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.

Sean Sullivan, author of Spectacularly Delicious.

New York-based food blogger, Sean Sullivan writes the food blog Spectacularly Delicious.  Sean can really cook.  No, I mean REALLY cook.  He cans; he makes jams, jellies, preserves, and chutneys; he bakes; he makes sausages from scratch; he goes out in the morning on Long Island and forages for sea beans, or whitebait and then serves them that night.  Together if he can.  At a dinner party for ten.  Sean is a self-taught cook.  And his enthusiasm for cooking, eating and food is infectious.  One of the many pleasures I’ve had since starting this blog has been meeting new and interesting people.  Sean is among that group.  We met this past August in Seattle at the International Food Bloggers Conference.  Once he introduced himself that was it.  Friends for life.

I love his blog.  He searches for, and finds the most retro, cool and interesting recipes that he can.  Most of the time he’ll take a classic, or even one that never made it to classic status, and put his own spin on it.  One never quite knows what each new blog post will bring.  As Sean states so well: “The mission of Spectacularly Delicious is to share my life long collection of show-stopping recipes and culinary presentations that will amaze and astound.”  Sean sees dinner as theater and entertain he does.

He Had Me at Pomegranates

I think it was last fall when Sean wrote a blog post titled “A Spectacular Celebration of Pomegranates!“  The POM people asked Sean to throw a dinner party using pomegranates.  So not only does he create a pomegranate centric menu, he creates this amazing pomegranate centerpiece, and records a step-by-step instructional video that he posts on You Tube.  I am stopping you right here, dear reader.  You have to watch Sean make this centerpiece before reading on: How To Make A Pomegranate Centerpiece.   I mean I can cook just fine; I throw a pretty mean dinner party but whip up a center piece that easily?  I don’t think so.

Photo credit: Sean Sullivan.

The Spectacular Origins

Sean grew up with four brothers in an Irish Catholic household in St. Louis, Missouri.  He tells a story of how his mother made a deal with the milkman who helped her get a cafeteria-style stainless steel dispenser that held five gallons of milk supplying the five growing boys with cold milk on tap.  Sean’s parents loved to entertain and did so on a grand scale, (clam bakes, pig roasts, a nine foot pizza once), and it rubbed off on all the boys.  When Sean was in college he started cooking for himself, poorly at first.  While working in restaurants as a student, and for New York City caterers after college, his food interests escalated and his cooking skills improved.  As a young man Sean worked in entertainment traveling to Japan, Mexico and Europe where he picked up more recipes, and cooking tips.  His home-canning passion began when he started frequenting the Union Square Farmers’ Market in Manhattan.  He currently holds a marketing position with House Beautiful which also provides material for his cooking interests.

St. Patrick's Day sausages by Sean Sullivan. Photo credit: Sean Sullivan.

Liberace, Elvis, Phyllis Diller, and The Famous Airline Cookbook

Sean is a prolific blogger posting on average twice a week.  Each post has a nice often very funny story and always includes a recipe.  He spends his weekends at his Long Island house cooking, photographing and videotaping the upcoming week’s recipes.  Often a dinner party is thrown.  His partner Steve assists as sous-chef, videographer and official taster.  There are many posts I’ve enjoyed reading but the Qantas Barramundi Macadamia: Gourmet Recipe post really made me giggle because it’s inspired by “The Famous Airline Cookbook.”  Sean found this cookbook full of recipes from the world’s airlines.  I actually do remember when airline food wasn’t horrible with Air France being more than edible.  To me the book and the recipe sums up what Sean does so well.  Finding the old, retro, très chic foods of bygone days brushing them off then adding a new patina to them.  What could be more fun that that?

Liberace's Nusstorte by Sean Sullivan. Photo credit: Sean Sullivan.

