposure.) And that two cocktails would turn into some yummy items from the kitchen!

My friends Chris and Terry and I had our standard salumi and cheese plate and the lamb sliders...all classics. Beyond that? Everything was at the chef's whim. And we knew Jordan would take good care of us. We had bacon cracker jacks (complete with prize!!) They were so good!!! (Those of you that know me, know my love and obsession for all things pork...also save that for a future post!) The crispy pork belly was amazing (I didn't want to share...after all, another pork dish!) It was especially fun to taste this plate since I've heard my friend Jordan talking about the way they prepare it (he started with telling me that the way he learned to prepare it...something about sous vide...but then he kinda lost me on the rest. All I could concentrate on was the soft, tenderness of the meat, and the yummy crispness of the skin! I just kept on nodding as he was talking...)

In any case. The last two things were the most amazing (to my palate at least). He brought out a dish of these little peppers. Shisito peppers (often referred to as Japanese peppers) to be exact. They were blistered quickly in a fryer, then tossed with a house smoked maldon salt. I didn't think I'd like them (not the biggest pepper fan), but they were AMAZING. Not too hot at all (until that very last one I ate...tears were in my eyes because of the heat!) But overall, a perfect dish to satisfy that desire for something salty.

The last dish was the perfect end. A miso black cod. There was some sweetness to it and the fish practically melted in your mouth. They had marinated the piece in a shiro miso, and then broiled to order until caramelized. There was a bit of chili oil and a few sesame seeds on the top. So good!!

Yea. So. Not quite the detox I had intended. But I was home early. And I had fish. And there was celery juice in my cocktail (which is why I had two). There's always next week for detoxing...

Just another Monday night...

A few nights ago, I went to dinner with some of my restaurant friends. And true to the industry, we went out for a late night dinner at Beretta out in the Mission—started at 9:30 pm (which is late for me, especially on a Monday night!) Two of them had worked (even though Mon's are traditionally their days off). Me? I worked that day too...then a quick gym workout before making a stop at another party first.

It's so much fun seeing these guys, they all use to work together at Postrio, and are still pretty close. I'm just lucky they let me into their little group. When you go out to eat with them, anything goes...discussion topics vary (and most are NOT 'proper' dinner conversations- which is probably why it's so fun!)

We joke, we tease each other, and we order everything on the menu...food, cocktails, dessert. You name it. See a favorite on the menu? Get it. See something that sounds interesting? Get it. See something that you heard was good? Get it. See something that you heard was not good? Still get it. Yes, this is dining with foodies, chefs or restaurant people.

At one point, the server came by and said 'Sounds like you guys are in the industry'. He must have over heard the chefys talking food costs and me critically eyeing their menu and commenting that I didn’t want the rhubarb dessert on the menu, declaring 'It's already the tail end of rhubarb season! I’ve had too much rhubarb! I'm over it!'

One of my chef friends jumped in and started talking about Alembic, where he worked, that the cuisine would be considered a 'gastro pub' and on and on. Meanwhile, my other chef friend, Chad, was hanging back and letting them talk. I couldn't resist. I chimed in 'He's a chef too. At Baraka. It's really good...'

I don't even remember who picked up the conversation at that point or what they were saying. I had this out of body experience where I saw myself talking. Oh my god. I was like that annoying proud parent that won't stop bragging about their child.

Yes. I'm generally super proud of all of my friends. You pick on any of them, and I'll set you straight. But when it comes to my friends, I'm especially proud of this one. I've known him since Kindergarten. Yup, through elementary school, junior high, high school...Through learning our colors and numbers to high school dances. We haven't remained close this whole time, and only really reconnected in recent years, but this was a guy that I grew up with, that lived down the street from me…I just knew he was gonna be big one of these days and I was going to talk him up!

We ended the night fairly early (for them, late for me!)...and despite the encouragement from Chad to go out drinking, we all headed home. After all, it was only a Monday. This gal was beat, and I still had a long week ahead. Til next time...which knowing the four of us, it'll be another few months before we all have the same night free. Big smooches to Jim for driving me home...even though I’m sure all he wanted to do was get home to his partner and even though I'm totally out of his way. He's always lookin’ out for me! With friends like him, living in the city is made a little easier for this girl.

Ice Cream Across the Country...And My Next Flavor!

Go Bi-Rite! Glad to see this lcoal favorite is making it's way into the national headlines. http://www.forbestraveler.com/food-drink/americas-best-ice-cream-story.html?partner=blog

This has turned into quite my diary of my ice cream making adventures. Anyone curious about what the ice cream for this weekend is? Peach ice cream! My farmer's market trip this morning turned out to be very fruitful (no pun intended!) Aside from the gorgeous sweet peaches, I also came home with a big bag of cherries and a brand new cherry piter. I've always wanted one! Not sure yet if I'm going to do a plain cherry ice cream or something fancier like a cherry rum ice cream (recipe from Emily Luchetti).

