Monthly Archives: May 2008

Cookbook Donations Wanted

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The Southern Food & Beverage Museum, which lost more than half its cookbook collection to the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, is asking folks for a hand to help rebuild.

The museum is hoping to remake itself from this tragedy into the largest repository of books, booklets, manuscripts, and documents about Southern food and drink. It is seeking not only culinary books about the American South, but also periodicals from other areas that have influenced Southern foodways. Books in all conditions are happily accepted.

Send your tax-deductible donations to:

Southern Food & Beverage Museum
Attn. Liz Williams
1 Poydras Street, #169
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130

Please include your name and address with your donation, because the museum would like to thank you for your efforts. For more information about the project, click here.

Take Five With Parcel 104’s Robert Sapirman

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Robert Sapirman, executive chef of Parcel 104

Imagine cooking without such staples as sugar, chocolate, vanilla beans, cinnamon, coffee, and even pepper. That’s the challenge that Executive Chef Robert Sapirman and his crew at Parcel 104 restaurant in Santa Clara are taking on with the second annual “104-Mile Dinner” on June 7.

 That night, every ingredient used must come from no more than 104 miles from the restaurant (measured from point to point in a straight line). Climate Clean of Portland, Ore. will be working with the restaurant to mitigate and offset the greenhouse gas emissions generated from this $125-per-person dinner.

The seven-course dinner includes Point Reyes oysters, local petrale sole, and pork belly from pigs raised in the Yosemite area. Also on the menu are Cornish game hens that were slaughtered, then air-chilled, as opposed to the conventional method of water chilling. Proponents of this method favor it because they consider it more sanitary (studies so far, though, are inconclusive). In air-chilling, the poultry also absorbs less water, making for a crisper skin when cooked and more intense flavor.

Watercress and beignet dessert by Pastry Chef Carlos Sanchez

Parcel 104’s pastry chef, Carlos Sanchez, will be ending the night with a refreshing dessert of Sausalito Springs watercress topped with strawberry sorbet made with honey, fresh strawberries the staff will pick the day before in Sonoma, and tiny beignets of Bellwether Farms Carmody cheese.

The menu is subject to change, of course, since it’s all based on what’s available locally at the time.

I sat down with Sapirman to find out the most difficult aspects of creating such a dinner.

Q: You came on board as chef last year just as the restaurant was about to do the 104-mile dinner for the first time. I think I detected just a tiny glint of fear and panic in your eyes then. How is it different this time around?

A: Last year, it was all about what could we get our hands on. It was a real race to find things. This year, we have more time, and we’re able to reach out to see that’s really out there.  Last year at the last minute, we were able to find wheat flour in Sonoma, so we were able to make crackers for the beet salad. This year, we’ve already discovered that Full Belly Farm (an hour northwest of Sacramento) — which is right on the edge of our 104-mile limit, and believe me, I measured it — produces flour and wheat berries.

Q: Last year, you guys were in a tizzy because you thought you wouldn’t be able to use salt. But at the last second, you found a source?

A: Yes, we get salt from underneath the Dumbarton Bridge. There are salt flats there. And a producer makes this very coarse pretzel salt from there that we have to grind ourselves until it’s finer.

Q: So there will be salt, but no peppercorns?

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A Mackerel Match Made In Heaven

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Stuart Brioza's mackerel

My husband can attest to the fact that mackerel is not one of my fave fishes. In fact, usually when I get a slice in an assortment of sushi or sashimi, it always ends up on his plate instead.

Stuart Brioza knows it’s a hard-sell, too, even if mackerel (wild-caught king and Spanish) is one of the best seafood choices on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide. Nevertheless, Brioza, the executive chef of Rubicon in San Francisco, made many a convert when he cooked a fabulous honey, soy, and beer broiled mackerel with sesame-lime glaze at the recent “Cooking For Solutions” gala at the aquarium. The usual strong taste of the mackerel was tempered by the marriage of the other sweet, aromatic, and citrusy ingredients. The result was like a less sweet unagi. And it was scrumptious.

