Search Results for: take five emily luchetti

A Crust That’s Flaky In More Ways than One

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A perfect holiday dessert with the perfect -- and crazy -- crust.

We’ve all learned that to make the perfect, flaky crust, you need cold butter, cool hands and a resulting dough that must be chilled before it’s baked.

Now, take those techniques that you’ve labored to master all these years — and throw them out the window.

Because here’s a supremely flaky crust that breaks all those rules.

It’s made with boiling hot butter that’s mixed with flour to form a dough that you press — while still warm — into your pan before baking.

How crazy is that?

It’s almost embarrassingly easy and pretty fool-proof. And it produces a crust that would rival any at a fancy patisserie.

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Scenes from SF Chefs Food Wine 2011

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A bevy of chefs cut a chocolate cake depicting San Francisco's skyline to signal the start of SF Chefs Food Wine. How many chefs can you name?

To kick off the start of the third annual SF Chefs Food Wine extravaganza last Friday night on Union Square in San Francisco, no simple little ribbon-cutting ceremony would do.

Instead, Pastry Chef Lori Baker — who owns Baker & Banker in San Francisco with her husband, Chef Jeff Banker — created an astounding devil’s food cake cityscape complete with chocolate buildings to depict the Transamerica pyramid and an assortment of other iconic landmarks, including her own restaurant.

On their marks, a who’s who of celeb San Francisco chefs — including Chris Cosentino of Incanto, Emily Luchetti of Farallon and Waterbar, Mourad Lahlou of Aziza, and Russell Jackson of Lafite, as well as famed New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent, who flew in just for the occasion — grabbed knives to cut into the cake to signal the start of the three-day food and wine celebration.

That was preceded by the traditional sabering of a champagne bottle, as Cosentino looked on with knife envy, having sabered a champagne bottle with a Russian sword at his own wedding.

The entrance to the tent on Union Square.

Close-up of the cake made by Baker & Banker restaurant.

Lori Baker and Jeff Banker of Baker & Banker pose with Russell Jackson

Chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto addresses the crowd.

The ceremonial sabering of the champagne bottle.

When the doors opened to the enormous tent pitched on Union Square, 1,200 folks piled inside to sample wines, cocktails and gourmet noshes prepared by 35 Bay Area chefs and to groove to the sounds of Chef Joey Altman’s band.

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My Dinner with Jacques

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The one and only Jacques Pepin -- in town for dinner at Saison in San Francisco.

Monday night at Saison restaurant in San Francisco, I had dinner with Jacques Pepin.

OK, that would be me and 17 other people.

Still, it’s always an honor to be in the presence of such a formidable culinary figure, whose talent remains genuine and relevant even more so in this age of instant celebritism.

The occasion? A celebration of the French Culinary Institute’s new International Culinary Center of California in Campbell.

The New York-based culinary school has graduated the likes of Bobby Flay, Dan Barber, David Chang and Wylie Dufresne. It has been eager to establish a West Coast presence for a decade, and jumped at the chance when the former, five-year-old Professional Culinary Institute went up for sale this year, according to Brooke Schwartz, president of the new Campbell school.

Pepin, dean of special programs for the French Culinary Institute, was in town for the dinner soiree, along with other colleagues, including Dorothy Cann Hamilton, the founder of the institute.

A dozen food writers from around the Bay Area were invited, along with newest FCI deans, Chef David Kinch of Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos and Emily Luchetti, executive pastry chef of Waterbar and Farallon, both in San Francisco.

The Campbell school, which used to draw mainly from the local area, is now attracting students nationwide, Schwartz says. The school offers three core programs: Classic Culinary Arts, Classic Pastry Arts, and Intensive Sommelier Training (the first program in the world to be approved by the Court of Master Sommeliers). With Kinch’s involvement, culinary students will get a chance to visit Love Apple Farm in Santa Cruz, which grows exclusively for Manresa. And with Luchetti’s involvement, pastry students will get a chance to visit her restaurants for dessert tastings and kitchen tours. Additionally, the school offers a range of culinary, baking and wine classes for homecooks.

