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“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.

Julia Child wasn’t the only person to introduce America to French food.  Often when something is suddenly in vogue, it’s a combination of events that contributes to the cultural sea change.

René Verdon, June 29, 1924 – February 2, 2011

Chef René Verdon died two weeks ago at age 86.  I knew who he was.  I knew he owned a successful French restaurant in San Francisco called Le Trianon.  I may have met him in San Francisco when I worked at Stars restaurant in the early ’80s.  What I was reminded of while reading his obituary in the Los Angeles Times is that he was also White House chef during the Kennedy administration.  I was fascinated reading the details of his life, specifically how he ended up at the White House, and the influence he had on American cooking and eating.  There is so much more to that part of his story.

First Professional Chef in the White House

Verdon was the first professional chef to work in the White House.  First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy being a Francophile herself interviewed him in French.  As White House chef he was way ahead of his time: he cooked with the freshest ingredients he could find; he planted an herb garden on the White House grounds; he designed a new kitchen for the first family’s quarters.  He also broke tradition by serving as President Kennedy’s private chef.  During prior presidential administrations a housekeeper was in charge of feeding the first family.

Verdon was born in 1924 in a small French village, Pouzauges, in western France.  His parents owned a bakery and pastry shop.  Deciding he wanted to be a chef at age thirteen he apprenticed first at a hotel in Nantes followed by several apprenticeships in Paris and Deauville. He emigrated to the United States in 1958 and found work in New York restaurants the Essex House, and La Caravelle as well as the Carlyle Hotel.  La Caravelle head chef, Roger Fessaguet, recommended him for the job when the Kennedys were looking for a chef.

America’s Interest in French Cuisine

His arrival as White House chef ushered in a period of great interest in French food and cooking.  In an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2002 Julia Child said she was “lucky” the Kennedys hired Verdon because soon “everyone was interested in French cuisine.”  Child’s French food bible “Mastering The Art of French Cooking – Volume 1″ was published in 1961 the same year that Verdon started cooking for the Kennedys.  It all makes sense.  Becoming the White House chef put Verdon on the international stage.  Mrs. Kennedy was considered the height of chic.  She didn’t hire any old chef, she hired a French chef.  It was the early ’60s.  Naturally the rest of the country, and the world, followed suit.  All of this brought at least as much if not more attention to French cuisine as Child and her book.  Verdon actually had a bigger more popular stage than Child’s.

French Food in the White House

While White House chef Verdon became known for such dishes as chicken in Champagne sauce, and “incomparable quenelles de brochet” (according to Time Magazine).  President Kennedy favored Verdon’s New England clam chowder.  His first official White House meal was an April 1961 presidential luncheon honoring then-British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.  Verdon served a menu of trout in Chablis and sauce Vincent, beef filet au jus and artichoke bottoms Beaucaire, and meringue filled with raspberries and chocolate.  Verdon’s favorite state dinner took place in July 1961 along the banks of the Potomac River honoring the President of Pakistan.   He served “simple yet elegant” food that included avocado, crab meat cocktails, and raspberries in Chantilly cream.

I asked Chef Jeremiah Tower to comment on his friend, Rene Verdon, “A very sympathetic man who devoted himself to what he knew best, the best of classical and country French cooking and standards of service.  A very fine chef.”  Tower and Verdon were San Francisco restaurateurs during the same period in the 1980s.  Verdon owned Le Trianon from 1972 to 1987.

Verdon wrote a total of five cookbooks including “The White House Chef” (1967), “French Cooking for the American Table” (1974), and “The Enlightened Cuisine” (1985).  An unsung hero of American cooking, light years ahead of many of his chef brethren, and an integral part of introducing French cuisine to America, rest in peace Chef René Verdon.

Sources for this article: Los Angeles Times, and Wikipedia.

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

#1  – The Good Neighbor Cookbook – consider submitting your, or somebody else’s, good-neighbor story to the Meet This Grateful Recipient or Meet This Good Neighbor Cook features on The Good Neighbor Cookbook blog by e-mailing authors Sara Quessenbery and Suzanne Schlosberg at: cooks@thegoodneighborcookbook.com. Let us know if you do by leaving a comment below!

