Here are two of Rebecca King’s week-old lambs, happily lounging with their moms on the panoramic Watsonville pastures of Deep Roots Ranch.
Seriously adorable bits of life.
(See my profile on King and her fledgling artisanal sheep cheese biz in next week’s Metro Santa Cruz.)
Before he was the Executive Chef of the University Center’s dining room, Terra Fresca, Jamie Smith was chef at Sestri, where he won a following for his stylish and delicious variations on Mediterranean and New California cuisine. At the upstairs dining room in the centrally-located UCSC University Center, Smith has not only created a go-to lunch menu of standards and daily specials, but his handiwork is further finessed by a crew of polished waitstaff.
I joined Inca scholar Carolyn Dean last week for lunch at Terra Fresca and was wowed by the distinctly non-institutional nature of the menu — and of the flavors. Packed with faculty and guests from the “Science Hill” cluster, Terra Fresca has managed to give a sense of atmosphere to the enormous room — sensational views of the surrounding redwoods — with gobs of botanicals. (more…)
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.
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. . . .
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…)
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.
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.