Category Archives: Bakeries

After Hours in the Bakery at Baker & Banker

"XXX Chocolate Cake'' -- one of the perks of dining after closing at a bakery.

For anyone with a sweet tooth like mine, it’s a fantasy come true to eat to your stomach’s content in a bakery after it’s closed for the night.

I wasn’t exactly let loose to scour the pantry, though. Instead, I was invited recently to dine as a guest of the restaurant with a few other food writers in what is essentially the private dining room at Baker & Banker in San Francisco.

The acclaimed restaurant in Pacific Heights, owned by husband-and-wife Pastry Chef Lori Baker and Chef Jeff Banker, also has an adjacent bakery. After closing each night, the bakery is available for private parties. It has to be a small one, though, as there’s enough room for only eight at the one table set up right by the bakery counter. There’s also a minimum of five diners required.

The 8-person table in the private dining room (in the bakery) at Baker & Banker.

A reminder that you're inside a bakery.

To get to it, you walk into the restaurant, head to the back, go through the small kitchen, and walk down a few stairs right into the heart of the bakery.

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Thumbprint Scones

Thumbprint scones filled with sweet-tart, creamy lemon curd.

Imagine your favorite thumbprint cookie, but blown up to the size of a tender, crumbly scone.

That’s what these pastries basically are. They also boast the unlikely name of “Thugs-‘n’-Harmony.”

They’re from the new cookbook, “The Sugar Cube” (Chronicle Books), of which I recently received a review copy.

Author and baker Kir Jensen gave up her fine-dining career path to sell her handmade treats out of a food truck called the Sugar Cube in Portland, Ore. instead.

Jensen, who worked at Trio in Chicago and Florio Bakery in Portland, offers up 50 recipes for cupcakes, cookies, tarts, muffins and candies. Her treats are homespun meets kick-ass. They’re familiar, but given newfangled spins, as well as playful names such as “Twisted Toll House” cookies and “Beta Believe It” smoothie.

You can make these scones as simple wedges. But why, when you can make over-sized thumbprints instead? Fill them with your favorite jam or lemon curd, as I did.

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Afternoon Tea at Craftsman and Wolves, Boozy Otter Pops & More

Not your ordinary afternoon tea at Craftsman and Wolves. (Photo by William Werner)

Craftsman & Wolves’ Spin on Afternoon Tea

When the very creative Pastry Chef William Werner decided to offer up a new afternoon tea at his Craftsman & Wolves patisserie in San Francisco, you knew it wasn’t going to be the usual staid cucumber sandwich affair.

Instead think apple gruyere scones, buckwheat crumpets, clotted cream and olive oil curd.

Not to mention beet root madelines and salt cod with brioche.

Choose either a pot of Naivetea’s oolong or tisane to go along with it all.

The menu will change with the seasons.

Afternoon tea, available Monday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., is $22 per person or $40 for two. Reservations are recommended by calling (415) 913-7713.

Some of the creative sweets and savories served with tea at Craftsman and Wolves. (Photo by William Werner)

Veteran San Francisco Chef Carlo Middione Hosts Two Special Dinners

Long-time Chef Carlo Middione and art connoisseur Daniel Friedlander are teaming up for two nights of wining and dining amid magnificent artwork in an 1908 landmark building in San Francisco, Oct. 18 and Oct. 20.

Middione who for decades owned the stellar Vivande and Vivande Porta Via, both in San Francisco, lost most of his senses of smell and taste four years ago following a car accident in which his small sedan was broadsided by another vehicle. Despite that, he’s still able to cook rather magnificently, as evidenced by the lunch he cooked for me when I profiled him two years ago for a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Gravensteins Are Here & More

Get them while you can -- beautiful Gravenstein apples. (Photo courtesy of the FruitGuys

Gravenstein Apple Time

With peaches, plums and strawberries galore at farmers markets, it’s hard to think about apples already.

But don’t dawdle, as it’s prime time for Gravensteins.

The heirloom apple is beloved for its juiciness, as well as its wonderfully balanced sweet-tart flavor. It’s perfect for turning into apple sauce or pies. But it has a very short growing season, and doesn’t keep long unlike other apple varieties that can last quite awhile in cold storage.

Gravensteins once were the main apple crop in Sebastopol. But as vineyards moved in, orchards soon dwindled.

Slow Food has worked hard to make sure Gravensteins don’t ever disappear.

For the past couple of years, the FruitGuys, a produce delivery service, has partnered with Gravenstein farmers to offer these storied apples — but only through Aug. 24. A box of Gravensteins start at $24, while a box of organic ones start at $40, depending upon your zip code, as they are shipped overnight. Each box is accompanied by a few Gravenstein apple recipes, too, to get you started.

Moreover, the FruitGuys are donating 17 percent of all profits from the apple boxes back to the participating Gravenstein farmers to  help ensure these apples never cease to exist.

Grape to Glass in the Russian River Valley

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to take a drive to Sonoma County’s picturesque Russian River Valley, there’s no better one than the 17th Annual Grape to Glass Pre-Harvest Party, Aug. 18 at 4 p.m. at Richard’s Grove & Saralee’s Vineyard in Windsor.

The party kicks off with a tasting reception, showcasing more than 50 wineries, as well as gourmet noshes by local restaurants and caterers.

But save room for the barbecue dinner that follows, which will be prepared by Smokehouse Bistro. Dessert will be apple pie a la mode made with Gravensteins.

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A Visit to Della Fattoria in Petaluma

A flaky snail and a banana-bran muffin from Della Fattoria.

I owe my latest carb binge to Chef Adam Mali.

When I was dining recently at his restaurant, Brasserie S&P in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in San Francisco, I’d occasionally come up for air from devouring his dishes only to find myself drawn completely and helplessly to the bread.

Smoky, with a hefty dark crust and a chewy interior full of delightful air holes and developed fermented flavor, I couldn’t stop eating slice after slice.

Of course, I had to ask him where it came from.

When he told me it was baked in wood-fired ovens at Della Fattoria in Petaluma, I knew I had to stop in the next time I was in the vicinity.

So, I did earlier this week.

A hearty loaf fragrant with Meyer lemon and rosemary.

Bon Appetit magazine has called it one of the Top 10 bread bakeries in America. One taste and you’ll agree.

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