Me, age 1, at Avila Beach, California

I have always loved the ocean.  It has always been a part of my life.  Growing up along the Central Coast of California it was a big part of my childhood.  I spent most of my childhood in San Luis Obispo, a medium-sized California city half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  From a very young age I swam in the ocean.  My parents tell me they couldn’t keep me out of the water.  San Luis Obispo lies inland from the coast by a half hour driving.  The closest beach is Avila Beach — a place where I spent many a summer day swimming in the waves, body surfing, and playing in the sand.  For my single mother it was an inexpensive way to spend a weekend day; she got to relax in the sun while my sister and I wore ourselves out.  We usually went home sunburned and covered in sand.

Pan Roasted Arctic Char, Cannellini Beans, Baby Artichokes & Preserved Lemons

I have also enjoyed eating the food that comes from the sea.  Being that we lived so close to the coast seafood was a big part of our diet growing up.  Both my great-grandfather and great-uncle fished the Central Coast waters.  My mother often took us to Morro Bay, a coastal town north of San Luis, for fish and chips dinner.  The lingcod used in the meal was caught a few miles out to sea.  In those days no one gave a second thought to overfishing, pollution, and questions of sustainability.  Now we must.  We have no choice.  We are quickly depleting our seafood sources.  I find it horribly sad.

I recently met Martin Reed who started a sustainable fish company called i love blue sea.  It’s a genius idea.  I know for myself that when I’m in a store at the fish counter my eyes cross, I hyperventilate, I can’t remember which fish is the ‘right’ fish, wild, or farmed; all that confusion overwhelms me and I often don’t buy anything.  Martin’s company takes the guess work out of the process.  He sells nothing but sustainable fish, and he ships it anywhere in the U.S, overnight.  Here’s a quick rundown from i love blue sea’s website:  “Wondering where to buy seafood online?  No more guesswork!  Only the highest quality sustainable seafood.  Every dollar spent supports fisheries driving our ocean’s recovery.  It’s a simple, nutritious and delicious way for you to make a positive change!”  Martin recently sent me some Arctic char and asked me to come up with a recipe which I did.  Here’s to the health of our oceans and all the creatures that live in them.

Print Recipe

Recommendation: Savor Los Angeles, Friday, July 30th, 7pm to 10pm ~ a sweets tasting event of one-of-a-kind bites from an exclusive set of L.A.’s best purveyors of sweet treats.

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.

Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes at the 'Chefs' Holidays at The Ahwahnee' event. January 2010. Yosemite, California

Chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes are a husband and wife cooking team who own two restaurants in Sonoma County: Zazu Restaurant and Farm just outside Santa Rosa, California, and Bovolo Restaurant on the square in Healdsburg, California.  They are cooks who embrace a local, sustainable, ultra-fresh, from-the-garden cooking style wholeheartedly and without fail.  Not only do they have a kitchen garden at Zazu that supplies both restaurants with super fresh produce but they also raise pigs, sheep and chickens at their Sonoma County home.

John makes his own salumi having trained with Mario Battali, and at the University of Iowa Meat Lab.  Duskie prides herself in cooking high brow low food.  She likes to update classic American comfort foods using locally sourced ingredients.  She also competed on the ‘Food Network Challenge’ in 2007.  John’s style of cooking is authentic and rustic Italian.  He is responsible for their line of Black Pig Meats, bacon and salumi. Their philosophy includes no waste, and they use every part of the animal also known as ’snout-to-tail.’  They either raise the proteins they use and eat themselves, or know the person who does.  They are committed ‘to finding ingredients as close to their restaurants as possible, harvested at peak ripeness, and doing as little as possible to alter their natural perfection.’

Each time I head north from my home in Los Angeles to Sonoma County I eat at both of their restaurants.  The food is always exciting, with clean, simple, direct flavors, highly interesting while still being authentic, and the best food I’ve eaten in months. These innovative chefs have become my cooking heroes.  I recently had the opportunity to interview them at the ‘Chef’s’ Holidays at The Ahwahnee’ event in Yosemite.

Charles G. Thompson: As you both know I’m a huge fan of what you do.  First off, how did you become involved in the local food movement?

Duskie Estes: In Sonoma County the wineries are still family owned, and there’s still a diversity of agriculture.  We want it to stay that way because there’s so much soul in that direct connection to people over larger businesses.  When we saw what happened to Napa, and what could happen to Sonoma we became more and more dedicated to making sure we purchased conscientiously to help preserve the local small farmer.  Everything grows there, and all the proteins are available to us there, every awesome vegetable, the longer we’re there the more we get into it ourselves.

John Stewart: Very personal choices drive what we do, they’re not economic choices.  From a straight cost analysis it’s not always the smartest thing to support everything we do but it is definitely the right thing to do.  At the end of the day we want to be able to hold our heads high and know that what we did was right.  For me it all started when we were looking at our house and there were chickens behind it.  We had purchased other homes so I knew you could ask for things to be written into the deal like people’s living room furniture.  I asked for the chickens.  Our real estate person thought it was hilarious but I was like no, I want the chickens.

CGT: That’s a great story.  That brings to mind: there seems to be a huge upswing in urban farming.  Non-farmers, or city dwellers creating mini-farms at home.

JS: I think a lot of people start out that way having chickens kind of like cats.  If they have food, chickens do their own thing.  They’re kind of independent of you.  But you also have to be careful.  We had a vineyard in our backyard and everyone told us you have to put down synthetic fertilizers.  So we put down synthetic fertilizers, and then we saw our free range chickens run over and eat it, and we thought, wow, that can’t make sense so we stopped using the fertilizer.  It just goes from there.  Duskie did an event where this woman, Deborah, had Babydoll sheep so we got some sheep to care for the vineyard in a biodynamic way.  They can be in the vineyard and unlike goats they won’t go up on their hind legs and eat the fruit.  They wander through, they fertilize, and they eat.  You don’t have to put machinery through your vine rows to stop weeds, and such, your sheep do it.

Farfalline Pasta Carbonara, House Made Bacon, Farm Egg, Parmesan at Bovolo Restaurant, Healdsburg, California

CGT: Recently there’s been so much talk about the ‘politics of food.’  Could you both comment on that?

DE: I grew up in a political household.  My parents are very active politically but I’ve always felt powerless when it comes to politics.  To me the power I feel I have is purchasing power.  I make sure whether it’s a food related purchase, or something else I need not to shop at Walmart but to go to the small independent clothing store instead.  I make sure there’s a face where my money’s going and that it’s not lost out there to an unknown entity.

JS: I’ve read a lot of Wendell Berry and Michael Pollan, and in reading these guys you really see the negative consequences of the American imperative of bigger is always better.  The farms in the 60s and 70s passed the scale of where they really should be.  Now we’re seeing all the economic and environmental consequences from these farms that are so massive.  They’re not good for the people that work there, they’re not good for the animals that are raised there.  The end product is bland and boring.  It’s cheap and there’s a lot of it which Americans tend to love but it’s boring, tasteless food.  People need to start thinking more consciously about where their food comes from.  In Europe a lot of this was never lost because they didn’t have as much land to scale out.  Their farmers had to stay small and diversified.  We were listening to Michael Pollan interview Wendell Berry recently.  Wendell Berry for 50 years now has gone on and on about the loss of American agriculture, and the loss of small scale farmers.  Sort of the beginning of the end.  He may be a little alarmist and a little out there but a lot of it is rooted in truth today.

The sign for Bovolo Restaurant, Healdsburg, California

CGT: Eating ‘locally’ is probably easier for those of us living in California, wouldn’t you say?

JS: Yes, we’re lucky being in California.  Not everyone has access to what we do so we can’t look down on them.   But if a food revolution really does get going it’s going to happen in all those Midwestern states.  That’s where the land is.  It’s not going to happen in the Bay Area, or the West Coast, not even the northeast.  There will be smaller farms and more regional differences. Like how Gravenstein apples grow around us, but Macintosh, or Romes, or Empires grow in New York.  For a long time I worked with Berkshire hogs which are also known as black pigs.  They came from Iowa and it was great because they were organic.  But a lot of people have made the case that if your organic raspberry comes from Chile then how organic is it if it has been flown in from somewhere so far away? So I started working with farmers from Oregon with a different breed of pig trying to get as close to us as possible to lessen the carbon footprint.  We all need to start thinking about our purchasing. Whole Foods may be the best option for a lot of people in a lot of places but for us it’s not.  We drive by small produce markets that are locally owned so if we spend our money at them it stays in Sonoma County.  Spend it at Whole Foods and it goes back to Texas.

CGT: Before Sonoma County you were both in Seattle.  Seattle’s a great food town.  What brought you to California?

DE: We met in Seattle.  I grew up in San Francisco and my parents lived in both Healdsburg and Oakland.  When we started to have children we wanted them to know and be close to family so we moved down to Sonoma County.  We adore Seattle, it’s awesome, and there are so many great farmers up there.

JS: We worked for Tom Douglas [a Seattle-based restaurateur] up there, and that involved working with a lot of local farmers, and those experiences led to what we do now.  A lot of berries and mushrooms among other things came from people who grew or foraged them.  We probably knew a whole lot less about wine than we do now but we knew all the local farmers.

CGT: That must have been more of an urban lifestyle because you were living in the city?

JS: Yes, we lived in the city but we drove out to the farms.  It’s probably where I got interested in making food because we would leave the city, and there would be all these berry farms and fruit farms.  I started making jams and jellies, and canning.  A flat of strawberries costs $15 and they were delicious.

World Famous Pork Cheek Sandwich with Roasted Peppers, Salsa Verde at Bovolo Restaurant, Healdsburg, California

CGT: Was the Mario Battali connection from Seattle, or through his father [Mario's father, Armandino Batali, a salumist, owns 'Salumi Artisan Cured Meats,' a shop in downtown Seattle]?

JS: Through Seattle but Duskie and I were also doing work on the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.  Duskie’s still involved and has done it now for 11 or 12 years.  I went for about 5 years and we got to know Mario through that, then we met him at a party in Seattle, and I talked to him about curing.  He’s a great guy, he’s giving with his knowledge, a great teacher, a nurturer of people.

CGT: Any frustrations with living the local lifestyle?

JS: There are times where we live – it’s not New York, it’s not San Francisco.  There’s a lack of a concentration of people.  We often joke that we have a lot more fans in Los Angeles and New York then locally.  People that readily understand what we’re doing more so than the people who grow, or raise our food.  They grow carrots, raise rabbits, and chickens.  They raise all their own products so they already get it.  They never left this farming lifestyle so who cares if it’s grass fed beef? There’s grass fed beef right out their windows.

CGT: Are you able to get away to San Francisco?

DE: 3 or 4 times a year.  Or sometimes we have an event to be at.  We probably only go out to dinner once a year.

JS: Where we live there isn’t much diversity with low end, ethnic foods like authentic barbecue for example.  There’s great Mexican but not much else.

DE: Or like that Korean barbecue dude, Kogi?  Even that whole truck phenomenon.  I’d love to do a truck.  That would be so up our alley to do like corn dogs and sausages but no one is going to come.  I’d be out there with my corn dogs all by myself.

CGT: You’d have at least one customer.  I’d drive up for that!  I love Sonoma County.  I went to high school in Santa Rosa.  Back in those days — 1976 to ‘77 — my mother wouldn’t let us go out to Guerneville, or the Russian River because it was too dangerous.  It’s changed so much since then.

DS: We opened Bovolo 5 years ago and Zazu 8.5 years ago.  My mother moved to Healdsburg 15 years ago and tried to convince us to move there from Seattle and open a place.  We walked around the square, and I was like, are you crazy?

JS: It was before the hotel, there were only a few Mexican restaurants, real bikers not the middle-aged guys on Harleys but real bikers, and that was it.  It wasn’t like it is today.

CGT: Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me.  You’re doing amazing things.  I’ll definitely be in again on my next visit north.

JS: Thank you.  We’re very proud of the progress we’ve made.  We get Italian winemakers who say our food is better than what they get in Italy.  They really know what they’re talking about.

CGT: Indeed they do.

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.

Najat Kaanache, left, and Chef Akasha Richmond.

Najat Kaanache is the Wonder Woman of stagiaires/chefs-in-training.  To date she has ’staged’ in the kitchens of Grant Achatz (Alinea), Thomas Keller (The French Laundry, Per Se), René Redzepi (Noma), and will end her stagiaire stints at Feran Adrià’s elBulli.  A stage is an unpaid internship, or culinary apprenticeship, very common in the kitchens of Europe.   Kaanache, 32, has taken the concept around the world from Copenhagen to Chicago, to the Napa Valley, to New York and finally to Roses, Spain.  Through her own indefatigable industriousness she has been away from her native Spain for two years.  With the help of Facebook and Twitter she finds someone local willing to offer her a place to stay while she spends one to three months working in some of the best kitchens in the world.  Her adventure began after she attended culinary school in Holland, and after working for a year as a line cook at Chef François Geurd’s Restaurant Ivy in Holland.  Wanting more training she sent letters to fifty top chefs in the world requesting an apprenticeship.  She received twenty-seven responses.  Currently she is in the kitchen at Per Se in New York.  Chef Thomas Keller insisted she spend a month there after she finished a three month turn at The French Laundry, his Napa Valley restaurant.  Her next and final stop is back home in Spain where she will spend a year with Chef Feran Adrià at his famed elBulli restaurant which closes permanently in 2011.

Recently, between stints at the French Laundry and Per Se, Kaanache spent a week in Los Angeles as a guest of Jo Stougaard’s, writer of the popular food and restaurant blog, My Last Bite.  A trip to the Wednesday, chef heavy, Santa Monica Farmers’ Market seemed like a natural outing.   Chef Akasha Richmond (Akasha) offered to take her on a tour.  This writer was lucky enough to tag along.  It was a banner day for chef sightings and Kaanache met most of them.  Josiah Citrin (Mélisse), Mark Peel (Campanile, Tar Pit, The Point), Ludo Lefebvre (Ludo Bites), Walter Manzke, and even food blogger, Javier Cabral, (Teenage Glutster) all wandered through at one point or another.  The Wednesday market is known as a place to see chefs grabbing items that will appear on menus later.