Liberace cooked!  Who knew?  He also wrote cookbooks: “Liberace Cooks! Recipes from His Seven Dining Rooms.”  In a recent blog post Sean re-purposes Liberace’s Scampi Prosciutto.  How ’50s Las Vegas does that sound? In Sean’s version he uses German speck instead of prosciutto, and serves it with couscous instead of egg noodles.  The giggle to this post is the You Tube video Sean tacks on to the end: Liberace and Phyllis Diller on The Liberace Show from 1969.  For the Elvis connection Sean writes about a young Alabama entrepreneur who came up with Fat Elvis Ice Cream which contains bananas, bacon, brown sugar and peanut butter.

I always learn something new with each Spectacularly Delicious post whether it be a tidbit of gossip, a cookbook I’ve never heard of, or how to cook, can, or preserve an unfamiliar ingredient.  Spectacularly Delicious is a swell read, Sean is an accomplished cook and raconteur, and a delightful friend.

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 – 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.

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.

Bon Appétit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful.  Barbara Fairchild.  Andrews McMeel Publishing.  $40.00. (680p)  ISBN: 978-0-7407-9352-3

I like books a lot.  All types of books.  I really, really like reference books.  The comfort of all those facts, and answers so close at hand.  But I love, love, love cookbooks.  I’m a cookbook collector.  I have so many that my other half thinks I have a problem and need to enter a 12-step program.  Single topic cookbooks are at the top of the list for me.  (I just bought ‘Salted’ by Mark Bitterman, 312 pages on nothing but salt!)  I like having cookbooks on my bookshelves that I can refer to, that I can pull from a shelf when I’m looking for information or a recipe.  When I received Bon Appétit Desserts for review it made sense.  A whole book, a huge book actually (680 pages), devoted solely to desserts.  Every dessert you’ve ever heard of, every dessert you could ever want or need to make.  All in one book.  My kind of book.

The book was edited by recently resigned Bon Appétit Editor-in-Chief, Barbara Fairchild.  In her introduction she writes about how while growing up her family had dessert after every dinner, something sweet was included in her lunch, and how her mother always served a sweet of some kind whenever company dropped by.  I like that.  To me it reveals the sentiment behind this book.  Desserts and sweets as part of the eating process.  The 600 recipes in the book are culled from Bon Appétit’s extensive archives; never-before-published recipes are also included.  Well-known cooks, bakers, and pastry chefs (like Dorie Greenspan, Sherry Yard, and Susan Feniger), and Bon Appétit staff and writers also contributed to the book.  If that’s not enough the book also has the Bon Appétit pedigree.

It’s truly a reference-cookbook — the first three chapters are ‘The Desserts Pantry’; ‘Equipment: The Basics’; ‘Techniques: The Basics,’ at the back of the book are ‘Online & Mail-Order Sources,’ and ‘Metric Conversions & Equivalents.’  Everything needed to make desserts with skill and aplomb.  The rest of the book is all about the recipes.  It has, in addition to the standard and expected American-style desserts, many of the classics: fools, crepes, Linzertortes, napoleons, cannolis, crème brûlées, éclairs, panna cottas, tiramisùs, pavolovas and more.  I was thrilled to see a recipe for bûche de Noël!  Short and to-the-point head notes are followed by well-organized recipes.  A whisk rating system showing the level of difficulty (1 to 4 whisks) is included with each recipe.  An easy reference ‘Index of Whisk Ratings’ at the back of the book allows for quick decisions on which recipe to try.  Food photographer, Con Poulo’s fifty gorgeous photos are sprinkled unobtrusively throughout.  Recipe testing on a book of this size could take months but of the recipes I was able to try all worked beautifully.

I am thrilled to have this book.  There are several people on my Christmas list who may be receiving their own copy.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.  It should be part of every cook’s library especially those who love to make desserts.

My Status:  It’s been cold!  Our winter has arrived.  Time for winter-cold weather cooking.  Maybe something from Julia Child, or Dorie Greenspan’s new cookbook ‘Around My French Table,’ or a warming holiday dessert from ‘Bon Appétit Desserts.’

