Tracey Taylor

New York Times, May 2 2010

Photo: Thor Swift for the New York Times

Evan Shively was a chef at Postrio, the San Francisco restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck, when it opened in 1989. The restaurant has since closed, and Mr. Shively now runs Arborica, a salvaged wood mill in Marshall that supplies architects and designers with reclaimed walnut, redwood and cypress with which to fashion floors, tables and doors. He lives next to the mill with his partner, the artist Madeleine Fitzpatrick. Mr. Shively visits the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County regularly because, he said, its mission to preserve and restore native biodiversity mirrors his desire to be a steward of the land. (His words have been edited and condensed.)

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS The center is not an inherently exalted spot. It’s a random Californian hillside not unlike many others, a hardscrabble adobe that, year after year, has been added to and enriched, letting it manifest itself over time. Somebody chose to make it extraordinary, which is what makes it inspiring.

ORIGINS OF THE SPECIES I was a puppy prep cook — just starting out at Oliveto in Oakland — when I discovered this place. I wanted to find the source of some beautiful herbal greens that came into the restaurant.

RHYTHMS OF NATURE I think of myself as under pressure because the logs roll in, and if something is not done with them, they’re lost. But, here, the commitment to the effort is so sustained. They have a seed-saving garden that has to be grown out every five years. I look at all the plants and vegetables here and appreciate the fact that it’s a place that values diversity. When I visit, I see varieties of fava beans and garlic I’ve never seen before. And the flowers are woven in for the aesthetics.

San Francisco Chronicle, March 21 2010

Photo of Keba Konte (left) and Eric Maundu by Jessica Pons/San Francisco Chronicle

Unless you are Alice Waters or Barbara Kingsolver, planting and maintaining an edible garden can seem a tad arduous. In her book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” Kingsolver extolled the pleasures of home-grown food, but all the soil amending, weeding and watering - not to mention controlling greedy pests - takes time, effort and, of course, space.

Enter aquaponics, a system of food gardening that has a small but growing fan base, not least because its advantages seem almost too good to be true. An aquaponics installation requires no soil, scant water (2 to 10 percent of what is used in the average vegetable garden), a modest financial outlay and minimal maintenance. There’s no dealing with pesticides, and the system is sustainable and easy to set up. For gardeners conscious of the need to slash their water use during California’s drought, or those with little or no land, this method has a lot to offer.

The cherry on top is that you get to enjoy nurturing a school of pretty fish. Fish can be fed with regular fish food or, eventually, with the fruits of your crop, creating a virtuous circle in which you know precisely what is going into the food you eat. Whether you consider your fish a decorative feature or dinner is up to you.

“My wife and I were blown away when we saw aquaponics for the first time,” says Bob Rudorf, who has a system installed under a grow light in the living room of his Sonoma home and is harvesting baby lettuces and culinary herbs.

Aquaponics combines hydroponics, or water-based planting, with aquaculture, or fish cultivation. The idea is simple: In a closed-loop system, water from a tank full of fish, rich with fish waste, irrigates and feeds plants that grow in a bed of gravel. The plants filter the water, which is then channeled back into the fish tank. The boxed plant bed is typically set at table height to distance it from soil-borne diseases such as the fungi that grow on tomatoes, but there’s another benefit: no need to bend or kneel to tend your plants. Aquatic life can range from goldfish, trout and tilapia to crustacea, frogs and turtles; a simple pump is required to circulate the water. Plants can be grown from seed or as transplants that have been cleaned of soil.

Sustainability in action

Rudorf and his wife, Amelia Belle, discovered aquaponics at the San Francisco Green Festival last fall. Strolling past the exhibits, the couple were disappointed with how little they saw that was truly green. “It screamed commercialism,” Rudorf says. “There were lots of purses made out of recycled candy wrappers.” On an upper level they came upon Oakland aquaponics company Kijiji Grows. “There were these beautiful gardens and blooming flowers,” recalls Rudorf, who decided this was sustainability in action.

Kijiji Grows was started last March by Keba Konte, co-owner of the Guerilla Cafe in north Berkeley, and Eric Maundu, who trained in computer science and industrial robotics. “An aquaponic garden is just one big robot,” he says. The company has worked extensively with children, setting up aquaponic gardens in half a dozen schools and several preschools in Oakland. Maundu says kids are naturally drawn to the simplicity of the gardens and the transparency of how they work.

“Just like with recycling and other sustainable concepts, it’s the kids who are initially energized by the idea, and they pass their enthusiasm on to their parents,” he says.