It was a beautiful SF morning, so lots of people out at the Farmer's Market. I was lucky we went early, and more crowded and I couldn't have wanted to stay! The first Saturday market day for Chris Cosentino's Boccalone...which from what I saw today, is already a huge success. Spotted some of my favorite San Francisco chefs checking out the fresh produce and mingling with other chef friends and locals. It was really nice to see and made me happy to live in such a great food community.

Aspen...Observations, Tips and Lessons

Sorry. Still learning the technology... and I lost the end of my last post. :(

But here are my recreated lists...


10 Celebrity Chef Observations and Thoughts:

- Bobby Flay needs his Starbucks too

- Michelle Bernstein also needs to rush to the bathroom after a long seminar

- Chefs like meeting their idols just like you and me

- Chefs like Grateful Dead cover bands

- Tom Colicchio can't dance...but doesn't let it stop him!

- Danny Meyer can have a hard time getting a liquor license too

- Chefs are like any other people...some don't like the spotlight. As I was running through a kitchen, I caught Dave Chang in the corner, beer in hand. He was clearly overwhelmed by all of the people and was content in the kitchen away from the spotlight.

- A smile counts! Michelle Bernstein was always smiling, and so approachable! She wins the prize as my new 'favorite celebrity chef'

- Chefs are supportive of each other. Even at the early sessions, I saw chefs in the audience supporting their fellow colleagues, asking questions and being fully engaged. It's a supportive industry. It was nice to see.

- It's a small world. Everyone seems to know everyone else. But there are cliques too.


Top Five Lessons Learned from Aspen Food & Wine:

- There are a lot of parties. You won't know about them all. Hell, you won't even know about half of them. Get over it. But have fun trying to make as many as you can. :)

- The outfits are the most important part of the weekend. Be prepared for any weather, any party, any event, and any occasion. Pack your whole closet.

- There's plenty of free booze everywhere you go, but the substantial food is actually harder to find. When you do find some, load up. Trust me. You can't get through this weekend with alcohol alone. It's a test of endurance.

- On that same note, there is water every where you go. It's there for a reason. Hydrate. Re-hydrate. Repeat. We grabbed water every chance we could, and even threw bottles in our bags/purses. You don't want to pass out too early. There's too much going on and too many parties to go to! (See Point #1)

- Who says there's no global warming? The sun's rays are strong up in the mountain. My face, arms and legs are proof. Next time? Plenty of sunscreen. I'm gonna lather up next time.

So, see you there next year?? :)

Some thoughts from Aspen Food & Wine Classic

I just returned home from three days in Aspen. It was like a dream. The annual Food & Wine Classic is an amazing time of year when all of the heavy hitters in the industry gather together for days of discussions, panels, tastings, networking, and well...of course...parties. All with beautiful Aspen as the backdrop.

I personally think the F&W journalists are some of the industry's nicest group of writers. So this was a fun weekend to see them all (not in NY during a 15 min desk side or at a long James Beard dinner), but to see everyone a tad more relaxed (although it can be stressful to run from party to party). And it was even more fun to see the journalists mixing it up with 'regular people' who had bought the consumer passes, as well as mingling with the many chefs and restaurant industry people and publicists that were there.

Sightings of celebrity chefs included: Tom Collichicco, Padama Lakshmi, Jacques & Claudine Pepin, Barbara Lynch, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Chang, Bobby Flay, Ming Tsai, Michelle Bernstein, Masaharu Morimoto, Jose Andres, Bradley Ogden, Wylie Dufresne, Michael Symon, Michael Samuelsson, Roy Yamaguchi, Paul Kahan, Rocco Dispirto, local SF celebrity chef Nancy Oakes (and my pal Ravi!)...and on and on and on.

Additional 'celebrities' included wine great Richard Betts, cocktail mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim, restaurateur Danny Meyer, and top chef publicist Scott Feldman. Top Chef alumni spotted included Hung Huynh, Illan Hall, LeAnne Wong and Marcel Vigneron (no sign of brand new Top Chef Stephanie).

My first evening included a stop by at the Welcome/Kick-Off reception at the St. Regis, the Wines of Spain party, a industry party at the Sky Hotel, a mescal party at the Little Nell and then a retro disco party at the Belly Up. All in the first night. What a hard life I lead.

