by Christina Waters | Dec 6, 2007 | Home |
Cynthia Sandberg, whose Love Apple Farm is the biodynamic kitchen garden for Manresa (two Michelin stars, David Kinch chef), emailed to show off her new mouth-watering eNewsletter/blog – Grow Better Veggies. It’s loaded with wonderful ideas, recipes, growing intensives and more good stuff to motivate your inner gardener. Add it to your daily web grazing. And sign up so it will come directly to your email in box.
That’s the tomato queen herself on the right, holding one of her hefty heirloom pomodori.
by Christina Waters | Dec 5, 2007 | Food, Home |
First off, there are changes on Water Street. Il Trullo is changing hands – and soon to become something called Limoncello. The word on the street is that Giovanni di Maiao, chef of the original Cafe Bella Napoli, might be coming back to the kitchen. Mangiamo, and stay tuned!. . . And work continues to progress on the long-awaited reincarnation of Oswald. I talked with Eric Lau yesterday and he admits that the opening date has been pushed back to mid-February. But that yes, Damani and Keet are both be on board as partners. “We’re ready to shift into restaurant mode,” said Lau, who admitted the whole build-out of that corner space at Front and Soquel is “very complicated. There are lots of engineering issues.”
Lau also revealed that the new Oswald will open with a full bar — “and that’s pretty exciting. We’re really striving to create something that can deliver the excitement that Oswald did in 1995,” he said. “We want to grow it and redefine it – polish up the concept a bit.”
I told Lau that we were all getting hungry. . . .
by Christina Waters | Nov 28, 2007 | Home |
Photographer Tana Butler has just released a 2008 calendar loaded with her juicy images of farmers market bounty. A certified organic groupie, Butler just can’t stay away from open-air farmers markets. Collecting some of her choicest images of freshly-harvested produce, she has produced one of the most eye-catching holiday gift items to ever deserve the “local” label.
Think of Butler as the Annie Liebovitz of fresh food – she does for tomatoes what the Rolling Stone photographer does for Mick Jagger. Makes everything look exciting, sensuous and available for fondling. Food porn without apologies. (Those are Windmill Farms strawberries on the mouth-watering cover.) (more…)
by Christina Waters | Nov 27, 2007 | Home |
A little-known opera by Puccini provided the vehicle for Romanian superstar Angela Gheorghiu’s San Francisco Opera debut last week. The opera, La Rondine, a Viennese cream-puff wrapped in Italian histrionics deserves to remain obscure — especially with the cloying sets and mono-dimensional lighting provided by the underwhelming SF Opera production. But the voice! The chance to hear the effortless crescendoes, the burnished center and remarkable beauty of Gheorghiu’s voice was worth driving up to the city for.
Her’s is not only a rare instrument, but the packaging is also terrific. Gheorgiu, who apparently owns Puccini these days, is a tall, statuesque, gorgeous woman. She can act, she can move and she sings like a young Maria Callas. If only we could pronounce it, her’s would easily become an operatic household name.
by Christina Waters | Nov 27, 2007 | Home, Travel, Wine |
Bay Area chef Chris Kobayashi and his brothers have joined the new transformation of downtown Paso Robles into a food and wine destination. Their smart dining room – Artisan – offers a wine list of local all-stars and serious, accomplished local, organic foods to match.
Since our longtime favorite Paso Robles restaurant, Bistro Laurent, was closed on sunday, we made reservations for dinner at Artisan on our way to Thanksgiving in the Mojave.
From two sensational local wines – one a cab from Firestone, the other a “Cuvee des Artistes” blend from RN Estate – to a mini dessert of warm cookies, we were charmed right down to our trail runners.
The opening dish of seared yellow fin tartare, arranged in a fan of crimson seafood, arrived with a tangy fried green tomato and frisee salad. Killer. Jack’s entree of natural pork porterhouse was tender and juicy, sided with sweet potatoes and baby turnips. My Kobe beef cheeks came with stupendous buttermilk mashed potatoes, broccoli rabe, infant heirloom carrots and more of those thumbnail-sized white turnips. Even though the beef tasted more like gelatinous pot roast than anything else, the side dishes were better than great.
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