Chefs Walter Manzke, Ludo Lefebvre and Najat Kaanache.

We tagged along as Chef Richmond shopped for a cooking demo/appearance she was doing at the market the next day.  We looked, tasted and bought from such vendors as Wieser Farms, Harry’s Berries, and Tutti Frutti Farm.  As expected from this market the produce was the star attraction and included spring berries, artichokes, asparagus, green garlic and even ramps — a type of leek more readily found on the East Coast.  The outing ended with lunch at Border Grill, bags of top flight produce, and another chef and food experience for Chef-In-Training, Najat Kaanache to take with her back to Spain.

Najat Kaanache, Jo Stougaard and Akasha Richmond.

Green garlic.

Turnips and beets.

'Best Ever' artichokes.

Follow Najat Kaanache – http://www.twitter com/morewhimsy

Follow Jo Stougaard – http://www.twitter.com/mylastbite

Please Join Us!  Taste of the Nation ~ Sunday, June 6, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ~ Los Angeles chefs cook to benefit Share Our Strength and to end childhood hunger in America.  Eat My Blog ~ Saturday, June 19, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ~ a food bloggers’ bake sale to raise money for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.  We’ll be selling Robert’s (via David Lebovitz) famous Dulce de Leche Brownies (come early!)

Recommendation: ‘Cook To Bang: The Lay Cook’s Guide to Getting Laid’ by Spencer Walker.  Based on the popular food blog ‘Cook To Bang’ where author, Spencer Walker explains how and what to cook for your date of the moment, this tongue-in-cheek book expands on that advice and adds more tips for getting your date, or significant other, into the mood and into bed.  Hey, we can’t be all seriousness around here!  A fun book, and a fun read.

Upcoming Posts: Interview with Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes, owners of Zazu & Bovolo restaurants in Sonoma County. Cochon 555 Napa, a write up of the amazing pork festival that I went to in Napa. Reviews: The Spirit Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe, 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.

My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur. Romney Steele. Andrews McMeel Publishing. $35.00 (352p) ISBN: 978-0-7407-7914-5

My first visit to Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur, California was in the fall of 1983. It was a hot day and we sat outside on the massive terrace with a cold drink — in those days white wine, or possibly beer — and looked down at the unbelievable view. A view of the Monterey coast that went on forever. I’ve never forgotten that first visit. Or that first view. Yes, the parking lot was full of rental cars, and yes, there were crowds of tourists snapping photos but none of that mattered. I didn’t know what to expect as we climbed the winding stone steps up through a canopy of oak trees to the restaurant. But once I stepped foot onto the large terrace and saw the view, I understood the magic of Nepenthe. No matter where you are at Nepenthe, the Phoneix Shop, the Café Kevah or the restaurant itself, the view is there. Always and forever. In my memory there were hawks floating on thermals almost at eye level. That is how high up Nepenthe is. In the clouds. At the end of our drinks it was very hard to pull myself away. Over the years I have gone back to Nepenthe each time I visited the area. How can one not visit such a spectacular place?

I was thrilled when I heard that a granddaughter of the original owners had written the Nepenthe story in celebration of its’ 60th anniversary. I was even more excited when the book arrived on my doorstep for review. It is everything a book like this should be: a celebration of a place and time, a memoir from someone who lived it, and a cookbook with both family and restaurant recipes. I was recently in Big Sur, (see my last post) and I took Robert to Nepenthe for his first time. It was a joy to be back, and to see the magic at work on someone else. He was just as wowed as I was on my first visit. I love the Bohemian-hippy vibe that still exists in Big Sur and thankfully author, Romney Steele, infuses her writing with a lot of that historical detail. Nepenthe was and still is a gathering point for all sorts of interesting and unique souls. From writers, to artists and artisans, to film people, to through-voyagers. As a child Romney Steele was lucky enough to watch it all happen. From stories of her grandparents Bill and Lolly Fasset who bought the property from Orsen Welles and Rita Hayworth in 1947, to frequent visits by writers Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac, to filming of the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton movie The Sandpiper, Ms. Steele was witness to it all. And a magical storyteller she is, as well as an accomplished cook.

The book is woven through with history, stories, memories, archival photos and recipes. Many of the non-archival color photos are beautifully shot by Sara Remington. The look and feel of the entire work is evocative of the free-living Bohemian lifestyle that permeates Big Sur’s past and present. For me it was a fun read as I have been to Nepenthe, and to Big Sur many times over the years; it was wonderful to learn more about the history of both the restaurant and the area. Nepenthe is woven into the fabric of Big Sur and vice versa. They are a part of each other. I tried several recipes from the book and all worked very well, and were a pleasure to eat. On a recent Sunday I cooked this menu: ‘Lolly’s Roast Chicken with Sage Stuffing,’ ‘Cranberry Sauce,’ ‘Beet Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette’ and ‘Lemony Lemon Squares.’ This time Robert and I were the only guests; we devoured everything, and loved it all. A few of the leftover lemon bars were passed along to family and friends — all of whom have asked for the recipe, they were that good. What I like about the food in this book is that it fits in with the down-to-earth vibe the book embodies. Ms. Steele encourages use of local, sustainable ingredients. In fact she has a chart at the beginning of the book, ‘Cooking notes,’ that tells, (and suggests to), the cook the nature of each ingredient used when she developed and tested the recipes: ‘Meats are prime,’ ‘Baking powder is aluminum-free,’ ‘Fruit is seasonal, organic if possible, and preferably locally grown,’ and so on. This isn’t fancy, five-star cuisine nor should it be. The food is earthy, hearty, filling and direct. It’s food that makes sense for a restaurant and place perched high atop a hillside above the crashing surf in the wilds of Big Sur. Steele encourages the reader to find their own Nepenthe within the pages of her book. Steele is my kind of cook, this is my kind of book, I expect to pick it up often to both cook from, and to read more and again about life at Nepenthe. My Nepenthe.

Lolly’s Roast Chicken with Sage Stuffing (Pg. 113)

Cranberry Sauce (Pg. 114)

Beet Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette (Pg. 279)

Lemony Lemon Squares (Pg. 250)

Upcoming Posts: Interview with Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes, owners of Zazu & Bovolo restaurants in Sonoma County. Cochon 555 Napa, a write up of the amazing pork festival that I went to in Napa. Reviews: The Spirit Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe.

There’s a new butcher in town and boy am I happy. It seems that the neighborhood butcher has gone by the wayside and that more and more people are relying on supermarket butchers. While the guys at my local Whole Foods are very helpful and knowledgeable, there’s nothing quite like the personal rapport one develops with a local, neighborhood butcher. Like the one I am establishing with chef-butchers, and husband and wife team, Nathan McCall and Karen Yoo. I have been in several times and appreciate the hands on service they have given me. Whether it be advice on what cut to buy, or how to cook it the duo is more than accommodating. McCall and Yoo both have backgrounds as professional chefs; McCall cooked at Los Angeles restaurants Café Pinot and Sona; he also spent time in the kitchen of Spain’s Michelin three star restaurant Arzak followed up with time at Daniel Boulud’s Restaurant Daniel in New York City. Yoo, trained as a pastry chef, worked in the kitchens of Campanile, Sona and Restaurant Daniel. Given their experiences in professional kitchens they should be the go-to-butchers for both the professional chef and the home cook. Who better to buy meat and fish from than those who have the experience cooking it? It’s a great combination.