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.  More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders.

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.

Photo by Dan Lynn. Courtesy of James Beard Foundation.

I met James Beard — twice.  I was recently on vacation in Sonoma County.  Robert and I go up to the Russian River each summer for a week.  In the town of Guerneville is a used bookstore inside a coffee house.  A few years ago a local gentleman passed away, and the bookstore purchased his massive cookbook collection.  For the past few years upon arriving I’ve made a beeline to the store to see what the bookseller currently has on his shelves.  I’ve come away with several gems.  On our most recent visit he had one of the many, many books by food authority, James Beard.  I’m not sure why but when I saw the Beard book a nostalgia for my early food days hit me.  Probably because it all seemed a bit simpler back then.

‘Mr. Beard’

I was in my early twenties, and the head buyer in the cheese department at the Oakville Grocery — a gourmet food emporium — in San Francisco.  This was the early ’80s.  Clark Wolf, the manager of the store, and the person who taught me a lot about cheese invited me to a small dinner party where the guest of honor was James Beard.  It was an exciting invitation and a heady experience for a young, aspiring foodie like me.  The dinner was held in a grand home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.  Mr. Beard did not cook, he was cooked for.  I know that I knew a few of the guests but who was actually there besides Clark, and who the hostess was are lost to time.  Mr. Beard was gracious, amusing, and kind.  I don’t remember what we ate.  I do remember sitting at table with one of my culinary heroes and being awestruck.  In those days there were only a handful of people considered to be food authorities, and he was close to the top.

‘Jim’

It would then be several years before I met him again.  This time I was working for Jeremiah Tower at his Stars restaurant in San Francisco.  I went on a trip to New York City with Jeremiah.  He had plans to visit Mr. Beard, or ‘Jim’ as those who were close to him called him.   Jeremiah kindly took me along on the visit.  We went to see Jim at his Greenwich Village brownstone (now the headquarters of the James Beard Foundation).  I saw his living quarters, his kitchen, and the glass-enclosed back garden where he hosted meals for friends.  I sat with Jim and Jeremiah as they caught up on food industry gossip.  The picture at the head of this post is how I remember him that day, and I believe it was taken in his house.  He sat in a large armchair, his dogs ran to and fro, his majordomo brought us drinks.  The visit might have lasted an hour or so.  It was a highlight of my budding career in the food business.

James Beard and Peter Kump

The Foundation

Jim died in 1985 not too long after our visit.  Julia Child and Peter Kump, a former student of Jim’s, came up with the idea to purchase his Greenwich Village brownstone to preserve it as a gathering place for the food world much like it was during Jim’s life.  The brownstone is now the headquarters of the James Beard Foundation.  The foundation oversees the annual James Beard Foundation Awards.  Peter, now deceased, was an old friend of mine.  When I lived in New York the very first time in 1982 I took several cooking classes from him at his Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School.  We became fast friends, and spent a good deal of time together cooking in his Upper East Side apartment and dining out.  After Peter’s death his school was renamed the Institute of Culinary Education and is still in existence.  I am proud to have known Peter, and I’m proud that his and Jim’s legacies now live on through the James Beard Foundation.  It really did all seem much simpler back then.  It was a much smaller world — the food world.  All that aside, meeting Mr. Beard, or ‘Jim,’ was a true highlight of my early food days.

My Status:  Back from a two-week hiatus that included a week in Sonoma County.  More cooking, eating and blogging on the horizon

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: The story of Ted and Nicole DeGolier and their urban backyard chickens — as soon as the hens lay enough eggs. 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.

Summer – in all its ferocious intensity – has arrived to Los Angeles.  After a very cool July, August is suddenly hitting triple digits.  With the heat arrives a malaise and inability, or is it an unwillingness, to do much of anything.  ‘Dog days’ are described by the Google dictionary as: 1.  The hottest period of the year (reckoned in antiquity from the helical rising of Sirius, the Dog Star), and 2.  A period of inactivity or sluggishness.’  Number 2 sums up my current mood perfectly.  Summer is drawing to a close, it’s bloody hot, and I don’t want to do anything.  So this will be short and to the point.

