Category Archives: Going Green and Sustainable

Miracles Do Happen

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My home-grown tomato

My husband calls me “Black Thumb Jung.”

OK, so maybe I’m not the world’s greatest gardener. I should get an “A” for effort, though. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved planting things, nurturing things, and watching things grow. Only, I’m not always the best at it. Try as I might, I have been known to kill things that are supposed to be indestructible. That includes cactus and ivy. Go figure.

That’s why the beautiful red tomato you see above is a true miracle. You see, this tomato plant isn’t still supposed to be alive. But somehow it is. I planted this Carmello tomato plant in the spring of 2007, along with two other different tomato seedlings. And they all grew. And they all gave me luscious and delicious tomatoes all summer long.

When fall hit, they stopped producing, as normal. When winter hit, they started to shrivel and droop. And when the rains came, I began to totally ignore them, figuring come next spring, I’d just dig them up and replant new seedlings like I always do.

It wasn’t until mid-January that I noticed it. While the other two tomato plants were goners, this one plant was still green. Not only that, there were actually about half a dozen tiny tomatoes growing out of the blossoms. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Plants I carefully tend and worry over pay me back by dying on me. But this Carmello, which I had not watered, had not fertilized, and had not given the time of day to for months, was thriving.

This tomato is just about ready for picking. I intend to enjoy it simply: Just sliced with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil, and a tiny sprinkle of sea salt.

And when I’m done savoring it, I’ll raise a thumb in triumph — one that’s, thankfully, not exactly ebony anymore.

Take Five With Parcel 104’s Robert Sapirman

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Robert Sapirman, executive chef of Parcel 104

Imagine cooking without such staples as sugar, chocolate, vanilla beans, cinnamon, coffee, and even pepper. That’s the challenge that Executive Chef Robert Sapirman and his crew at Parcel 104 restaurant in Santa Clara are taking on with the second annual “104-Mile Dinner” on June 7.

 That night, every ingredient used must come from no more than 104 miles from the restaurant (measured from point to point in a straight line). Climate Clean of Portland, Ore. will be working with the restaurant to mitigate and offset the greenhouse gas emissions generated from this $125-per-person dinner.

The seven-course dinner includes Point Reyes oysters, local petrale sole, and pork belly from pigs raised in the Yosemite area. Also on the menu are Cornish game hens that were slaughtered, then air-chilled, as opposed to the conventional method of water chilling. Proponents of this method favor it because they consider it more sanitary (studies so far, though, are inconclusive). In air-chilling, the poultry also absorbs less water, making for a crisper skin when cooked and more intense flavor.

Watercress and beignet dessert by Pastry Chef Carlos Sanchez

Parcel 104’s pastry chef, Carlos Sanchez, will be ending the night with a refreshing dessert of Sausalito Springs watercress topped with strawberry sorbet made with honey, fresh strawberries the staff will pick the day before in Sonoma, and tiny beignets of Bellwether Farms Carmody cheese.

The menu is subject to change, of course, since it’s all based on what’s available locally at the time.

I sat down with Sapirman to find out the most difficult aspects of creating such a dinner.

Q: You came on board as chef last year just as the restaurant was about to do the 104-mile dinner for the first time. I think I detected just a tiny glint of fear and panic in your eyes then. How is it different this time around?

A: Last year, it was all about what could we get our hands on. It was a real race to find things. This year, we have more time, and we’re able to reach out to see that’s really out there.  Last year at the last minute, we were able to find wheat flour in Sonoma, so we were able to make crackers for the beet salad. This year, we’ve already discovered that Full Belly Farm (an hour northwest of Sacramento) — which is right on the edge of our 104-mile limit, and believe me, I measured it — produces flour and wheat berries.

Q: Last year, you guys were in a tizzy because you thought you wouldn’t be able to use salt. But at the last second, you found a source?

A: Yes, we get salt from underneath the Dumbarton Bridge. There are salt flats there. And a producer makes this very coarse pretzel salt from there that we have to grind ourselves until it’s finer.

Q: So there will be salt, but no peppercorns?

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A Mackerel Match Made In Heaven

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Stuart Brioza's mackerel

My husband can attest to the fact that mackerel is not one of my fave fishes. In fact, usually when I get a slice in an assortment of sushi or sashimi, it always ends up on his plate instead.