To add to the package they only source their meat, as they state on their website, ‘from traditional farms where animals are naturally and humanely raised on the best feed without the use of hormones or chemical enhancements.’ Their ‘fish is wild-caught and/or responsibly raised in the most natural environment.’ They stock CAB (Certified Angus Beef) Beef, Kurobuta (Berkshire to us) pork, lamb, locally raised poultry (from KenDor Farms in Van Nuys), eggs, house made sausages (pork-fennel and garlic-paprika), and sushi grade salmon and tuna among other seafood. Check the chalkboard specials for such items as duck, rabbit, squab and leg of lamb. They also sell a hand picked selection of gourmet oils, vinegars, salt and pepper, and other specialty cooking products. Given their propensity to be local and sustainable they could almost be a butcher my great-grandmother went to albeit without the sawdust on the floor and the banging screen door. And that is a comforting thought. I’ll be going to McCall’s often. It is so close to home. Welcome to the neighborhood Nathan and Karen!

Chef-butchers Karen Yoo and Nathan McCall

McCall’s Meat & Fish Co.
2117 Hillhurst Ave.
Los Angeles, California 90027
323-667-0674 (ph.)
323-667-0802 (fax)
www.mccallsmeatandfish.com
www.twitter.com/mcallsmandf

*The Local Report(s): are occasional blog posts on restaurants, and/or businesses that either support the idea of one-hundred miles, and ‘living life locally’; or are small, localized businesses in my neighborhood, and/or within one-hundred miles of my residence, that I prefer to support over the larger, national, corporate chains. For other The Local Report(s) please go the Archives section of this blog. Also, I’d love to hear from my readers about businesses that they support in their neighborhoods: write to me at charlesgthompson@100miles.com, or leave a comment here.

Follow The Local Report on Twitter: @TheLocalReport

Upcoming Posts: Interview with Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes, owners of Zazu & Bovolo restaurants in Sonoma County. Cochon 555 Napa, a write up of the amazing pork festival that I went to in Napa. Reviews: My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur by Romney Steele, The Spirit Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe.

My great-great grandmother Martha Cloud’s husband, Sam Miller, circa 1941, Modoc County, California

‘Offal is a culinary term used to refer to the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of organs other than muscles or bones. People in some cultures shy away from offal as food, while others use it as everyday food, or even in delicacies that command a high price.’ — from Wikipedia. ‘Nose to Tail Eating,’ a term seemingly coined by British chef and restaurateur, Fergus Anderson, involves food preparation using the entire animal (or plant) from nose to tail. Chef Anderson, author of the book, ‘The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating,’ owns St. John, a restaurant in London where according to Amazon.com ‘he serves up the inner organs of beasts and fowls in big exhilarating dishes that combine high sophistication with peasant roughness.’

I think I’m a pretty good eater; I don’t shy away from too many things. But like most of us I have my likes and dislikes; more likes than dislikes. I abhor any kind of dried fruit; I simply don’t eat it. And I don’t like cooked apples so not a big apple pie eater. My dislike of dried fruit disallows a goodly number of cereals, granolas, trail mix, and some baked goods and desserts. I’ve learned to check first to avoid the interminable picking out of unwelcome items. The reason I don’t like dried fruit is textural. I hate that it sticks to my teeth — end of story. I can’t get beyond that. I can’t exactly explain my issue with cooked apples just that they’re oddly, uhm, slimy. I hate apple sauce. Again, it’s a textural thing; how it feels in my mouth affects how it tastes. Offal can and does fall into the textural issues category but I’ve still eaten my fair share of it. I wouldn’t say I’m an avid consumer of it however. Living in and traveling often to France I’ve had many French offal preparations, liver and kidneys, among others that I’ve enjoyed. I do like sweetbreads, and blood sausage a lot and will order them in restaurants. However if there are offal dishes on a restaurant menu invariably I’ll choose a non-offal dish. Recently I’ve noticed that there seems to be a much keener interest in offal here in the U.S. — at least in restaurants, in food journalism and in foodie circles. It’s almost as if offal is replacing pork this year as the favorite food item? This offal uptick has me wondering why I don’t eat it as often as I eat other animal protein, and I’ve decided there are a few reasons.

The first is related to the dried fruit issue: textural. A lot of offal is gelatinous, sinewy, and chewy in ways a well-prepared steak is not. Depending on what gland or organ is being cooked the feel of the food is different too: liver, kidneys, tongue, brains, tripe and so on. It has a different texture, and often a different smell, than cuts of beef, pork, lamb or chicken. These differences have always given me pause. And then there’s the cultural issue. I wasn’t raised eating the stuff. It wasn’t a part of my diet growing up in the ’60s and ’70s. It was a part of the diet of my relatives, a generation before my mother. My great-grandparents, my grandfather and great-uncle ate it. They had a ranch; they raised their own chickens and sheep. My great uncle hunted, butchered and prepared deer. My mother tells the story of watching my great-grandfather chop the heads off of chickens and how they ran around headless until they died. That was normal to them. I’ve never seen an animal killed let alone butchered. We bought our chicken already cut up, wrapped in plastic in a Styrofoam tray. If we did buy a whole chicken the giblets were wrapped in a small sealed paper bag which was easy to just throw away. Fast food did not help my palate adjust to eating offal either. Just think of the textures in fast food: ’soft’ comes to mind first; with flavors that are ‘bland,’ ’salty’ and ’sweet.’ We ate a lot of fast food when I was a kid and while it probably contained offal we didn’t know it. My mother did cook us a fair amount of liver and we hated it; it wasn’t until I left home and lived in France that I first understood that offal could be tasty and interesting. I ate my first blood sausage at a French friend’s house: broiled blood sausage, couscous, a green salad and cheese. It was a revelation to me. I ate a few other offal dishes the year I lived there. After France when I was first back home in Sonoma County, a friend and I went to a ‘fancy’ restaurant and we both ordered sweetbreads, and they were delicious. Besides the liver I ate as a child and the dishes I ate in France those sweetbreads are the first offal food memory I have. I’ve eaten sweetbreads over and over ever since.