Kijiji, the Swahili word for village, has also collaborated with Oakland’s Office of Parks and Recreation to create a community garden in Mosswood Park, at the corner of Macarthur Boulevard and Webster Street. In March, their three tabletop beds, one of which uses solar power for its water pump, are bursting with chard, mint, parsley, bok choy and broccoli. The gentle gurgling of the water making its way from the darting goldfish in their black tub to the plants above makes for a soothing aural backdrop.

‘Rains all the time’

Nearby, a number of traditional raised beds tended by neighbors also look abundant, but come the summer months they will require constant irrigation. As Maundu puts it, with aquaponics, “it rains all the time.”

Aquaponic gardens are not as tied to the seasons because they are not tied to the ground. “You can push spring and summer much longer,” Maundu says.

Konte and Maundu bring adults and children to the park to teach them how to create and maintain aquaponic systems. The majority of plants lend themselves to aquaponics, including leafy greens and fruiting and flowering plants. Tuber crops, such as potatoes, are one exception. In the tanks at Mosswood, Kijiji likes to stock goldfish: “Some of the younger children find the whiskered catfish scary,” Maundu says.

Ideal for the poor

Aquaponic systems are ideal for poor communities, here or in developing countries, because they don’t require fertile land, significant water or funding, and in some places families can rely on them for subsistence. Maundu has helped set up installations in Kenya for families who have lost adults to AIDS. In these instances, it is often the family members left behind - children and grandparents - who benefit from a simple aquaponics garden.

“There, it can be a matter of life and death,” Maundu says. It helps that the systems can be built from whatever materials are available locally, be it coconut fibers, rocks, bamboo or wood.

Inka Biospheric Systems, a San Francisco company that produces a variety of aquaponic installations, is looking at how it might provide systems to earthquake-devastated Haiti. Founder Paul Giacomantonio, who started out as a stonemason building fishponds, among other things, and who has worked in Gabon, Senegal and Zimbabwe, says he sees Inka’s “micro farms” as part of an effort to ease poverty.

Inka has created aquaponic gardens at Sanchez Elementary School in San Francisco’s Mission District, and has installed a suspended version of its rotating cylinder garden on the Plastiki, the sailing vessel made of recycled plastic bottles that David de Rothschild intends to sail across the Pacific from San Francisco this year. The garden is clamped onto the vessel’s mizzenmast, and the cylinder is enclosed in a clear covering to create a greenhouse effect and to keep saltwater off the plants.

Inka also has developed a bio-quilt in which seedlings are grown to create vertical walls of plants sustained by water from a fish tank. These are suitable for condo and apartment patios or decks, Giacomantonio says.

In Sonoma, Rudorf is hoping that aquaponic gardens like his may one day be in every public school in the county. “There’s a commitment to put gardens in schools, and it makes sense for them to be aquaponic,” he says. In the meantime, he says his family is deriving a lot of pleasure from their small indoor installation. “It has a function and it is really pretty. And we love just looking at the fish.”

Financial Times, February 5 2010

Lunch options for the designers and architects who work near South Park, a pocket of green space in the heart of San Francisco, recently became much more interesting, writes Tracey Taylor. For the past few months, half a dozen street-food vendors have appeared on the square once a week, opening up shop for a couple of hours. You can get spicy chicken and rice from Adobo Hobo; a smoky Andouille sausage stew from Gumbo Man; a dessert of raspberry red babycakes from Wholesome Bakery; or quindim, a traditional sticky coconut custard, made by Brazilian Bites. Urban Nectar will probably have whipped up some freshly squeezed watermelon and strawberry juice to wash it all down.

The Crème Brûlée Man(@cremebruleecart) often turns up, too, with his pushcart and his kitchen blowtorch to produce a brittle, scorched crust on his lavender or Grand Marnier flavoured creams. Like several of the city’s street-food vendors, Crème Brûlée Man has become something of a local celebrity and media darling but he won’t reveal his name, for, like many of the chefs plying their trade from trucks and carts, he is unlicensed. But his 9,736 Twitter followers know precisely where to find him on any given day.

In San Francisco, where a new culinary trend makes headlines every week, street food has proved to have legs. Other US cities embraced the concept earlier. New York has always had its hot dog and pretzel carts. In Los Angeles, the Kogi Korean BBQ truck (@kogibbq), launched by Mark Manguera, was a pioneer in late 2008 and is now, thanks to its 53,400-plus Twitter followers, nothing less than a phenomenon. Newsweek magazine named it “America’s first viral eatery”.