A few of my recent foodie adventures…

Waterbar, San Francisco, right under the Bay Bridge. Owned by Chef Mark Franz.

San Francisco

Last week I spent a few days in San Francisco — my old food stomping grounds — with my friend, Chef Jeremiah Tower and a mutual friend, Chef Mark Franz.  Mark owns three successful restaurants in the bay Area:  Farallon, Waterbar and Nick’s Cove, and he hosted a few of us for two amazing meals: one at Farallon that included a huge tin of caviar, a whole turbot with hollandaise sauce and a plateau of oysters.  At Waterbar he served more amazing oysters (never enough oysters), ravioli stuffed with shrimp, grilled crab, and a roast beef.  Amazing!  Now here’s the problem:  I bought a brand new camera just before the trip, and I didn’t have enough time to learn how to use it.  Most of the pictures I took turned out horrible.  So, sadly, I don’t have photos of the amazing food Mark made for us.  In addition to Mark’s meals I ate at Zuni Café (always good!) and a newer, very popular place called Flour + Water — incredible pastas!  If you are in the City go there for their pasta dishes.

Handmade pasta stuffed with shrimp at Waterbar (not Flour + Water).

Open kitchen at Waterbar.

Cookbook Sale

As many of my readers and friends know I am a fiend for cookbooks and have been amassing a nice collection (see the tab at top of the blog for the current list).  So when I read in Squid Ink (L.A. Weekly) that the Southern California Culinary Historians were having a cookbook sale at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market this past Sunday I forced myself out of bed at 7:00 a.m. so I could be there by 8:00 a.m.  There was already a crowd when I arrived, and I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time.  I quickly worked my way through peering in boxes of books piled haphazardly, and if I saw something that piqued my interest I grabbed it — all books were $3.00.  I often shop for the writer as much as the book.  If I see a book by a writer I know and admire I’ll buy it.  I snatched up ‘Feasts for All Seasons’ (1966) by Roy Andries de Groot — one of the very early food writers, and a name I’ve known for years.  ‘Food with the Famous’ (1979) by Jane Grigson — a very well-known British food writer, and mother to Sophie Grigson, a well-known chef and food writer in her own right.  Lastly, ‘Art of Good Eating’ (1961) by Paula Peck — not because I know her, because I liked the title and the look of the book.  Three books, $9.00, a little farmers’ market shopping and back on the road by 8:45 a.m.

Street Food Mondays

Bill Esparza (Street Gourmet LA) has teamed up with Evan Kleiman of Angeli Caffe and Good Food on KCRW fame, and on the occasional Monday they co-host a ’street food Monday’ at Evan’s restaurant Angeli Caffe.  The first one was Ricky’s Fish Tacos (I was unable to attend) but this past Monday it was Sri Lankan food by the cooks/owners of the now closed Priyani Café.  I’d never had Sri Lankan food and didn’t really know what to expect — I’d heard that they like it extremely hot.  This wasn’t terribly spicy (thankfully) but it was really good, and very interesting.  Some of my favorite dishes were the hoppers — thin fermented pancakes with a soft bowl shape that held other ingredients like chicken, eggs, and a really wonderful spicy coconut condiment that we all kept spooning over everything.  I would eat this food again.  We were a table of about ten and we had a very lively if raucous time.

String Hoppers ~ rice noodle patties with sime, a spicy condiment.

Egg Hopper ~ thin fermented pancake with choice of sime sambal or a curry.

Plain Hopper ~ thin fermented pancake with a choice of sime sambal or a curry.

That’s it for now.  A quick-ish update during triple digit temperatures.  Off to Seattle for the International Food Bloggers’ Conference on Friday, back on Monday.  Temperatures in Seattle ~ highs of 75F, lows of 65F — perfect.  See you next week for more food fun.