My Status:  Still 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.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, “Quick-Fix Southern” by Rebecca Lang, 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.

Mary Mac’s Tea Room: 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room.  John Ferrell.  Andrews McMeel Publishing.  $27.99  (208p)  ISBN: 978-0-7407-9338-7

Recipes that don’t call for fancy seasoned salts, or Madagascar peppercorns?  Is there something wrong here?  No, of course not.  I was reminded when reading and cooking from Mary Mac’s Tea Room that a recipe can just be a recipe without all the frills that modern gastronomy seems to insist upon — recipes like they used to be.   I am generally so caught up in local, seasonal, fresh, top quality ingredients that I forget that food, and recipes at one point in time used only the basic larder ingredients: things like white flour, table salt, white sugar, and ground black pepper in a tin.  Very little had a foreign provenance, or the words sel de mer, or Tellicherry on the labels.

This book by John Ferrell, the current owner of Mary Mac’s Tea Room, is an homage to an Atlanta institution.  The restaurant has been existence since 1945; Ferrell purchased it in 1994 after being hand-picked by long-time owner Margaret Lupo.  The book is chock-full of 125 recipes, employee biographies, old menus, postcards, and artwork from the restaurant’s history.  Serving as many as 1,000 customers a day many of those are, and  have been politicians, sports figures and well-known celebrities from Cher to Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama.  Sprinkled throughout are photographs of the many local, regular patrons as well as those of Hillary Clinton, President Carter and First Lady Rosalyn Carter, the Dalai Lama, and Richard Gere.

I’m a sucker for food history and I loved this snippet from the front cover flap: “In the 1940’s, there were sixteen tea rooms in Atlanta.  They were opened by ladies as a way to make extra money, but the name was a misnomer; a tea room wasn’t a place to have tea, but a nicer version of a “meat and three.”  These meals appealed to folks who had moved to Atlanta from small towns in Georgia because they reminded them of their moms’ cooking.”  Mary Mac’s serves old-fashioned comfort food, Southern cooking.

Of the recipes I tried there were more than a few stand outs including ‘Daddy’s Oyster Stew,’ ‘Fried Chicken,’ ‘Black-Eyed Peas,’ and ‘Blackberry Jam Cake.’  I chose the fried chicken recipe because I thought fried chicken would be a true test of the restaurant’s talents with Southern cooking.  It passed the test, perfectly cooked, with a crunchy buttermilk crust.  A recipe I’d make again.  Shellfish and the south go hand in hand to me, and oysters cooked in milk has always been a favorite dish so ‘Daddy’s Oyster Stew’ was another choice.  Here’s the fun part about this recipe that goes back to my earlier conversation about ingredients.  It calls for “1 pint of fresh raw oysters, juices reserved.”  I read that and thought but there’s very little juice in fresh, raw oysters?  At the fish counter while shopping I stood before the fresh, raw oysters in their shells unsure until I noticed a shelf of seafood products in jars and cans: a 10 oz. jar of ‘fresh oysters’ in their juices!  A very simple yet comforting dish, warm oysters in milk with garlic and onion.   Black-Eyed Peas, salt pork, fatback, onion and the peas – ’nuff said.  The most popular dish I tried was the Blackberry Jam Cake with Caramel Frosting.  It consists of cocoa powder, blackberry jam, and apple sauce making it one of the moistest cakes I’ve ever eaten.  The addition of the caramel frosting made it a  full-on sugar coma inducing experience.  There are only two of us in the house so a big ole wedge went to a neighbor.  She liked it so much she asked for the recipe.

One other aspect of Mary Mac’s Tea Room I liked was how Ferrell incorporated the restaurant’s long-time employees into it.  There are photographs, histories and personal stories throughout the book.  There’s even a whole section devoted to “Our Staff.”  Many have been with Mary Mac’s for over thirty-five years.  That’s remarkable in a restaurant these days.  It speaks to the type of place it is.  A place some might consider a second home, a welcoming down-to-earth establishment very comfortable in its own skin.  In other words, a true Southern restaurant.  This book evokes all that and more.  It may be a book of restaurant recipes but it easily becomes a book of recipes one can cook and enjoy at home.