I hate to admit this but I think I’m a picky offal eater. I am not, I have come to realize, the type of ‘I’ll-eat-anything-put-before-me’ eater that Anthony Bourdain is. I have foodie friends who are very adventurous who will eat almost anything. I admire heartily the enthusiasm of Bourdain and my food-obsessed friends. I fully appreciate the nose-to-tail movement as it is economically sound and environmentally conscious. It easily fits into the ‘100 miles’ philosophy: when possible use all of whatever we take from nature. I have eaten pigs feet; they were good, I enjoyed them. I will eat them, and other offal and nose-to-tail dishes again. Many cultures use offal and nose-to-tail ingredients in their cuisines. What better hangover cure is there than menudo? I’ll keep trying new things, new dishes, domestic and foreign. My point here is that if I’d lived during my great-grandparents,’ and grandparents’ time my palate and diet would have been more acculturated to eating the whole animal. More than likely I would have been involved in the slaughtering and butchering of the animals. For economical reasons we would have used the entire animal. Sadly, I grew up in the industrialized grocery store, frozen everything, fast food era. That’s not to say that I won’t eventually become more adventurous, and I do know plenty of people who grew up the way I did who are ‘eat anything’ eaters, but for me right now: I am a picky-less-adventurous-offal-eater that’s willing to grow. I have friends who will lead the way. You know who you are!

Upcoming Trips: Napa Valley – 2/27-3/1 – Cochon 555 ~ 5 Chefs, 5 Pigs, 5 Winemakers ~ 2010 US Tour. Big Sur - 3/5-/38 ~ Dinner at Big Sur Bakery.

Upcoming Posts: An Interview with Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes, owners of Zazu & Bovolo restaurants in Sonoma County. Reviews: Venezia: Food & Dreams by Tessa Kiros, My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur by Romney Steele, The Spirit Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe.

Chef Suzanne Goin of Lucques, A.O.C. and Tavern at her cooking demo at the ‘Chefs’ Holidays at the Ahwahnee’ in Yosemite.

Uhm, let’s see: three days of celebrity chefs cooking amazing food at The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite in the middle of winter?! Okay, I’m in. I’ll splurge to watch Suzanne Goin of Lucques, A.O.C. and Tavern give cooking demos and cook the final meal served in the Ahwahnee’s magnificent dining room. Sure I will — and I did. Last week Robert and I spent three glorious days and nights in Yosemite Valley eating our way through food prepared by four chefs: Suzanne Goin; John Stewart and Duskie Estes of Zazu Restaurant + Farm, Bovolo and Black Pig Meat Co. in Sonoma County; and Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant + Bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On a previous trip to Yosemite I’d picked up information on the Chefs’ Holidays events and was more than intrigued. And I was reminded of them often as I get regular e-mails from Delaware North, the company that runs all accommodations, concessions and special events at Yosemite. As you can see by the title of this post the Chefs’ Holidays have been happening at The Ahwahnee for the last twenty-five years. There are a total of eight sessions that take place during January and February. I chose Session 5 for a reason: two of my current favorite chefs were going to be there. I’ve already written about my passion for what husband and wife chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes do at their two restaurants Zazu and Bovolo in Sonoma County. They live their loves locally; easily within one hundred miles of where they live and work. Their two restaurants embody the local lifestyle and their food is amazing. When I saw that they would be participating I decided to splurge and attend. The extra added bonus of Suzanne Goin as the headline chef was more than I could ask for. And while I didn’t know much about the third chef, Jody Adams, I do now and I am now a fan of hers too.

Mirror Lake, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park

All of this taking place in Yosemite. I love Yosemite in the winter. There’s no one there. It’s as beautiful as it is any other time of the year. We were very lucky on this trip. We arrived on a Sunday and left on a Wednesday; the Thursday before our trip a huge storm dumped a lot of snow. By the time we arrived on Sunday the storm was over and the roads had been cleared. What was left was stunningly beautiful. A nice amount of pristine snow covered everything making for a true winter wonderland. The outside daytime temperature hovered around thirty-five degrees — not too cold at all with our layers of sweaters, scarves and winter coats. When we weren’t at the Ahwahnee eating we were out exploring this amazing place. This was a trip I could easily do over and over and over…

*Chef Suzanne Goin, Lucques, A.O.C., Tavern in Los Angeles, Californa. Author, ‘Sunday Suppers at Lucques’

The event took place over three days and nights. On Sunday night there was a reception to meet the chefs and we did. We chatted with Suzanne, John and Duskie, and Jody while eating hors d’oeuvres and drinking wine. It was a good way to start off the event. All the chefs were very approachable and quite friendly. On Monday at ten o’clock in the morning we met back at the Great Hall of the Ahwahnee for the first cooking demo: Suzanne Goin. Chef Goin prepared ‘Pan-Roasted Quail with Pancetta, Baked Ricotta and Sicilian Breadcrumbs’ followed by ‘Roasted Pear Salad with Endive, Hazelnuts and St. Agur.’ Watching her cook I noticed that Chef Goin was very precise in everything she did. She new her next move; her mise en place at hand. I understood; she’d been trained in restaurant kitchens in France. Most chefs I’ve known exhibit this type of precision. It works, and is necessary, for what they have to do. She was also very giving in how she showed us to prepare the two dishes; answering questions, offering suggestions and making apt comments. Her two dishes were nicely refined, and beautiful to look at. After the demo we tasted the pear salad and it was really delicious. I’ve always loved endive and blue cheese together; the addition of the roasted pears added another layer of flavor and texture.

Roasted Pear Salad with Endive, Hazelnuts and St. Agur, Chef Suzanne Goin

Pan-Roasted Quail with Pancetta, Baked Ricotta and Sicilian Breadcrumbs, Chef Suzanne Goin

Chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes starting their cooking demo at the ‘Chefs’ Holidays at The Ahwahnee’ in Yosemite.

*Chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes, Zazu Restaurant & Farm, BOVOLO, Black Pig Meat Co., Sonoma County, California

That afternoon we all met back at the Great Hall at two o’clock for John and Duskie’s cooking demonstration. They made ‘Hazelnut Crepes with Nutella and Blood Orange Syrup’ followed by ‘Brussels Sprouts, Local Apple, and Black Pig Bacon Salad.’ John and Duskie are a little more country to Suzanne’s city. Duskie chose the crepes recipe with Nutella because Nutella is something she likes and because she likes to combine high and low food together. The idea is to use easy to get products with those that are harder to get in the same dish. There’s also a nice playfulness to Duskie and John, evident in this dish. One of the main reasons I like these two chefs is because as mentioned above they live locally, and because one of their credos is ‘no waste.’ They use every part of the animal; any organic waste from the food preparation process is either fed to their pigs or composted for their garden. In their restaurants many of the vegetables for the day’s menus are harvested in the garden outside the kitchen’s back door just before service. At their farm-home they raise pigs, have chickens for eggs and a garden. It’s a full circle lifestyle. During their demo they were relaxed and easy-going; they worked well together but it was also evident that they knew what they were doing. These are seasoned professionals. While the crepes were Duskie’s dish, the Brussels sprouts dish offered John his moment to work with his black pig bacon. Bacon that he cures himself along with other salumi that he makes. We tasted the Brussels sprouts after the demo and they were earthy and wonderful; the bacon, apples and sprouts working together perfectly.

Hazelnut Crepes with Nutella and Blood Orange Syrup, Chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes

Brussels Sprouts, Local Apple and Black Pig Bacon Salad, Chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes

Chef Jody Adams starts her cooking demonstration at ‘Chefs’ Holidays at the Ahwahnee’ in Yosemite.