But now that the Bay Area has got its teeth into kerb-side treats, it is making sure food carts are here to stay. Three separate street-food festivals were launched in 2009. “Street Food” took place in San Francisco itself; “Eat Real” was held in Jack London Square, a foodie destination near the port of Oakland; and the wine country jumped on the bandwagon with the World Street Food conference in Napa Valley.

The festivals lent a sheen of legitimacy to street food but a good percentage of the cart vendors are unlicensed, which means there is an element of subterfuge to how they operate. Many of them use social media, posting information about their new sandwich fillings and current locations on Twitter and Facebook. It is a strategy that seems to have appealed to tech-savvy Bay Area residents, many of whom relish a whiff of the underground.

Street food on the West Coast can trace its roots to the ubiquitous Mexican taco truck, and a good number of the new generation of vendors has renovated decommissioned taco trucks to launch their businesses.

Kate McEachern, though, opted for a mail truck when she went down the mobile route to sell cupcakes, and her turf is principally the streets of Berkeley. She posts the whereabouts of her Cupkates truck (@cupkatestruck) every morning to her 1,502 Twitter followers as well as her seasonal flavours, be it pumpkin spice in the autumn or fleur de sel caramel in the spring.

“I had dreams of opening a quaint cupcake store but it’s really difficult to raise start-up capital,” she says. “The truck lets me test the market. One aspect I love right now is the ability to interact closely with my customers every day.”

Some traditional restaurateurs have embraced the informality and “pop-up” nature of street carts as a refreshing alternative to running a restaurant. For budding chefs they offer a way to build a customer base with low overheads. And established chef-proprietors also see the appeal. Laurent Katgely, owner of Spencer’s Restaurant in San Francisco, opened takeaway truck Spencer On The Go(@chezspencergo) in May last year.

“It started as a fun idea but it has turned out to be a great advertising tool,” says Katgely, who points to the fact that the restaurant just had its best two months for business in seven years. He says the truck has also attracted a new crowd who were not previously drawn to French food because of the expense. “It’s great that we can offer $2 escargots or $10 foie gras this way.”

The economic downturn has been a key motivator for both street cart owners hoping to make a living and for customers looking to source fresh food relatively cheaply.

John Birdsall, online food editor at SF Weekly, says some street-food vendors favour gathering at private events but there’s always the threat of being shut down by the police. “There’s been a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ attitude from local authorities so far,” he says. But when particular food trucks begin to attract large crowds, it’s difficult to remain under the radar. Birdsall says there are signs that some vendors want to become legitimate. A workshop held in December that addressed the practical issues involved in securing a licence was well attended.

In San Francisco, some of the more recent arrivals on the scene include the Sexy Soup Lady and Sam’s Chowder Mobile. There’s also the Boozely’s Pickles and Preserves cart run by waiter Brad Koester; That Guy’s Fries, launched by two recent college graduates; and Crêperie Saint Germain, that serves chestnut, banana and vanilla ice-cream pancakes. Such variety suggests that diversity is still the name of the game in this city with its long history of politically correctness.

New York Times, February 4, 2010

What’s not to like about Berkeley’s favorite deli? Why all the kvetching?

In many ways Saul’s Restaurant and Delicatessen in Berkeley — just a few doors down the street from Chez Panisse, the grande dame of the slow-food movement in the Bay Area — is the quintessential farm-to-table restaurant. It features local food, organic produce and a seasonal menu.

So why the consistent grumbling from perhaps one customer in five? Nostalgia, said Peter Levitt, the co-owner and chef who is a Chez Panisse alumnus. “We have so many culinary memories under one roof,” he said.

Which is a nice way of saying that some people prefer pastrami made the old-fashioned way — industrially — and feel that anyone who doesn’t approve of the high-fructose corn syrup in Dr. Brown’s cream soda should just suck it up and adjust.

If there’s one dining experience above others which is pregnant with expectations, it’s the Jewish deli. The pastrami sandwich had better be so large you can barely get your teeth into it. The blintzes had better taste like the ones your grandmother made.

The problem is that the deli menu many people regard as authentic, and which reached its heyday in the 1950s, is rooted in the industrial food system. Those towering pastrami sandwiches are typically created with factory-produced meat. The rye bread? Pasty and processed.

Ever since Mr. Levitt and his partner, Karen Adelman, took over Saul’s in 1995, they have tried to make the restaurant’s voluminous menu more sustainable, as they describe on the deli’s blog.

In 1998, Acme bread (founded in Berkeley) replaced the spongy white rye the deli had shipped in from New York. It is now broadly appreciated. They source their fish from Monterey Fish Company and their beef from Marin Sun Farms.

