Monthly Archives: July 2008

Are You What You Cook?

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That’s the thought-provoking title of the Asian cuisine event, 6 p.m. July 21, upstairs at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Join Chef Kelly Degala of Pres A Vi in San Francisco and Va de Vi in Walnut Creek; Eric Gower, author of “The Breakaway Cook”(William Morrow); Michelle Mah, former executive chef of Ponzu in San Francisco; Kirti Pant, executive chef of Junnoon in Palo Alto; and Chef Charles Phan of the Slanted Door in San Francisco. They will talk about how they developed their signature styles.

Appetizers will be served, along with wines from Filipino-American estate winery, Eden Canyon Vineyards.

Tickets are $35 for general admission; $25 for full-time students and those in the restaurant trade. To register, click here.

The event is a kick-off for the Oct. 10-12 Asian Food Beyond Borders symposium at the Ferry Building. The event is being spearheaded by Bay Areans Andrea Nguyen, author of “Into the Vietnamese Kitchen”(Ten Speed Press), and cooking instructor and Asian foods expert, Thy Tran.

The three-day event will celebrate how Asian communities have created dynamic cuisines around the globe. Among the speakers will be: cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey; Public Television star Martin Yan; Google cafe chef and former San Francisco Chronicle food writer Olivia Wu; and James Oseland, editor in chief of Saveur magazine.

Yours truly also will be overseeing an Oct. 11 wine-pairing seminar hosted by Edwin Soon, oenologist and author of “Asian Food With Wine” (Tide-Mark Press), at Le Colonial restaurant in San Francisco. For more information, click here.

Celebrate Bastille Day In A Big Way At Left Bank Brasserie

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Jugglers, clowns, mimes, fire-breathers, French poodles on parade, and more — that’s what’s in store when Left Bank Brasserie at San Jose’s Santana Row celebrates Bastille Day, July 12-14.

A triple-peaked big-top tent will be erected next to the restaurant for “Cirque de la Bastille,” 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. July 12 and July 13, where French circus performers will entertain. Admission is free.

Noon to 2 p.m. July 13, bring your four-footed doggie friend to take part in a competition, “French Poodles on Parade.” And no, your dog doesn’t necessarily have to be a French poodle. Registration is $10; proceeds benefit the Humane Society of Silicon Valley.

July 12-14, try your luck at pentaque, one of Europe’s most popular lawn games. Everyone is encouraged to sign up to play at no cost.

My Lunch At Google

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Cucumber-seaweed salad, assorted vegetable kimchee, and chrysanthemum greens with tofu.

If you’ve been wondering what happened to that wonderful San Francisco Chronicle food writer, Olivia Wu, she didn’t go far in miles, but she did do quite the about-face in her career.

Wu put down her pen and notepad to free her hands for some bonafide cooking. Since early this year, she’s been an executive chef at one of Google’s famed cafes in Mountain View. At her Oasis Cafe, she oversees a staff of 26, who turn out more than 600 meals a day for hungry Googlers.

A former caterer, private chef, newspaper reporter, music teacher, and yoga instructor, Wu says one reason she took the job was for the challenge to expand the palates and horizons of this young, techie crowd. As one of her wholesale distributors said of her in awe, “She’s cooking Chinese food. Real Chinese food!”

Forget visions of chow mein and egg rolls. Think steamed fresh fish, pork hash with pungent salted fish, homemade lemongrass tea, and fresh juice from young coconuts cracked to order. Or the menu the day she graciously invited me to come for lunch last week: cold salads of chrysanthemum greens and tofu, cucumber-seaweed, cranberry shelling beans flavored with shiso, assorted vegetable kimchee, and 5-spice beef cut from the succulent shin bone. The hot selections that day included: spicy ma po tofu, melt-in-your-mouth crystal pork (steamed pork shoulder drizzled with a soy-garlic-sugar sauce), and stir-fried broccoli. If that wasn’t enough, there was also house-made bubble tea with fresh, peeled lychees bobbing in it.

Ma po tofu, crystal pork, fried rice, and stir-fried broccoli.

Wu uses as many organic ingredients as possible (including the tofu), and only serves sustainable seafood. She’s even added a few traditional big round tables with lazy-susans to the seating area to encourage more synergy among Googlers as they dine.

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Bay Area Chef Mark Sullivan Penning a Cookbook

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Mark Sullivan, chef-partner of the Village Pub in Woodside and Spruce in San Francisco, is a self-taught cook who holds a degree in philosophy. Now, he’s turning that introspective nature on a new cookbook.

Sullivan is working on the book with his sister, Katy Sullivan-Morford, a Bay Area food writer. It will be about cooking in restaurants and at home, and about the importance of the shared experience of gathering around the table. There will be plenty of personal stories and photos, too.

What there isn’t yet is a title or a publisher. But given Sullivan’s talent and prominence — he was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s best new chefs of 2002 — one is bound to snap up the project.

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