My Status:  Fall weather has arrived to So Cal.  Finally cold at night.  Pulled out the winter blankets.  As always more cooking, eating and blogging on the horizon.

Shout Outs!

‘Foodoodles,’ a new book from food historian and cartoonist, L. John Harris.  An amusing look at the history of the American food revolution that started in the 1970’s in Berkeley, California.  Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, James Beard, and Julia Child and more are discussed via text and cartoons, or ‘foodoodles.”  The foreword is written by friend, Chef Jeremiah Tower.  You’ll enjoy the history in this book, and giggle at the cartoons.  For more information, and to buy the book: http://www.foodoodles.com/

(Los Angeles)

Eat My Blog ~ the next Eat My Blog benefit bake sale is coming up soon.  Saturday, December 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tender Greens in West Hollywood.  Come out and buy baked goods made by L.A.-area food bloggers.  All proceeds go to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank.  I’ll be there buying goodies and cheering on Phil and Katrina of My Life as a Foodie.  Phil is donating ‘Cranberry Coconut Chews’ ~ sounds delicious, right?

Bistro LQ’s Tuesday night Cassoulet ‘Toulousain” Dinner.  I went once and hope to go again.  Being from Toulouse Chef Laurent Quenioux knows his way around a cassoulet.  Go!  You won’t be disappointed.  Every Tuesday night until December 28th.  Prix fixe at $35 per person.  www.bistrolq.com

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: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Bon Appétit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild.

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.

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.

Hey, Los Angeles foodies, or any other foodies, and readers, for that matter.  Does that picture look at all familiar?  Were you living in Los Angeles during the ’80s?  Do you remember these restaurants: City Restaurant, Spago (on Sunset), Restaurant Muse, Morton’s, Chasen’s, Citrus, Ma Maison, 385 North, West Beach Café, 72 Market?

During the ’80s and part of the ’90s the Marlboro Man sat so close to the intersection of Sunset and Crescent Heights, he could have spit and hit the middle of it.  This billboard was on the Sunset Strip right below the Chateau Marmont.  It sat there for years hawking Marlboro cigarettes.  I always found it oddly fascinating.  I don’t smoke now, didn’t then.  It wasn’t about cigarettes.  It was something iconic.  He came to symbolize Los Angeles to me.  He sat at the entrance to the legendary Sunset Strip.  A place where magic happened.

Looking west down Sunset Blvd. from Crescent Heights Blvd., Los Angeles, circa 1984

Michael’s Restaurant, Santa Monica

By now, my faithful readers, you are wondering what does an old Marlboro Man billboard have to do with food and restaurants?  Well, let me tell you.  I first came to Los Angeles as an adult sometime in 1983.  I’d been to Los Angeles as a child once or twice but besides trips to Disneyland I hadn’t really spent any time there.  In the early ’80s when I was in my early 20s I was living in San Francisco, and working in the restaurant business.  At the time I was working for Chef Jeremiah Tower.  Jeremiah and a few members of his staff were invited to attend the wedding of Michael and Kim McCarty.  Michael McCarty of Michael’s Restaurant in Santa Monica.  I was one of the staff lucky enough to go.  The wedding was very chic and took place in Malibu.  Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck and his wife, Barbara Lazaroff, were there as well as other chefs and restaurateurs of the day.  It was a fun, lively wedding with, naturally, incredible food.

Michael McCarty, middle, & Jeremiah Tower, right, at Michael McCarty's wedding circa 1982

The trip was my re-introduction to Los Angeles and Southern California.  I remember a lot of light, lots of white everywhere, palm trees and warm ocean breezes.  I’d come from foggy, cold, wet San Francisco.  My body and my head were like what is this place?  It’s hot, there’s blue, blue sky, there are mountains.  I was in heaven.  I was hooked.  I moved down the following year.

Jeremiah Tower, Margrit Beaver, Robert Mondavi and James Nassikas (hidden) at Michael McCarty's wedding circa 1982

Kim McCarty dancing at her wedding

A recent article in Saveur magazine by Patrick Kuh, ‘Nights on the Town: A Short History of Fine Dining in Los Angeles’ got me thinking back to my own experiences in the restaurant business in Los Angeles, and to how innocent the restaurant scene was in the early ’80s.  It was all so new, young and exciting.  On one of my first trips down from San Francisco – a weekend trip – my friend Adele and I did a whirlwind tour.  We saw all the tourist spots, and hit some restaurants.

