Richard Blais To Appear at Santana Row’s Sur La Table, Justin’s Restaurant To Finally Open in Santa Clara, and More

The whimsical cover of Richard Blais' debut cookbook.

Meet Top Chef’s Richard Blais

Richard Blais, winner of  “Top Chef: All-Stars,” will be appearing at Sur La Table in San Jose’s Santana Row on March 3.

The chef, known for his way with liquid nitrogen and other molecular cooking techniques, will headline a Q&A session at Santana Row Park at 11:30 a.m. At noon, he will sign copies of his new book at Sur La Table.

“Try This at Home: Recipes from My Head to Your Plate” (Clarkson Potter) is his first cookbook. It features 125 recipes that highlight his inventive approach to cooking, including adding coffee to butter for pancakes, cooking lamb shanks in root beer and making cheese foam for your favorite burger.

The book signing is a ticketed event and seats are limited. Tickets will be given out upon purchase of “Try This at Home” at Sur La Table.

Justin’s to Open in Santa Clara in March

It’s taken nearly three years, but Chef Justin Perez is finally poised to open his restaurant at the old Wilson’s Jewel Bakery site on Homestead Road in Santa Clara.

Only now, it won’t be called Restaurant O, after his former restaurant in Campbell. It’ll be Justin’s Appetite for Expression. Plagued by permit and construction delays, the new restaurant is expected to open March 5, if all goes according to plan.

It will be open five days a week for lunch and dinner (closed Sundays and Mondays).

Chef Justin Perez in the kitchen at his Justin's restaurant. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

A menu is already posted on the restaurant’s Web site with such dishes as: braised pot roast sliders ($9); lightly smoked Loch Duart salmon with pomegranate buerre rouge ($24); two-way whiskey rabbit ($28); pizza with wild boar sausage, mushrooms, caramelized onions, Cambozola cheese and pomodoro sauce ($15); and “Affogato Strata” (dark chocolate mousse cake topped with vanilla bean gelato, and cashew cotton candy with hot espresso poured over; $9).

Take a Taste of “Black Cuisine 2013” in San Francisco

Bring an appetite for smothered chicken, fried chicken, pigs feet, barbecued ribs, jambalaya, banana pudding and more at the Black Cuisine festival in San Francisco, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 2.

The fest will take place at the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center, 1706 Yosemite St. in San Francisco. All proceeds benefit the seniors served by Bay View Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services, Inc.

The event also will feature live music, dancing, kids’ games, and a soul food cook-off.

Purchase tickets online here. Until March 1, you can get $25 worth of meal tickets for $20. After March 1, tickets revert back to the regular price.

Zazu Restaurant Hosts Rare Pig Feast

Husband-and-wife Chef-Proprietors, John Stewart and Duskie Estes, will host a special pig feast March 3 at their restaurant Zazu in Santa Rosa.

The porky repast will feature two rare heritage pig breeds, the Mulefoot and the Red Wattle, and the off-spring of the two, a new breed they have christened, the “Black Wattle Mulefoot.”

The couple who won top honors at the pig-centric competition, Cochon555, raise heritage pigs on their Forestville farm.

The multi-course dinner will feature dishes composed of all three different pigs to allow side-by-side comparison. Look for courses such as “Three Bellies Under a Brick” (with pork belly with hoisin glaze, pickled mustard greens, mushrooms and star anise sticky rice); and “Three Shoulders Roasted in Hay” (served with gigante beans, duck fat bread crumbs and green peppercorn salsa verde).

Each course will be paired with a different Sanglier Winery wine.

Price is $93 per person. For reservations, call (707) 523-4814.

More: My Dinner at Frog Hollow Farm Cooked by Richard Blais

And: The Background on Chef Justin Perez’s Soon-to-Open Restaurant

Print This Post



3 comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *