Category Archives: “Take Five” Q&A

Take Five with “Iron Chef America” Star, Cat Cora, on Life After the Bay Area

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Why can't we all look this glam when we cook? (Photo courtesy of Cat Cora)

A decade ago, Bay Areans might remember Chef Cat Cora as manning the stoves at Postino Restaurant in Lafayette, and writing a regular cooking column for the Contra Costa Times’ food section.

How times have changed.

The 41-year-old Culinary Institute of America grad has gone big-time. You’ll now find her beaming from TV sets across the nation as the only female “Iron Chef America” star on the Food Network.

Her second cookbook just came out this year: “Cooking From the Hip” (Houghton Mifflin), which bears the same name as her former newspaper column.

Cora is set to open a new restaurant in Costa Mesa in December. And she and her partner, Jen, who have been together a decade, are expecting their third child in April 2009.

I caught up with the petite culinary star with the charming Southern twang at the recent “Worlds of Flavor International Conference” at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone Campus in St. Helena.

Q: Does it feel like a lifetime ago that you were at Postino and writing for your local newspaper?

A: It does feel like another lifetime ago. It feels like I’ve had three lives between then and now. But it was a fun time for me doing the column.

Q: Why did you decide to settle in the Santa Barbara area?

A: I get to live by the beach, mountains and vineyards. Plus the public schools there are probably better than most private ones around the country.

Q: You’re opening a barbecue joint, CCQ (Cat Cora’s Que) at the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa next month? Why barbecue?

A: It was a fluke. I’m on the Macy’s Culinary Council. And I had one conversation with them, and they said, “We want you to do a fast-casual concept.” I thought of barbecue immediately. I’m from the South, and this will be global barbecue. Everyone around the world barbecues. I grew up around it. I wanted to expand on the flavors I love. We’ll use all natural meats and organic products.

Q: Will there be more CCQs around the country?

A: Yes, we own the concept, and we are working on opening others. I’m also working on a new signature restaurant concept. It’ll be fine-dining, and opening in larger cities in 2009.

In 2010, I also hope to roll out my first products — bakeware, cutlery, and pots and pans. We’re going green as much as possible with the product lines. We hope to do things that are innovative, and not just the same ol’ pot or pan.

Q: Why did you want to do “Iron Chef America”?

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Take Five with Sent Sovi’s Josiah Slone, Who Came Home to Forge Success

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Chef-proprietor Josiah Slone (Photo courtesy of Sent Sovi)

Josiah Slone’s story is that of a local boy done good. Born in San Francisco, and raised on the Peninsula, he had a pretty good idea even as a child that he wanted to be a chef one day.

You see, while other kids were watching Looney Toons, he was tuning into the cooking shows of Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and Martin Yan.

After stints in Santa Monica and Jamaica, the 31-year-old chef opened his first restaurant, Saratoga’s Sent Sovi in 2003, realizing his dream of having his own place in his home area.

I sat down with him to chat about the cookbook that changed his life, studying electrical engineering in college, and how everyone else  — except him — felt the pressure when he bought Chef David Kinch’s famed Sent Sovi restaurant.

Q: You actually read the “The Joy of Cooking (Scribner) when you were a kid?

A: I looked through it when I was a really little kid, before I could read very well. It was this big book, and it had two red ribbons in it to mark your place. The old one had menus for bridge parties and afternoon tea. It reminded me of going to my grandma’s house.

I remember cooking out of it when I was in the 6th grade. I made meatloaf out of it, and cookies. It was my Mom’s go-to cookbook. We still have a copy of the “Joy of Cooking” in the kitchen at Sent Sovi. I also took “Joy of Cooking” to Jamaica with me.

A modern take on classic sole.

Q: Did your Mom inspire you to cook?

A: (laughs) My Mom did cook. She likes to say “I taught him everything I know about cooking. It wasn’t very much.”

Q: You’re a Bay Area native. Do you think that’s also a reason why you’re so into food?

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Take Five With Joey Altman, On Life After TV’s “Bay Cafe”

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Joey Altman's first cookbook

For the past nine years, Joey Altman has been a familiar face on TV as the host of KRON’s “Bay Cafe,” where he’s welcomed us into his home and into the kitchens of some of the region’s best restaurants.

Nine months ago, the award-winning show sadly went off the air, the victim of the dismal economy and the unfortunate lack of a major sponsor, Altman says.

Altman fans shouldn’t despair. The 44-year-old, long-time Bay Area chef has been busy for the past year, working as a consulting chef for the new incarnation of Miss Pearl’s Jam House in Oakland, which just opened in late August. Altman was the opening chef for the original Miss Pearl’s Jam House in San Francisco in 1989.

His first cookbook also was published this year: “Without Reservations” (John Wiley & Sons), which is filled with tips and recipes for cooking boldly flavored dishes at home.

I caught up with him recently to talk about life after TV, his disdain for TV dinners, and his favorite TV and music idols.

Q: I remember when “Bay Cafe” first aired. Would it be fair to say that you weren’t nearly as ease on TV as you are now?

A: I was horrid the first 200 shows. They’re unwatchable for me. I was just ‘on’ as opposed to ‘being.’ I’ll go on a show now, and I’ll see other people practice bullet points in front of a mirror. I can’t imagine doing that today. I don’t think about it anymore. I just ‘do.’

Q: Was it sad for you when “Bay Cafe” ended?

A: I was very sad. All of my life has been a series of 90-degree turns. It requires one door to close for another to open. I’m confident I’ll find something. I won’t sit at home and pick lint out of my belly button.

I love the diversity of my career. I’d like to do another cookbook, more consulting on restaurants, and to play with my band (the Back Burner Blues Band, made up of fellow Bay Area chefs), and to a business project that would give me some sort of equity.

Q: Would you like to open another restaurant of your own?

A: God forbid. Not with three young children at home. Knowing what it takes to really make a restaurant work, I don’t want to sacrifice that much in my life right now. As it is, I’m doing 16-hour days at Miss Pearl’s. I’ll be there a couple more months.

Caribbean grilled lamb skewers with long beans. Recipe follows at the end. (Photo by Frankie Frankeny)

Q: Is the new Miss Pearl’s similar to the original one?

A: The sensibilities of both are the same, but it’s really the evolution of the original as if it had continued to grow. The signature dishes are there and the funky drinks. We’re also embracing things that have come on the scene since then — sustainable and local. The cooking there isn’t trendy; there’s not a lot of sous vide or foams happening there. It’s just more sophisticated because the environment is more so than it was before. There are elements of whimsy there. It’s bold flavors that are really dynamic and evocative of island cooking with lots of chilies, ginger, and lime juice.

Q: If you could trade places with anyone on TV, who would it be?

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Take Five With Chef Ron Siegel, On the 10th Anniversary of His Historic “Iron Chef” Triumph

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Chef Ron Siegel in the kitchen at the Cliff House in San Francisco

It’s hard to believe that it will be a decade this Labor Day weekend that Chef Ron Siegel made history, becoming the first and only American to ever beat an “Iron Chef” on the original Japanese-version of that wildly popular culinary TV show.

Siegel, now the celebrated chef of the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, walked into Kitchen Stadium, having never really followed the show, and not fully realizing the magnitude of what was to come. The Japanese also underestimated their American challenger. Siegel had quite the credentials already, having cooked at Aqua in San Francisco and Daniel in New York. The former opening sous chef for the French Laundry in Yountville, Siegel was then the chef of the well-regarded Charles Nob Hill in San Francisco. Even so, the producers of the show feared he wouldn’t even complete any dishes.

But when “Battle Lobster” ended, Siegel had not only crafted five dishes, but food so spectacular that he emerged victorious over Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai. His life, and his cooking, was forever changed.

Even today, diners still come up to shake his hand and congratulate him. And the video on YouTube of the epic battle has attracted more than 4,800 viewers.

You might expect Siegel to be an avid fan of today’s crop of reality-TV cooking shows, but you’d be wrong. Still, he came this close to being on the first season of “Top Chef” _ not as a competitor, but as a judge. In the end, though, the producers went instead with Fleur de Lys in San Francisco as the setting for the first challenge.

Fame, apparently, has not gone to his head. The Dining Room’s pastry chef, Alexander Espiritu, who has worked with Siegel for four years, says, “I’ve never worked with any other chef whom I got along with so well. The most important thing I’ve learned from him is to relax. As Ron always says, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll happen.’ ”

I caught up with the 42-year-old, father-of-four last week when he was the guest chef at a special heirloom tomato dinner at the Cliff House in San Francisco. Siegel had me in stitches, chatting about Iron Chef, his years at Palo Alto High School, and of course, tomatoes.

Q: Would it be fair to say that if you had never done “Iron Chef” that your style of cooking might be quite different today?

A: Yes. I think I probably would have matured enough to let other influences in. But I never would have gone to Japan five times like I did, and learned so much about the food and culture there. The passion the Japanese have for food is just incredible.