Photographs, (an explanation)

Before I continue, an explanation about the photographs.  I’ve been wanting to write this piece for awhile but I didn’t have photos from the time period, or of the places I wanted to write about.  It was the ’80s before digital cameras and taking pictures of everything.  I looked through my ‘archives,’ and the photos here are all I came up with.  I did take a series of shots of the Marlboro Man so I decided to use him, to me he was a symbol of the time.  I also took the really bad black and white shots at the McCarty wedding.  I wish I could do better.  I was not a great photographer back then; I think I’ve improved.

The back side of the Marlboro Man with the Chateau Marmont in the background

Spago, (the original one, on Horn above Sunset)

On my trip with Adele, we ate at Spago when it was still on Horn Avenue above Sunset, above the car rental agency (now a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf), and across the street from Tower Records.  This was the original Spago, the one with the wonderful coveted window tables overlooking the lights of Los Angeles.  Adele and I scored a two top close to the front room and those windows; close enough to watch Joan Collins having dinner with friends.  That was a big deal, it was the time of ‘Dynasty’ and Joan was huge.  We did, of course, eat the famous Smoked Salmon Pizza with Caviar, and other wonderful things.  At the table next to us a movie mogul and his girlfriend befriended us, bought us a bottle of champagne, and then insisted we join them for a night cap at Sushi on Sunset.  It turned out to be quite the raucous night.

When I was down with Jeremiah and his staff for the McCarty wedding we also ate at Spago.  On that visit I met a very young Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton.  Mark was Executive Chef; Nancy was Pastry Chef.  Throughout my years of working in the Los Angeles restaurant business I went to Spago many times, and always had a great time.  It was a classic, pitch perfect Los Angeles restaurant.  A place to see and be seen with great food.  Times change; it grew up and moved to Beverly Hills.  Wolfgang became a trillionaire.  Peel and Silverton went on to their own successes.

Restaurant Muse, Beverly Blvd., Fairfax District, (most recently the space housed Grace Restaurant)

When I moved to L.A. in 1983 I needed a job.  After working the Christmas season at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, I took a job as maître d’ at Restaurant Muse — or just Muse as most people called it.  To me, this was the quintessential Los Angeles restaurant of the ’80s.  All white inside with gray booths and banquets, gray industrial carpeting on the floor, polished concrete in the bar area, and an amazing tank of tropical fish over the bar.  Windows up high on the street side so it had a fairly dark interior during the day.  An immense metal sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky hung from the ceiling and dominated the dining room.  At Muse it was not about the food; it was all about the scene.  Owner, Ron Braun had crafted a club cum restaurant and it was hugely popular for many years.  We had a lot of Hollywood players who were regulars from celebrity photographers, to film producers, directors and executives, to record executives, to the stars themselves.

Muse & Madonna (& Prince)

One of our regulars was an A&R executive at Sire Records.  He came in for lunch several times a week.  One day he handed me a cassette tape and asked me to play it — often.  I immediately put it on the sound system then looked at the writing on the case: ‘Madonna.’  It was an advance copy of her first album ‘Madonna.’  We played it constantly, it was a huge hit at the restaurant.  A few months later the album exploded, her star quickly ascended, and she became a regular patron of the restaurant.  She once said she came to Muse for the margaritas.  This was during her ‘Material Girl’ and ‘Boy Toy’ phase so whenever she called to make a reservation we (hand) wrote into the reservation book: ‘Boy Toy’ or ‘Material Girl.’  Each time I started a shift I’d look to see if she’d been in, or was coming in.

Another memorable moment at Muse was the Friday night a guy in a black suit appeared at the host stand and said he needed two tables next to each other.  He had no reservations.  Every table was taken, and we had people waiting in the bar.  I told him we couldn’t do it.  He said it was for Prince.  I said where is he?  He said outside in the car.  A couple of tables were in the process of leaving but not side by side.  I persuaded two women to move tables so I could get two booths together.  Once both tables were ready, the guy in the suit radioed out to the limousine.

