Category Archives: “Take Five” Q&A

Take Five with Peninsula Chef-Restaurateur Jesse Cool, On Three Decades of Championing Organic Food

Jesse Cool in her organic garden in Palo Alto. (Photo courtesy of Jesse Cool)

Long before it was popular, Peninsula chef-restaurateur Jesse Cool served organic food. Back then, it wasn’t what most diners wanted to eat. They certainly didn’t want to pay extra for it, either.

How the culinary landscape has changed. And Cool couldn’t be more pleased.

Despite hard times for so many restaurateurs now, Cool is coming off her busiest year ever in 2008. There’s more to come, too.

June 7, she’ll host “Dirt to Dining,” a benefit held at her Palo Alto home for the Ecological Farming Association. Spend an afternoon enjoying appetizers, mingling with organic farmers and vintners, and learning about organic gardening and pest control. There also will be a silent auction.

Price is $25 for the garden tour alone; $75 for the organic food and wine tasting if purchased by May 29 ($100 at the door). For information, call (650) 854-1226.

Additionally, Cool just closed her 10-year-old jZCool Eatery in downtown Menlo Park. She is moving her CoolEatz Catering to a larger site in the Menlo Business Park in East Menlo Park. In June, a new organic lunch cafe will open there, as well.

Pasture-raised chutney chicken salad sandwich at the Cool Cafe.

The business park also happens to be where she held her 60th birthday party earlier this year. I sat down with her over lunch at her Cool Cafe inside the Cantor Arts Center in Palo Alto to dish about how her interest in local and sustainable food came about, what she’s most proud of, and whether 60 is indeed the new 40.

Q: You’re the hippest 60-year-old around. How do you do it?

A: I am who I am. I think it’s more organic to be real about your age. I attribute it to exercise, attitude, and eating real good food. It does make a difference.

Q: This is the chicken-and-egg question: Who was the first organics pioneer in the Bay Area — you or Alice Waters?

A: We both were. In the beginning, I was into organics and chemical-free. That spilled into sourcing locally.

In the beginning, Alice was into small, local, and artisan. We were both ingredient-driven.

Q: Back in the day, organic food was a hard sell, wasn’t it?

A: It was when I started with Late for the Train in Menlo Park in 1976 and Flea St. Cafe in Menlo Park in 1980. Back then, I couldn’t put organic on the menu without people thinking it was hippy-dippy, that it was unwashed and unsanitary, which it wasn’t.

Being in the South Bay made it even harder. Just try getting product down here back then. The trucks stopped at San Francisco and Berkeley. I had to go pick up from Niman Ranch, myself.

The cool thing is it’s mainstream now. Food is finally connected to personal, long-term well-being.

Balsamic beet salad with Pt. Reyes blue cheese.

Q: What’s your business philosophy?

A: That the customer comes last. Always.

Q: Really?

A: I decided to do organics for my staff, so they wouldn’t have to wash this stuff off the produce. I didn’t want my staff or the farmers around chemicals. We figured if we took care of our staff and the farmers, that it would spill over to the customers.

Q: You faced some real challenges early on?

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Take Five with Howard Bulka, A Chef Possessed By Pizza

 Chef Howard Bulka sits outside the Palo Alto site that will be transformed into his artisan pizzeria.

After six years of meticulously crafting sophisticated dishes at Marche in Menlo Park, Chef Howard Bulka turned his back on that last year.

He walked away — for the lure of pizza.

Bulka, 50, is still a partner in Marche. But his passion, energy, and creativity aren’t focused on high-end dining anymore. After years of working at white-table-cloth restaurants, Bulka has refocused his sights on down-home eating. It’s all about pies, Pecorino, peppers, and pancetta now.

Howie’s Artisan Pizzeria, presently under construction, is expected to open in the Palo Alto Town & Country Village this summer. For those keeping track, it’ll be in good company next to Sur La Table and two doors down from Kara’s Cupcakes.

Bulka, who lives in Redwood City with his wife and their 7-year-old son, proudly showed off the site to me, with its beamed ceiling, and tiered, 50-seat dining room. He pointed to where the gas oven will be installed to cook the pizzas that will be topped with his own housemade sausage and mozzarella, as well as Fra Mani artisan salumi, and Florida Gulf shrimp. And don’t forget the Straus soft-serve ice cream that will be swirled inside home-made waffle cones.

We talked about why this former executive chef of Silks in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in San Francisco, who had cooking stints at La Toque in the Napa Valley, Square One in San Francisco, and Chez Panisse in Berkeley, got so seduced by flour and water.

Q: This is too funny, but you and I share something in common. We both received economics degrees from San Francisco State University. Of course, I never ended up using mine, opting to use my journalism degree instead.

A: Here’s something even funnier. I started as a journalism major in college. I wrote for the high school newspaper. But in college, I lasted all of three days doing it. I really can’t write. It’s a horrible chore.

In high school, you might get two weeks to write a story. In college, they sit you down at a typewriter and tell you that you have 15 minutes to write something. It was never going to happen.

I went from that to something really practical. (laughs) That was another huge mistake. Economics is not practical.