Q: What do you think when you look back at your Iron Chef battle?

A: I would go back and do that show again in Japan. I wouldn’t do the American version, though. I don’t think it’s as good. That’s what happens when Americans remake things. “La Femme Nikita” is a prime example of that. I just hope they never remake “Babette’s Feast.”

Q: If the Japanese “Iron Chef” show was still around, who would you choose the next time around to battle?

A: Sakai again. He’s amazing. I remember when I first met him. I was in a suit, and he comes in, wearing this warm-up jacket. I don’t know how old he was then, but the guy was ripped. He looked like Rocky Balboa. And he was just so polite.

Q: So you’re not a fan of the newest cooking competition shows?

A: I saw “Hell’s Kitchen” a few times. Can they not pick someone who can cook on that show? I have seen “Top Chef,” but I don’t really watch it. Actually, I like the History Channel. And “The Shield.” It has nothing to do with cooking, but it was a good show! It was so violent and intense.

Q: You were recently on the Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters” show?

A: For all of 10 seconds. Or maybe 20 seconds. I was tasting steak. They wanted me to test whether if you blow up steak, it’ll taste more tender.

Q: Uh, OK. And does it?

A: Well, they were such small pieces, it wasn’t always easy to tell.

Q: So what do you think about chefs being the new celebrities?

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Take Five With South Bay Chef Justin Perez, A True Survivor

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Chef Justin Perez

The restaurant industry can be a nail-biting, roller-coaster ride. But few chefs have weathered as many jolting ups and downs as Justin Perez.

In 2003, his small Buca restaurant in Campbell faced a David-and-Goliath fight when restaurant chain Buca di Beppo, which has more than 30 locations nationwide, threatened a lawsuit because it believed the name of Perez’s restaurant was too similar and could confuse customers. Rather than face an expensive legal battle, Perez renamed his popular establishment, Restaurant O.

Two years later, a bizarre incident occurred while Perez was relaxing with his family at their San Jose home. A hysterical woman came running up to them, screaming that her husband was going to kill her. Perez and his family took her into their home and called police for help.

His good deed, though, soon turned into a horrific nightmare. His house was subsequently fire-bombed, and bricks hurled through his front windows. The husband’s brother was later convicted of those crimes, but not before Perez, his wife, and their young children were severely traumatized.

In 2006, with his life back together, Perez spent $30,000 to renovate Restaurant O. He did all the work, himself, with the help of a few friends, only to discover a year later that his landlord was selling the property to make way for a senior retirement project there instead.

As word spread about the plans, diners stopped going to the restaurant, believing it was already closed. With so little business, Perez was forced to shutter it.

He was crushed. Yet unbelievably, the worst was yet to come.

I caught up with the 37-year-old chef, who somehow has remained indefatigable through it all.

Q: Your life has been a soap opera, hasn’t it?

A: We used to actually say, ‘As the O turns,’ when we had bad days at Restaurant O.

Q: And after Restaurant O closed, that wasn’t the end of your struggles?

A: No. Around that time, I found out my former director of operations had embezzled about $750,000 from the restaurant. I’d known him for 20 years. He was my best friend. It was pretty devastating.

Q: How did you finally find out?

A: He got really sick last year, and had to stop working. That’s when we found out. He had taken out loans and forged my name on them. We’d give him money to pay the taxes, but we ended up owing more than $300,000 in payroll taxes to the IRS. At one point, I owed close to $1 million to the IRS and to our vendors.

Q: What did you do?

A: I mortgaged my two houses –the San Jose one my family lives in and the one in Oregon that my grandfather lives in. I tried to pay things down as much as I could, but when interest rates went up, that killed me.

I finally filed for personal bankruptcy. So I’m no longer the owner of my company. Chris Flippen, my director of marketing and sales, is. I’m just an employee.

Q: Where is your former best friend now?

A: He disappeared. We filed police reports on him. But nobody knows where he is now.

Q: I don’t know many people who could look so pulled together after going through something like that. How have you managed to do so?

A: I’m back where I started, at square one. But I love it. I’m just happy I got through it. I survived.

Q: Your Restaurant O Catering company is now operating out of La Hacienda Inn in Los Gatos. How did that come about?

A: The owner wants to demolish the property for townhouses. But that won’t happen for a couple years. So he offered it to me in the meantime. I’ve been here since March. The building we have is twice the size of what we had at Restaurant O. And we use the patio for hosting the special wine dinners that we do each month.

Q: Have your customers remained loyal or have they been scared off by the bankruptcy?

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