A moment later Prince walked in with Madonna on his arm.  We didn’t know Madonna was with him.  They sat together at one booth, side by side, facing the back wall.  Prince’s security detail sat at the other booth.  When they walked in the restaurant went silent as the other patrons looked, but the dinnertime din resumed as soon as they sat down.  These were jaded Angelenos used to seeing celebrities in their midst.  Muse was a lot of fun to work at, a lot of fun to hang out at, and a solid introduction for me to Hollywood, and the Los Angeles food scene.

An '80s purloined ashtray from City Restaurant

City Restaurant, La Brea Ave. Fairfax District, (now Sonora, a Mexican restaurant)

One of my favorite places at the time was City Restaurant, started by the young chef duo, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken.  Like I mentioned before the color white played a big part in my early impressions of Los Angeles.  It seemed to me it was the color of the decade.  So many restaurants were white both inside and out; places like Spago, Citrus, Muse, and West Beach Café.  City was no exception.  It was a cavernous space with a lot of light, and big windows.  The food was so different to me.  The menus were influenced by the chefs travels to India, Mexico, Thailand and Japan.  It echoed those ethnic cuisines but also had those uniquely ’80s-So Cal twists of lightness and cleanliness of flavor.  I loved to sit at the cement bar and order a selection of starters before I started my shift at neighboring Muse.  Feniger’s current restaurant, Street, harkens back to what these two chefs did at City.

L’Orangerie, Ma Maison, Valentino, Border Grill (on Melrose), 385 North, West Beach Café (now James Beach), Angeli Caffe, 72 Market

The ’80s were such a fun time to be in the restaurant business in Los Angeles.  I made it a point to try to eat at all the hot spots, and I did for the most part.  Some I can’t remember now.  The places mentioned in this post are those that I could remember, or that made a lasting impression on me.  There are so many places that have come and gone since the ’80s.  385 North was Roy Yamaguchi’s ‘Hawaiian Fusion’ place on La Cienega — I think it may now be a strip club?  The original Border Grill was located in a tiny, narrow space on Melrose Avenue just west of La Brea.  I loved what Chefs Feniger and Milliken did with Mexican food at that restaurant.  Now Border Grill is a huge place in Santa Monica.  Several places have survived over the years: Valentino’s, Michael’s and Angeli Caffe are still around.  I remember when Evan Kleiman opened Angeli on Melrose Avenue.  I used to eat there a few times a month.  This was well before her KCRW-Good Food fame.

It’s been well-documented that in the early ’80s a sea change took place within the Los Angeles food scene.  A movement started; its own version of California Cuisine different from what the chefs in Northern California were doing.  Led by Michael McCarty, Wolfgang Puck, Michel Richard, Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken, Roy Yamaguchi and others.  It was an exciting time to be eating in L.A.  Now the scene is all grown up.  The city has proven to the rest of the world that it can cook and eat.  It’s become so sophisticated.  When nostalgia gets the better of me I miss those early days when the Young Turks of the Los Angeles food world showed us what they were really made of — and how they could cook their asses off.

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; 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.

Serves

4 – 6

Preparation Time

45 – 60 minutes

Ingredients

4 – 14 oz. cans of cannellini beans, drained OR 4 cups cooked beans

6 – 8 garlic cloves, chopped

4 – 5 medium sized tomatoes, cut in 1/4ths, or 1/8ths

8 – 10 Tbs olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp herbes de Provence

Method

Sauté garlic in olive oil in medium sized skillet, or sauté pan over medium heat for 1 minute.  Do not brown.

Add tomatoes, salt and pepper, and herbes de Provence.  Stir together and cook until tomatoes soften and lose their shape about 4 – 6 minutes.  Stir occasionally to keep from burning.

Add beans and stir together with tomato-garlic mixture.  Cook until beans are heated through about 5 minutes or so.

Check seasonings.  Add salt if needed.

