Category Archives: Food TV

Model Bakery’s Famous English Muffins Now Available Through Mail-Order

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The famous Model Bakery English muffins. (Photo courtesy of the bakery)

Thank Chef Michael Chiarello for this.

The chef-owner of Bottega restaurant in Yountville and a long-time Napa Valley resident recently appeared on an episode of  the Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” show, in which he rhapsodized about the English muffins at the Model Bakery in St. Helena.

The next thing ya know, the phone is ringing off the hook at the bakery from people around the country dying to try these wonderful, fresh-made muffins.

So, the bakery, which has been around for more than 80 years and now has a second outpost in Napa, has finally made them available through mail-order.

After all, we can’t all be as fortunate as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who were visiting Wine Country a couple days ago. According to a source, the celeb couple had their personal assistant run over to the bakery for some goodies to satisfy their craving, before they departed aboard their private jet.

Puffy and rich. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

I’ve long been a fan of these English muffins, too, which are quite rich and buttery tasting because they are made from a brioche dough. These are not English muffins that have nooks and crannies galore. They are more pastry-like with an airy, fluffy texture that you can’t wait to sink your teeth into.

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Take Five with Yigit Pura, On His Sweet Victory on “Top Chef Just Desserts”

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Yigit Pura dishes on his victory in "Top Chef Just Desserts.'' (Photo courtesy of Pura)

If you tuned into the insanely wild first season of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef Just Desserts,” you know that Yigit Pura brought sweet victory home to San Francisco. The executive pastry chef of Taste Catering and Event Planning triumphed over formidable challenges and plenty of histrionics to win a cool $100,000.

A native of Turkey, Pura has felt at home in the kitchen ever since he was a tot, helping his mom make dark caramel and other sugary goodies. Self-taught, he worked in New York at Le Cirque 2000 and Restaurant Daniel, before moving to San Francisco, where he now works on a variety of events that range in scale from a dinner for eight in a private home to a Major League Baseball fete for 5,000 people. Following his win, the board of supervisors even proclaimed Nov. 17 as “igit Pura Day” in the city.

This week, I had a chance to talk to the 30-year-old Pura, about life before, during and after the show.

Q: I’ve watched ‘Top Chef’ since its inception and I have to say I’ve never seen such drama as on ‘Top Chef Just Desserts.’ Is the world of pastry really that over-the-top?

A: (laughs) Pastry chefs tend to be more meticulous creatures, and with that comes a need for more of a sense of control. We’re definitely more eccentric than the savory side.

Q: Why did you want to do the show?

A: I got approached by Bravo. I had always watched ‘Top Chef,’ so it was a tempting offer. I couldn’t say ‘No.’ I thought it would be an interesting platform to showcase pastry chefs’ work instead of just having it be an afterthought after the savory courses, as it usually is.

For one of the challenges, Pura created this elegant hazelnut dacquoise with milk jam and salted caramel ice cream. (Photo courtesy of Bravo TV)

Q: What was the hardest challenge?

A: There were a few of them. The ‘Celebritea’ challenge, where we had to create a dessert based on a celebrity couple. (Pura chose Madonna and Guy Ritchie.) I had a hard time grasping that in my core. I felt I wasn’t in my body then. After the restaurant wars challenge, I was a mess. I tend to be pretty grounded, but with the lack of sleep, I just felt the floodgates open. It was definitely not my finest moment. But I finally was able to channel all of that to just get re-inspired in the competition.

Q: What surprised you most about doing the show?

A: I tend to plan things a lot in my work when I create recipes and do events. Confronted with such time constraints and limitations on the show, I was amazed I could be so spontaneous under such conditions.

Q: Of all your competitors, whose pastries/desserts would you most want to eat on your day off?

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A Few of Jamie Oliver’s Favorite Things

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Mustard with a real kick.

Celeb chef and kids’ nutrition revolutionary, Jamie Oliver, has searched the United Kingdom for handmade, artisan food products to share with the rest of the world.

