Author Archives: foodgal

Take Five with Spencer on the Go’s Chef Laurent Katgely, on His Upcoming Debut on the Food Network

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In a sign of just how significant and prevalent the revved-up food truck craze has grown, the Food Network debuts a new show Aug. 15 that will pit seven food trucks against one another in all manner of zany food challenges.

Get ready for the “Great Food Truck Race,” which will feature Austin Daily Press (Austin, Texas); Crepes Bonaparte (Fullerton, Calif.); Grill ‘Em All (Los Angeles); Nana Queens (Culver City, Calif.); Nom Nom Truck (Los Angeles); Ragin’ Cajun (Hermosa Beach, Calif.); and the Bay Area’s own, Spencer on the Go (San Francisco).

Which truck will be left standing to win the prize of $50,000? Tune in to see.

Chef Laurent Katgely, 47, of Chez Spencer Restaurant & Bar, started his popular Spencer on the Go truck (at Seventh at Folsom streets) in April 2009 to serve take-away French fare, such as escargot lollipops and braised lamb cheek sandwiches.

A native of the French Alps who started cooking when he was only 14 years old, Katgely apprenticed at the esteemed Alain Chapel in France, before working at Lespinasse in New York, Pastis in Los Angeles, Boulevard in San Francisco, and Foreign Cinema in San Francisco. He opened Chez Spencer with his wife in 2002. The restaurant is named for their 10-year son.

Q: With your classic training and impressive background, did you ever think one day that you’d be driving a taco truck around America on national TV?

A: No! (laughs) It’s kind of funny. But I like doing new things. I’ll try anything.

Q: How did you get involved with the show?

A: I got a call last October, then talked to the Food Network more about it in March. It sounded kind of interesting. I thought it would be great for the restaurant, too. I figured it couldn’t hurt.

Q: Did you feel extra pressure being the only truck from the Bay Area?

A: There is pressure, but I just try to go with the flow. Being in the business 27 years, I think the pressure just disappears. You just go and cook, and see what happens.

I’m pretty competitive. I play soccer. Plus, with work, we’re kind of competitive, but we like to have fun, too. It was a good excuse for me to get out of the restaurant. I had to commit to being away four to six weeks for the show this past spring.

Q: Were the food challenges difficult?

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The Most Anticipated Restaurant of the Year, Benu, Opens Today

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Expectations are through the stratosphere for Benu, which opens today in San Francisco, to unparalleled fanfare.

Discriminating diners have been salivating over every detail that has emerged over the past few months about this new restaurant from Chef Corey Lee, the esteemed former chef de cuisine of the French Laundry in Yountville.

Reservations already have been going fast on OpenTable for Lee’s first restaurant, with tables already nabbed as far out as late September.

But that’s not surprising, given Lee’s stature in the culinary world. The James Beard award-winning chef has built a restaurant, where every detail has been meticulously considered — from the specially designed porcelain plateware to the private wine lockers to the first-of-its-kind Viking cooking suite in the kitchen.

Indeed, Lee’s architect, the award-winning Richard Bloch of New York, calls this the most custom restaurant he’s ever worked on. It’s also the first restaurant that the French Laundry’s Thomas Keller has invested in that’s not one of his own.

Learn just what it took to build this elegant restaurant, housed in the former Hawthorne Lane-cum-Two restaurant space just a hop away from the W Hotel. Read all about it in my story in the September issue of Food Arts magazine.

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The Return of Chef Mike Miller

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Foodies who have been lamenting last summer’s closing of the Michelin one-star restaurant, Trevese in Los Gatos, will rejoice to hear that Chef Mike Miller is cooking again in the South Bay.

Since January, the chef who dazzled with creative, elegant fare at his Trevese and at his previous restaurant, Umunhum in San Jose, has taken over the helm at the Silicon Valley Capital Club in downtown San Jose.

Unfortunately, the 17th-floor restaurant is a private, members-only dining establishment, which means you have to belong to it to get in or have a member invite you.

But recognizing the caliber of chef now on board, the club has big plans to open the restaurant to the general public on select days in the near future. So, stay tuned.

About 80 applicants applied for the head chef job there, and only a few were restaurant chefs, according to chair of the culinary committee, Stu Carson. Miller blew away the competition when he cooked a Dover sole during his tryout that Carson still calls the best fish dish he’s ever eaten.

