Michael McCarty, chef/owner of Michael's restaurant, at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market.

A shopping and eating adventure with a world-renowned chef and restaurateur: Michael’s Market Meet-Ups — where friends, food and flavor come together.

Chef Michael McCarty is hailed as a pioneer of the California Cuisine movement that began in the early 1980s.  He and a group of California chefs started sourcing and cooking local ingredients only; those solely grown or raised in California.  And a movement was born.  Chef McCarty is the owner of Michael’s Santa Monica, a restaurant that has been at the same location on 3rd Street for thirty-two years.  Chef McCarty prides himself in only serving the best seasonal ingredients and is known for his personal connections to local growers.

Michael’s is two city blocks away from the world-famous Santa Monica Farmers’ Market.  He and his chefs make weekly visits to the market to see what is in season, to decide on menus, and to buy produce for the restaurant.  Considering his knowledge of ingredients and his familiarity with the purveyors it comes as no surprise that he can easily lead a tour of the market, and that he knows virtually every vendor.

Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms.

Michael’s Market Meet-Ups are monthly tours of the market led by Chef McCarty followed by a lunch prepared from items purchased at the market.  On the most recent meet-up seven of us met Chef McCarty at Michael’s at 8:30 in the morning for coffee and house-made cinnamon buns.  Shortly thereafter we set out for the market where he introduced us to his favorite vendors while also grabbing items for that day’s lunch.  Since it’s spring in California it was all about spring ingredients: English peas, fava beans, ramps and morel mushrooms.  As we toured the market Chef McCarty offered lessons on produce of the season, as well as tips for navigating the market and selecting the best ingredients.  We met Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms, a McCarty favorite.  We stopped by Pudwill Berry Farms, another McCarty recommendation, where his executive chef bought berries for the restaurant.

Buying berries at the Pudwill Berry Farms stand.

When we returned to Michael’s for lunch we were served Morel Mushroom Wonton Soup (English peas, fava bean wontons, ramps, tempura morel in a morel mushroom broth), followed by Warm Spring Salad (ramps, pickled English peas, morel lardons, and a poached egg in a mustard and fava bean dressing).

Morel Mushroom Wonton Soup

Warm Spring Salad

The final hurrah was receiving a copy of McCarty’s cookbook Welcome to Michael’s and having him personally autograph it.  A fun, educational culinary outing with one of California’s best-loved chefs and food personalities.  Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday morning.

For more information on Michael’s Market Meet-Ups, and to find out when the next one is scheduled, check the Michael’s Santa Monica website ~ http://www.michaelssantamonica.com/

*A version of this post was previously posted on Honest Cooking.

“Living life locally” is a catchphrase for this blog.  100 miles is a theme I try to follow.  Regular readers know very well that I often venture way beyond 100 miles but the idea of “local” is still of paramount importance to me and what I write about.  This is why I’m such a huge fan of Artisanal L.A. — their motto is “Eat Local.”  This is an event meant for me.  Artisanal L.A. is two days of chef demos, expert-led panels and speakers on craft beer, local honey, urban homesteading and so much more.  Nearly 100 local, artisanal, and hand-made vendors and purveyors will be in attendance.  The food is great, the demos interesting, the lectures educational, and most importantly it’s the nicest group of people.

I went to the first ever Artisanal L.A. this past fall where I met butcher team Ameila Posada and Erika Nakamura of Lindy & Grundy Local, Pastured & Organic Meats.  They couldn’t have been nicer.  I watched Erika break down a side of pork.  Since then the entire Los Angeles fooderati have watched and waited for their new butcher shop to open.  It opened a week ago Tuesday and they sold out of most of their inventory in the first week.  A huge success.  I also met Jennifer Piette of Out of the Box Collective, a full service sustainable, organic grocery delivery service (I wrote a post about OTBC here.)  Jennifer and her company embody the living life locally ethos.  Expert pickler (among other skills) Racheal Narins of Chicks With Knives manned a booth selling some of her hand-made pickled items of which I bought several bottles.  She also teaches classes in pickling.  I sat in on a beekeeping-honey making lecture that was so interesting.  One day I hope to have hives of my own.  I also ate unending amounts of terrific food.  So much fun was had that I didn’t want the event to end.

Artisanal L.A. is all about supporting local-area artisans and food craftspeople, and purveyors.  It’s a great meeting place, a wonderful gathering to share tastes, ideas, helpful hints, and a love of local food.  Come on out and meet your local artisans, and craftspeople, taste and buy some of their wares.  The spring event is taking place this weekend.

Artisanal L.A., Saturday, April 16, 11 am to 8 pm, and Sunday, April 17, 11 am to 7 pm, $10 pre-sale tickets online, $15 at the door.

Hope to see you there.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – Honest Cooking ~ I’m now a Contributing Writer to the new food magazine site Honest Cooking.  My first story was published today: “Berlin Currywurst Arrives to L.A.” I’ll be writing several pieces a month on the L.A. food scene.

#2 – A Menu of Parisian Bistro Classics at Le Saint Amour, Culver City, CA.  Consulting chef Walter Manzke offers a different Parisian bistro dish every night of the week (Sunday is Poulet Frit for example) at Le Saint Amour.  If you like classic French food like I do then get thee to Le Saint Amour for a plat du jour, or for something delicious off their full menu.  Bon appétit!

#3 – Saturday, April 16 & Sunday, April 17, 2011, 11 am – 8 pm (Sat.), 11 am – 7 pm (Sun.) ~ Artisanal L.A. where nearly 100 local, artisanal and handmade vendors showcase their wares.  Support your local crafts persons, vendors and businesses.

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports. Cookbook Reviews: Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans.

Moules Marinière from Le Saint Amour.

Is there an uptick in the number of French restaurants in Los Angeles?  I certainly hope so.  French food = comfort food.  At least in the case of Le Saint Amour in Culver City.  I haven’t kept track, and I don’t really know actual figures but it seems to me that there are more and more French restaurants opening in Los Angeles.  And that’s a good thing.  We’ve been so Italian for so long that I’m ready for the return of France.  The best recent example of this was my weekend visit to the very French Le Saint Amour, a Culver City restaurant that has been open for a year and a half.

Escargots de Bourgogne from Le Saint Amour.