Speaking of marriage, Brioza and his longtime girlfriend, Nicole Krasinski, Rubicon’s pastry chef, will finally be tying the knot. The couple, who met 13 years ago in a photography class at De Anza College in Cupertino, will be getting hitched on a friend’s farm in Hilo in September. Krasinski, who’s not fond of cake (say what?), plans on serving their guests exotic citrus tarts instead.

It’s shaping up to be quite a year for Brioza, who grew up in Cupertino and Danville, and Krasinski, who is a Los Gatos native. In the July issue of Food & Wine magazine, the couple will be featured in a story about the peach tree they adopt every year at Mas Masamoto’s renowned peach farm just outside of Fresno. Look for mouth-watering sweet and savory peach recipes.

The happy couple in front of the jellyfish exhibit.

And for those of you who love mackerel — and those of you who don’t quite yet — here’s Brioza’s recipe that’s guaranteed to please.

Honey, Soy and Beer Broiled Mackerel with Sesame-Lime Glaze

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Remembering Robert Mondavi

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2005 Continuum and 2004 Opus One

Robert Mondavi may be gone now, having sadly passed away May 16 at the age of 94. But this visionary legend always will live on.

The winery that bears his name in the Napa Valley is no longer owned by the Mondavi family, having been sold to the beverage giant, Constellation Brands, four years ago for more than $1 billion. On the right in the photo above is the last vintage of Opus One (the premium Bordeaux-style blend made in a joint venture with Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild) released before the sale of the business. On the left is the 2005 Continuum, the first release of the first new wine made after the sale with the help of all three generations of Mondavis. Only 1,500 cases were made of this blend of 60 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 percent Petit Verdot, and 20 percent Cabernet Franc.

Mondavi was a man who put California wine on the map; whose tenacity drove him to start his own winery at age 52 after disagreements with his brother, Peter, led to his ouster from the family wine business; and whose philanthrophy was seemingly endless.

In 1996, he and wife Margrit paid $2.1 million to purchase the Napa site for what would become Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts. In 2001, the couple gave $35 million to the University of California at Davis to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.

Over the years, I had the pleasure of meeting Mondavi at the ground-breaking ceremonies for each of those events. And last November, I, along with a handful of other media, was graciously invited to the Mondavi home in the Napa Valley, where Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and his staff prepared a nine-course dinner and where the 2005 Continuum was poured for the first time.

Over the years, I saw this once vibrant man grow more frail, first relying on a cane, then a wheelchair. But through it all, he remained, as always, the picture of grace and dignity.

When I finally open those two special bottles of wine, I will drink a toast to this man who did so much and meant so much to the growth and reputation of the Napa Valley wine industry. I hope you will remember him, too, anytime you enjoy a bottle that bears the Mondavi name.

Diana Kennedy Coming to Santa Cruz Area

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Diana KennedyThe doyenne of Mexican cooking, Diana Kennedy, will be appearing at three events in and around Surf City to celebrate the re-release of her 1989 classic, The Art of Mexican Cooking.

Kennedy has written eight cookbooks, but The Art of Mexican Cooking remains a true favorite with its collection of traditional recipes. Kennedy, who lives in an adobe home in the state of Michoacana, is already working on her next tome, all about the foods of Oaxaca.

May 30, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., she will host a book-signing at Alma Gifts & Culture, 1705 Mission St. in Santa Cruz. Snacks made from her own recipes will be served. The event is free. Phone is: (831) 425-2562.

May 31 at 9 a.m., Kennedy will conduct a Q&A session at the Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Dr. in Aptos. Afterwards, she will sign copies of her books, which will be available for purchase.

June 1 at 5:30 p.m.,  she will speak at the Capitola Book Cafe, 1475 – 41st Ave. in Capitola, then do a book-signing. Refreshments, made from her recipes, will be served.

To immerse yourself even more in Kennedy’s life, My Mexico Tours leads tours every August to Kennedy’s home, which include cooking classes taught by the master, herself.

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