Monthly Archives: July 2009

Enticing Events to Savor

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The fun bar at Aquarius restaurant. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Millman)

How’s this for one cool looking bar?

You’ll find it at the new Aquarius restaurant in the newly renovated Santa Cruz Dream Inn in Santa Cruz.

The modern American bistro is headed up by Chef Philippe Breneman, formerly of the Ventana Inn and Spa at Big Sur, who’s all about sustainable seafood and seasonal, organic produce. Look for California white bass with udon noodles, lychee glaze and miso-truffle broth; and seared Pacific cod with white corn succotash, smoked bacon, and mache.

The 2,900 square-foot restaurant features wraparound windows to take advantage of the views of Monterey Bay. A whimsical canopy of handmade surfboards and teardrop-shaped latticework lamps hang from above to give the restaurant a carefree attitude.

Leave it to Napa Valley’s celeb chef, Michael Chiarello, to know how to throw a shindig.

Aug. 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., he will host a “Mid-Summer Zin n’ Ribs Party” on the lawn outside his Bottega restaurant in Yountville.

Meet celeb Chef Michael Chiarello. (Photo courtesy of Phil Harvey)

Chiarello, a finalist on this season’s “Top Chef Masters” on Bravo TV, will sign cookbooks and wine bottles at 11:30 a.m., then host a 1 p.m. cooking demonstration.

The menu includes Chiarello’s signature barbecued honey espresso ribs, and Chiarello Family Vineyard’s Zinfandel.

Tickets are $30 per person for those ages 21 and older; $15 per person for those under age 21. Proceeds benefit Clinic Ole, and the Land Trust of Napa County’s Connolly Ranch.

For more fun with chefs, head to San Francisco’s Union Square, Aug. 6-9, for “SF Chefs. Food. Wine.” The multi-event extravaganza features a bevy of the Bay Area’s best chefs and sommeliers heading up cooking demos, wine seminars, food panels, grand tastings, and special gala dinners.

Tickets range from $40 to $700 for individual events and multi-day passes.

Chef Ross Hanson and his wife of Restaurant James Randall. (Photo courtesy of Laura Ness)

The town of Los Gatos invites you to try its many highly regarded restaurants during “Sizzling Summer Restaurant Week,” Aug. 5-12.

Participating restaurants will feature special three-course prix-fixe menus for $25, $35 or $45. California Cafe, Cin-Cin Wine Bar & Restaurant, Crimson, Forbes Mill Steakhouse, I Gatti, Nick’s On Main, Restaurant James Randall, Tapestry, Three Degrees, Trevese, Viva, and the Wine Cellar are among those who will be participating. Reservations can be made through the restaurants directly or through OpenTable.

If you’re a fan of “Top Chef” and in the Los Angeles-area, you’ll be interested to know that “Top Chef” contestant Stefan Richter, whom fans loved to hate, is expected to open his first restaurant, Stefan’s at LA Farm in Santa Monica, on Aug. 6.

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“I Don’t Really Cook….”

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Chewy Tteokbokki (top left), and Joanne's Mom's savory omelet (bottom center).

If you’re like me, you have friends or family members who hem, haw, and timidly declare time and again, “I don’t really cook….”

But if you poke, prod, and nudge enough, you realize that, yes, they actually can and do cook.

And quite well, thank you very much — whether they care to admit it to themselves and the rest of the world or not.

Take my friend, Joanne.

You may know her work from the glorious photos she used to take for the San Jose Mercury News, for the poignant pics she now takes for her wedding photography business, and for the lovely shot she took of me on my “About” page.

Joanne is a professional photographer. She is most gifted and skilled. She takes great pride in the work that she does behind the camera. Indeed, if she — instead of yours truly — had snapped the photo above, it would have looked far more gorgeous than my feeble attempt.

Yet get her talking about cooking and she is as bashful as can be. Listen to her words, and she’ll have you believe she can’t make a thing, that turning on a burner is beyond her capabilities, and that her home kitchen is a foreign land she dares not step into too often.

But taste her food, and you realize the truth: She sure can cook.

Joanne, who is Korean-American, invited me and our other friend, Lisa, over recently for a home-cooked Korean lunch. Together, we make up three-quarters of the Woo Hoo Wednesday Club (the fourth was otherwise occupied). Lisa and I, who are both Chinese-American, took copious notes, since Korean food is not a cuisine we are intimately familiar with. Joanne scurried about in the kitchen, as we peppered her with questions.

Her favorite local Korean market?