My Status: As you read above that cool summer L.A. was experiencing is OVER.  Waiting out the heat, eating, cooking, restaurant-ing, blogging and writing.  Going to the IFBC in Seattle this weekend with friends Jo Stougaard of My Last Bite and Phil Nigash of My Life as a Foodie (it’s Phil’s first time!) (see below), and a trip to Sonoma County in September: returning to Zazu & Bovolo…

Coming Up: International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), August 27 – 29, 2010, Seattle Washington.  So much fun last year that I’ll be attending again this year.  Are you?

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.

Felicia Friesema

There’s a reason Felicia Friesema writes the farmers’ markets report for the L.A. Weekly.  There’s also a reason she leads tours of area farmers’ markets.  She really knows her vegetables and fruits — intimately, passionately.  She is a fount of produce information, and loves sharing her knowledge.  I recently had the pleasure of joining a tour she gave of the Hollywood Farmers’ Market; one of the largest farmers’ markets in the Los Angeles-area.  I learned so much.

Felicia leading our group at the Hollywood Farmers' Market

I’m not big on crowds.  I used to go to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market every Sunday until it got too popular, and too crowded.  It was certainly hard to stop as it is on par with the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market when it comes to quality and variety of produce, and the vendors who sell there.  Felicia’s tour helped me see the market in a brand new light.  We started early, around 8:30 a.m. after we had coffee, breakfast pastries, and an informal coffee chat with Robert Mozejewki, Operations Manager, at groundwork coffee company (retail shop on the corner of Sunset and Cahuenga).  Groundwork is a Los Angeles-based coffee roaster with retail stores; a certified organic roaster, it sources sustainable coffee beans from around the world.  Starting a bit earlier at the market really helped, it was a lot less crowded.  Felicia who goes to the market often knows many of the vendors personally.  She introduced us to several.  We ate oysters at the Carlsbad Aqua Farm, learned about herbs from Lily Baltazar at ABC Rhubarb Farms, and marveled at the mushrooms at LA Funghi.

Oysters at Carlsbad Aqua Farm Stand

Patrick, our oyster expert, and shucker at Carlsbad Aqua Farm

Shucking our fresh oysters

Herbs from ABC Rhubarb Farms

ABC Rhubard Farms herb stand

Lily Baltazar, ABC Rhubarb Farms

Mushrooms from LA Funghi

More mushrooms from LA Funghi

Along the way we sampled and ate, looked and drooled, and bought to take home for later.  Felicia showed us many of her favorite in season fruits and vegetables, and some of her favorite vendors.  One of Felicia’s recommendations is a new favorite of mine: Kyoho grapes.  Luscious, juicy, inky and full of grape flavor.  The grapes came from a vendor that is in a section of the market for those farmers non-certified California grown.  I was unaware that there was a section for produce not grown in California.  The market must keep them separate from the certified California vendors to maintain its ‘certified’ status.  I also learned that not every vendor is necessarily certified organic, and that one must ask before buying.  When someone asked the grape vendor if the grapes were organic the answer was no, they were spray free but not certified organic.  We learned to ask the vendors questions, to develop a relationship with them, and not to assume that any farmers’ market is fully certified organic.  I watched as Felicia interacted with various vendors — all were more than willing to answer questions, and talk about their products.

Nectaplums? So many new hybrid fruits all the time. This one was new to the group. We all quite liked it.

Red Flame Grapes

As we moved through the market and as Felicia stopped, picked up produce to show us, or to ask a vendor a question I was reminded of shopping this way when I lived in France.  At the green grocer I asked questions, they offered samples, there was a give and take.  Unfortunately, I fell back into the very American grocery store habit of one stop shopping, of filling up an over-sized cart.  Felicia’s tour showed me how to manage the crowds, what to look for, how to talk to vendors, and what questions to ask.  I may have to weave the Hollywood Farmers’ Market back into my shopping routine.  At least get over to it occasionally when I need a change of pace from my neighborhood farmers’ market in Atwater Village.