Q: So in this day and age, with our generation experiencing the likes of an economy we’ve never witnessed first-hand before, you don’t ever regret you didn’t become an economist?

A: Sometimes I regret I wasn’t a venture capitalist. (laughs)

In my senior year in college, I just knew I wanted to be a chef.

Q: You’re not antsy about opening a restaurant in this sickly economy?

A: I’m not scared. Because of the location, and the type of restaurant I’m doing, I think the economy will actually work in my favor. If people are indeed trading down, I think I’d be a good trade-down option.

Q: So we have David Chang in New York going from working at Cafe Boulud to doing modern Korean street food at his mini Momofuku empire. We have Dennis Leary in San Francisco leaving the elegant Rubicon to open his own little diner, Canteen, and an even teenier sandwich shop, the Sentinel. Now, you. Why are so many fine-dining chefs turning to super-casual instead?

A: Part of it is the economy. Clearly, you’d be foolish to open a fine-dining restaurant now or next year, as these things tend to run in 10-year cycles.

It’s also changing tastes. Someone once said to me that the more sophisticated one becomes, the simpler your tastes become. The older I get, the more enamored I am of finding that great bowl of noodles or that great pizza, not some great foam.

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Take Five with Chef Charlie Palmer, From Pigskin Passion to Pig Parts

Chef Charlie Palmer. (Photo courtesy of Dan Waldbridge)

When you hear the name, Charlie Palmer, there’s probably one quintessential image that comes to mind immediately: the sexy, cat suit-garbed “wine angels,” hanging from wires, and scaling the enormous tower of wine bottles at his Aureole restaurant in the city of neon, Las Vegas.

It’s a flashy, glamorous picture, to be sure. It’s also a far different one than Palmer’s very humble upbringing. The son of a farmer-plumber-electrician who could fix anything, he grew up in the small town of Smyrna, New York.

It’s a place where high school football is a huge deal. But for the young Palmer, who was a burly 6-foot-tall by the age of 14, the love for cooking eventually won out over his passion for playing the sport.

His love for pigskin, though, definitely remains.

March 20-21, the mega chef-restaurateur will host his fourth annual Pigs & Pinot weekend. A celebration of the swine and the grape, it will feature guest chefs Michael Mina of the eponymous San Francisco restaurant; Christopher Kostow of the Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena; Philippe Rispoli of France; and Graham Brown of New Zealand.

Palmer prepping pork belly.

Festivities include a cooking class, wine seminars, the “Taste of Pigs & Pinot” (where you can sample a variety of pork dishes and Pinots), and a gala five-course dinner with paired limited-production Pinot Noirs. A renowned judging panel will bestow the “Pinot Cup” award on the best wine.

Tickets to the separate events range from $75 to $300.  For more information, go to http://www.pigsandpinot.com/. Proceeds benefit Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger organization, and the Healdsburg School, a private K-8 school.

Recently, I had a chance to hang out with the 49-year-old chef at his restaurant, Dry Creek Kitchen in the Hotel Healdsburg.

Although he still shuttles to New York every two weeks, this native New Yorker and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, has called Sonoma County home for the past few years. He visited here 15 years ago for the first time, and it was love at first sight.

Q: You have 11 restaurants nationwide now. Is it a scary time to be a restaurateur?

A: I’m a huge optimist, so I’m not scared. I think we’re in an unprecedented time. I think a lot of people are being unrealistic about how long it will last.

We’ve felt it in New York for sure, because we’re so close to Wall Street. Not so much here, though. Knock on wood.

Dry Creek Kitchen Chef de Cuisine Les Goodman plates pork belly two ways.

Q: Are you still working on new projects, despite the dire economy?

Aureole in New York will be moving in May to a new Bryant Park high-rise that’s platinum-rated for energy efficiency. The new location will have a bar-lounge area, which we’ve never had before, plus a wine mezzanine.

We’re working on a 400-room, non-gaming hotel in Las Vegas that’s not on the Strip. It’s a 10-year project.

We’re also building a new small, 36-room hotel a block and a half from the Healdsburg Square, which will open in spring 2010. It’ll be less expensive than the Hotel Healdsburg, and be called H2Hotel.

I’m also working on a pork book that’s not light-hearted. It’s actually bizarre. There are some pretty extreme photos, plus recipes. It’s an art book. At one point, the photographer was doing a photo shoot with two Scandinavian twins in a slaughterhouse in Denmark.  It’s blood, animal parts, and beautiful Scandinavian girls.

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Take Five with Four-Star Chef Eric Ripert, On His Fascinating, New Behind-the-Scenes Book

Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin. (Photo courtesy of Nigel Parry)

You may know Eric Ripert as executive chef of Le Bernardin, one of the few restaurants in New York City to have garnered a four-star rating from the New York Times.

You also may know him from his stints as a guest judge on Bravo TV’s “Top Chef.” You probably recognize him, too, from his appearances on the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations,” with his buddy, the irrepressible Anthony Bourdain.

What you may not know is that this suave, 43-year-old Frenchman has a wicked sense of humor that easily catches you off guard, and that he carries a most interesting collection of items in his pockets every day.