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Half-Price Cheesecake Today at Cheesecake Factory

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Red Velvet cheesecake for a good cause. (Photo courtesy of the Cheesecake Factory)

In honor of National Cheesecake Day (who comes up with these things??), all 146 Cheesecake Factory locations are offering any slice of cheesecake for half price.

Choose from more than 30 varieties to satisfy your sweet tooth. But you do have to dine in the restaurant to take advantage of the offer.

Also today, the restaurant chain will debut a new cheesecake, “Stefanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake.” It features layers of vivid-colored Red Velvet cake and original cheesecake, all covered with cream cheese frosting.

The cheesecake is named for Redondo Beach, Calif.-resident Stefanie Gaxiola, who was chosen from nearly 10,000 other contestants in the “What’s Your Flavor” cheesecake contest earlier this year. She won the right to have her cheesecake creation named after her and featured on the menu for one year.

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Take Five With Go Fish Chef Stuart Morris, A “Master Sommelier” of Sake

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Sous Chef Stuart Morris with one of his favorite sakes. (Photo courtesy of Go Fish restaurant)

Place a glass of wine and a glass of sake in front of Stuart Morris, sous chef of Go Fish restaurant in St.Helena, and there’s no question which beverage he’d reach for.

Sake.

Without a doubt.

The Japanese wine that’s brewed from finely milled rice has long captured the imagination of this 36-year-old Boston native who attended Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, and Le Cordon Bleu in London.

So much so that the former cook at Postrio in San Francisco and La Toque in the Napa Valley, put put himself through the arduous task of earning the title of KikiSakeShi. What “Master Sommelier” is to wine, KikiSakeShi is to sake.

Although the Sake Service Institute in Japan, which administers the rigorous exam, doesn’t keep records by nationality, Morris is believed to be only the sixth American to garner this distinction.

To showcase his talents with sake, Go Fish is now featuring a $55 three-course sake pairing dinner on Tuesday nights. Morris, who has been with Go Fish since the restaurant opened three years ago, designs the dishes and picks the sakes each week. The restaurant boasts an impressive 27 different sakes by the bottle, and eight by the glass, including a few that aren’t normally found at restaurants in the United States.

Recently, I had a chance to chat with him about why he loves sake, and just how incredibly involved the process was to get this rare certification.

Q: So how does one go about getting a KikiSakeShi title?

A: You apply and get sent materials. You have to prep for it. I got four really thick books in Japanese and one very thin book in English.

Q: Oh my. Do you even read Japanese?

A: No. (laughs)

I worked with some of my Japanese friends to help translate the materials. I also went online and got as much information as I could. It took a year for me to go to Tokyo to take the test after I first got all the books.

Sake cups (Photo courtesy of Go Fish restaurant)

Q: When did you take the test?

A: I was in Tokyo at the end of March for 10 days. The test takes place on one day for eight hours. I arrived on a Friday night, and Saturday, I had to actually go to the place to take the test.

I walked down a street and kind of got lost. Since there is usually a police station near the train station, I stopped a policeman to ask for directions. I had the address written on a piece of paper. He started pointing and writing more directions on the paper. I got a few more blocks before I had to ask someone else for more directions, who also wrote more instructions on the paper. All in all, I had to ask 10 people for directions until I got to where I was supposed to be.

Q: Were you the only Caucasian taking the test?

A: There were 15 people taking it, and yes, I was the only non-Japanese person.

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Love’s Cupcakes — Finally

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Caramel cupcake.

It’s taken more than a year of waiting, but Love’s Cupcakes has finally opened in downtown San Jose.

I used to laugh when my gym workout buddy, Ellie, would give me week by week updates on the site, which she doesn’t live too far from.

“Oh, brown paper went up on the windows a few days ago!”

“A guy was actually inside working yesterday!”

“I peeked my head inside and they told me it would be open by the end of April!”

“They’re saying it’s PG&E’s fault now, that there’s a delay in turning on the power!”

“Still no power. Can you believe it?”

And on and on it went. I started to think it was some cruel joke by the baking gods, that the place would forever be in construction limbo.

Chocolate Dream cupcake (front), Caramel (rear left), Hummingbird (rear right)

But lo and behold, it’s now churning out about half a dozen flavors a day. I visited the cheery bakery on opening day (July 25). It was started by April Zarazua, a home baker, who graduated from the California Culinary Academy’s pastry program.

The regular size cupcakes are $3.25. There’s also a fun “create-your-own” cupcake option. Choose vanilla or chocolate cake, then your choice of frosting and one topping. Additional toppings are extra.

I chose three from the bakery case: Hummingbird, Chocolate Dream, and Caramel.

So were they worth a year-long wait?

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