*Chef Jody Adams, Rialto, Boston, Massachusetts. Author, ‘In The Hands of a Chef: Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant’

Our final cooking demonstration was by Chef Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant + Bar in Boston on Tuesday afternoon. Chef Adams also made two dishes: ‘Orange Dusted Scallops with Sunchokes, Harissa and Olives,’ followed by ‘Scallop Ravioli with Pistachios, Pomegranate and Mushrooms.’ Chef Adams was such a joy to watch; she was funny, smart and also really knows what she is doing. There was a bit of Julia Child’s zaniness to her but she was actually in absolute control. When questions were thrown at her she surprised by breaking down the chemical process in certain cooking scenarios. Both recipes had long ingredient lists and many steps but she made it all seem effortless. She was very open to substituting ingredients; she taught interesting yet useful techniques – like how to cut parchment exactly to the size of your sauté pan. It felt a bit like we were in her home kitchen all around a cooking island pitching in. Chef Adams was unknown to me before this event but she has a new West Coast fan now. If I ever get to Boston I’ll be stopping in to Rialto. We tasted the the orange dusted scallops after the demo and they were among my favorite dishes we ate.

Scallop Ravioli with Pistachios, Pomegranate and Mushrooms, Chef Jody Adams

Orange Dusted Scallops with Sunchokes, Harissa and Olives, Chef Jody Adams

The dining room at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park

*Behind the Scenes Kitchen Tour

On Tuesday morning there was an optional tour of the Ahwahnee hotel kitchens. Robert and I were curious to see the behind-the-scenes of such a huge operation. There’s the beautiful public side but behind closed doors is where all the action takes place to keep the operation going. Sous-chef Beth Brown took us through the huge kitchens, storerooms and baking areas. I’ve been in a lot of professional kitchens, and I’ve seen other hotel kitchens but the size of this one was XXXL. The fact sheet handed out says that the kitchen is 6,500 square feet; the ceiling is 38 feet high at its highest point. The kitchen prepares 1500 meals per day for the dining room not including room service, weddings or special events. The bakeshop produces 400 loaves of bread per day. This is cooking on a massive scale. It was interesting to see what goes on behind-the-scenes in an operation this big.

The line in the Ahwahnee Hotel kitchen.

Bread baked daily in the kitchen of the Ahwahnee Hotel kitchen.

Sous-chef Beth Brown in the Ahwahnee Hotel pastry shop where chocolate truffles for the hotel sweet shop are being made.

*Chefs’ Holidays Gala Dinner, Chef Suzanne Goin

The final event of the three day food extravaganza was a gala dinner served in the Ahwahnee Hotel dining room. As Suzanne Goin was the headline chef she created and prepared the menu for the evening: Arugula Salad with Blood Oranges, Roasted Dates, Almonds and Parmesan; Maine Diver Scallops with Green Garlic Soubise, Chanterelles and Meyer Lemon; Alaskan Black Cod with Kabocha Squash, Golden Raisins, Pancetta and Pedro Jimenez; Braised Veal Cheek with Risotto Carbonara, Pea Shoots and Black Truffle Butter; Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Mascarpone and Pistachio Ice Cream. It was all incredible, wonderful, amazing — nothing more needs be said.

Chef Suzanne Goin and me. She’s holding her book: ‘Sunday Dinners at Lucques’ which she autographed for me.

Chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes and me. I interviewed them for an upcoming blog post.

Chef Jody Adams and me.

Snow-covered Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park

I love Yosemite but you know that already. Attending this event was truly an experience I won’t soon forget. The setting, the chefs, the food, and the company. Will I go again next year? Possibly. I will give it serious consideration. It was that good.

Upcoming Posts: Interview with Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes owners of Zazu & Bovolo restaurants in Sonoma County. Reviews: Venezia: Food & Dreams by Tessa Kiros, My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur by Romney Steele, The Spirit Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe.

I was away this week attending the ‘25th Anniversary Chefs’ Holidays 2010 at the Ahwahnee’ in Yosemite National Park: three days of cooking demos and eating with chefs Suzanne Goin, Duskie Estes & John Stewart, and Jody Adams; since my week was short I thought I’d use this opportunity to do a little catching up. I actually wrote most of this post before I left on the trip. There have been a few items, some mentions, and a review that I’ve been meaning to get to so I will post them now.

Review: ‘Tips Cooks Love: Over 500 Tips, Techniques, and Shortcuts That Will Make You a Better Cook’

Tips Cooks Love: Over 500 Tips, Techniques, and Shortcuts That Will Make You a Better Cook. Rick Spears & Sur La Table. Andrews McMeel Publishing. $15.00. (372 pp) ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-8344-9

The title really does say it all. This is a great book to have close at hand in the kitchen. If you have a question about how something is done chances are you’ll find the answer in this book. Arranged from A to Z authors Spears and Sur La Table give real advice, tricks, and tips on hundreds of subjects. Why is my turkey breast dry? Why did my cheesecake crack? How do I achieve a lump-free gravy? These questions and more are answered. This book is not only for the beginning cook; seasoned pros can use it too. It not only covers tips on cooking, it also discusses equipment, ingredients, and processes. There are also ten deconstructed recipes designed to put the learned tips into perspective. Read up on parchment paper then flip to the recipe for fleur de sel caramels and put your knowledge to use . Randomly flipping through I came across two pages devoted to Tips on Deep Frying, at the citrus fruits entry there is a break out tip to only zest the colored surface of the rind while avoiding the bitter white pith, there are several pages listing equivalent measures in tablespoons, cups and ounces, volume and weight. The book is friendly, well-designed and easy to use. There is a huge amount of useful information. I see myself grabbing it often. Every cook should consider adding this book to their collection.

Mention: Real Simple – A Time Inc. Lifestyle Group Publication

I was approached to take a look at another Time Inc. publication – Real Simple. I was yet again unaware of what the magazine was, or was about, but now after looking through it I can say I am quite impressed. It’s a large format, high page count publication with a whole lot of lifestyle content including a food section. The issue I have includes these sections: Recipes for a Good Time, Secretly Simple, 10 Ideas For, Road Test, Five Easy Dinners and a Nutritional Index. The Road Test section tested fifty-two pancake mixes and reports findings on seven. The recipes for finger food and hors d’oeuvres in Recipes for a Good Time are easy to prepare, tasty and healthy. Quick blender hollandaise sauce is the recipe in Secretly Simple, and five easy to prepare weeknight meals are highlighted in Five Easy Dinners. This is a magazine most likely geared toward the working professional who has a family but from what I can see anyone looking for healthy, tasty, easy-to-make meals and food tips should also take a look.

Mention: What Is Fresh

I receive so many food-related newsletters that I can barely keep up with my in box. Somewhere, in one of them, possibly Serious Eats or Tasting Table, or on my Twitter feed, I came across What Is Fresh and felt it warranted a shout out. Unfortunately, this will only apply to my New York-area readers. What Is Fresh is a website that tells you what is fresh at each of the New York-area farmers’ markets. It lists by day of the week and location what markets are on, what vendors will be at them, and what they will be selling. For example, I went to the site and clicked on the 77th Street Greenmarket page and saw that Berkshire Berries of Massachusetts will be selling syrup and honey at the next market. This may not be the best time of year to use the site because many of the markets are closed for the winter but come spring I can see this being useful in finding ingredients and planning meals and menus. It’s definitely a site to bookmark.

