Monthly Archives: March 2010

Celebrate Spring at San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

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As if you needed any more reasons to visit one of the best farmers markets in the country, March is full of delicious events at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco.

The bustling market at the historic Ferry Building, just steps from the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, welcomes spring’s mother lode of fava beans, peas and asparagus with a series of cooking demos by local chefs.

Come watch, taste and learn at these free cooking events at the outdoor teaching kitchen under the north arcade:

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Not So Itty-Bitty, Teenie-Weenie Polka-Dot Cake

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Leopard print may be so Victoria’s Secret.

And camouflage so divisive and boldly statement-oriented.

But polka dots? Who doesn’t love the whimsy of big, bright, carefree circles covering anything and everything?

Especially when it’s crowning the top of this clever cake.

“Essence of Orange-Chocolate Wafer Cake” is from Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet and Savory” (Chronicle Books) by Palo Alto food writer, Lou Seibert Pappas.

It’s a super moist and dense, but tender, cake strewn with bittersweet chocolate wafers to create a fun polka-dot pattern.

I used the new TCHOPro Organic Baking Drops (66 Percent Cacao), which I recently got a sample of. The chocolate discs with the deep, pronounced flavor are $8.99 for an 8-ounce bag. E. Guittard also makes great chocolate wafers.

Besides its look, the other unusual thing about this cake? It includes one whole orange. Yup, rind, flesh, pith and all — just minus the seeds. It also includes golden raisins, but you’d never know they were there.

That’s because the orange and the raisins get pulverized in the food processor until finely ground. This sticky paste is what gives the cake its moistness. The mixture is combined with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and plain yogurt or buttermilk.

Chocolate discs are stirred into the batter before being poured into the cake pan. Then, more chocolate discs are laid over the top.

My cake took a little longer than the specified 40 minutes to bake (but I have a gas oven, too). If yours cake does, too, and it starts to brown too much, just tent it with foil to allow it to continue baking a few minutes more.

If you like candied orange rinds dipped in dark chocolate, you’ll love this cake. It tastes just like that, with a very gutsy orange flavor.

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Take Five With Chef Bruno Chemel, On Life Post-Chez TJ With His New Baume Restaurant

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Parting is never easy — especially when it’s done publicly with stinging words and bitter emotions.

Such was the case when Chef Bruno Chemel departed Mountain View’s venerable Chez TJ in December. In a battle played out in the press, Chez TJ Proprietor George Aviet expressed his displeasure that Chemel had not brought Michelin two-star fame to his establishment like his predecessor Chef Christopher Kostow, now at the Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena, had. During his less than two years at Chez TJ, Chemel had garnered one Michelin star.

When they couldn’t see eye to eye on that chase for the star (s), Chemel left to open his own restaurant, Baume in Palo Alto, in January. Meantime, Aviet hired Scott Nishiyama, who worked at Daniel Boulud in New York and at the French Laundry in Yountville.

Named after 18th century French chemist, Antoine Baume, Chemel’s new restaurant is a Zen-like oasis for his brand of elegant molecular gastronomy cooking. The intimate 22-seat restaurant is done up in warm dark chocolate and burnt orange hues, and accented with artsy glass panes covered in Japanese dried seaweed. It serves only tasting menus — five courses ($78), 10 courses ($108), and 15 courses for ($148) at dinner; and a three-course lunch for $48 offered on Monday, Thursday and Friday.

Last week when I visited, the 41-year-old Chemel proudly showed off his new freeze-drying machine that had just been delivered. It can freeze anything — from a sauce to any vegetable — in a flash. Inside his kitchen, you’ll find such molecular gastronomy staples as a dehydrator and canisters of liquid nitrogen, as well as more personal touches such as a framed cotton dish towel from his days working with the legendary Joel Robuchon.

I sat down to chat with Chemel about the Chez TJ incident, and the hopes he has for his new restaurant.

Q: Of course, I have to ask about Chez TJ. Are you satisfied with the way things ended?

A: I did my job for two years. I did my best. All the dirty laundry — I let him (Aviet) do. It’s out of my memory now.