"Take one large artichoke..."

To find out when Felicia’s leading her next farmers’ market tour, follow her on Twitter: @feliciafriesema, or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/feliciafood

My Status: Still enjoying the coolest summer we’ve seen in Los Angeles in years (apologies to all readers living east of the Rockies).  Eating, cooking, restaurant-ing, blogging and writing.  A food-filled trip to San Francisco to join my friend, Chef Jeremiah Tower, coming up this weekend.  The IFBC at the end of August (see below), and a trip to Sonoma County in September: returning to Zazu & Bovolo…

Coming Up: International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), August 27 – 29, 2010, Seattle Washington.  So much fun last year that I’ll be attending again this year.  Are you?

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.

Steak with Friends: At Home, with Rick Tramonto.  Rick Tramonto with Mary Goodbody.  Andrews McMeel Publishing.  $35.00.  (304p)  ISBN: 978-0-7407-9257-1

First off:  this is a really BIG book, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.  Secondly, I learned a new trick from it that I wish I’d known years ago (to bake bacon rather than fry it).  Thirdly, in recipe testing for it I happily got to use my friend, Phil’s incredible bacon: All Natural Berkshire Pork Belly, Cured 10 Days, Applewood Smoked.  Phil is My Life as a Foodie, a great cook, a great curer of meats, and a very cool guy.  My experience with this book was a good one from start to finish.

Chef Rick Tramonto has been in the restaurant business for 30 years, and owns three Chicago area restaurants: Tru, Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood, RT Sushi Bar & Lounge.  A James Beard Award winner, a competitor on Top Chef Masters, Top Chef and Iron Chef; he was also named a Top Ten Best New Chefs by Food & Wine magazine in 1994.  He has published six cookbooks before ‘Steak with Friends.’  He’s already tested and proven his cooking mettle.  This book is meant to bring all he knows, and his experiences as a professional chef, to the home cook.  He succeeds quite well at doing so.

“The title of this book says it all:  This is about eating steak dinners with good friends and enjoying all that implies,” states Tramonto.  Except it doesn’t stop at steaks.  It also includes hot and cold appetizers, salads, soups and sandwiches, fish and seafood, sauces, stocks, dressings, marinades, and syrups, other meat and poultry, side dishes, and desserts.  Shew!  The book does devote a number of pages to steak, in fact, there are three chapters alone on the subject.  There are enough recipes in this book (150) to cook complete meals from starters to desserts for at least a year.  (I didn’t do the math so maybe it’s only six months.)

In addition to the recipes Chef Tramonto throws in many ‘how-tos,’ and ‘abouts’ such as ‘About Oysters,’ followed by ‘How To Shuck an Oyster,’ or ‘Notes on the Steak Recipes,’ with ‘How to Choose a Great Steak.’  Helpful color photographs and diagrams are also sprinkled throughout.  Cocktail recipes usually thematically tied to the recipe on the same page also pop up.  Music and cooking play an important part of Tramonto’s cooking process; something I understand as most professional kitchens I’ve worked in usually played very loud, heart-thumping music during the many hours of prep.  He is a proponent of cooking to music and periodically makes recommendations of specific artists.  His taste seems to be fairly run of the mill pop and rock.  For example his recommendations for cooking cold appetizers are:  Billy Joel, Elton John, The Doors, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, The Goo Goo Dolls, and The Allman Brothers.  Hmmm, not exactly cutting-edge choices!  Still an interesting, and unique, addition to the recipes.

I was only able to try a handful of recipes, and since steak is the star of the book I tried those first: Filet Mignon with Béarnaise Sauce, Bone-In Rib Eye with Bordelaise Sauce, and Steak au Poivre.  The first two were cooked on an outdoor grill, and turned out beautifully; the old-fashioned French sauces included (separate recipes).  The Steak au Poivre was prepared on the stove top.   All three preparations are familiar steak standards.  Tramonto’s cooking instructions including how long to cook for medium rare, medium and well done were spot on.  It had been awhile since I’d make a Béarnaise, or Bordelaise, or even an au poivre sauce and it was fun.  There’s a reason eating beef this way is so popular — it’s really, really good.