French Restaurants in Los Angeles, (San Francisco and New York)

But before I go there, a bit more on French restaurants in Los Angeles, (San Francisco and New York too).  I just checked on Open Table and seventy-four French restaurants came up in a search for Los Angeles and Orange counties.  A quick cursory glance and I’d remove a number of them because they’re not truly French.  A secondary search of West Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Mid-Wilshire and the Westside gave me thirty-five results.  For those same neighborhoods seventy-three results pop up for Italian.

Not scientific in the least.  The reason I say there seem to be more French places: Le Saint Amour, Petrossian, Fraîche Culver City (French chef Benjamin Bially), RESTAURANT at the Sunset Marquis (French chef Guillaume Burlion), Church & State, Comme Ça, Bistro LQ (French chef Laurent Quenioux), RH at the Andaz (French chef Pierre Gomes), to name a few and not naming the many that have French influenced menus, or American chefs that lean towards cooking French food.  And then there’s Ludo!  French chef Ludovic Lefebvre who cooks French in a way no one has before at his pop up restaurants, Ludo Bites.  Café Stella is my favorite neighborhood bistro.  Sitting on the outdoor patio feels like being on a back street of Paris.

San Francisco has always been more equitable when it comes to French versus Italian, or maybe it’s just their natural hybridization of French food — it simply appears as part of the menu on so many Bay Area restaurants.  They naturally cook French.  They operate their restaurants in the French brasserie/bistro/café way.  I’m not sure if Zuni still does it but in my Zuni eating days (’80s to ’90s) they had an oyster station outside on Market Street, complete with shucker and all.  So very Parisian.  New York is the most welcoming to French food and French chefs.  Mostly, I’d venture to say, due to its size and numbers: a huge city, millions of mouths to feed.  All cuisines get good coverage there.  I’ve always felt that Los Angeles was slighted when it came to French restaurants.  They’re here, they exist but not in the ways they do in San Francisco and New York.

Les Frites from Le Saint Amour.

Le Saint Amour

Over this past weekend Robert and I were returning from a great day with food blogger friend Sean Sullivan (of Spectacularly Delicious)* who was in town from New York.  We’d dropped Sean off at his hotel, and were on the 10 Freeway going home and desperately needed gas.  Off at Robertson Boulevard and suddenly we were in Culver City.  Hunger.  Parked and walked along Culver Boulevard.  I wanted to find Le Saint Amour as I’d heard about it.  We popped in around six forty-five and a kindly French woman promptly sat us.  I assume this was Madame Herve-Commereuc.  The place felt so French.  Café.  Bistro.  Brass, lace curtains, French café chairs, art deco advertising posters on the wall.  The very French waiter sealed the deal.  Heavy French accent, no name (thank God), available not intrusive.  I knew I was in a French restaurant when I ordered my Steak Frites and he simply said “medium-rare?” as if there was simply no other option.  The food was quite good, straight forward, traditional French café/bistro fare.  It was just what I wanted.

Owned by Florence and Bruno Herve-Commereuc they recently hired chef Walter Manzke to revamp the menu.  Chef Manzke introduced a Plats du Jour menu, a different special each night of the week.  These are truly French dishes.  The night we were in it was Bouillabaisse.  Other current dishes include Choux Farci, Bourride Provenςale, and Filet Mignon Bordelaise. Monsieur Herve-Commereuc is a master charcutier and makes house-made charcuterie, and terrines.  Oysters, onion soup, escargots, bone marrow are among the many typical French dishes on the regular menu.  If I lived in Paris, this is the kind of neighborhood place that would be a second home.  I’d pop in on my way home from work, or for a morning café. I wish it was in my Atwater Village neighborhood so I could.

Now then: All you Los Angeles-based French chefs, put the word out to your French brethren to hie their way across the Pond, and our vast continent to our sunny Southern California shores.  We need more French restaurants in Los Angeles.  And for the rest of you Angeleno readers: Are there more French restaurants opening in Los Angeles?

Bon appétit!

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – A Menu of Parisian Bistro Classics at Le Saint Amour, Culver City, CA.  Consulting chef Walter Manzke offers a different Parisian bistro dish every night of the week (Sunday is Poulet Frit for example) at Le Saint Amour.  If you like classic French food like I do then get thee to Le Saint Amour for a plat du jour, or for something delicious off their full menu.  Bon appétit!

#2 – Thursday, March 31, 2011, 6 pm – 10 pm ~ Mo Chica’s 18th Tasting Dinner – 6 Courses for Japan Relief at Mo-Chica, Los Angeles, CA. Help raise money for Japan disaster relief.  Special tasting menu by chef Ricardo Zarate.  Details here.

#3 – Saturday, April 16 & Sunday, April 17, 2011, 11 am – 8 pm (Sat.), 11 am – 7 pm (Sun.) ~ Artisanal L.A. where nearly 100 local, artisanal and handmade vendors showcase their wares.  Support your local crafts persons, vendors and businesses.

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  *A post on New York food blogger Sean Sullivan of Spectacularly Delicious.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports. Cookbook Reviews: Southern My Way by Gena Fox; Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig; Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans; Maida Heatter’s Cakes, and Maida Heatter’s Cookies by Maida Heatter.

Image from iStockphoto.com

“I Was A Teenage Cheesemonger.”  Title of my autobiography?  Uhm, well, maybe.  Too early to say.  And I wasn’t actually a teenager.  I was twenty years old.

I hope this isn’t becoming too much of ‘me, me, me’ but I am proud of the few things I did do in the food and restaurant business.  Buying and selling cheese was one of my proudest food-related occupations.  Looking back on my rather un-storied food career I see that I was a jack-of-all-trades/master of none-type of food professional.  But I am proud nonetheless of the varied things I did do, the people I met and worked with, and the places I was able to go.

I stumbled into selling cheese; happily.  The year was 1979 and it was after I’d completed the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies program (cooking school) at City College of San Francisco; before cooking school I had returned from living in France, and I’d been head line cook at Sourdough Jack’s in Santa Rosa, California.  My first job after cooking school was working as lunch chef for a tyrannical French chef at a place called Today’s on San Francisco’s Union Square.  I didn’t last long.  The French chef was truly a tyrant: unreasonable, flew into rages, yelled and screamed.  I might have lasted two months but it was probably less.  One day at the end of a shift I quit by sliding a note under the chef’s office door; he was already gone.  I never saw him again.  Not my finest professional moment but I was desperate.

