What more festive way to celebrate the holidays and usher in the new year than with a great cocktail.
A vibrant green one at that with a deeply peppery taste.
“Arugula Gimlet” is a recipe in the new book, “Every Cocktail Has A Twist” (Countryman Press), of which I received a review copy.
It’s by the Sonoma-based couple, Carey Jones, a food and spirits writer who was the managing editor of Serious Eats, and John McCarthy, a mixologist and sports writer.
What makes this book especially fun is that it includes recipes for 25 classic drinks, but then goes further to provide 200 variations on them.
Chef de Cuisine Willer Larreal Perez presides over the 10-seat Sushi by Scratch inside The Matheson.
Hidden behind a door in what was once a private dining room at The Matheson in downtown Healdsburg sits a restaurant within a restaurant.
It is all of 10 seats, situated around a u-shaped sushi bar, behind which three chefs slice, form, dollop, and blow-torch seafood into precious morsels of nigiri.
We’ve all had sushi that’s been decimated by cream cheese, mayonnaise, and gloppy sweet sauces. Sushi by Scratch is not that, even if the pristine fish does get finished with what at first may seem unlikely adornments. Instead, the effect here is far more finessed.
Opened in December, this is the first location of the reservation-only, omakase restaurant that started in Los Angeles in 2017 and has quickly spread to include outposts around the country, as well as in Montreal. Chef Philip Frankland Lee, who competed on “Top Chef” and his wife, Pastry Chef Margarita Kallas-Lee, founded the restaurant. A favorite of a bevy of celebrities, it held a Michelin star in 2021 and 2022.
I had a chance to try the experience last week, when I was invited in as a guest of Sushi by Scratch.
Bluefin tartare cannoli — that you’ll only receive if you show up 30 minutes before your reservation.
Dinner is 17 courses of nigiri at $185 per person. A word to the wise when booking: You will note that the reservation invites you to arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled reservation for a complimentary welcome cocktail. You might be tempted to blow this off if you’re not interested in a cocktail or don’t want to be bothered with arriving early. This would be a major mistake.
If you’ve ever been guilty of procrastibaking, raise your hand.
Uh, yes, that would be me, multiple times when I’ve pushed aside writing deadlines for a few hours because I just felt the urge to bake a batch of cookies.
And if you’ve ever stressed baked, raise your other hand,
Yes, me again, both arms up, as I’ve been guilty of sliding a Bundt cake or pan of brownies into the oven when everything else has seemed too overwhelming.
Jack Hazan knows those times all too well. After all, he’s an actual New York City psychotherapist and founder of Modern Therapy Group, who also happens to be the chief baking officer of JackBakes, a baked goods company whose breads are now carried in more than 5– online and brick-and-mortar stores.
He’s also the author of “Mind Over Batter” (Chronicle Books, 2022), of which I received a review copy. It’s a novel self-care cookbook that touts baking as therapy.
Let’s face it, as merry and fun as the holidays are, they can also raise the roof on anxiety as we all try to be everything to everyone and feel obligated to accept every invitation that comes our way.
In the daytime, you might get Italian salumi sandwiches. But at night, this stunner is on the menu at Troubadour.
By day, Healdsburg’s Troubadour Bread & Bistro is a sandwich shop, albeit an extraordinary one. But come night, it morphs stunningly into a veritable Michelin-starred dining experience.
Yes, the popular downtown cafe, where you can pick up a pumpkin seed dukkah-dusted chicken salad on heavenly bread baked by sister bakery Quail & Condor, transforms into Le Diner, four nights a week. That’s when it serves a French-California prix fixe worthy of blinding the radar of those discriminating inspectors.
That’s because there’s major talent behind this endeavor in the form of the husband-and-wife team that opened Troubadour and Quail & Condor, Executive Chef Sean McGaughey and Executive Pastry Chef Melissa Yanc McGaughey. They both worked previously at nearby Michelin three-starred SingleThread Farms & Restaurant. He was its chef de cuisine, and she was its hotel baker.
Look for the sign for Troubadour in downtown Healdsburg.
The couple also heads up the kitchen team at Molti Amici, founded by Jonny Barr, a former general manager at SingleThread, whose wife Tiffany Spurgeon, another SingleThread alum, runs front-of-house at Troubadour’s Le Diner.
It may be called “Gingerbread Coffee Cake,” but it boasts no mountain of crunchy streusel on top like you might imagine.
Instead, this coffee cake actually has brewed coffee in it.
Along with a bountiful array of invigorating spices.
So much so, you won’t even miss the absence of a crumb topping.
This cake is so extraordinary that when Zingerman’s Bakery made the decision not to include it in its first cookbook, “Zingerman’s Bakehouse” (Chronicle Books, 2017), regulars were aghast.
Fortunately, the beloved 30-year-oled, Ann Arbor, MI bakery rectified that omission by featuring it in its newest cookbook, “Zingerman’s Bakehouse’s Celebrate Every Day” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy.
The book is a collaborative project by the team at Zingerman’s that includes managing partner Amy Emberling, marketer Lindsay-Jean Hard, editor Lee Vedder, and marketing manager and food photographer Corynn Coscia.
The idea for this cookbook grew out of the pandemic, when people were eating out less, and desiring to cook and bake more at home. The Zingerman’s staff used that time to write down more of its best-loved recipes to share.