I've heard Aspen referred to as the Las Vegas of the mountains, and I believe it. And over this weekend? Even more so! Because these are restaurant people, despite a late night, the next day started off with an 8:15 am session. Wow. You mean we're not just here to party? There are classes? These people are not messing around. And we have to do this for 3 days straight? Hmmm...a test of one's endurance for sure. My second session of the day (for the record, a 10 am session), was a wine tasting! Hmmm. I hadn't even had breakfast yet and I was tasting seven wines from Italy's Alto Adige region. And you just couldn't spit, they were too good not to swallow! That's just how they do things in Aspen.

The Grand Tasting tents of the festival are maybe the most fun to be had. There are hundreds of chefs, vineyards, spirit companies, etc. with tables offering you all the free food and booze you could ever hope for. It was amazing. My friend and I were on a mission to see as much of it as we could in the little time we had. We were practically running from table to table, and kept focused and only visited the tables worth visiting. We saw friends in the tent, tasted some odd things (no more takes on pea soup please!), and some incredibly delicious ones too (deconstructed marshmallow s'mores...yummmmm.) I had wine, beer, more wine, margaritas, more wine, champagne, infused vodka, more wine....it was perfect.

Friday night is the Food & Wine magazine's big publisher's party that only the top notch folks are invited to. Needless to say, yours truly was not invited. It turned out to be a much needed 'relaxing night off'. My friends and I had a nice dinner in town, and then some post dinner cocktails. There were many more parties that night, but it was honestly so much work to track everyone down, time it so that you were at the right party at the right time, to wait for the folks coming down the mountain from the publisher's party...and not to mention, I was exhausted and had been on a nice buzz a number of times throughout the day already! I was done.

The 'night off' was the best move I made. I had renewed energy Saturday morning (I actually had more than four hours of sleep!), enjoyed two sessions, walked through the Aspen Farmer's Market (surprisingly small), stopped in on my favorite store in Aspen (Les Chefs D'Aspen), went to a Sam Adams beer tasting (ever had a beer milkshake? It's DELICIOUS!), saw a team building a DJ booth over the pool for a party later that night, went to a Wines of South Africa seminar, and even spent some time laying out by the pool reading and napping. All in my hot Tory Burch shoes! :) The perfect Saturday in Aspen.

Sightings of the Best New Chefs happened that night at the Best New Chefs (BNC) reception at Aspen Meadows. We saw Jim Burke, Gerald Craft (ummmm, SO CUTE!), Tim Cushman, Jeremy Fox (go local guy! and first chef to be named to the BNC list that represented a vegetarian restaurant), Koren Grieveson, Michael Psilakis, Ethan Stowell (had the cutest chef team helping him out of all of the BNC), Giuseppe Tentori (such a nice guy!) and Sue Zemanick. By the way, any one know why Eric Warnstedt wasn't there? Here's the view from the balcony of the second floor of the event:

Not only was I lucky to get to attend this event, but I attended as the guest of a friend of mine...who happens to be a member of the press. Wow. Those press folks sure do get it good. We were allowed into the event before everyone else (although there was a slight snafu with timing and we were standing outside waiting for a good 15 min), and barely had to wait in line at each station since it wasn't too crowded yet.

Best sight of a mentor in action? Paul Kahan (BNC back in 1999) working behind Koren Grieveson at the BNC event. He gave Grieveson all of his support and made sure the limelight was on her. It was awesome to see, and even more awesome to see a female chef kick some butt.

From there, we headed to Dave Chang's foodie party at the Hickory House...

Dave was roasting a whole pig, making his famous pork buns, there was a crab boil, and more food (and Mint Juleps!) than a gal could ask for (and if you must know, yes, I had just eaten at the BNC event, but how could I turn down the pork bun??) Wylie Dufresne was a guest chef that night and at one point, I saw Wylie serving up food to Bobby Flay and Michael Symon (who came in together with some friends) while Michelle Bernstein was sitting at a nearby table and Dave was looking on. Just an amazing group of people in that restaurant that night.

I did a horrible job of taking photos this weekend (no celebrity chef wants a camera shoved in their face by a non-member of the media during trade seminars or when they're partying!) But Eater did a great job of capturing some Kodak moments (and also got a heated discussion started during a trade seminar about blogs and public opinion), check it out.

Who did I hope would be in Aspen this weekend but wasn't??

- Mario Batali (rumors it was his son's graduation weekend?)