The Wine & Cheese Center

After the horrors of the French chef I got a 9 to 5 job as a foreign exchange teller at Security Pacific National Bank.  That didn’t go so well either but on the ground floor of the bank building was a shop: The Wine & Cheese Center.  It sold a huge variety of domestic and imported cheeses, had a full selection of wine, and did most of its business selling sandwiches to the office workers in the skyscraper above the store.  It was my entrée into selling cheese.  I learned the varieties, types, styles, what countries they came from, how to cut, wrap and display them, when they were ripe, and what they tasted like.  My time living in France had given me a nice exposure to French cheese.  This was an education in everything else — the world’s cheese.

Image from iStockphoto.com

‘Maître Fromager’, the Oakville Grocery

I suppose that’s a fair translation of “cheesemonger” although in France cheesemongers are true masters of the trade.   But first my apprenticeship.  When I heard that there was a gourmet grocery store being opened by Napa Valley winemaker Joseph Phelps in San Francisco I applied immediately.  When I started at Oakville Grocery the store had only been open for a short period.  Before my arrival the cheesemongering duties had been seen to by Clark Wolf, the store manager.  Clark knew (and knows) a hell of a lot about cheese.  Before Oakville he ran a small cheese shop on San Francisco’s California Street.  His enthusiasm for, and knowledge of cheese was (is) boundless.  He took me under his wing and taught me what he knew.  This was a true education in all the vicissitudes of buying, storing, selling, serving and eating domestic and imported cheese.

I learned how to cut open huge wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, Emmental, Gruyère, and English cheddar.   Eventually I understood the many nuances of goat cheese, how it was made, how it was aged, and how what the animals ate, and the time of year can affect the flavor of the milk.  We sold bulk Normandy sweet butter shipped from France in large wicker baskets, probably a first for San Francisco.  I remember clearly the day we got in fresh Italian mozzarella di buffala that had arrived by plane that morning from Italy.  Another first for San Francisco.  We almost threw the cheese a parade everyone was so excited.  I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to Clark for showing me the world of cheese, and to Oakville for an amazing learning experience.  Clark went on to have a very successful career as a hotel and restaurant consultant.

Image from iStockphoto.com

Friends for Life

I also met the most amazing people while working at Oakville; some of them are still friends over thirty years later.  I met chef Jeremiah Tower at Oakville, we’ve been lifelong friends.  One day a French goat cheesemaker, Marie-Claude Chaleix came into the store.  She’d taught American goat cheesemaker, Laura Chenel how to make goat cheese on her farm in France.  Marie-Claude and I became fast friends and I spent a week with her on her goat cheese farm in the Charente region of France.  She took me all over the region and introduced me to the area’s goat cheese makers.  I learned a tremendous amount.  Another friend is Kathleen Lewis, now a personal chef, who oversaw all the prepared foods at Oakville.  We lost touch over the years but she recently found me because of this blog.  She and her husband live in Los Angeles.

DDL Foodshow

My year long stint at Oakville led me to another cheese-related opportunity: to work with Italian film producer, Dino de Laurentiis in opening the first of a series of Italian-themed food shops, DDL Foodshow.  I was hired in 1982 to help him and his staff open the flagship store on New York’s Upper West Side.  When the store opened I became cheese manager, or head cheese buyer.  I placed orders, controlled inventory, was responsible for the display cases, sales and managing a staff.  It was an exciting time for me.  While I worked for Dino I met two more life long friends: Martine Rothstein who worked the cheese counter with me, and Lori Berhon who worked in Dino’s film offices, and at the store.  Before I started working at DDL I was lucky enough to go on a three week buying trip with the general manager to France and Italy.  While I was in Italy I went to Milan and saw the food shop of all food shops, Peck.  Amazing selection of cheeses, jaw-dropping displays.  I was inspired.  (I wrote a bit about here: Peck di Milano — my first ever blog post.)

Cheese became a part of my life and it still is.  I may not eat quite as much as I did when I was a cheesemonger, and a bit younger but I still eat it often.  The best part of having been a cheesmonger is the cheese knowledge I’ll always have.  I can go into any cheese shop and know what the cheeses will taste like, where they came from, how they’re made.  And for that I am very happy.

Recommended Los Angeles-area Cheese Shops: Cheese Store of Pasadena; Cheese Store of Silver Lake; Say Cheese; Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

Recommended Reading: Cheese Primer (Steve Jenkins); American Cheeses: The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where To Find Them (Clark Wolf); Culture: The Word on Cheese (magazine).

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports coming soon. Cookbook Reviews: Grilled Cheese, Please! by Laura Werlin, Southern My Way by Gena Fox, and Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig.

What ever happened to Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet?  I know!  Pick me!!  Pick me!!  Apparently he’s quietly living in Seattle, Washington.  I found myself wondering about him recently.   He and Julia Child were probably the first people I saw cook professionally.  I diligently watched him on his T.V. show, The Galloping Gourmet when I was ten to thirteen years old.  The show ran from 1969 to 1971; I watched it most everyday when I came home from school especially when I was a bit older.  I learned two things from Mr. Kerr: what a gourmet was, and that gourmets liked to drink.  I have fuzzy memories of him in his T.V. studio, glass of wine in hand as he tipsily stirred a pot, or made a cake.  I didn’t know until later that his fun, silly mood was due in part to the wine.

A Gourmand is Born

From him I somehow knew I wanted to grow up and be a gourmet myself.  I tried to be one as a child (minus the wine).  My mother can attest to the fact that I always ordered, or attempted to, the most expensive, exotic dish on the menu on the rare occasions we went out to a “nice” restaurant.  I’m not sure when the tradition began but each of my birthday celebrations from age twelve on involved going out to eat at a fancy restaurant.  A “gourmet place.”   I remember the first time I ordered and ate lobster.  My mother was a bit appalled at both the dish and the price but she let me order it anyway.  I now trace this all back to Kerr, his glass of wine, and his T.V. show.  I mean he even had a foreign, sophisticated accent.  What was a young gourmand to do?