Miller and I go way back. During my time as a food writer at the San Jose Mercury News, he and I collaborated on two memorable Thanksgiving stories, where we pitted our respective menus against one another. Now, he gets the holiday off, though.

I was invited as a guest last week to try the new menu at the club, where about 40 percent of the menu has been revamped with Miller’s own dishes. He and his sous chef, John Burke, who also came from Trevese,  have big plans to shake things up on the once stodgy menu. Already, Miller is baking his own popovers, adding grass-fed beef to the menu, and instituting a new four-course, prix-fixe tasting menu ($40; or $60 with wine pairings). He’s also contemplating adding house-made charcuterie.

Some of the standouts of the evening were the canapes of foie gras terrine layered imaginatively with sweet cantaloupe; an amuse bouche of salmon tartare with caviar and preserved lemon; and meaty and very crisp pork pot stickers in a sticky, thick orange ponzu glaze ($8).

Among the starters, the Maine lobster cocktail ($12) piled high in a sundae glass with papaya, avocado and crisp tortilla chips was fun eating.

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Slide into SliderBar Cafe in Palo Alto

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After launching Mantra, the contemporary Indian restaurant in downtown Palo Alto four years ago, what was the next logical move for Ashwani Dhawan?

To open a restaurant that specializes in itty-bitty American hamburgers, of course.

Say what?

Yes, the Indo-American, techie-turned-restaurateur opened SliderBar Cafe in downtown Palo Alto at the end of March.

Don’t even strain yourself to look for a curry or tandoori burger on this menu. There is nothing Indian about it. Instead, find everything from the “American Classic Slider” ($2.89) with a Niman Ranch beef patty, and served with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayo and a pickle to the “Memphis-Style Natural Pulled Pork Slider” ($4.49), made with Niman Ranch pork, and coleslaw.

Breakfast is served all day, too. So you can enjoy a “Mediterranean Breakfast Slider” ($2.69) with a cage-free egg, olives, artichokes, tomatoes, onions, feta cheese and roasted garlic sauce on a puffy little white bun, no matter what the hour.

SliderBar also offers a variety of wines, including economical ones on tap from kegs and dispensing machines that help preserve the wines better.

Why baby burgers?

“I wanted to do something simple and not fine dining,” says Dhawan, who is still part-owner of Mantra. “Fine dining is too hard these days. I also was very interested in portion control.” Light eaters can order one slider while their carnivore companions can go to town to order them by the trio or even by the dozen.

Recently, I was invited as a guest to try SliderBar, where the menu is still being tweaked a bit. The yogurt shakes are now made with ice cream instead. The baked fries were axed in favor of the more traditional fried ones. And dessert offerings are still to come.

The casual restaurant was packed with folks with laptops on their tables, as well as families with young children. The front of the restaurant spills out onto the sidewalk, with tables for prime people-watching on bustling University Avenue. Two flat-screen TVs at the bar also provide entertainment.

You order at the bar, and the food is delivered to your table.

Garlic fries ($2.89) and sweet potato fries ($2.89) arrive in silver julep tumblers, hot, crisp, and done perfectly.

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Rick Bayless, Alice Waters & More Chefs

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Rick Bayless to Visit Palo Alto

Meet Rick Bayless, Chicago chef extraordinaire, Mexican cuisine authority, and winner of the first season of “Top Chef Masters” on Bravo TV, in Palo Alto, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Aug. 16.

Bayless, who recently cooked for the first time for the First Family at the White House, will talk about his culinary philosophy and share a few of his delectable dishes from his new cookbook, “Fiesta at Rick’s” (W.W. Norton & Co.) at a reception at Reposado restaurant in downtown Palo Alto.

Tickets are $95 per person (which includes a copy of his cookbook) or $160 per couple (which includes one copy of the book).

Dinner with Alice Waters in Marin County

Join Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse in a conversation with Davia Nelson, NPR producer of “The Kitchen Sisters” and author of “Hidden Kitchens, Stories, Recipes and More From NPR’s Kitchen Sisters” (Rodale Books), 6 p.m. Aug. 7 at Toby’s Feed Barn, 11250 Highway One, Point Reyes Station.

Together, they’ll talk about how to create a “green kitchen,” which is the title of Waters’ new book, “In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart” (Clarkson Potter).

A dinner buffet, created by Osteria Stellina, is included, which will feature pasture-raised goat braised in cinnamon and red wine; almond-wood grilled chicken; and berry and honey tarts.

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