A year ago, they did away with Dr. Brown’s sodas, both because of the food miles they incurred and the high-fructose corn syrup on the label. The change proved to be the last straw for some die-hard deli fans.

“There were those who said if you don’t have Dr Brown’s, you’re not a Jewish deli,” Mr. Levitt said. “People forget that the original Jewish sodas were handmade and sold off the back of street carts.”

The house-made celery, cream and black cherry artisanal sodas, which took the place of Dr. Brown’s, now have their own loyal following.

Worried about what would happen if he went forward with more changes, Mr. Levitt called for a “referendum on the deli menu.” The event, which was set for Tuesday at the deli, will now be held at a bigger venue (the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay) to accommodate the more than 175 people who are paying $10 each to attend. It promises to explore questions like these: “What taste memories and flavors of the deli have been provided by an industrial food system? How can we look at our nostalgia and expectations critically?”

In fact, most customers appreciate the changes. Their grass-fed corned beef sandwich may be smaller or more expensive than the ones they ate back East, but it’s tastier, healthier and easier on the conscience.

But the restaurant staff also meets resistance, sometimes even hostility: One customer vowed never to return after seeing that gefilte fish was off the menu because it was out of season; another complained loudly when chilled borscht wasn’t an option in November.

Now, Mr. Levitt and Ms. Adelman say they have reached a crossroads — there is more they would like to do to the menu, yet they fear the backlash. That is what inspired Tuesday night’s event. They are bringing out the big culinary guns to put the future of their restaurant under the spotlight. Is the concept of the sustainable deli itself sustainable?

On the panel next Tuesday: Michael Pollan, a Saul’s lunchtime regular; Willow Rosenthal, the founder of City Slicker Farms; Gil Friend, the author of “The Truth about Green Business;” and Evan Kleiman, the Los Angeles chef and radio host.

Ms. Adelman says they are in effect seeking permission from their customers to continue tweaking what she describes as “an ossified menu.” Just as Jewish food has evolved over the centuries, those who run Saul’s are hoping customers will, for instance, rediscover traditional Sephardic-inspired dishes, which put vegetables, legumes and seafood at the center of the plate rather than meat.

“We want to bring our customers with us,” she said. “They’re our family, our heart.”

It’s a familiar story for David Sax, who wrote the recently published book“Save the Deli.” He has spoken at Saul’s.

“The deli customer is very opinionated, the feedback never stops — which is a blessing and a curse,” he said. “No one is more committed to a new approach to the deli than Karen and Peter. And their concept of taking deli food back to a time when food was respected is a good indicator of where delis could go from here.”

Mr. Pollan also supports the efforts at Saul’s.

“They are trying to do something very admirable, but it’s challenging,” he said. “Good meat costs considerably more than feed-lot meat, and it’s easier for a white-table establishment to absorb the costs of doing it right.”

As for Mr. Levitt, he admits he’s frustrated. “Alice Waters looked at the French menu and reinvented it,” he said. “Why can’t we do the same for the Jewish deli menu?”

New York Times, December 26, 2009

Novella Carpenter is a writer, urban farmer and Dumpster diver. Her memoir, “Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer,” chronicles her life on her small homestead near downtown Oakland. Ms. Carpenter, who studied journalism under Michael Pollan at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, also helps run a biodiesel station in Berkeley, where she teaches chicken and rabbit rearing classes. She is working on her second book. (Her words have been edited and condensed).

Photo: Josh Haner, New York Times.

UP WITH THE CHICKENS I get up at 7:30 to feed the chickens who gather on my back stairs and make a racket. Then I milk my goat, Bebe, while listening to NPR. All the days seem about the same. I do not have a weekend-centric, T.G.I.F. lifestyle.

PICK-ME-UP I drink a very strong cup of Lapsang Souchong, a smoky black tea. I call it bacon tea. I’m sure I’ll end up getting cancer from drinking it: they make it by roasting tea leaves over burning pine. I drink it with honey from my bees and goat milk from Bebe. I eat later — some figs from the tree, or some tomatoes, maybe a big salad from the garden.

MANUAL LABOR I do farm chores: milking, checking on the rabbits, collecting a few eggs from the chickens. They don’t lay as much as they used to. I need to cull them, but they are so old they are just not appetizing. Sometimes I’ll go to my office in Oakland and write. Sometimes I have a lot of farm work. The big chores are mucking out the goat yard, which can get really smelly. I’m often making something like cheese or sauerkraut, so I have to flip the cheese or change the brine water for any olives I’m curing.

