Category Archives: Chefs

ABsteak Makes A Splashy Opening in San Francisco’s Union Square

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Thinly sliced Australian Wagyu brisket awaiting the grill at ABsteak.
Thinly sliced Australian Wagyu brisket awaiting the grill at ABsteak.

Upscale Korean steakhouse ABsteak opened in San Francisco’s Union Square last week with flash and panache, along with plenty of fire, but no smoke, well, thanks to its custom grill-tops that vacuum it all away.

It’s the 28th restaurant worldwide for Seoul-born Chef Akira Back, and only his second one in California (the first being in Los Angeles). In the next two years, he plans to open another 10 around the globe.

Quite the accomplishment for Black who was once a professional snowboarder.

I had a chance to check out the glitzy 6,500-square foot subterranean restaurant, when I was invited in as a guest earlier this week.

The logo'd wall that greets you when you descend the stairs to the restaurant.
The logo’d wall that greets you when you descend the stairs to the restaurant.
A private dining room.
A private dining room.
The centerpiece glass wine display.
The centerpiece glass wine display.

Take the stairs or elevator down one level to find the entrance to the restaurant that’s filled with intriguing details. Look up to find a dramatic ceiling with curving and angular steel supports that change as you walk from the bar-lounge, past the showstopping 200-bottle circular glass wine display and into the dining room. Viewed together, they are supposed to evoke the bones, blood vessels and vertebrae inside a cow.

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Pumpkin Plus Nutella For Double the Goodness

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It's the great pumpkin Nutella bread, Charlie Brown.
It’s the great pumpkin Nutella bread, Charlie Brown.

October heralds everything pumpkin, of course.

Add in rich, creamy Nutella, and you have a combo that can’t miss.

That’s what this gorgeous, moist “Pumpkin Nutella Bread” is all about.

The recipe is from the new “Dolci!” (Alfred A. Knopf), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Renato Poliafito, founder of Ciao, Gloria bakery and cafe in Brooklyn, and former co-owner of Baked in Brooklyn; with assistance from with Casey Elsass, food writer and cookbook author.

It’s a collection of treats that take influence from his Italian, American, and Italian-American heritages in everything from “American Cinnamon Rolls,” “Sicilian Sticky Buns,” and “Triple-Chocolate Biscotti” to “Honey-Ricotta Black and Whites,” “Limoncello Pistachio Tart,” and “Cannoli Cake.”

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The Fine-Dining Anomaly

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This is how they do shrimp and grits at Anomaly.
This is how they do shrimp and grits at Anomaly.

When Mike Lanham was a young cook, he’d dress up in his one set of nice clothes and use his meager savings to dine at a two- or three-starred Michelin restaurant. Admittedly, as early as 2 hours beforehand, he’d find himself getting nervous, anxious that he’d fit in properly or commit a dining faux pas.

So, when it was time to open his own restaurant, he knew he didn’t want his diners to feel the same jitters.

“Fine-dining should be fun,” he explains, “and well thought out.’ But certainly not intimidating.

His aptly named Anomaly aims to deviate from the expected stiff formality one sometimes associates with highfalutin dining.

The tasting menu-only restaurant started out as a pop-up before opening its own brick-and-mortar in San Francisco’s lower Pacific Heights neighborhood. Last week, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant, which received recognition from the 2024 California Michelin Guide.

Executive Chef Mike Lanham in the open kitchen.
Executive Chef Mike Lanham (right) in the open kitchen.

The restaurant has two dining rooms, the front one right behind a lounge-space where diners can enjoy glasses of sparkling wine before they are escorted to their tables; and a second main dining room that affords a bird’s eye view of the open kitchen.

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Ofena Fits Like A Glove

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A special of porchetta to celebrate Ofena's first anniversary.
A special of porchetta to celebrate Ofena’s first anniversary.

Tim Humphrey’s Ofena restaurant is a passion project if there ever was one, filled with meaningful touchstones from his life.

Located on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco’s Lakeside Village, the building sat empty for a dozen years before the the chef-owner and his business partner, Tan Truong of San Francisco’s Ju-Ni and Handroll Project, took it over.

Named after the town in Italy from where his great-grandparents hailed before immigrating to the United States, Ofena the restaurant just celebrated its first anniversary last month. When he was 30, Humphrey took his mom to that town. After she passed away, he found her travel journals about that trip. Now, her handwriting is immortalized in the lettering for “Ofena” on the menu, as well on the neon sign on the front of the restaurant.

The script used for the restaurant's name is from the handwriting of Chef Tim Humphrey's late-mother.
The script used for the restaurant’s name is from the handwriting of Chef Tim Humphrey’s late-mother.
Executive Chef Tim Humphrey, who has cooked at a legion of well-known Northern California restaurants.
Executive Chef Tim Humphrey, who has cooked at a legion of well-known Northern California restaurants.

When you get to the dessert menu, you’ll find an especially sweet tribute to another longtime friend of Humphrey’s, a server who worked at many of his previous restaurants who passed away from leukemia. More on that later.

It’s all characteristic of the warmth you’ll find at this restaurant, which was packed last Saturday night when I was invited in as a guest of Humphrey’s.

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