Category Archives: Chefs

Take Five With Jessica Entzel Nolan, Former Gordon Ramsay Pastry Chef and Michelin Inspector, And Now Founder of Doughpamine

Jessica Entzel Nolan, founder of Doughpamine, holding one of her Salty Chocolate Chunk gourmet cookies. (Photo by Monica Lo)
Jessica Entzel Nolan, founder of Doughpamine, holding one of her Salty Chocolate Chunk gourmet cookies. (Photo by Monica Lo)

At age 38, Pastry Chef Jessica Entzel Nolan of Novato has already racked up an illustrious culinary career that would be the envy of many.

Not only has she worked in the pastry department at the celebrated restaurants of Wolfgang Puck (Minneapolis’ 20.21 in the Walker Art Center), Jean-Georges Vongerichten (Spice Market in New York City), Gordon Ramsay (Gordon Ramsay at the London in New York City), and Masaharu Morimoto (Morimoto Napa), but she also triumphed on Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen,” and fulfilled a dream of becoming an actual Michelin inspector.

Last summer, she launched the first company of her own, financing it, herself, with a small business loan. Playfully and aptly named, Doughpamine is her line of gourmet frozen cookie dough, now sold at 55 stores in the Bay Area, including Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco; Berkeley Bowl in Berkeley; Draeger’s stores on the Peninsula; and New Leaf markets in Santa Cruz and Aptos. The frozen cookie bags are also sold on the Doughpamine site for shipping nationwide.

The cookie dough comes in four flavors: the best-selling Miso Peanut Butter (salty-sweet-savory and buttery tasting); Salty Chocolate Chunk (comes with a tiny bag of Maldon to sprinkle on before baking); Rhapsody Road (super chocolatey with gooey marshmallows and crunchy almonds), and my personal favorite of Blueberry Corn (tastes like a quintessential corn muffin in cookie form).

The frozen cookie dough comes in resealable bags. (photo by Carolyn Jung)
The frozen cookie dough comes in resealable bags. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

Bake as many as you want, whenever you want, in a 375-degree oven (either convection or non-convection) for fresh, warm cookies that are crispy on the outside and gooey-soft within, or as Entzel Nolan describes “medium-rare” perfection.

Look for the cookies served at San Francisco’s Flour & Water Pizzeria and the Bay Area’s Square Pie Guys, too.

Recently, I had a chance to chat with her about her childhood baking endeavors, what it was like working with world-renowned chefs, what it takes to be a Michelin inspector, and the meet-cute way she and her husband connected — and yes, it did involve food.

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Lidia Bastianich’s Spicy Vinegar Ribs and Potatoes

Italian-style ribs and potatoes -- all cooked in one roasting pan in the oven.
Italian-style ribs and potatoes — all cooked in one roasting pan in the oven.

Whenever I found myself mindlessly channel surfing while growing up, I would immediately be transfixed whenever I hit channel 9 to find Lidia Matticchio Bastianich cooking up something — anything — in her kitchen.

She has a knack for making cooking seem so natural, so effortless, and so achievable. And her Italian warmth just makes you want to pull up a chair to her table and stay a long while.

Her newest cookbook embodies that spirit. “Lidia’s From Our Family Table to Yours” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023), of which I received a review copy, was written by the incomparable Emmy Award-winning public television host, best-selling cookbook author, and restaurateur. With her son, Joe Bastianich and business partner Oscar Farinetti, she also opened Eataly, the famous Italian food-and-wine emporium in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Toronto, San Jose, Dallas, and Sao Paulo.

She co-wrote the book with her daughter, Tanya Bastianich Manuali, who spearheads the production of her mother’s television series, and is a co-partner in the Italian sandwich shop, All’Antico Vinaio in New York City.

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Dining At the New Singular Movida

Chile relleno stuffed with basmati rice and lamb at Movida.
Chile relleno stuffed with basmati rice and lamb at Movida.

There is Mexican food.

And there is Persian food.

Thanks to the new Movida Lounge in San Francisco’s South of Market District, there is now Persian-Mexican cuisine, too.

At first thought, you might think this a puzzling head scratcher. But reflect further, and you’ll realize that over the past decade, all manner of cuisines have been folded up and tucked into tacos and burritos, most notably Korean fare at Los Angeles’ ground-breaking Kogi Korean BBQ truck. So, smoky kebabs and Middle Eastern dips enveloped in tortillas, especially ones that also incorporate rice like they do here, aren’t so farfetched after all.

Especially when you learn that after Co-Owner Bobby Marhamat’s parents immigrated from Iran to Nebraska, they ended up buying a Mexican restaurant to operate. And naturally, the two cuisines started to meld at home.

The dining room has a lounge-like feel.
The dining room has a lounge-like feel.

Movida is an outgrowth of that. Or as his wife and Co-Owner Shima Marhamat explains, “We took A and B — and created C.”

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Dining Up On The Third Floor

The incredible duck soup at The Third Floor in San Francisco.
The incredible duck soup at The Third Floor in San Francisco.

Can we talk duck soup?

Because we must.

The kind redolent of star anise plus a pop of chili. The kind with an aroma that tantalizes with warm spices from the first whiff. And the kind that soothes, satisfies, and lingers on the mind and palate long after the last slurp.

I’m talking about the superlative duck soup at the new Third Floor Restaurant and Lounge, which opened late last year inside San Francisco’s 25-story Jay Hotel near the Embarcadero.

It’s the first hotel restaurant by the Omakase Group, the force behind such celebrated establishments as Niku Steakhouse, Omakase, and Dumpling Time.

The Third Floor dining room.
The Third Floor dining room.

What was formerly Le Meridien hotel has undergone a multi-million-dollar renovation that includes a sleek contemporary yet soothing pale earth-tone interior design by AvroKO, which also did SingleThread Farms in Healdsburg. The look was inspired by the organic and natural sculptural style of the late-great Ruth Asawa.

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For the Big Game — Chicken Wings Of A Different Sort

Japanese-style chicken drumettes cooked with orange marmalade.
Japanese-style chicken drumettes cooked with orange marmalade.

San Francisco Chef Sylvan Mishima Brackett fondly remembers his mother cooking up a pan of chicken drumettes with sake, shoyu, and a copious amount of orange marmalade.

The resulting thick, sticky, sweet glaze would coat every inch of the tender drumettes that were savored hot or room temperature on New Year’s Day.

It wasn’t necessarily a classic component of the traditional Japanese New Year meal known as osechi. But in his family, it sure made for good eating on that day or any busy weeknight.

Me? I think it would score big-time on Super Bowl Sunday.

I mean, why pay homage to Buffalo, NY with been-there, done-that, fiery red-sauced wings when you can support the home team by indulging in a version from a bona fide San Francisco Mission District chef instead? That’s got to make for good juju, right?

The recipe comes from his debut cookbook, “Rintaro” (Hardie Grant, 2023), of which I received a review copy, that was written with San Francisco food writer Jessica Battilana.

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