Mention: Good Guide

Another recent find was Good Guide, a website that rates natural, green and healthy products. There are so many new, green products out there how does one know which to buy or use? It seems that many mainstream corporations have jumped on the green bandwagon too. Does that mean their products really are natural, green and healthy? Good Guide rates each item by ‘health,’ ‘environment’ and ’social.’ Forest green in all three is the best rating. Light green and brown are good to not-so-good. It has an iPhone app for on-the-go decisions, and you can personalize your page with your favorite products and those you want to avoid. You can also write your own user review. The site is in beta at the moment but it is quite thorough even at this stage. It seems like a good place to go for help in becoming greener, and in making green decisions. Something we all should be considering and doing.

Thank you!

I’d like to thank all my friends, family, fellow food bloggers and new foodie friends for reading, commenting, supporting and being a part of the first year of 100 Miles. I am most grateful and humbled by all of you, and I appreciate your support so very much.

Check back for more blogging fun and a full report of my adventures in Yosemite.

Bon appétit!

Upcoming Posts: Yosemite: my report about the 25th Anniversary Chefs’ Holidays 2010 at the Ahwahnee’ in Yosemite National Park: three days of cooking demos and eating with chefs Suzanne Goin, Duskie Estes & John Stewart, and Jody Adams. Interview with Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes owners of Zazu & Bovolo restaurants in Sonoma County. Reviews: Venezia: Food & Dreams by Tessa Kiros, My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur by Romney Steele, The Spirit Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe.

Taken from the new De Young Museum looking toward the Sunset District. Photo credit: Robert Guerrero

San Francisco is the city of my birth. My father and my step-mother both attended Mission High School in the Mission District. After moving to the City in 1940 from Oklahoma my paternal grandmother spent the rest of her life living on Tiffany Avenue in the Mission District. My mother lived in around the City as a child and again as a young newlywed when she and my father married. My maternal great-grandfather owned a barber shop on Market Street until the 1906 earthquake put him out of business. At age eighteen after living in France for a year, I settled in San Francisco. It was the first big city I lived in as an adult. I have a strong sense of history, and a connection to place with San Francisco that is important to me. While I didn’t really grow up in the City, it’s still one of the cities where I feel at ‘home.’

Robert and I spent the three-day Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend visiting ‘the City’ — as most locals call it. It was wonderful to be back. I have so many memories now from so many years of coming and going. My adult memories are of my time in the food and restaurant business dating back to the early 80s. Selling cheese at the food emporium the Oakville Grocery; the tyrannical French chef I worked under at Today’s on Union Square; working with Jeremiah Tower at his Stars restaurant; socializing with all the ‘foodies’ of the time. Those were heady, food-filled days. Naturally, this trip also involved food and eating.

One of my favorite things to do in San Francisco is to visit the remodeled Ferry Building. When I was a child, the double-deck Embarcadero Freeway ran right in front of the building. It was the entrance to and exit off the Bay Bridge that started or ended further down the Embarcadero towards North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf. It was ugly and it marred the end of Market Street. The ferry building was nothing but ratty gray offices, a no man’s land. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake seriously damaged the freeway it was torn down, the Ferry Building was remodeled and it’s now like a European food hall. Individual vendors such as Cow Girl Creamery, Acme Bread, and Hog Island Oyster Company line the cavernous halls. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays there’s an outdoor farmer’s market. Every time I go there is something new to try. This time it was Boccalone — Tasty Salted Pig Parts, a salumeria that has a wonderful variety of cooked and cured salumi and salami, hot and cold sandwiches, and their specialty — Salumi Cones: sliced meat served like a sno-cone.

Boccalone – Tasty Salted Pig Parts in the Ferry Building.

A Salumi Cone from Boccalone.

We grabbed sandwiches at Boccalone and sat outside on the water with my friend Robert Ruiz and ate. After Robert took off we met up with Anna Petruolo and Lisa Robbins of A Dinner Together, foodie friends from Portland on their first visit to San Francisco. Anna is a personal chef in the Portland area and their company specializes in local and sustainable meals. We wandered around the building and through the farmer’s market ooing and awing at all the amazing food. I always like to end my visit with a coffee from Frog Hollow Farm. Frog Hollow Farm is a 133-acre organic farm located in Brentwood, California on the Sacramento River Delta that produces twenty-five varieties of peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots, pluots, plums, pears and grapes. Their little stand inside the Ferry Building sells strong coffee and great baked goods.

Local mushrooms at the Far West Fungi stall.

Brussels sprouts for sale at the framer’s market.

Other highlights of the weekend were dinners at Nopalito and SPQR. Nopalito was recommended by David Lebovitz of the food blog: Living The Sweet Life In Paris. He raved about the carnitas and since it’s one thing I can’t get enough of I had to go. It certainly lived up to the hype. All of the food did. Our San Francisco friends Denise and Pete who had never been to the restaurant loved their meals. Nopalito specializes in traditional Mexican cookery while using ‘local, organic and sustainable ingredients,’ something I support fully. The carnitas were among the best I’ve ever eaten. The Quesadilla Roja con Chicharrón that we got for the table was yet another amazing pork belly dish, and the Ceviche Verde de Pescado y Calimari was so fresh and delicious I couldn’t believe it was cold and rainy outside. Matthew Accarrino, the chef at SPQR was recently called a ‘forager’ and a ‘wild man’ by Serious Eats because he does exactly that: he forages and gathers wild edibles in the surrounding area like the Marin Headlands where he gathers watercress for a burratta with peperonata dish; wild chickweed for a baby-beet salad, and fennel pollen from wild fennel seed to be used in several dishes. We ate a pasta dish with nettles that was delicious: ‘Stinging nettle torchio, garlic cream, pancetta and parmesan.’ The rest of the meal included two starters: ‘Spiced ricotta fritters & smoked maple syrup,’ and a ‘Pork belly ‘croccante,’ sundried tomatoes, olives & gremolata’; for our main courses Robert had the ‘Petrale sole, cauliflower, capers, verjus butter & pine nuts’ while I had the ‘Lamb shoulder, chestnuts, mushrooms, parsnip & dandelion leaves.’ The foraging chef came through for me. The flavors were earthy yet subtle and I liked knowing that some of the ingredients were locally foraged. On Monday before we left for the airport we ate cheeseburgers at the Slow Club in SoMa with our friend Andrew. Like so many restaurants in the Bay Area it’s also all about being sustainable and local; this was printed on their menu: “We use produce & meat from farms & ranches that practice ecologically sound agriculture whenever possible.” Ya gotta love the Bay Area and its serious foodies!