Saison Chef Joshua Skenes conferring with his cooks before the start of the dinner.Only the brave -- like this cook -- could take being by the roaring hearth on an unseasonably hot San Francisco day.

Saison’s Executive Chef Josh Skenes, an FCI grad, created the dinner. Saison’s Sommelier Mark Bright joked that the wine pairings were all French purely by accident, even if that seemed entirely appropriate to the occasion.

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Having Your Cake and Giving It, Too

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A simple yet satisfying coffee-orange angel food cake.

There are people who accept gifts graciously, no matter what may lie under that heap of ribbon and wrapping paper.

My late-Mom was not one of those people.

My siblings and I joke that whenever we gave my Mom a gift, we braced for what would come next.

She’d pull the present out of the box, inspect it thoroughly, turning it this way and that, before putting it back down. She’d furrow her brows, and hem and haw that we shouldn’t make such a fuss. Then, she’d flat-out say, “Don’t spend your money. I don’t need anything. Here, just take it back.”

Sigh. Once again, after my brothers and I had wracked our brains to come up with what we thought was the perfect gift, my Mom would burst our bubble.

It’s not that she meant to do so. It’s just that Mom was being a mom.

When I was little, I would save my quarters and dollars to go to the store to buy my Mom a card and a tiny box of See’s candy or a Walt Whitman Sampler for her birthday or Mother’s Day.  I do believe I remember her smiling, too, whenever I presented them to her eagerly in my outstretched arms.

The irony, of course, is that once I got to be an adult and could afford to buy her much nicer gifts — such as clothes or jewelry — she didn’t want them.

For years, I was downright perplexed by that until I realized the lesson she was teaching me. For her, it truly was the thought that counted. As long as you remembered her with something as simple as a phone call or note, that’s all that mattered. She didn’t need anything beyond that to know that you cared. Everything else was just superfluous.

It's not fancy, but it's a cake that's sure to please.

That hit home after my parents both passed away four years ago, and I found tucked away in a drawer, every card I had ever given them since I was a child. Some were hand-drawn, others store-bought. But there they all were, stored away like some precious treasure worth more than any fancy cashmere sweater or snazzy electronic gadget ever could be to them.

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Lovely Lemons

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My baby.

See that beauty of a Meyer lemon up there?

Yup, I grew that.

That might not seem so remarkable until you realize that I’m the woman otherwise known as “Black Thumb Jung.” Yes, that’s what my dear husband calls me. With the utmost affection, of course.

Admittedly, I’m not the world’s greatest gardener. I have killed ivy and cactus, after all, which are supposedly indestructible. Just not in my hands, though.

I wasn’t born a gifted gardener like my late-Mom was. She could grow anything — even tubs of sweet, juicy tomatoes inside our family house, which too often was enveloped in dreary San Francisco fog to give those delicate seedlings a fighting chance outside.

But that’s not to say that I don’t give it the ol’ school-girl try. Every year, I fill my backyard planters with new soil, new plants, and a bushel of hope. Yes, the utmost optimism that something, anything will actually go on to live and flourish. Usually, at least a few things do. Oh sure, I’ve lost my share of cilantro, tarragon, roses, snapdragons, and butter lettuce that blossomed brightly, then in an instant just died out. Gosh, was it something I said?

Fortunately, a few things actually do go on to thrive. I can grow basil like there’s no tomorrow. Rosemary and I get along just like that. And I once had a tomato plant that not only produced for a full summer, but somehow managed to endure a rainy, cold, neglected winter only to sprout beautiful round orbs once again the following year. Go figure.

So, last year, I planted a dwarf Meyer lemon tree, and waited with bated breath. Sure, many of my friends already have such trees and are only to eager to load me up with their abundance of lemons. But there’s just something wonderfully satisfying about growing your own.

I watched as the blossoms turned into little, hard green spheres that grew and grew, and slowly started turning taxi-cab yellow. I picked the first few last month, all the while beaming with pride.

Dig in.

So, what to do with these special lemons that I grew with my very own black thumb?

Why, make lemon bars, of course.

San Francisco Pastry Chef Emily Luchetti’s, to be exact.

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