His hand-picked collection of condiments, cookies and teas — under the Jme label — is now available at Williams-Sonoma.

Recently, I got a chance to sample some of the products, many of which would make great holiday gifts and stocking stuffers.

Jamie Oliver's mustard is chunky and complex.

First up, Jme One Mean Mustard.

Don’t you just love the name?

It sure packs a punch with jalapeno, tumeric, paprika, dark brown sugar and white wine vinegar.

More like a mustard crossed with a chutney, it’s spicy, tangy, sweet, chunky and complex. One taste had me thinking of how great this would be slathered over grilled chicken.

An 8.3-ounce jar is $14.

Buttery, nutty cookies.

Next, Jme Nutty Pecan & Pumpkin Seed Biscuits. Made by London bakers, these shortbread cookies are extremely buttery and crunchy, with a distinct vanilla flavor. Made with Welsh butter, they’re studded with nuts and seeds for added contrast.

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Take Five with Ming Tsai, on His Experiences on the “Next Iron Chef”

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Ming Tsai (photo courtesy of the chef)

He’s only 46 years old, but Chef Ming Tsai of the 12-year-old Blue Ginger restaurant in Massachusetts was an early pioneer of modern-day cooking shows with his innovative East-meets-West flavors that are more relevant today than ever.

Indeed, he’s now doing Season 8 of his “Simply Ming’’ show on public television. And he just missed winning this season’s “Next Iron Chef’’ competition on the Food Network, coming in third.

Yesterday, I had a chance to talk to him by phone about how the landscape of food television has changed, as well as his timely new cookbook, “Simply Ming One-Pot Meals” (Kyle Books).

Q: When the lineup for ‘Next Iron Chef’ was first announced, a lot of folks were surprised to see your name. In fact, my friends thought that the Food Network should have just made you an Iron Chef, that you’d already earned it after all these years.

A: I wish your friends worked at the Food Network. (laughs) It would have saved me a lot of work and time.

Q: Why did you want to compete on the show?

A: For fun. I enjoy competition and cooking. It’s the only format out there that’s legit. I think the judges were fair, though, I didn’t always agree with what was said. But Michael Symon was spot-on for the most part.

I wasn’t out to prove to the world that I could still cook. But I was out to prove to the rest of the world that I still had game. This seemed like the perfect format. I had enough staff at the restaurant to cover for me since we were shooting for five-plus weeks. It was a huge time commitment. But it was a blast.

It was as hard as I thought it would be. You have 30 minutes to do one dish or 60 minutes to do several dishes. You just have to put your head down and go for it. The hardest challenge was the Vegas buffet. It was brutal. People were getting delirious.

I’m certainly glad I did it. I made some great friends for life. Marc Forgione and Bryan Caswell are solid guys. Those are guys I probably would have never hung with. They’re 10-15 years younger than me. I tend to hang out with Jean Georges (Vongerichten) and Daniel (Boulud) — guys like that.

Q: I heard that some of the other chefs such as Duskie Estes were calling you, ‘Uncle Ming’?

A: Some of them did say that. (Marco) Canora called me that and he’s 43! I was the oldest there. But I was not in the worst shape of any of them. I loved the fact that they were thinking about me so much for the first couple of shows that they weren’t even concentrating on their own food.

Q: Did you like the way you were portrayed, i.e. the comments about your plating being stuck in the 1980s and the scene with the messy sous vide machine?

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Speedy, Simple Sides Part I: The Mushrooms

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Spectacular shiitakes that take practically no time to cook.

At this time of year especially, we can’t ever have enough recipes for side dishes that are versatile, effortless and crowd-pleasers.

“Sauteed Shiitake Mushrooms with Sage” fits that bill perfectly.

It takes barely 10 minutes to make and goes well alongside everything from poultry to pork to beef.

And it’s from suave Chef Eric Ripert of New York’s renowned Le Bernardin. It’s from his new cookbook, “Avec Eric” (Wiley), a companion to his similarly named, intelligent PBS cooking show.

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