Since food and eating were the focus of this trip I had to check out the new cookbook store Omnivore Books in Noe Valley. I’ve been adding substantially to my cookbook collection over the past six months and I’m always curious to see what a store might have. This store is a small delight hiding out in a quaint San Francisco neighborhood. It has all types of books — new, antiquarian, collectibles. The store is well-organized, has every type of book one could want, many of them signed by the authors. I stumbled across a signed copy of ‘City Cuisine’ by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Millikin, a book of recipes for dishes they served at their restaurant ‘City’ in Los Angeles during the 80s. I grabbed it up and it’s now part of my growing collection. When we weren’t eating we visited the recently re-done De Young Museum as well as the Palace of the Legion of Honor where we saw the show: ‘Cartier and America’ about the French jeweler and his relationship to the States. While at the De Young we stopped into their cafe (I love museum cafes and restaurants) for a coffee with our friends Karen and Chris who very kindly got us free admission to the museum. The cafe is run by a company called McCall Catering and the chef, Lucas Schoemaker is an old foodie friend from my 80s food days. We didn’t get to see him but I noticed that, of course, the food is seasonal and local! ‘Seasonal and local San Francisco!’ should be a new catchphrase. We had a great time in the City. We did a lot, saw some good friends, ate some wonderful food, and returned to Los Angeles sated and relaxed. We both enjoyed being in a ‘real’ city (sorry Los Angeles!) where we walked often and a lot. San Francisco has always been a food city to me. And this trip did not disprove that.

The Golden Gate Bridge taken from the Palace of Legion of Honor. Photo credit: Robert Guerrero

**A big thank you to Robert Ruiz for all the great foodie recommendations!

Please Vote For Me! The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook Contest: I have entered my baked papaya recipe, ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya,’ into the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest. If selected the recipe will be published in cookbook published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. To vote go to the top of my blog to the Foodista icon. Thanks!

My Status: winter (lots of rain recently & we need it!) in Southern California — cooler days, cold nights, comfort food. Off to Yosemite this weekend to attend the food event ‘Chefs’ Holidays 2010 at the Ahwanee’: three days of cooking demos, lectures and eating with chefs Suzanne Goin, Duskie Estes and John Stewart at the Ahwanee Hotel. Can’t wait! Also new cookbooks to try, some to review; new kitchen equipment to use. More cooking, eating, writing, and blogging.

Upcoming Posts: Interview with Chefs John Stewart & Duskie Estes owners of Zazu & Bovolo restaurants in Sonoma County. Reviews: Venezia: Food & Dreams by Tessa Kiros, My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur by Romney Steele, The Spirit Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe.

When I was a kid my sister and I baked all the time. That is we baked when weren’t running all over Kingdom Come. We were latch key children being raised by a single mother. It was the 60s and 70s in small town California and it was safe to run all over K.C. with abandon, without worry. When we were old enough to care for ourselves my mother gave us house keys which we wore around our necks next to our skate keys on those metal ball chains like soldiers use to wear their dog tags. Running all over K.C. was pretty much a full-time activity but on those days when the weather was inclement, where we had to stay indoors, my mother often came home at five o’clock to two dozen chocolate chip cookies that we’d spent the wet afternoon baking. We simply followed the directions on the back of the Toll House chocolate chips package (still one of the best recipes for chocolate chip cookies ever!) and voila! Fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. Even though my mother could barely keep up with it all she did manage to always have flour, white and brown sugar, baking soda and powder, oil, butter and Crisco on hand. If we were running low on a precious baking necessity Traci or I added it to the grocery list on the refrigerator. If we weren’t making cookies it was cupcakes, or full on cakes from those Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines boxed mixes. We had no fear, we pretty much baked anything. Our solo forays did stop at yeast baking however but I do know that on more than one occasion we made bread with my mother. I have fond memories of slicing the still hot loaves and slathering butter all over them, and gobbling them down. Those were kitchen events where we all baked together as a family.

And then for some reason as an adult I did a whole lot less baking. I did bake massive amounts of sourdough bread at my first restaurant job as a cook which was both a challenge and a lot of fun. The place was called Sourdough Jack’s and fresh-baked sourdough loaves were the first item put on a diner’s table. But after that both personally and professionally I moved over to savory cooking; cooking the first courses, main courses, and sides. My culinary interests solidified. I didn’t actually find the time for yeast baking and it sadly fell by the wayside. So when I received ‘Bread Matters’ to review from Andrews McMeel Publishing I was excited. I looked forward to reading it and to trying the recipes. ‘Bread Matters’ is not just a book about baking — it’s a book about a lifestyle. Author-baker Andrew Whitley has owned an award-winning bakery near Cumbria, England since 1976. He has devoted over twenty-five years to perfecting the craft of baking bread. In 2002 he founded Bread Matters, an organization devoted to improving the state of bread. He is also a founder of the Real Bread Campaign in Great Britain which started in 2003 and aims to encourage the increased and local consumption of ‘real bread’ in Great Britain.

The first three chapters of ‘Bread Matters’ are devoted to the issues surrounding the production of commercial bread. Whitley believes that store-bought bread has little nutritional value and unnecessary additives, and that it is made too quickly. He advocates that slowing down the process makes for better tasting, more nutritional bread. Chapter Three – Taking Control is a call to action: leave the store-bought, commercial stuff behind and buy or bake your own organic bread. The rest of the book tells you how with over fifty recipes. The book is for all levels of baker from beginner to expert. The first recipe I tried was from Chapter Six – First Bread and Rolls and is titled ‘Basic Bread.’ For not having made a yeast bread in a very long time it was just like getting back on the proverbial bicycle. It took several hours but they were relaxing hours; once I set the dough to rise on the back of my stove there was a giddy anticipation of will it rise properly, will it work? And it did, my basic bread loaf was a beautiful sight and tasted even better. Whitley’s recipe and explanations were clear and straightforward. To have a complete experience I kneaded the dough with my hands vs. a mixer or Cuisinart and I am glad I did. It put me in closer touch with the process and it was fun!

What I like about the book is the detail to which Whitely goes to explain all the technical aspects of yeast cookery. Types of flour, water, yeast, baking equipment, essential ingredients, temperature, ovens, nutritional value, troubleshooting — he even includes a section on gluten-free baking. While making my basic loaf I had a question about the process and quickly found the answer in another section of the book. I tried several other recipes including Baps (Small Rolls) and a recipe for calzoni; all worked beautifully. Next on my list of attempts will be something with sourdough and possibly croissants. The book is thorough, well-organized and full of great information on baking and yeast cookery. Whitley walks readers through the baking process with chapters like Starting From Scratch, Bread-A Meal in Itself, and Easy As Pie. If you don’t already own one of the many yeast cookery books out there, or are looking for a good primer, I highly recommend Bread Matters. If you already have one or more of the others out there, this will make a perfect addition to your library. It’s always good to have more than one source, isn’t it? Andrew Whitley absolutely knows what he’s talking about.

My Status: The cold weather is here in Southern California and I’m loving it. Time to pull put those winter dishes, recipes. Also new cookbooks to try, some to review; new kitchen equipment to try out. More cooking, eating, writing, blogging coming soon.

Upcoming Posts: my personal, childhood food history as told by my mother, Dawn Goodman. Reviews: Cooking Light, a review of the redesign of the Time Inc. magazine. Cooking The Cowboy Way, a review of the new cookbook by cowboy-chef Grady Spears.