EXPEDITIONS Bill, my partner, and I might plan a seasonal activity like olive picking in Davis, strawberry picking or tomato harvesting. Or we might go sailing or just have a picnic on Bill’s totally grubby boat. It’s a 21-foot sailboat that one of his customers gave him. It’s fun to sit on while the sun goes down.

DIVING FOR DINNER At night, Bill and I will often go into San Francisco to see a movie at the Red Vic or eat at our favorite Indian place, Shalimar in the Tenderloin. The real reason for going to San Francisco, though, is Rainbow Grocery. Sometimes we shop there, but mostly we wait until the store closes and the Dumpster comes out. We’re mostly there for the animals: the goats love the cabbage leaves, the bunnies love the bruised apples and fennel stalks. But we often find stuff for us to eat, too, like yogurt or bananas. Rainbow is great because they put the good, edible stuff in boxes within the Dumpster, so it’s easy to find and doesn’t get dirty.

A BOOK AND BED I go to bed around 11 or 12. I usually read in bed until I fall asleep.

California restaurants focus on suppliers

Financial Times, June 6 2009

The cocktails have been ordered, the birthday greetings extended. Now comes the complicated part – deciding what to order from the menu at Pizzaiolo, an acclaimed restaurant in Oakland, California, known for its blistered wood-fired pizzas and regional Italian specialties. The conversation among friends gathered for a celebratory dinner centres not on appetite or taste but on the intricacies of provenance.

A dish of braised goat prompts the most debate – the meat is listed as being from Bill Niman’s ranch in Bolinas, 50 miles north of Oakland. Niman’s humanely raised Niman Ranch beef was the darling of the foodie set for years. But Niman left the company and has started afresh with a small herd of grass-fed goats, as well as a young wife nicknamed Porkchop. So what about the goat? No one doubts it will have lived a good and healthy life. But has anyone tasted the squid pizza with aioli whose main ingredient was sourced just down the coast in Monterey Bay? Another diner is leaning towards the Becker Lane pork with cannellini beans, artichokes, fennel and spring onion salsa because he’s heard the pork from this organic farm is unequalled.

Such menu dissection is not uncommon among northern Californian diners. They are choosy and, invariably, knowledgeable about where their food comes from – a result of interaction with producers at farmers’ markets and the fact that restaurants routinely highlight the provenance of food on their menus. They also live in a fertile part of the world with a climate conducive to producing quality ingredients.

The focus on suppliers is not new. Its local pioneer was Alice Waters, owner and executive chef of the legendary Chez Panisse restaurant and café in Berkeley, who, along with her peers and protégés, has been interpreting farm-to-table cuisine for years, providing shout-outs on her menus to all her favoured producers.

Chez Panisse was also one of the first restaurants to proclaim unadulterated fruit a more than suitable dessert option. It has been featuring a simple offering – whether a single peach from Frog Hollow orchard in Brentwood or a bowl of Sparkling Red nectarines – on its menus for several years. Last month’s café menu listed a bowl of Pixie tangerines from Churchill-Brenneis Orchard and Medjool dates priced at $8.

In January, Todd Kliman, the food and wine editor of Washingtonian magazine, pondered on National Public Radio’s Monkey See blog: “Do we really need to know the provenance of an egg?” And more to the point: “Shopping is not cooking.”

Russell Moore, chef-owner of Camino in Oakland, agrees that there is a way of writing menus that can make them seem like shopping lists. He and his partner Allison Hopelain don’t put producers on the menu. “There isn’t a bigger supporter of farmers than me,” he says. “But ultimately it’s about customers liking the food.” Moore only serves organic or biodynamic wines and doesn’t touch refined sugar but neither of these facts is conveyed to diners. “I don’t want to come off as holier than thou,” he says.

A backlash against showcasing suppliers doesn’t seem likely. For those who live in one of the gastronomic capitals of the world, there is profound satisfaction in knowing that the lamb chop you are about to tuck into was not only raised humanely but done so on local pasture land by a farmer whose name you recognise.

There is no doubt that producers have taken on minor celebrity status. Chefs on both US coasts are discovering goat meat from sources such as Niman’s BN Ranch and Marin Sun Farms. Chef-owner Daniel Patterson at Coi in San Francisco is serving it with “sprouted beans, seeds, nuts and wheatgrass”.

Thomas Keller, owner of French Laundry in Napa and Per Se in New York, likes to highlight the fact that he uses yogurt made by Soyoung Scanlan at her Andante Dairy in Santa Rosa for his yogurt sorbet with a cream scone, sour cherry and proprietor’s blend tea foam. And Boulevard, one of San Francisco’s most venerated restaurants, is proud to proclaim that the quinoa used in its quail stuffed with duck merguez is from Rancho Gordo, a producer whose heirloom beans have become so well-known they have spawned a blog and a book.