*Picture below: Kerr began each episode of The Galloping Gourmet by running onto the stage and jumping over a chair on the dining room set.  It became his signature move.

Galloping On

As I mentioned, I’d been wondering what happened to him.  Unlike Julia Child, it seemed he’d disappeared.  I knew he was British so I thought he might be living back in the U.K..  The answer came in a Seattle Times article published on February 19, 2011, “Chef Graham Kerr Gallops into Edible Gardening.”  He’s now 76 years old.  He and his wife Treena live in Seattle, and he recently planted his first-ever garden.  The idea to plant the garden was born from a local church group that Kerr is involved with.  The group became interested in the farm-to-table movement as a way to help heal a few societal ills.  Their goals are to “eat wisely (more plants); move more (to gain stamina); and know your neighbors (their needs and their wisdom).”  Kerr saw that a kitchen garden would both keep him in shape, and offer extra produce to pass along to food banks and those in need.

The Missing Pieces

The Galloping Gourmet originated in Ottawa, Canada and was produced by Treena, Kerr’s wife.  The “galloping gourmet” persona came from a wine book Kerr co-authored with wine expert Len Evans, The Galloping Gourmets. The nickname came from a 35-day worldwide trip the duo made to the best restaurants around the globe.  As The Galloping Gourmet Kerr was known for “lighthearted humor, and tomfoolery” and for using copious amounts of butter, cream and fat as well as liberal amounts of wine both in the food and in his glass.  The show was a huge success but everything ended in 1971 when Kerr was temporarily paralyzed in a car accident.  A show he did in 1974 called Take Kerr only lasted one season.  When Treena became seriously ill in the mid-80s the Kerrs started to lead a much healthier lifestyle.  Kerr has written numerous cookbooks dating to 1963; those in later years reflect his healthier food outlook.  As The Galloping Gourmet he not only influenced this young gourmand but a nation of T.V. viewers both those interested in cooking, and those who liked watching his bigger-than-life persona.  He made the idea of cooking fun, and entertaining.

The Galloping Gourmet can now be found on The Cooking Channel.

Sources for this article: The Seattle Times, and Wikipedia.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – Monday, February 28, 2011 ~ 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ~ Street Food Mondays with ‘Antojitos de Mi Abuelita’ Food Truck ~ hosted by Bill Esparza and Evan Kleiman at Angeli Caffe, 7274 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 323-936-9086

My Status:  Still enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, beets and fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports coming soon. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, “Grilled Cheese, Please! by Laura Werlin, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

“Eat The Love”.   The very apt slogan for the new food delivery company Out of the Box Collective.  The OBC promotional flier also includes:  “Local”.  “Sustainable”. “Home Delivered”.   All good words in my world.  Out of the Box Collective is exactly those things.  They gather food staples that are local and sustainable, put them into boxes and deliver them to your door.  Unlike a C.S.A. they provide everything you need, or want to feed your family for a week.  Fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, fish, poultry, bread, pasta and dry goods.  A meal plan and suggested recipes are also included.  The only thing you have to do is cook, and then ‘eat the love.’

Founded by Jennifer Piette along with farm-to-table Chef Erik Stenberg, the goal of the company is to source “local, seasonal, sustainably produced groceries from [a] collective of farmers and artisans: [that include] ‘beyond organic’ produce; pastured meats, poultry and eggs; locally caught fish; dairy, including raw milk from Organic Pastures; regional specialties, such as local olive oil, honey, cheeses, Fair Trade products, and the list goes on.”  Jennifer and Erik have spent a good deal of time tracking down the best quality, organic, and sustainable products available in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg as they begin shopping the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market.

A Morning at the Farmers’ Market

Given that the collective will only use what is fresh and seasonal, the box contents change from week to week.  Additionally, new artisans, growers and vendors are being added all the time.  Piette and Stenberg meet each Saturday at the Santa Barbara Farmers’ Market to assemble the following week’s boxes.  Last Saturday I was lucky enough to spend the day with them as they gathered a week’s worth of food at the market.  Later in the day I watched as they assembled the boxes.  It was an educational and joyful experience — so much amazing food.  Santa Barbarans take food, eating, and their farmers’ market seriously.

The Los Olivos Roots Organic Farm stand from Los Olivos, California.

I trailed along with Jennifer as she made her rounds at the market before it opened.  Many of her orders had already been placed so she was picking up, and adding to where needed.  We stopped at the Windrose Farm booth for beautiful radicchio di Castelfranco, said ‘hello’ to the folks at the famous Los Olivos Roots Organic Farm stand, grabbed poultry from Healthy Family Farms, apple juice at Fair Hills Farms, fresh-squeezed orange juice from Ojai’s Friend’s Ranch, ground beef from Rancho San Julian, pork from Jiminez Family Farm, and blistered almonds from Fat Uncle Farms.   Jennifer also augments her farmers’ market purchases with produce from the Farmer Direct Produce Network, a wholesale produce distributor that features local and sustainably grown produce only.  Wesley Sleight from Farmer Direct met us at the market with a large produce delivery.

Jennifer buying eggs and poultry from Healthy Family Farms.

Buying pork chops from Jimenez Family Farm.

Buying 100% certified organic apple juice from Fair Hills Farms.

Buying blistered almonds from Fat Uncle Farms.

Two More Stops: A Fishmongress, and the Pie Shop

After we finished rounds at the market, I joined Erik as he made two more stops: for fresh fish, and homemade pies.  Cadena Yules of Cadena’s Fresh Fish is a Santa Barbara-based female fishmonger.  On a side street of downtown Santa Barbara she rents space along with several other male Latino fishmongers in a large industrial building that also sells meat (on one door is a sign for fish; a second door says “meat.”)  It was fascinating to watch Cadena at work.   She specializes in locally caught seafood.  Erik picked up line-caught halibut.  Our next stop was Simply Pies, a wonderful small pie shop that does a booming business.  We grabbed uncooked gluten-free pie shells, and freshly made apple pies.

Fishmonger, Cadena Yules of Cadena's Fresh Fish, Santa Barbara, CA.