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Ristorante Carleni, Amelia, Italy, 2004

Open and become a part owner in a restaurant in Italy?  Sure, why not?  That’s exactly what happened several years ago when chef Jeremiah Tower and I decided to try our hand at operating a ristorante in a small hill town in Umbria, Italy.  What no one tells you before you arrive to attempt such an endeavor are the hoops you must jump through, and the circus-type feats you must attempt to get the necessary licenses and permits to start a business in Italy as a foreigner.  Madonna! It was like trying to squeeze olive oil out of Cararra marble.  Endless meetings with lawyers, police chiefs, and building inspectors and we still didn’t have the necessary permits and documentation to operate a business.  It all started in 2003 while on a three week trip to southern France and Italy.  Italian friends told us about a small restaurant where the owner of the property (a small hotel along with the restaurant) was looking for a chef to become a part owner in the restaurant.  Ristorante Carleni was located in Amelia, a small hill town in Umbria not too far from the well-known town of Todi, and relatively close to the A1 auto route.  The A1 connects Rome to Florence and is heavily traveled.  We looked at the restaurant and were intrigued.  We initially thought that we might operate it on a seasonal basis opening in the spring and closing in the fall.  We went back to try it out in the spring of 2004.  After much effort and hand wringing we both decided that there were far too many roadblocks and difficulties, and opted not to proceed with the project.  But this post isn’t really about the restaurant, it’s about beans.  I’ll write more about the restaurant in future posts.

Chef Jeremiah Tower taking in one of three dining rooms.

A trial dinner. Jeremiah is at the head of table in front of the fireplace.

Now let’s get to the beans…

We arrived in Italy in May and spent several months trying to make the restaurant work.  The month of May was wet and cold but as soon as June hit summer began — glorious Italian summer.  We rented a house in the Umbrian countryside outside Amelia.  The house had three apartments; Jeremiah took one, I took one, the third was for visitors.  The house had exquisite views of the rolling green Umbrian hills.  I quickly discovered that the local Coop had all we needed in the way of food.  Coops are a national chain of grocery stores in Italy but unlike American chain grocery stores they have an abundance of products of exceedingly high quality.  The produce was like it came from a neighbor’s garden.  The salumeria had endless types of cured meats; the cheese counter had hundreds of choices.  The luscious, ruby red, full-flavored tomatoes they sold became one of my staples.  They reminded me of tomatoes that came out of my great-grandparents’ garden.  They smelled like a tomato; they were ripe and ready to eat.  I was in love.  A huge bowl always sat on my kitchen counter.

The rental house in the Umbrian countryside.

Since Jeremiah and I had separate kitchens dining at home became a communal experience.  We’d agree on a time to eat and bring to the outdoor table whatever we pulled together from our respective kitchens.  One of my creations became a favored lunchtime staple: Cannellini Beans with Tomatoes and Garlic.  For some reason I grabbed a couple of cans of cannellini beans at the Coop one day (I don’t normally buy canned products).  When I got home I sautéed garlic in amazing olive oil, threw in some cut up tomatoes and let them cook down, then added the beans, salt, pepper, and herbs, stirred it all together, and wow!  Everyone loved this dish.  We ate it often and served it to guests.  It was wonderful on its own with crusty bread, or with grilled fish that Jeremiah might have made, or grilled sausages even.  I make this dish often now as it is so easy, so versatile and so delicious.  Here’s the recipe…

Print Recipe

Buon appetito!

Post Recommendatons: Most canned cannellini beans sold in grocery stores should be fine but I’ve been buying Carmelina Brands.  The bright yellow label says ‘No Preservatives,’ and ‘Packed in Italy - Prodotto in Italia,‘ the ingredients listed are beans, water, salt.  If you want to cook your own beans I recommend Rancho Gordo beans and the book ‘Heirloom Beans’ written by Rancho Gordo owner, Steve Sando.  It’s a great resource full of wonderful recipes.  An olive oil I recently started using and recommend is California Olive Ranch.

Recommendation:  Let Me Cook For You ~ for my Marin County, and Bay Area readers.  My sister, Traci Thompson, has started a personal cooking service.  She’ll devise menus, do the shopping, come to your house, and cook for you and your family.  She’s an amazing cook and prepares ‘healthy homemade meals for everyone’.

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: Cochon 555 Napa, a write up of the amazing pork festival that I attended this spring. 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.