Posted on May 11th, 2008
As today is Mother’s Day where better to go for a delicious and appropriate article than Epicurious …
That’s right recipes for Jamie Oliver’s mum’s Rhubarb Daisy Cake, Spain’s Jose Andres‘ delicious Beef with Cabrales “Mama Marisa”. Anthony Bourdain’s mom never taught him to eat those strange things, she taught him good stuff like Coquilles St.-Jacques. And there’s more, again just click the article link above.
And while we’re talking about Mom’s, there’s some good cookbooks out there that follow this line of thinking, such as: Behind Every Great Chef, There’s A Mom - More Than 125 Treasured Recipes From The Mothers Of Our Top Chefs which includes, Art Smith’s mom’s Pear and Cranberry Cobbler, Sara Moulton’s mom’s Meatball Stroganoff, Nigella Lawson’s mother’s Italian Sausages with Lentils, and Jacques Pepin’s mother’s Potato Lace to name just a few.
Posted on March 31st, 2008
So the first-ever Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival finally happened and ended last night. It was definitely a rousing success.
Let me quickly mention my irritation at what ever San Francisco Chronicle copy room hack came up with the misleading headline of: For $4,750, foodies eat up the chance to see famous chefs in person Compare the headline to the very last sentence in the article: “Per-person cost for the four-day Pebble Beach Food & Wine extravaganza ranges from $100 for a single class or seminar to $4,750 for lodging and admission to all events.” In short, some intern didn’t read the article and made up a headline that sounds like everybody shelled out five grand to walk through the front gate. Enough of that. From the bad headline to the good coverage:
More than 3,000 people descended on Pebble Beach the past four days, and it wasn’t for the golf. It wasn’t for a sighting of Clint Eastwood, either.
No, they plunked down wads of cash, as much as $4,750 per person, to eat - and to meet 133 of the world’s top chefs and sommeliers, to watch Thomas Keller glaze vegetables, see Jacques Pepin slather caviar on a blini, and get up close and personal with the Mondavi family.
Other interesting observatins, Jacques Pepin’s on why some folks spend so much money:
For Pepin, the French chef, cookbook author and star of several PBS cooking shows, this devotion to fine food could be relief from troubled times.
“The price of gas and the war in Iraq are taking a toll on people,” said Pepin as people lined up to greet him at the Thursday night kickoff reception, where he served his new domestic caviar. “So people want to get together and be hedonistic.”
Among those there two Top Chef folks, Tre Wilcox who didn’t win last season but who was extremely popular contestant on season four. And head judge Tom Colicchio who put on a demonstation.
“I’m only taping 20 days out of the year,” he said. “The rest of the time I’m running my restaurants.” So Saturday he put on his chef’s coat.
“It’s important for me to get out there and do a cooking demonstration,” said the co-owner of several restaurants around the country, including San Francisco’s ‘wichcraft. “People see my show and wonder, ‘Can this guy even cook?’”
Masaharu Morimoto, from Iron Chef and Iron Chef America, didn’t seem to give a hoot how people knew him. He was perfectly content to prepare a couple of hundred dishes for Friday’s lunch - Kobe beef and congee (Chinese rice porridge).
Posted on March 28th, 2008
Earlier this month we ran a partial list of the Semi-Finalists Announced for 2008 James Beard Awards. Well, a few days ago the giant list got paired down for the last time and the Finalists have now been announced.
If you’re unfamiliar with the great length of awards from the Beard Foundation, you’ll get a better understanding of it when you actually glance at their page. For instance, categories are not just for Restaurants and Chefs, they also include: Book Awards, Journalism, Broadcast Media, Design and Graphics, Humanitarian Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and America’s Classics.
So here are our highlights on some of the awards we think matter most, or at least that you would be interested in hearing about:
Outstanding Restaurateur Award: Joe Bastianich/Mario Batali, Tom Douglas, Richard Melman, Wolfgang Puck, Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Outstanding Chef Award: Grant Achatz, Alinea, Chicago; José Andrés, minibar by josé andrés, Washington, DC; Dan Barber, Blue Hill, NYC; Suzanne Goin, Lucques, Los Angeles; Frank Stitt, Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL.
Outstanding Restaurant Award: Boulevard, San Francisco; Campanile, Los Angeles; Gramercy Tavern, NYC; Jean Georges, NYC; The Slanted Door, San Francisco.
Best New Restaurant: Anthos, NYC; Central Michel Richard, Washington, DC; Fearing’s at the Ritz Carlton, Dallas; Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles; Osteria, Philadelphia.
Rising Star Chef of the Year Award: Nate Appleman, A 16, San Francisco; Sean Brock, McCrady’s, Charleston, SC; Gavin Kaysen, Café Boulud, NYC; Johnny Monis, Komi, Washington, DC; Matt Molina, Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles; Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon, Portland, OR.
In other awards …. among Television Food Show, National or Local were selected: The Best Recipes in the World with Mark Bittman, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie and Top Chef Season 3.
Websites of merit were: Chow.com, Epicurious.com and Starchefs.com
The Book Awards as expected, some of them jived with the ones on the IACP list announced last week where as other books are only on the one list or the other. Feel free to compare for yourself.
Among those Cookbooks which stood out as being on both lists (note this is not an all-encompassing group but a partial) were: Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto; Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor by Peter Reinhart; Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich; Love Affair with Southern Cooking: recipes and recollections by Jean Anderson; Rosa’s New Mexican Table; Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook by Jacques Pepin; Cooking by James Peterson; and, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman.
And for all of the rest of the awards and finalists on the long list, visit the Beard Awards here. The Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on June 8, 2008. Likewise, the Cookbook of the Year and Cookbook Hall of Fame will be announced at that time as well.
Posted on March 21st, 2008
You recall my first mention here of the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival roughly a dozen days ago. Well, with six more days left before it starts, there’s even more “big names” showing up for what has become (in just it’s first time ever) one of the biggest events ever.
Along with the previously mentioned names of Jacques Pepin, Mark Miller, Thomas Keller, Gary Danko, Charlie Trotter, Tom Colicchio, Ted Allen, Michel Richard, Susan Spicer, Josiah Citrin, Walter Manzke, Todd English, Hubert Keller, and Michael Mina coming to the event …
… Now also add: Cat Cora, Mark Miller, Ming Tsai, Masaharu Morimoto, Alain Passard, Claudine Pepin, and still several dozen more top chefs. Show starts this Thursday, March 27th through Sunday, March 30th. More details at the site.
Posted on March 11th, 2008
The first ever annual Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival boasts over 50 award-winning chefs, over 200 major wineries and many other gradiose claims, thing is, grandiose but apparently true. In short, this has become one super-sized event.
According to LA Eater:
The weekend is chock-full of wine tasting sessions, cooking demos (Jacques Pepin, Mark Miller, Thomas Keller, Gary Danko, Charlie Trotter, Tom Colicchio, Ted Allen, Michel Richard), lunches with the chefs (Susan Spicer, Josiah Citrin, Walter Manzke, Todd English, Hubert Keller, Michael Mina and many more), a walk-around tasting event each afternoon, plus some serious dinners and rare wine auctions. At least one must-do is the opening night reception on Thursday, March 27; if we golfed, we’d try to get there for the Celebrity Chef Golf Tourny that morning because we want to see Colicchio putt. And one thing has changed: Some proceeds will go to charity.
The whole shebang runs March 27-30, most events are priced individually ($100-$500; $165 for the walk-around event), some are only available with packages, and some are already sold out.