Assembling the Boxes

The next step in the process was assembling the boxes.  Out of the Box Collective currently works out of a kitchen in Goleta.  I enjoyed watching this unfold as it was a bit like being a kid in a candy shop.  What amazing fruits or vegetables would go into each box?  What locally-sourced proteins?  What other local delicacies?  It was a flurry of activity as Jennifer worked on one side of the kitchen assembling the grocery boxes; while on the other side Erik worked on the produce boxes.  Both were assisted by Chris Schertzer, recently hired as packager, driver and deliveryman.

Jennifer, Erik and Chris as box assembly begins.

Erik assembling the produce boxes.

Finished produce boxes.

A finished grocery box.

The refrigerated delivery van ready to go.

Change Equals Growth

As with most new businesses there are moments of transition; Erik (aka The Surfin’ Chef) has decided to take a hiatus from OBC to catch a few waves.  In his place Jennifer has brought in Shaheda Gosla, a private chef and farmers’ market maven, to work on the meal plans and the weekly suggested recipes.  Until the business grows more deliveries are currently only made in northwest Los Angeles county.  Piette hopes to expand beyond that area soon.  When she does get to my area of Los Angeles, I’ll be her first customer.  I wholeheartedly applaud what she is doing.  OBC is of much value to anyone who enjoys fresh, local, sustainable food.

For more information ~ Out of the Box Collective.

To see more photos from my OBC outing, click here ~ http://tinyurl.com/6jknp92

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the Food World:

#1  – Mini-Review: A shout out to a recent cookbook I received ~ “Everday Grilling: 50 Recipes from Appetizers to Desserst” by Sur La Table.  Grilling tips and recipes for first courses to desserts all (or part of the recipe) cooked on the grill.  Grilled Quesadillas.  Endless ways to grill vegetables.  Grilled Pizza (!)  Grilled Pound Cake (!?)

My Status: Enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

Image from iStockphoto.com

Turkey for Thanksgiving?  I guess it’s a given.  I’m just not that sure about the whole turkey thing.  It’s an awfully big bird to cook.  We’ve all eaten the over cooked, dried out Thanksgiving turkey.  Which is why — and I may be in the minority — I always go for the dark meat.  Moister and a lot more bird flavor.  White meat works for me only in the days-after sandwiches because of the mayonnaise (lots).  I’m neither an Alton Brown nor a Harold McGee but I still say it’s a really big bird for anyone to try to cook — both professional and home cook alike.  Does it make sense to try?

I know this may be a deeply unpopular sentiment but I have given it some thought, done a bit of homework, and asked around.  The results I’ve come up with are a mixed bag at best.  As mixed as the many suggested ways of cooking a bird the size of three-year old child: wet-brined, dry-brined, slow cooked, deep-fried, cut up in to pieces, grilled on a barbecue.  Judy Rodgers of Zuni Café says to dry-brine, Russ Parsons of the L.A. Times follows her lead making him a dry-briner too.  Harold McGee = no brine, Mario Batali removes all the bones, stuffs it and cooks it in a wood-burning pizza oven at his house in Michigan. Not sure if he brines or not.

Food Peeves ~ Tomatoes & Turkey

One of my biggest food pet peeves is the ubiquitous un-ripe tomato!  It is everywhere.  The almost green at times, crunchy, flavorless, pale red at best tomato that everyone now accepts as a true tomato.  I have seen them in high end restaurants occasionally and in low end places often.  What happened to the tomato of my childhood: a ruby red, juicy, full-flavored Beefsteak that leaked tomato juice down my chin, or across the cutting board?  Turkey follows a close second in the food peeves department.  Most deli sandwiches contain turkey that comes out of some kind of plastic packaging.  Often it tastes off, the texture is slimy.  The pre-sliced stuff sold in grocery stores is inedible.  The only time I really like a turkey sandwich is after Thanksgiving because it tastes like the fowl it came from.  The bottom line is cooking any poultry can be an iffy prospect.  Even chicken poses problems; if not done properly both at home and in restaurants it can end up raw, or like shoe leather.   So I ask again, why the annual torture of cooking a turkey?

Image from iStockphoto.com

A Little Turkey History

Yes, turkeys were probably eaten at the first Thanksgiving.  They were definitely not the birds we currently know.  They were smaller, wilder, and only a part of the feast enjoyed by the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims in 1621.  Historical records show that waterfowl, venison, and seafood in addition to wild turkey was consumed.  Despite the historical agreement that the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621 it was not until after 1800 that eating turkey at Thanksgiving became common practice.  President Lincoln nationalized the holiday in 1863 but even before that turkey was part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal in New England.  Turkey as the centerpiece of the meal didn’t happen until after World War II.  With innovations in the poultry industry and savvy marketing campaigns to push it along Americans embraced the turkey full force.  The birds were also bread to be bigger, and eventually to have larger breasts.  The turkey growing business is now a $10 billion a year industry.  Farmed turkeys are twice as big as a wild turkey and are sold frozen.  More and more growers are raising heritage breeds which are smaller, and have better flavor but the average American is still expected to cook a behemoth bird that can weigh as much as twenty-eight pounds.  The average three-year old weighs thirty pounds.

Image from iStockphoto.com

To Cook, or Not to Cook?

I can’t remember any of the chefs I’ve know over the years actually cooking a turkey.  Do chefs cook turkeys?  We know that Mario Batali does (above).  When I asked Chef Jeremiah Tower to comment on the subject of cooking turkeys, his answer was: “Screw the turkey and leave it at the church steps.  Then buy a free range capon and stuff it with truffles, chestnuts and sausage, and eat that.’  He’s a chef I’ve know the longest and the most personally, and I have no recollection of him ever cooking a turkey.  Many other meats, fowl and fish yes, but not a turkey.  Since I started to think about this, and because Thanksgiving is next week, I’ve seen a bushel of articles on the subject.  Serious Eats writer Aaron Mattis suggests cutting the turkey up before cooking it; Clifford A. Wright on Zester Daily suggests slow cooking the bird at 160 F instead of the USDA recommended 180 F; a Denver Post article asked three local chefs to create menus not using traditional foods like turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes.  Lamb was the centerpiece meat on two menus, and roast suckling pig was on the third.  I found other articles explaining how to grill a bird on a barbecue rotisserie, and one suggesting enlivening the meal by adding flavors from south of the border like moles and chiles.

