Patxi’s Opens This Afternoon in Campbell

Get ready for some deep deep dish.

Patxi’s Pizza, which specializes in Chicago-style deep dish pies, is opening its seventh Bay Area location at 4 p.m. today, 1875 S. Bascom Ave. in Campbell in the Pruneyard Shopping Center.

What’s more, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 21, the Campbell locale will hold a grand opening with complimentary samples.

The first Patxi’s (pronounced pah’-cheese) opened in Palo Alto in 2004 by William Freeman and Francisco “Patxi” Azpiroz, who previously worked at the legendary Zachary’s Pizza in Berkeley. The restaurant features four types of pizza (stuffed, pan, thin, and extra-thin), as well as three types of dough (regular, whole-wheat, and a new gluten-free one).

The new Campbell location has special meaning for Freeman, too. “I have deep roots in the Campbell area –my family has farmed land here for a century, and my dad grew up on a walnut and apricot farm on Lawrence Road,” he said in a statement. “So this is a real homecoming for me.”

Chefs of Compassion

So many chefs are used to cooking with every gourmet product at their disposal.

But what happens when four Bay Area chefs are charged with making a showstopping dish from ingredients found only in the West Valley Community Services food pantry?

You’ll find out if you attend the “Chefs of Compassion Cooking for a Cause” fund-raising event, 5 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Addison-Penzak JCC of Silicon Valley, 14855 Oka Road in Los Gatos.

Executive Chef Chris Schloss of Cin-Cin Wine Bar in Los Gatos; Executive Pastry Chef Carlos Sanchez of Parcel 104 in Santa Clara; Executive Chef Jay Essadki of Morocco’s Restaurant in San Jose and Mountain View; and Executive Chef Nanci Wokas of Cooking with Class will each be preparing one of four courses at this dinner, which will help fund West Valley Community Services hunger and homeless programs.

Yours truly will be one of the judges, charged with picking the winning dish, along with Tracy Lee, founder of Dishcrawl; Sheila Himmel, former Mercury News restaurant critic; Linda Zavoral, Mercury News travel editor; and Abby Schwartz, South Bay manager of Yelp.

Tickets are $100 per person.

Chef Daniel Humm Returns to Campton Place for One Night

Chef Daniel Humm of New York’s Eleven Madison Park is returning for one evening to the establishment where he got his start — Campton Place in San Francisco.

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I spent all last Sunday working alongside actors Stephen Baldwin and Vincent Pastore.

Get out!

I kid you not.

Of course, you know the former as the youngest Baldwin brother who has starred in such flicks as “The Usual Suspects,” “The Young Riders,” and “Fourth of July.” You know the latter as the unforgettable Salvatore ‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero on “The Sopranos.”

And with luck, some day soon you might know them and yours truly as the judges on the pilot episode of “Plates on Fire,” which was filmed last Sunday at San Jose Fire Dept. Station #2 on Alum Rock Avenue.

It’s the brain-child of Santa Clara County Fire Capt. Joe Viramontez, who retired from his job only eight months ago. Instead of devoting time to improving his golf swing now, he decided to bankroll an idea for a reality cooking show he came up with three years ago involving firefighters battling it out in a series of culinary challenges in a fire station kitchen. The winner gets bragging rights, the title of champion and $10,000 for his/her favorite charity. The show is intended to travel around to showcase the cooking prowess of firefighters at stations all around the country.

“The charity component was important to me,” Viramontez says. “I didn’t want it to be just another cooking competition. I wanted to do something to give back.”

So, he hired producer Galley Molina, who splits his time between Los Angeles and San Jose, and whom Viramontez met at church. Molina, a reformed, convicted drug trafficker started his own independent production company, Reverence Gospel Media. He wrote and produced the film, “I’m in Love with a Church Girl,” which is expected to be released in 2012. The film, shot in San Jose last year, stars rapper Ja Rule, as well as both Baldwin and Pastore, which is how those two actors got involved with “Plates on Fire.” Michael K. Race, another producer on “I’m in Love with a Church Girl,” also was brought on board for this project.

Just how did the Food Gal, who has zilch acting experience, get asked to work alongside these Hollywood heavyweights? I’m told that someone who knew someone who knew someone recommended me as a good choice to round out the culinary know-how of the judging panel. I’m guessing it didn’t hurt that I don’t live too far away from Station #2, either. Or that I happen to be female — the only one in the cast, as it turns out.

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Last Friday at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone Campus in St. Helena, it was an all-out fowl time.

The second annual Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest, brought together six contestants — two each from California, Washington and Oregon — to pit their best chicken dish against one another.

Yours truly was invited again to be a judge, alongside fellow judges, Liam Mayclem, host and producer of the CBS show, “Eye on the Bay”; Natalie Haughton, cookbook author and food editor of the Los Angeles Daily News; and Narsai David, food and wine editor at KCBS radio.

More than 2,000 recipes were entered in the contest that showcases everyday recipes for fresh chicken. Both homecooks and professional ones were allowed to enter.

The cook-off was split into two rounds, with three contestants cooking at a time at the CIA’s Williams Center kitchen. They each had 90 minutes to prepare their dishes.

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In one corner, a Swedish chef who cooks Italian food.

In the other, a Persian chef known for his infectious Hoss-pitality.

Of course, I can only be talking about Chef Staffan Terje of San Francisco’s Perbacco and Barbacco restaurants; and Chef Hoss Zare of San Francisco’s Zare at Fly Trap.

These gifted chefs and longtime friends squared off Wednesday night in a packed house in the Cellar at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco for the ever popular “Mystery Basket Battle.” It was all in good fun for a good cause — ticket proceeds were donated to Meals on Wheels of San Francisco, which provides nutritious meals to home-bound seniors.

Yours truly was a judge, tasked to determine the winner of this cooking battle, which was as big on flavor as it was on laughs. My fellow judges included Kevin Blum, founder and editor of City Dish; Susannah Chen, associate editor of YumSugar; and Alejandra Schrader, a finalist on “MasterChef’‘ Season 2.  Schrader, a trained architect and urban planner, started her own private chef company, Cucina Cocina in Southern California, following her success on the TV show.

“It’s nice to be on this side this time,” Schrader joked as she watched Terje and Zare chopping and stirring up a storm during the 45-minute battle.

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Last Saturday afternoon at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco, I wrapped my first Chinese rice tamale ever — before a standing room-only crowd.

I couldn’t have done it without the good cheer and great instruction from Executive Chef Alexander Ong of the popular Betelnut restaurant in San Francisco.

Though I’d grown up eating these glutinous rice tamales stuffed with pork belly, mung beans and salted duck egg yolks, I’d never made one myself.

But what better time to try my hand at it than last weekend, when the San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival took place off the waters of Treasure Island.

The rice tamales (known as joong in Cantonese or zongzi in Mandarin) are the food most associated with the sport of dragon boating, which originated more than 2,000 years ago in Southern China.

According to legend, a popular poet and statesman was wrongly accused of treason. So despondent was he that he committed suicide by jumping into a river. Local fishermen, who admired the statesman, paddled out in their boats to try to rescue him to no avail. They beat drums and threw rice dumplings into the water to try to scare away fish and sea dragons from his body.

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