Lights, Camera, Action — and Chef Bradley Ogden
The chef who co-founded Lark Creek Restaurant Group in the Bay Area and made farm-to-table cooking his mantra long before it was fashionable, has returned to the Bay Area after being gone for eight years.
Bradley Ogden, who most recently opened Root 246 restaurant in Solvang, moved to San Jose’s Evergreen district in January to start a new phase in his culinary career. It includes a new multimedia company with partner Chris Kelly, Facebook’s first general consul.
In the works is a new cooking show, “Real Food with Chef Bradley Ogden,” which will be shopped around to various TV networks. I got a sneak peek on Super Bowl Sunday, when Ogden invited me and a host of friends to his home for a cooking extravaganza, which was filmed in part for his show.
The show, which will showcase artisan purveyors and farmers, also will have Ogden cooking with friends and family, including his son, Bryan, also a chef, who used to cook at Ogden’s eponymous restaurant at Caesars Palace.
To say the party was a feast would be an understatement. But when you have two top chefs in the kitchen, that’s to be expected. Every inch of table space was laden with mini grilled cheese sammies, deviled eggs, ribs, buttermilk fried chicken wings, steak tacos with homemade tortillas, sliders with homemade dill pickles, mac ‘n’ cheese, enough Dungeness crab to feed an army, the world’s tastiest hummus, ceviche and mini crème brulees.
The feast may have been in honor of the Super Bowl. But it also was a fitting welcome home for this chef, who left his mark in the Bay Area long ago and has returned to begin an exciting new chapter in his life.
To find out more about Ogden’s plans, read my story in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle Food section.
Recipes by Bradley Ogden: Buttered Brussels Sprouts and Chestnuts
And: Butterscotch Pudding
What a fun sounding show and lovely food!
Cheers,
Rosa
Hi Carolyn,
Can’t wait to see this show. I’ve been to the restaurant. I’m a Bay Area Native, glad to have found your site. Love all the inside scoop you have here.
-Gina-
To be a guest at any of his house parties would be a dream for my taste buds.
Now that’s a fancy super bowl party. Was the game even on TV or were people just busy watching the filming and eating? 😉
Ben: LOL The game was actually on the TV, and there were people watching it. Though, I would say the majority of us were just too busy stuffing our faces to care who was scoring in the game. 😉
I’m so jealous! That fried chicken and mac and cheese has my name on it!
Oh wow, each dish looks better than the last! And so fun that you got to go to this. Bradley Ogden is a very talented chef and I can’t wait to see his show when it airs.
Sounds like it’s gonna be an awesome show with tons of great food!
How come I didn’t get the invitation? 😛 It must have been lost in the mail. Looks like a fun event full of delicious foods. I’ll take some ceviche for breakfast, please!
Looks like a great feast there, and the show with Bradley Ogden should very interesting!
How fun! I can’t wait to see his show, what a spread!
Carolyn, great article on SF Chronicle!
Now that is the way to spend Super Bowl! What a great party, and sounds like it will be a fantastic show! Will pop over and read your article as well 🙂