- Daniel Boulud

- Gavin Kaysen

- Thomas Keller

- Charlie Trotter

- Laurent Tourondel

- John Besh

- Michael Mina

- Eric Ripert

- Anthony Bourdain (ok, pipe dream. Don't really suppose Aspen F&W is Tony's 'scene')

- And my Sam's: Sam Mason and Sam Talbot

And more San Francisco chefs!! I felt like the whole thing was a little New York centric...and as I've said here before, all those New Yorkers think their city is the center of the universe, but I think San Francisco is! Bring on Chris Cosentino, Traci des Jardins, Craig Stoll, Nate Appleman, Hubert Keller, Laurent Manrique, Charles Pham... why isn't there more of a San Fran presence?

I also think there could be a greater emphasis in pastries...bring on the star pastry chefs for seminars, demos, and of course tastings! You could easily pull together an all star cast including François Payard, Emily Luchetti, Sherry Yard, Gail Gand, Elizabeth Faulkner...you know where you can find me! :)

I'm having problems with my posts...but my Top 10 Celebrity Chef observations and Top Five Lessons from Aspen in a future post.

A Little Head to Tail...and A Lot of Growing Up...

So last night was the Head to Tail dinner at Incanto Restaurant. Chef Chris Cosentino and his team did an amazing job. The dishes were beautiful and good, the wine pairings (and one beer pairing!) were great, and everyone from the front of the house greeters to our servers were spot on. I was surprised by how totally crowded the restaurant was, even at our early reservation time. A lot more foodie people in San Francisco than even I thought! (The dinner was sold out Monday night!) It was nice to see and refreshing to see that people had an open mind about food and what we eat.

What did I take away from the experience last night? Lots of things. I like ox tongue, blood sausage can be good, and umm, goat kidneys are not my favorite. I have a great group of adventurous friends that will try anything (and most that loved it!) and who are great to spend an evening eating, drinking and laughing with. That I've found my place in this city...with these friends that share my interests, thoughts, philosophy, and passions. Oh. And that my friend Tim sure can eat a lot of spleen!

What else did I learn? That other people can be naive about what is edible and good and what is not. People tend to stick with their comfort zones and can even be narrow minded about the world we live in. I think we forget that most people in every other country around the world eats many things we don't (including offal) and appreciates it, and considers it 'normal'. Only Americans are especially squeamish about eating innards and can't get past the visual and thought of what they are eating.

I took some shots of the dishes we experienced last night. The dishes were cooked beautifully, and if I do say so myself, my photography skills aren't half bad. :) The food looked good. If you didn't know what the dishes were, or if I had told you they were a 'normal' cut of meat, most people would have thought everything looked delicious. However, once people know they're looking at (or eating) an organ, or a 'non-traditional part', then they have a hard time with it. Some friends even told me it 'was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen'. Hmmm. Did it really LOOK disgusting or did you just think too much about what it was...and what it meant to you and then decided it was disgusting?

Now, I'm not saying that everyone has to love eating offal, or even want to. BUT, I am saying that it's something worth trying. And that you should respect the people that do eat it. That you shouldn't judge or decide if you're going to like it or not without having first tried it. If you've tried it, then you can say you don't like the taste. But only then, when you are making up your mind based on your own brain and thinking and experience, can you say that fairly. It makes me mad.

In any case, here are the shots. Aren't the plates beautiful? Anyone want to guess what the dishes are?

I guess when it's all said and done, all I've got to say is, we've got a long way to go...

Playing with Fondant...Oink Oink

I've always wanted to work with fondant, but have been intimidated in the past. But how could you not be intrigued by all the amazing things you can do with it...and with that perfectly smooth surface?

I've seen lots of recipes and photos...but as much as I like to bake, cake making is not really my cup of tea. Most of the uses for fondant were for cake decorating (wedding cake decorating to be specific) and so I've never had the drive to experiment. Cupcakes though...now that's a different story!

Here's the photo that inspired my latest cupcake creation and first go at using fondant:

Pretty cute huh? Some friends and I are going to Chef Chris Cosentino's Annual Head to Tail dinner tonight at Incanto Restaurant. So...I had the great idea...Wouldn't it be a cute thing if I made these cupcakes for everyone as a take-home goody?

It started off as a great idea, and the recipe was super easy (basic cupcake recipe). Even the fondant decorating part didn't seem too hard. Well. It ended up being a long night. The circle cutting part wasn't too hard, but when it came time to cut the ears by hand...well, let's just say, that was not so easy. Here's what I ended up with:

Umm, not quite the same. I didn't read the recipe closely enough and had initially thought the curly tails were also made using the fondant, but it's actually frosting (which of course I didn't buy and didn't have the time to make.) So, my pigs are tail-less. Not too horrible for a first try...but definitely not as cute as I had imagined in my head.

Let's see if they're a hit tonight...

In the meantime, I have the red food coloring dye all over my hands!