Regina Schrambling is a well-respected food writer and one I much admire.  When I asked for her thoughts on cooking and serving turkey she told me that she likes it as the centerpiece meat.  “You can cook one well if you A) buy a good one, and B) treat it right — brine it no matter what Harold McGee says — and C) cook it for less time than anyone advises.  Most people roast it until the sorry thing is desiccated just so the legs and thighs cook, but no one likes the dark meat anyway.  Or at least they don’t in my experience.  You can buy a turkey the size of a large chicken if you don’t want one of those ungainly monsters.  Mostly the bird is symbolic anyway: A large sacrificial “animal” to be shared.”

Obviously there are many, many likes and dislikes; opinions, thoughts and ways of cooking a turkey.  I still think it’s a big bird to shove into an oven but as I’ve seen in researching and writing this article there a lots of ways to cook a turkey.  Moment of truth!  I’m not cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  Robert and I decided to ‘eat out’ and we’re letting Chef Evan Kleiman of Angeli Caffe cook for us.  I just checked online and turkey is on the menu.  So I guess I’ll be finding out next week how well a chef can cook a Thanksgiving turkey.

*Regina Schrambling is a regular contributor to Epicurious.  Her witty and acerbic Tweets on food, politics, and her cat can be found at Twitter.com/gastropoda.

Shout Out! (Los Angeles)

Michael McCarty, owner of Michael’s Santa Monica, and Michael’s New York has started ‘Michael’s Market Meetups’ one Wednesday of each month.  Join him at his Santa Monica restaurant then go with him as he takes you on a tour of the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market.  After the tour he’ll cook you a dish back at his restaurant.  Read about it here, or on the restaurant website ~ http://www.michaelssantamonica.com/.

My Status:  Fall slowing moving toward winter.  We still have lovely warm days but the temps drop at night.  Time for winter-cold weather cooking.  Maybe something from Julia Child, or Dorie Greenspan’s new cookbook ‘Around My French Table.’

News! I’m published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.’  You may order it here.  I am thrilled.

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Bon Appétit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild.

As I wrote in the prior post to this one:  Last weekend was a whirlwind 24 hours of food.  Oh, yes, there was some wine (for Robert) thrown into the mix as well.  Saturday I spent the day at Artisanal L.A. at the Cooper Building in downtown Los Angeles, and Sunday Robert and I went out to Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu for Los Angeles Magazine’s ‘The Food Event 2010 From the Vine.’ (This post is Part 2 of 2.  Part 1, about Artisanal L.A. was published earlier.)

The Food Event 2010 From the Vine

Awhile back I wrote a post about my early days working in the Los Angeles restaurant scene: My Restaurant Stories: Los Angeles in the ’80s.  As a result of that I heard from many people involved in the current L.A. food scene, the post was re-posted in several places, and I was invited to attend Los Angeles Magazine’s The Food Event 2010 From the Vine at Saddlerock Ranch last Sunday.  The event, in its 5th year, brings local chefs, vintners, mixologists, and food personalities together for an afternoon of food and wine tastings, chef demos and panels.  I was particularly keen to attend because of  dineLA’s panel ‘Evolution of Dining’ where Carrie Kommers, Director of dineLA led a conversation with chefs Neal Fraser (Grace, BLD), Piero Selvaggio (Valentino), Michael McCarty (Michael’s Santa Monica) and Helene and Elizabeth An (Crustacean, Tiato).

Left to right: Elizabeth & Helene An, Piero Selvaggio, Neal Fraser, & Michael McCarty.

The chefs discussed how the Los Angeles food scene has evolved from the late ’70s and early ’80s to what it is now.  Then: a serious dearth of places to eat, and quality products to cook with to now: an abundance of top notch restaurants, many super-talented chefs, and an endless supply of high quality ingredients.  McCarty and Selvaggio, both around since the early days, have watched it change right before their eyes.  Both were an integral part of those changes.  Selvaggio talked about opening a restaurant in New York City in the late ’70s.  He lasted less than a year before he returned to Los Angeles where he could find locally-sourced products and ingredients he wanted to cook with.

He recounted how in those days in New York City there was so little that was locally-sourced that it made operating a restaurant the way he wanted to severely difficult.  McCarty echoed those sentiments.  When he opened Michael’s New York in New York City in 1989 he had to push hard to find locally sourced ingredients, as a result he was one of the first restaurants to cook using local ingredients.  To me, the conversation was quite interesting.  I’ve worked in both cities dating back to the early ’80s; I’ve seen firsthand many of the changes they discussed.  The conversation speaks strongly to the ways in which Los Angeles and California have contributed to the national food scene, and to the positive affect it has had as well.

Left to right: Lesley Bargar Suter, Merrill Shindler, Susan Feniger, Govind Armstrong, & Mark Peel.

In a subsequent panel, ‘The Public Perception of L.A.’s Food Scene with Three Top Chef Masters’ many of the same themes were repeated.  The chefs on this panel were Susan Feniger (Street, Border Grill), Mark Peel (Campanile), and Govind Armstrong (8 oz. Burger Bar).  Both Feniger and Peel go back to the early ’80s food scene and have been active participants in its evolution.  Peel in particular commented about the variety, scope and quantity of amazing ingredients and products that Southern California produces, and the difficulty of finding anything close in other parts of the country, and how that influences in a very good way the type of cooking that comes out of Los Angeles restaurants.

One of my favorite quotes from both panels came from Chef Selvaggio when asked about changes he’s seen since he started, ‘Well, for one, Open Table has become the maitre’ d now.”  To me, that says a lot about where we are now.  Yes, local and sustainable is paramount but a computer reservation system is what sticks out most to one of the founding chefs of the Los Angeles restaurant scene.

This was my first time attending this event but I’d heard so much about the great location from friends who had been before.  It did not disappoint.  Saddlerock Ranch is located in the wilds of Malibu in a stunning setting of rock-covered rolling hills.  It is the vineyard home to Malibu Family Wines, producers of Saddlerock and Semler wines.  The 1,000-acre property has 65 acres of vineyards planted with eight varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Malbec, Grenache, Mouvedre and Viognier.  As we drove across the property to the event we encountered not only vine-covered hills but zebras, llamas, and horses.

When we weren’t listening to panels we were eating and drinking…

My Status:  Fall weather has arrived to So Cal.  Cool, wet even rainy.  More cooking, eating and blogging on the horizon as always.