They may not appear on his menu, but Moore at Camino is happy to name-check several producers he holds in high regard, including Annabelle at La Tercera, “whose chicory and shelling beans are superb”. Just don’t go to Camino any day soon expecting to eat chicken. If Soul Food Farm isn’t sending Moore its “spectacular” fowls, they’re off the menu. “We haven’t served chicken since November,” he says.

www.pizzaiolooakland.com
www.caminorestaurant.com
www.chezpanisse.com

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Who’s hot in California

Coffee
Ritual Roasters, along with Blue Bottle and Four Barrel, represent the new breed of San Francisco “artisanal micro-roasters”.

Chocolate
Scharffen Berger is closing down its Berkeley factory, so the mantle for best chocolates has been passed to Recchiuti in San Francisco. Also winning plaudits are edible chocolate boxes from Emeryville’s Charles Chocolates; and truffles from Oakland’s Sôcôla.

Dairy
Cream-top organic milk in distinctive glass bottles from Straus Family Creamery in Marin; French brothers David and Benoît de Korsak bring the concept of terroir to their creamy Saint Benoît organic yogurt made in Sonoma County; goat milk, yogurt, kefir and cheese from Sonoma’s Redwood Hill Farm.

Meat
Ducks from Liberty Ducks in Sonoma; lamb from Napa Valley Lamb Company and Cattail Creek Ranch; chickens from Mary’s Farm in Fresno, Hoffmans in the San Joaquin Valley and Soul Food Farm; quail from Wolfe Farm in Brentwood; goat meat from BN Ranch and Marin Sun Farms; guinea hens from Grimaud Farms in Stockton; hormone-free rabbit from Devil’s Gulch Ranch; pigs from River Dog Farm in Capay Valley.

Produce
Vegetables and herbs from Star Route Farms in Marin, Chino Ranch near San Diego and Cannard Farm and Greenstring, both in Sonoma; spring garlic from Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley; gold cipolini onions from Dirty Girl Produce in Santa Cruz; heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo in Napa; shelling beans from La Tercera in Bolinas; Frog Hollow Farm’s signature Cal Red peaches available at the Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco.

Cheese
Soft-ripened Mt Tam from Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes; goat cheese from Petaluma’s Andante Dairy; award-winning cheddar from Modesto’s Fiscalini Cheese Co; raw-milk San Andreas sheep cheese from Bellwether Farms; Original Blue from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company.

Preserves
British expat June Taylor shows Californians how to make fruit butters and lemon marmalades at her workshop in Berkeley (www.junetaylorjams.com). Newer arrivals include Blue Chair Fruit, whose artisanal preserves are served at Oakland’s Brown Sugar Kitchen for breakfast; and Loulou’s Garden in San Francisco.

KIDS’ STUFF

Financial Times, June 7, 2008

Financial Times, November 1, 2008

Financial Times, August 18, 2007

FROM ALICE’S TO A PLACE OF THEIR OWN
Former employees of leading Californian chef Alice Waters are echoing her values in restaurants in the Bay Area, says Tracey Taylor

Mary Jo Thorensen was 24 when she was taken on as an apprentice pastry chef at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’ acclaimed restaurant in Berkeley, California. Now she has a restaurant of her own, Thorensen still remembers the inspiring work ethic at Chez Panisse and Waters’ constant efforts to “get that wonderful little thing”. “There was one old gentleman who supplied Alice with raspberries,” she says. “It was the only thing he had. They came in these little baskets with just the right-sized piece of wax paper in them. And they were perfect.”

Steve Sullivan began working as a busboy at Chez Panisse in 1975. He remembers the experience of being asked to take a dish back to the kitchen. “Alice would say: ‘Bring it over here - what’s wrong with it?’ She wouldn’t say: ‘Those customers are philistines’.” While at the restaurant, Sullivan developed a passion for breadmaking that led him to open Acme Bakery in San Francisco in 1983. His crusty sourdoughs and pains au levain are much sought-after among Bay Area foodies. Sullivan says he took with him Waters’ belief in the value of creating strong bonds - with staff, suppliers andcustomers.

Waters herself says she places a premium on good relationships. “I always hire someone I like, or a friend. When you are working long hours, it’s not just professional skills that matter. You want to find the right chemistry and be able to inspire each other. That’s what makes good things happen in a restaurant.”