Other recipes I tested were Twice-Baked Potatoes with Irish Cheddar, Grilled Broccoli Rabe, Cucumber Salad, Lemon Aïoli, Rick’s BLTs — the reason I chose this one was because it required bacon, and I had my friend Phil’s bacon to use.  Knowing I was using bacon that Phil had lovingly cured added to the pleasure of testing, and eating, the recipe.  On the same page as the BLT recipe was a break out box ‘Cook Bacon Like a Chef’ — a genius thing.  Turn the oven to 350°, put the bacon on a parchment lined baking sheet, and let it bake until done, no turning, no smoke, no popping of hot oil.  I love to learn new kitchen tricks (or re-learn forgotten ones) and this is a great one!  Tramonto and Goodbody know how to create dishes and write recipes.  All the dishes I tried worked very well, and tasted even better.

The food and recipes in this book are fairly traditional, straight forward meat and potato preparations.  There’s no breaking of new ground here — nothing molecular, no foams or CO2 canisters.  It’s simple and honest food which I think was Chef Tramonto’s goal.  If so, he succeeded and this is definitely a go-to book for a family dinner on the weekend, or a casual yet nice dinner with friends.

My Status: Enjoying the coolest summer we’ve seen in Los Angeles in years (apologies to all readers living east of the Rockies).  Eating, cooking, restaurant-ing, blogging and writing.  A food-filled trip to San Francisco to join my friend, Chef Jeremiah Tower, coming up next week.  The IFBC at the end of August (see below), and a trip to Sonoma County in September: returning to Zazu & Bovolo…

Coming Up: International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), August 27 – 29, 2010, Seattle Washington.  So much fun last year that I’ll be attending again this year.  Are you?

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.

Gabrielle Perdrizet and me, spring 1977, ready for the Montgomery High School Senior Prom. Santa Rosa, California

I took my prom date to dinner at the French Laundry.  No, really, I did.  In 1977.  Granted back then it wasn’t the French Laundry it would grow up to be.  The French Laundry now owned by uber-chef Thomas Keller.  The world renowned French Laundry; a place where everyone who knows good food wants to eat at least once in their culinary lifetimes.  This past spring I was in the Napa Valley (where the French Laundry restaurant is located in the town of Yountville) and I went to the restaurant.  It was closed as I was there between the lunch and dinner services.  I didn’t have plans to eat at the restaurant.  I wanted to see the building.  I wanted to see if it was true; that I actually did take my prom date, the beautiful and very French, Gabrielle Perdrizet (see photo) to dinner at the restaurant before we went to our Senior Prom at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California, thirty-three years ago.  It was.  I did.

Keller Buys the French Laundry

In 1994 Thomas Keller purchased the building that the current French Laundry is in.  The beautiful stone building dates back to the 1880s when it first served as a saloon.  When alcohol was outlawed within two miles of Yountville it became a brothel.  In the late 1920s it became a French steam laundry.  In 1974 the Mayor of Yountville, Don Schmitt, and his wife purchased the building and opened a restaurant naming it the French Laundry.  The name stuck and when Keller came along he kept it.

I went to high school in neighboring Santa Rosa in 1976 and 1977 during the time that Mayor Schmitt owned the restaurant.  I have no idea how I even knew it existed.  I may have read something about it in the newspaper, or maybe I saw it on a family outing to the Napa Valley.  What I do know is that once Gabrielle, a French foreign exchange student, accepted my invitation to attend the prom it only seemed fitting that we go there.  Yountville is almost twenty-eight miles from Santa Rosa; it’s over hill and dale, it takes close to an hour to drive to.  I think we arrived at the restaurant at five-thirty.