News! I’m published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices,’ published on October 19, 2010.  You may pre-order it here.  I am thrilled.

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  Cookbook Reviews:  Mary Mac’s Tea Room: 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room by John Ferrell; The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Bon Appétit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild.

Last weekend was a whirlwind 24 hours of food.  Oh, yes, there was some wine (for Robert) thrown into the mix as well.  Saturday I spent the day at Artisanal L.A. at the Cooper Building in downtown Los Angeles, and Sunday Robert and I went out to Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu for Los Angeles Magazine’s ‘The Food Event 2010 From the Vine.’  (This post is broken into two parts ~ Part 1 (Artisanal L.A.) and Part 2 (Los Angeles Magazine’s The Food Event 2010).  Part 2 to be published soon.)

Artisanal L.A.

A first-of-its-kind event in Los Angeles, put on by the indefatigable Shawna Dawson of Sauce|LA (the mastermind behind the recent LA Street Foodfest(s), Artisanal L.A. was a weekend long community event that celebrated Los Angeles’s finest local, sustainable and handmade edibles all under one roof.  There were chef demos, panels and workshops, and attendees tasted, shopped, sampled and learned while supporting the local economy and local artisanal vendors.  This was my kind of event!  Located in the light-filled penthouse of the Cooper Building, it had a casual, relaxed vibe that fit perfectly with the goals of Sauce|LA:  to introduce to, and remind the public about the many and varied local artisans that work, produce and live in the Los Angeles-area.

Rachael Narins of Chicks with Knives at her booth.

I saw many vendors I already new and met a few new ones.  Chef Akasha Richmond of Akasha Restuarant Bar Bakery in Culver City was there offering tastes of her new line of jams, jellies, marmalades and chutneys.  I’m a big fan of Akasha’s and I grabbed a jar of Local Mango Chutney.  We ate it at home that night with fried chicken and it was a mouthful of exotic fruitiness spiked with Indian spices.  I’ve been putting it on everything.  Another friend, Rachael Narins of Chicks with Knives was there too selling Bacon Jam and other pickled goodies that she and her partner, Suzanne Griswold make.  I grabbed a jar of Garlic Dill Pickles and Jalapeño Carrots.  When I’m not eating Akasha’s chutney I’m happily eating Chicks with Knives carrots and pickles.

Chicks with Knives pickled goodies!

Longtime friend, Kathleen Lewis and I explored the event together.  A personal chef, Kathleen and I go all the way back to the early ’80s when we both worked at the Oakville Grocery in San Francisco.  Oakville was one of the first gourmet grocers in the Bay Area.  The types of foods, and products we were seeing at Artisanal L.A. were akin to what we sold in the store:  fresh, local and sustainable whenever possible.  Kathleen was one of the chefs that cooked for the prepared foods counter.  The thing about Kathleen and last Saturday morning at Artisanal L.A. is that we’d not seen each other in over twenty-five years until I stepped off the elevator at the penthouse level of the Cooper Building.  It was so good to see her, and to catch up.  It’s always a nice thing to see an old friend.  Kathleen and her husband have been living in Los Angeles, right under my nose, for 17 years.

Jennifer Priette of Out of the Box Collective.

‘Eat The Love’ is the brilliant catch phrase used by a new friend, Jennifer Piette of Out of the Box Collective.  Out of the Box is a new company owned by Piette and her business partner Erik Stenberg aka The Surfin’ Chef.   Like a CSA but not limited to produce, Out of the Box makes living the local life an attainable goal by offering home delivery of weekly boxes of local, sustainably produced groceries including meat, dairy, produce, conserves, and regional specialties.  Most of the food stuffs are sourced from artisans and farmers in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.  Erik puts the weekly boxes together and includes recipes using the food items of that week’s box.  I LOVE what they do.  The company is new so at the moment deliveries are only made on the Westside of Los Angeles.  At my suggestion, Jennifer attended Artisanal L.A.  I hope it helped generate interest.  I’ll be going with Jennifer next weekend as she shops the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers’ Market, and I’ll meet Erik too.  In an upcoming blog post I’ll write about them, and Out of the Box.

My goal in life is to become a Gentleman Farmer.  Before I graduate to that post I’d like to own a beehive.  Given that desire Kathleen and I attended a lecture at Artisanal L.A. put on by Backwards Beekeepers.  Backwards Beekeepers are a local Los Angeles-area collective of small-scale chemical-free beekeepers that rescue feral bees and teach beekeeping skills.  I currently live in a condo, and my neighbors probably won’t tolerate a hive on my back porch so I asked the Backwards Beekeepers about people who might donate their yards or property to those of  us who want to have hives but can’t.  Backwards Beekeepers said they know of many people who are ready to offer their yards, or property.  Even more fun than that Pat Saperstein of Eating L.A. was at the lecture and offered me her backyard when she moves back into her Silver Lake house next Spring.  I may be taking you up on your offer Pat!  Two other fun meets were Craig and Gary of Winnetka Farms (an urban micro farm located in the west San Fernando Valley that specializes in heirloom Italian seeds) and Amelia Posada of Lindy & Grundy (an artisan butcher shop opening in the Fairfax District in December).  Both Winnetka Farms and Lindy & Grundy are doing great things for local food.  I LOVED Artisanal L.A. and I hear another one is coming up soon.  I’ll definitely be there again.

My Status:  Fall weather has arrived to So Cal.  Cool, wet even rainy.  More cooking, eating and blogging on the horizon as always.

News! I’m published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices,’ published on October 19, 2010.  You may pre-order it here.  I am thrilled.

Upcoming Posts: next blog post ‘24 Hours of Food ~ Part 2: Los Angeles Magazine’s The Food Event 2010.’ Soon: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  Cookbook Reviews:  Mary Mac’s Tea Room: 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room by John Ferrell; The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Bon Appétit Desserts.