Thorensen opened her own restaurant eight years ago. A much-loved local haunt in Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue neighbourhood, Jojo is tiny and its open kitchen allows customers to observe first-hand the calm and methodical manner in which Thorensen and her team work. The French country-inspired menu might include flat-iron steak served with anchovy-mustard butter and frites, and an apple candied Meyer lemon tart.

Like the many others who have honed their craft as members of Chez Panisse’s kitchen brigade, Thorensen credits Waters with shaping much of her thinking about food and how to prepare it. Certainly most of the restaurants and food businesses founded by Waters’ protégés emulate her commitment to sourcing organic produce and sustainably raised meat and fish - espoused long before the practice became fashionable - her attention to detail and her collaborative approach to running a kitchen.

“Honouring the ingredient” is a key Waters mantra. “Everyone who passes through Chez Panisse learns that one important thing,” says Paul Bertolli who was head chef at Chez Panisse for 10 years, ran the highly regarded Bay Area restaurant Oliveto for 12 years and recently founded his own artisanal salami company. “The first thing I knew when I set up Fra’Mani was that I had to find a great supplier of pork,” he says. Bertolli scoured America’s Midwest to locate farmers who were breeding hogs in a natural way and were concernedabout quality. “That was totally inspired by my work at Chez Panisse,” he says.

Waters’ roots are in the San Francisco Bay Area so it is not surprising that many of her alumni have not strayed far - that, and the fact that it is known as a food-lovers’ destination. Christopher Lee, also a former Chez Panisse head chef, now runs Eccolo on Berkeley’s fashionable Fourth Street. With its retractable roof for al fresco eating and zinc bar, the vibe is casual smart and the menu focuses on the best of Italy’s regional cuisines - thick cut veal chop with marrow sauce and artichokes al cartoccio comes cooked over almond, oak and Manzanita woods for instance. Lee says he has sought to learn from the way Waters managed her kitchen. “The old style French kitchen could be a hard place where everyone was badly treated,” he says. “That’s changed a lot since Alice Waters. It’s hard work in her kitchen but it’s a gentler place. The relationships are collegiate rather than hierarchical.”

Charlie Hallowell was 21 when he started work at Chez Panisse, ordering pantry items and checking inventory. He now runs Pizzaiolo, a buzzy Italian restaurant in Oakland’s Temescal district with a loyal clientele and in the San Francisco Chronicle’s list of Top 100 Bay Area restaurants for the three years since it opened. A former hardware store, the restaurant has an appealing rough edge with exposed brick walls, scarred wood floors anda giant wood-fire which turns outdelicious thin-crust blistered pizzas, as well as regional specialities suchas pork shoulder braised in red wine with polenta.

Italian dishes and top quality ingredients are also on the menu at Michael Tusk’s restaurant, Quince, in San Francisco. Tusk, another Waters protégé, earned a Michelin star this year for his menu which features home-madepastas such as pumpkin lasagnette and pici with goose ragu. The elegant but unpretentious restaurant is housed in a former apothecary in Pacific Heights.

Zuni Café, opened in 1987, probably captures the pulse of San Francisco better than any. Politicians, artists, celebrities and families are drawn to the vibrant, brasserie-style corner spot to enjoy classics such as roast chicken and Caesar salad as well as dishes inspired by the cuisines of Provence, Tuscany and Catalonia. It is run by Judy Rodgers and Gilbert Pilgram, both Chez Panisse veterans.

Then there’s Foreign Cinema which couldn’t be more different than Chez Panisse where co-owner Gayle Pirie worked for four years, but the emphasis on local ingredients and meat from sustainable ranches is straight from her mentor’s bible. Movies are projected on to the back wall of the enormous terrace at this hip Mission District restaurant which Pirie runs with her partner John Clark.

These days Waters dedicates some of her time to the Chez Panisse Foundation, one of whose programmes, the Edible Schoolyard, teaches school-children to grow and cook their own food. She is also a prominent member of the Slow Food movement. While she clearly has a devoted following, she is not necessarily regarded as a crusader with disciples in tow.

“She is neither a preacher nor an evangelist - quite the contrary,” says Jonathan Waxman, who worked with Alice Waters and fellow chef Jean-Pierre Moullé at Chez Panisse in the restaurant’s heady early days in the 1970s and went on to introduce Californian cuisine to New York. “In this business there are a lot of egotistical people and, in that respect, Alice is a breath of fresh air.” The menu at Barbuto, Waxman’s Italian/Mediterranean restaurant in Manhattan’s meatpacking district, has been described as “aggressively seasonal”. Choices might include Eaton farm’s Berkshire pork chop with rocket and rhubarb chutney. With some partners, Waxman has recently opened a new restaurant, the West Country Grill in Sonoma, California.