Born in Antibes, France and reared in Andorra, a small country between France and Spain, Ripert left home at age 15 to attend culinary school.  Two years later, he moved to Paris to cook at the famed La Tour d’Argent. That was followed by stints with Joel Robuchon in Paris, then Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., before he moved to New York to work as sous-chef to David Bouley.

Not long after, he became chef de cuisine at Le Bernardin. When the restaurant’s founding chef died unexpectedly, Ripert took over the helm at the tender age of 29. He’s been there ever since, upholding the same high standards.

Ripert’s newest book, “On the Line” (Artisan), is not your standard cookbook. Written with Christine Muhlke, a New York Times editor, it tells the behind-the-scenes story of the restaurant, through evocative text, glorious photos, and signature recipes. It’s a fascinating read.

It explains in detail how the kitchen at this venerable restaurant works, who the players are, and what their tasks are. It’s filled with intriguing facts and lists, including what the employees eat for staff meals (burgers and fries to lobster pasta); the number of pounds of fresh black truffles the restaurant uses each week when in season (6); the average number of minutes it takes to cook a dish (5); and the restaurant’s monthly flower bill ($12,000).

Lobster Cappuccino. (Excerpted from "On the Line'' by Eric Ripert. Nigel Parry and Melanie Dunea photographers.)

Throughout 2009, Le Bernardin will be helping to alleviate hunger by working with City Harvest, an organization dedicated to feeding New York City’s hungry, and which Ripert sits on the board of. During this year, City Harvest will receive $1 for every guest that dines at Le Bernardin. An additional $1 donation will be given to the organization for every guest who buys a copy of “On the Line” at the restaurant.

I had the fun experience of judging cookies galore with Ripert in December at the annual Gene Burns’ Holiday Cookie Exchange contest. A few weeks ago, he graciously made the time to chat by phone while on his book tour.

Q: Of course, one of my first thoughts after reading ‘On the Line’ was that I have to eat at Le Bernardin one day! But I know you had other reasons for wanting to do this book. What were they?

A: I have written two cookbooks before. I didn’t want to do another recipe book. I wanted to do an inspirational book, a documentary on the life of our team. To me, it’s fascinating what a restaurant has to go through in a day in order to deliver excellence.

Q: I often hear people griping when they start seeing $30 entrees on menus. Do you think that most diners are unaware of all that goes into making a dish?

A: I think the clientele is more and more aware. People spend money now without thinking, ‘Oh, I can do that at home for five bucks,’ which of course, is not true. You can’t.

In general in the restaurant industry, the high-end market works with low margins. The profits are very narrow. When you go to luxurious restaurant, it’s a good value.

Q: Compared to going to McDonald’s?

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Take Five with Chris Cosentino, A Chef Who Is Offal Good At What He Does

The one and only Chris Cosentino.

Chris Cosentino, the spiky-haired, take-no-prisoners chef of San Francisco’s acclaimed Incanto, is a man who enjoys extremes.

Particularly when it comes to sports, and cuts of meat.

A chef who designed stickers and T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, “I Love Offal,” started his own salumi company last year, Boccalone, with Incanto’s owner Mark Pastore.

At Incanto, Cosentino is not shy about showcasing more unusual meat and seafood offerings, either. Bloater paste bruschetta, anyone? Get past the name to enjoy a luscious, creamy rich spread made from organ meats of a smoked fish. Wicked good.

Then, there’s the restaurant’s “Whole Beast Dinners” (starting at $55 per person, and you’ll need about 20 of your friends to enjoy it). Sit down to your choice of a whole roast suckling pig, lamb or goat carved tableside. Incanto sells two of those carnivore extravaganzas a month.

Braised beef shank (leg of beast).

They’ve proven so popular that the restaurant just started offering a smaller version of that family-style meal: “Leg of Beast.” The four-course meal ($200 for 6-8 people) is centered around a whole leg of beef. Enjoy unctuous marrow bones (God’s butter, as Cosentino calls it); melty beef tendon stewed with cannelloni beans and sage; a platter of chicory tardivo tossed with zinfandel vinaigrette; and the piece de resistance, a whole braised beef shank — a nearly 20-pound leg of beef that’s been cooked at 200 degrees for 6 hours until it is spoonable-tender.

I had the chance to enjoy the debut of this meat madness at Incanto, and to sit down with Cosentino afterwards, just days before the 36-year-old chef would have surgery.

He quipped, “It’s for implants. C-cups.”

Not quite.

For Cosentino, who enjoys telemark skiing, and raced competitively in single-speed mountain-bike 24-hour ultra endurance races, this will be his third shoulder surgery — the first one on the left shoulder for this right-handed chef.

His body produces a large amount of elastin, he explains, a natural protein that gives elasticity to tissues and organs. In the case of his shoulder, though, the elastin has caused the connective tissues to become like overstretched rubber bands, and they need to be repaired.

Cosentino expects to be back in the kitchen shortly after the operation. But he won’t be able to move his left arm much for about six weeks.

Q: Maybe you should take up hiking instead?

A: That would be too boring.

Q: So which came first — your love for cooking or your love for cycling?

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