Stuart Brioza knows it’s a hard-sell, too, even if mackerel (wild-caught king and Spanish) is one of the best seafood choices on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide. Nevertheless, Brioza, the executive chef of Rubicon in San Francisco, made many a convert when he cooked a fabulous honey, soy, and beer broiled mackerel with sesame-lime glaze at the recent “Cooking For Solutions” gala at the aquarium. The usual strong taste of the mackerel was tempered by the marriage of the other sweet, aromatic, and citrusy ingredients. The result was like a less sweet unagi. And it was scrumptious.

Speaking of marriage, Brioza and his longtime girlfriend, Nicole Krasinski, Rubicon’s pastry chef, will finally be tying the knot. The couple, who met 13 years ago in a photography class at De Anza College in Cupertino, will be getting hitched on a friend’s farm in Hilo in September. Krasinski, who’s not fond of cake (say what?), plans on serving their guests exotic citrus tarts instead.

It’s shaping up to be quite a year for Brioza, who grew up in Cupertino and Danville, and Krasinski, who is a Los Gatos native. In the July issue of Food & Wine magazine, the couple will be featured in a story about the peach tree they adopt every year at Mas Masamoto’s renowned peach farm just outside of Fresno. Look for mouth-watering sweet and savory peach recipes.

The happy couple in front of the jellyfish exhibit.

And for those of you who love mackerel — and those of you who don’t quite yet — here’s Brioza’s recipe that’s guaranteed to please.

Honey, Soy and Beer Broiled Mackerel with Sesame-Lime Glaze

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Take Five With the Food Network’s Alton Brown

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Alton Brown dishes on fishy stuff in Monterey

At first thought, the Food Network’s wacky wizard of food, Alton Brown, might seem an unlikely choice to be a host at this past weekend’s “Cooking For Solutions” event at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

But Brown, an avid scuba diver and father of an 8-year-old daughter, knows full well the challenges we face now and in the future in sustaining the ecosystems of our oceans. At the “Cooking For Solutions” event, which gathered chefs, scientists, and food producers to examine ways to preserve the health of the planet, Brown summed up his philosophy as only he can.

When it comes to seafood, he said, “My motto comes from the side of the old Los Angeles police cars: Serve and Protect.”

I chatted with the energetic, surprisingly frank 46-year-old megastar, whose “Good Eats” show, which he directs and writes most of the scripts for, debuted on the Food Network in 1999. A graduate of both the University of Georgia and the New England Culinary Institute, he now lives in Marietta, Ga. with his wife, DeAnna, and daughter, Zoey. Brown also is the commentator for “Iron Chef America,” host of the “Next Iron Chef,” and star of “Feasting on Asphalt.”  Additionally, he has his own production company, Be Square Production.

He wasn’t always a natural at science. Nor was he always a foodie. In fact, previously he was a cinematographer and video director. You can see his work in R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” video.

Q: So science wasn’t something you were always passionate about?

A: No, not at all. I flunked chemistry twice in high school, mostly because it didn’t matter. It was all numbers and formulas, and ‘let’s cut up a rat.’

Q: So how did you come up with the concept for “Good Eats,” which is all about explaining the science of cooking?

A: I wanted to give people a practicality they could build on. In culinary school, I realized I wasn’t a very good cook. To figure out how to do it better, I realized science was the answer.

Q: When did sustainability become so important to you?

A: When I became a father. I began to relive my life through my daughter when I was that same age of 8 years old. I became so aware that so much had changed. We no longer place much value on our food; we value cheapness.

My Mom grew up very poor. They grew their own food, they had their own chickens. We’ve made it now so that poor people can’t grow food so easily, and they can’t keep chickens. There are all these regulations. We’ve made it so that with poverty in America, there’s no self-respect.

Q: How else did becoming a father change your viewpoints?

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News for Sushi Lovers

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James Shimuzu, IMP Foods\' best fillet person, prepares to cut a Kindai tuna.

If you’re a connoisseur of toro, the richest, silkiest and fattiest part of the belly of a bluefin tuna, you’ll want to know about a new tuna, Kindai, that’s being served at a handful of the Bay Area’s top restaurants, including the French Laundry in Yountville, Manresa in Los Gatos, and the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco.

Wild bluefin tuna has been severely overfished in the past decades. But Kindai is the first farmed tuna raised in captivity from eggs. And it’s the result of 32 years of research by Kinki University’s Fisheries Laboratory in Japan.

Only one shipment comes in each week from Japan. And the Bay Area is one of the few places that gets it. The Kindai tuna is distributed in this area by Hayward’s IMP Foods, Inc., which supplies seafood to the Bay Area’s best sushi bars. Read more about Kindai tuna in my story today in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Food section.

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