Q: Your pastry chef at Chez TJ, Ryan Shelton, followed you here. Did all of the Chez TJ staff leave with you?

A: When I gave notice, the staff gave notice. I told them that they shouldn’t, but they wanted to come with me. So, most of the staff did leave with me.

Q: Is your cooking different here than at Chez TJ?

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San Francisco’s A16 Still Going Strong

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When the very talented Chef Nate Appleman departed San Francisco’s beloved A16 last year for the glitz of Manhattan, Bay Area foodies gasped, fell into a deep funk and believed the world had come to an end.

I exaggerate — but not by much.

But A16 did a very smart thing. For his replacement, the restaurant looked within. It promoted Liza Shaw to top toque. Shaw not only helped open A16 in 2004, but worked her way up through every station, and contributed to the recipe development and food styling of the award-winning “A16 Food + Wine” (Ten Speed Press). In her hands, the restaurant has remained every bit as strong and consistent.

On a blustery night when I was invited to dine as a guest, the long, narrow restaurant a short drive from the Laurel Inn, was as crowded and boisterous as always.

It was my first time dining on a Monday night. And you know what that means — “Meatball Mondays” was in full swing. The juicy, tender meatballs are served as a special every Monday night as either an appetizer or entree. The meatballs, braised in wine, are a mixture of pork, beef and 40 percent breadcrumbs, which is what makes them so wonderfully light in texture. One bite and you’ll know why regulars caused a ruckus when the restaurant once tried to discontinue the meatball tradition.

A starter of roasted Monterey sardines ($11) was surprisingly mild tasting for this oft-strong oily fish.  A hit of citrus, fennel and plump green olives gave the sardines even more character.

The pizza, which I’ve made at home many times, remains one of the best in the city. The funghi pizza ($16.50) was strewn with roasted mushrooms, smoked mozzarella, Grana, garlic, oregano and wild peppery arugula. The crust was crisp, with developed flavor and nice, airy edges.

Pastas comes in your choice of full or half portions. We opted for the latter for two pastas.

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New Peet’s Coffee Food Gal Contest and Winner of the Global Knife Give-Away

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For the first time in eight years, artisan roaster Peet’s Coffee is adding a new blend to its line-up of beans.

Uzuri African Blend, available  starting March 3 at all Peet’s coffee houses and at Peets.com, will help generate greater income for 6,000 small farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Pronounced ”oo-Zur-ee,” the name of the new coffee means “excellent” and “beautiful” in Swahili. The name was chosen by East African farmers who are now producing the coffee to Peet’s exacting standards, and in the process, earning 30 percent more for their crop. That’s not insignificant, considering that coffee farmers typically live in extreme poverty, earning less than $2 a day, according to TechnoServe, an organization that empowers people in developing countries to build businesses to improve their lives, and which is collaborating with Peet’s to produce the coffee.

The new blend, which also will be available through March 31 on grocery stores nationwide, is smooth as can be with a subtle fruitiness to it. A 12-ounce bag sells for about $9.99.

Five lucky Food Gal readers will get a chance to try the coffee for free, too. Peet’s is generously allowing me to give away five 12-ounce bags of the Uzuri African Blend, one bag to each of five winners.

Contest details: Deadline to enter is the close of the day, March 6. Five winners will be announced March 8. The contest is open to only those in the continental United States.

To enter: Describe something that perks you up. The best five answers get the coffee.

Here’s my own answer to what perks me up: The smell of garlic sizzling in a hot pan. Just-washed laundry when it comes out of the dryer. Going for a long hike with a good friend on a perfect spring day — then pigging out on cake afterward. Fetching the mail, because I just never know what goodies are going to show up on any given day.

Now, it’s your turn…

And without further adieu, let me announce the grand prize winner of the Food Gal Global knife contest, in which I asked folks to describe something sharp and something dull. Faced with an unprecedented number of incredible entries (more than 70), I’ve decided to choose two runners-up, as well, who will each get a cookbook from my vast collection. Here are the winners:

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