Waters herself says she regards the network of Chez Panisse graduates who are carrying forth the spirit and philosophy of her restaurant as an extended family. “I am very proud of them. They have expanded so far beyond what I imagined,” she says.

From the book “Bankside”

Tapas Brindisa
18-20 Southwark Street
Borough Market
London SE1 1TJ
Tel: 020 7357 8880
Monday to Saturday, 11am-11pm Friday and Saturday, Spanish breakfast 9am-11am
No bookings

For anyone with more than a passing interest in good food, there can be few more pleasurable experiences than taking breakfast at Tapas Brindisa in the heart of London‘s foodie destination of choice: Borough Market.

Friday or Saturday mornings is the time to catch this relatively new, but already immensely popular, Spanish eaterie at its quietest. Order a dish of grilled Leon chorizo, eggs and potatoes to have with your coffee, or nibble on a slice of Catalan Llesca (country toast) with lavender honey. The mood is mellow as the market slowly begins to hum into life around you.

Brindisa and Borough go together like a plate of their Villarejo Manchego cheese and its accompanying quince paste. The Brindisa market stall has been at Borough for more than seven years, selling everything from Spanish smoked paprika to giant paella pans. On Saturdays there is always a long, snaking queue for its fresh chorizo, rocket and optional piquillo pepper rolls, the spicy sausages cooked on a huge open grill.

Tapas Brindisa chef José Manuel Pizarro, formerly at Gaudi and The Eyre Brothers, says he appreciates having suppliers a stone’s throw from his kitchen. “I can select ingredients personally and see what is good on the day,” he says.

The restaurant is on a corner site and what it lacks in space is made up for in its warm, inviting décor. Borough-based architects Greig and Stephenson, who planned the recent, dramatic refurbishment of the entire covered market, designed the restaurant with its iroko and black walnut wood banquettes and striking combination of tomato red and creamy beige walls. The traditional ham box is integral to the design. Succulent sides of ham are visible through its plate glass window and entice customers in from Southwark Street.

Pizarro hails from Cáceres in south-west Spain, but prepares dishes from across the country using a variety of regional products. The seasonal menu is divided into cold and hot tapas. Charcuterie, cured fish and speciality cheeses dominate the former and are available throughout the day. A selection of acorn-fed Ibérico cured meats washed down with a glass of La Gitana, a dry, straw-coloured sherry from San Lucar de Barreneda, makes a perfect marriage.

Other choices include La Peral blue cheese with prunes or some cured Cantabrian anchovies from Ortiz. Alternatively, you could perch on a stool at one of the tall tables and have a glass of Rioja with a snack of salted Marcona almonds or hot pickled chillies.

Tapas Brindisa’s commitment to the quality of its cured meats is such that it employs a ‘cortador’, or professional ham carver. In Spain master carvers are integral to the Spanish way of life. Now, in a snug restaurant under south London’s railway lines, the impressive figure of José Daniel “Chuse” from Aragón demonstrates to Brindisa staff, as well as curious customers, this traditional skill, honed over the centuries.

Those who drop by for lunch or in the evenings can choose from a selection of hot tapas that includes deep-fried Monte Enebro cheese with orange blossom honey, Pardina lentil and Alejandro chorizo stew and Catalan spinach with pinenuts and raisins. Or they may opt for a simple fillet steak or potato omelet.

The wine list is small but perfectly formed. One of the restaurant’s favorite suppliers is Telmo Rodriguez, a dynamic young Basque winemaker whose family has had an estate in Rioja for years. Rodriguez has made a name for himself revitalizing ailing vineyards across Spain. His Basa 2004, Verdejo Rueda, a fresh, grassy white, is a favorite among regulars.

The restaurant’s clientèle reflects its neighborhood, being a mix of ‘suits’ holding impromptu meetings over tapas, locals and market-goers, including at the weekends visitors from abroad and families.

What sets Brindisa apart from the capital’s other tapas bars is its emphasis on provenance. Owner Monika Linton began her business importing Spanish cheeses in 1988 and has forged strong relationships with Spanish suppliers ever since. She travels the country sourcing only what she deems to be the best of the best.
This is reflected in the restaurant’s menu where suppliers’ names are always cited: from the Joselito cured meats to Ramon Peña’s Galician squid.

Thus, the beautifully packaged 70% solid chocolate made by renowned Barcelona chocolatier Enric Rovira may seem a little pricey – and it is arguably a tad too sophisticated for the children – but it makes a fine cup of dark hot chocolate to sip on a chilly morning before launching oneself into London’s foodie heaven.