My mother let me borrow her fading powder blue V.W. Hatchback.  The car didn’t have a lot of power, we sputtered along as there were problems with the muffler.  We made it there and back.  I don’t remember what we ate.  To my young developing palate it was the most amazing meal I’d ever eaten — at least in my current memory.  I do remember that we sat at a table next to a window looking out on to flower boxes, or possibly flower beds.  I know we had a good time.  It was Senior Prom after all.  And I don’t have any pictures; we didn’t take a camera, it was before the days of photographing everything.

The 12 foreign exchange students who attended Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California, during the 1976-77 school year. The countries represented here are Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Sweden (x2), Greece, Scotland, France (x2), and Denmark

All Things French

My introduction to all things French happened in 1976, the year before the infamous prom date, when at the age of sixteen I went with my French class on a week long trip to Paris.  It was my first time out of the country, my first time to Paris, and I fell in love hard.  I loved Paris, and everything about it, I still do.  It was an eye-opening experience that led to a lifelong connection to the country and its people.

There were twelve foreign exchange students during my senior year of high school, two of them were French.  My interest in all things French grew further as I came to better know Gabrielle and Amélie, the two French exchange students.  Gabrielle became my girlfriend and prom date.  So being the budding Francophile and wanting to impress Garbrielle, I chose a place that seemed to be French for our prom dinner.  At least it had the word French in the name.  I probably thought it served French food although now I can’t say if it did or did not.  No matter what type of cuisine, nor how good or bad it may have been, I have the memory of the experience.  That’s enough for me.

Me in front of the French Laundry, Spring 2010

Now to the Gap

Through my friendships with Gabrielle and Amélie I was introduced to the idea of working in France as an au pair, or mother’s helper.  I did it.  After I graduated from high school I went and lived in France for a year where I took care of four French children.  I returned home knowing how to cook French food, and speaking French.  The experience cemented my relationship with France.  It’s now like a second home.  It also started me on a path of cooking both professionally and personally that I remain on today.

So after my year in France I returned to Northern California and began my professional career in the restaurant and retail food businesses; it was San Francisco in the early 80s.  All was going very well.  I was working in top restaurants with top chefs.  Then I decided I wanted to work in the film industry which I started to do after graduating from the New York University Film & Television program in 1988.  I slowly moved into film and away from food.  I missed the advent and rise of a chef named Thomas Keller.  It was the late 90s and Keller’s star was truly ascending, and I kept hearing things about a restaurant called the French Laundry that Keller owned.

Photo by Jo Stougaard

I often wondered: is this the French Laundry I took Gabrielle to for our prom?  It sort of gnawed at me.  Could it really be the same place?  It was so famous now.  In the early 80s when I was working in San Francisco restaurants I went to the Napa Valley often but this was before the arrival of Keller, and his ownership of the French Laundry.  Until this past spring when I went to the area to attend the Cochon 555 event I wasn’t sure if it was the same place or not.  One thing I did know: while I was there I would be stopping by the French Laundry to see for myself.  I did, and it is, or was, the same place I’d been to all those many years ago with my prom date, the lovely, the beautiful, the very French, Gabrielle Perdrizet.

So it’s true.  I took my prom date to dinner at the French Laundry.  I recently told this story to a friend and he told me he took his prom date to White Castle for dinner.  (He went to high school in New Jersey.)  Where did you take your prom date to dinner, or where did you have dinner before the prom?

Bon appétit!

KCET Top 10 List: I wrote this piece for LA-based PBS station, KCET ~ ‘Walking and Eating in Atwater Village: A Top 10′

Coming Up: International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), August 27 – 29, 2010, Seattle Washington.  So much fun last year that I’ll be attending again this year.  Are you?

Upcoming Posts: Cookbook Reviews: Steak and Friends: At Home with Rick Tramonto by Rick Tramonto, Spice Dreams by Sara Engram and Katie Luber, Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly by Joan E. Aller.

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