Eataly New York, 23rd St. & 5th Ave. Photo via midtownlunch.com

I have fervently been following the opening of the food emporium, Eataly, in New York City.  The reason for my interest is that I was involved in the opening of another Italian food emporium in the early ’80s: DDL Foodshow.  I was hired by film producer, Dino de Laurentiis, to work with the general manager to open the store.  The flagship store was located at 82nd Street and Columbus Avenue, across the street from the Natural History Museum.  It took up the ornate, marble lobby of the Endicott Hotel building which by this time was no longer a hotel but had gone co-op.  The store was quite large for its time.  Much like what Eataly is doing now there were stations spread out around the store: gastronomica, (prepared hot and cold foods), rosticceria (roasted meats and chickens), baked goods, produce, cheese, salumeria, chocolate, coffee and so on.  It was meant to be 1-stop shopping for the upscale neighborhood.  Dino and his team of Italians spared no expense; he brought chefs and managers over from Italy.  Adam Tihany was the designer.  The store had a full on kitchen with an Italian head chef.  Dino wanted it to be like the stores of its kind that he knew in Italy.  Peck in Milan is one such store.  After opening I became manager of the cheese department.  As manager I did all the cheese buying, was responsible for the counter displays, and oversaw a staff.

The Endicott Hotel Building, 82nd & Columbus, NYC where DDL Foodshow was located.

It was an exciting project to be involved in as a twenty two-year old.  The job brought me from San Francisco to New York.  It was my first time living there.  My interview with Dino (who is Giada De Laurentiis’ grandfather) at his film offices in the Gulf & Western Building on Columbus Circle was my first visit to New York.  I was very excited to be working with Dino, and living in Manhattan.  New York was a food mecca then and still is now.  Unfortunately, the store and its satellites (one in Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, and one in Beverly Hills) didn’t last more than a few years.  It never really caught on with New Yorkers.  Zabar’s, Balduccis, and Fairway pretty much had the corner on the gourmet food market.  A lot of people came into the store to look when it first opened but rarely returned more than a few times.  Sadly, Dino was ahead of his time.

The bread counter in Eataly New York.

Eataly is an Italian company with five stores in Italy, three in Japan and now one in New York.  Eataly New York is owned by chef Mario Battali and restaurateur Joe Bastianich, and Joe’s mother chef Lidia Bastianich.  The New York store while similar in concept is much larger than DDL Foodshow, and includes several sit down restaurants.  It is broken up in to a series of ‘eateries’: pizza, pasta, fish, produce, salumi and cheese, deli, rosticceria (with a butcher), bread, pasticceria and gelateria, as well as areas for cookbooks and housewares, and finally a wine shop. All of these are pay as you go.  DDL was more like an old-fashioned grocer.  You took a grocery cart from counter to counter and went through a check out line when you were done shopping.  DDL had no sit down restaurants; it did have the rosticceria where you could pick up a roasted chicken, or piece of meat, while the gastronomica had hot and cold prepared foods.  It was possible to buy a completely cooked meal.

Inside Eataly New York.

I have not yet been to Eatlay but I am anxious to go.  Definitely on my next trip to New York.  A good friend who actually worked with me at DDL has been and her report is that the food is very good, the store nice but that it is massively confusing as to what one is supposed to do where and when.  She and a friend bought things to eat then sat down at an empty table in one of the many eating points and were promptly told they needed to see the hostess to be seated.  A hostess and a host stand that were not readily visible.  As she described it to me: “Right now it’s an uneasy compromise between a food hall and an eatery.  What you have are various specialty shopping departments spotted with seating areas that have table or counter service.”  That does sound confusing.  Another friend ate dinner at one of the sit down restaurants where the prices were not inexpensive.  He said it was the oddest experience eating a nice meal while people were shopping all around him.  This begs the question: is it a sit-down restaurant, a take-out joint, or a high-end grocery store?  It’s trying to be all three.  Will hard-to-please New Yorkers be okay with this?  Only time will tell.  It does however sound like they have a few kinks to work out.

I have very fond memories of DDL Foodshow despite the many difficulties of getting a store of its size and kind open.  Dino’s heart was in the right place.  He wanted to share his joy of food and food culture with New Yorkers and Americans.  New Yorkers are a very tough audience; very set in their ways.  Sadly, they weren’t willing or interested enough to make it viable.  I still think Dino was ahead of his time.  This was before the Food Network, and the new Internet-based food movement.  Giada, his granddaughter, has managed to carve out a place for herself.  Time will tell if Eataly is a success.  I’d venture to guess that now is a better time in American food culture to give it a try than twenty-eight years ago when Dino and a group of us attempted it first.

Shout Outs! Fun, Cool, Interesting, Worthy Things Going on Around Town…

Pink Ribbon Cupcake from Magnolia Bakery

Magnolia Bakery (Los Angeles) ~ Purchase a Pink Ribbon Cupcake, (or several!) from Magnolia Bakery during the month of October.  Proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.  www.magnoliabakery.com

Los Angeles Magazine ~ The Food Event: From the Vine 2010 ~ Sunday, October 24, 2010, 1 pm to 4 pm, Saddlerock Ranch, Malibu, California.  The 5th annual culinary extravaganza hosted by Los Angeles Magazine featuring celebrity chefs, top restaurants and wine tasting.  I’ll be there.  Hope to see you.  www.losangelesmagazine/thefoodevent

Artisanal L.A. ~ A weekend of shopping, tasting, workshops, and hanging out with local artisans.  A celebration of L.A.’s finest local handmade artisanal edibles.  October 23 & 24, 11 am to 4 pm.   I’ll be there (Saturday, 10/23), will you?  http://artisanalla.com/

Out of the Box Collective (Los Angeles) ~ A brand new business that home-delivers boxes of local, sustainably produced groceries.  The food items used in the boxes are sourced from artisans and farmers in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.  Boxes contain meat, dairy, produce, bread, conserves, and regional specialties.  They have a Thanksgiving Feast Box available for the upcoming holiday that will supply you with all the ingredients and a few suggested recipes if you don’t have the time to shop but still want to cook.  Come check them out the Artisan L.A. event on 10/23 & 24 (see above for info).  www.outoftheboxcollective.com

My Status:  Fall weather has arrived to SoCal.  Cool, wet even rainy.  More cooking, eating and blogging on the horizon as always.

News! I am now published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the upcoming cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices,’ publish date is October 19, 2010.  You may pre-order it here.  I am thrilled.

Upcoming Posts: Cookbook Reviews ~ Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly by Joan E. Aller; Mary Mac’s Tea Room: 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room by John Ferrell; The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders.