Category Archives: Chefs

Gluten-Free Pizza and More Noshes at Pizza Antica Santana Row

A gluten-free pizza at Pizza Antica at Santana Row.

A gluten-free pizza at Pizza Antica at Santana Row.

 

After hosting a cooking demo in August at Santana Row in San Jose with Chef Bradley Cenyowa of Pizza Antica, he had me intrigued.

Responding to customers’ needs, Pizza Antica — which has four locations — had begun to offer a gluten-free pizza crust.

It can quite challenging to get the texture just right in gluten-free bread and other baked goods. But Cenyowa is such a fan of the gluten-free crust at the restaurant that he eats it, himself, even though he does not suffer from celiac disease.

He invited me in as a guest of the restaurant to try it for, myself.

If you’re gluten-intolerant, the server will hand you a separate gluten-free menu to peruse — a nice touch. My husband and I — neither of us have issues with gluten — got both menus just to check them out.

The always busy restaurant.

The always busy restaurant.

We started off with the bacon, lettuce, tomato chopped salad ($10.25), which the kitchen thoughtfully split onto two plates for us. The salad is a tumble of textures in every fork-full. You get crunchy romaine, crisp bacon and fluffy bits of hard-cooked egg. There’s just enough Dijon dressing to coat everything, but not drown it.

Read more

Ramen Burger (Oh, Yes!), Beringer and Scharffen Berger Team Up, and More

Ramen Burger. (Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Grand Hyatt)

The one and only Ramen Burger. (Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Grand Hyatt)

Ramen Burger in San Francisco

Yes, it sounds crazy. But you know you want it.

The Ramen Burger, the trend that got its start in Los Angeles, is now in San Francisco — but only for a limited time.

The Grand Hyatt San Francisco’s OneUP Restaurant & Lounge is serving this mash-up for lunch and dinner, but only through the end of September.

The bun is indeed made out of fresh ramen from a local noodle house. It holds a beef patty topped with mustard greens, cheddar cheese, smoked bacon and sriracha mayo.

The Ramen Burger is $18 and comes with fries.

Cook St. Helena Debuts Brunch Offerings

A favorite of locals and visitors alike, Cook St. Helena has debuted a Sunday brunch with Italian influences.

The nine-year-old restaurant waited this long to serve brunch because it wanted to get its liquor license first in order to offer Bloody Marys and other brunch cocktails.

Read more

Hop On Over to Hopscotch

The bar at Hopscotch.

The bar at Hopscotch.

Hopscotch in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood has all the accoutrements of a diner.

There is the worn checkerboard floor, the red bar stools, and the requisite burger and sundae.

Only here, the burger comes with griddled beef tongue and sesame aioli, and the sundae comes with a scoop of green tea ice cream.

Not to mention the the aged NY strip loin is finished with ginko nut herb oil and the daily benedict at brunch is napped with miso hollandaise.

That’s because Hopscotch is a decidedly upscale version of a diner — with a Japanese slant.

It reflects Chef-Owner Kyle Itani’s heritages, which are Italian and Japanese.

The food is fun and eclectic, as evidenced by the dinner my husband and I treated ourselves to recently.

The Black Tea Birdie cocktail.

The Black Tea Birdie cocktail.

Cocktails are imaginative. Try the Black Tea Birdie ($9), made with lemon, honey, ginger and vodka that’s been steeped with black tea. The tannin comes through and is tempered by the tickle of the ginger and sweetness of the honey. It’s a drink with the hue of iced tea that goes down just as easily.

Read more

Join the Food Gal and Chef Howard Bulka at Macy’s Valley Fair

MacysHowardBulka2

If you’ve ever wanted to perfect pizza-making at home, now’s your chance.

Join me at 6 p.m. Sept. 19 at Macy’s Valley Fair in Santa Clara when I host a cooking demo with Chef Howard Bulka of Howie’s Artisan Pizza in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village.

Bulka, who left the world of fine-dining to research the fine points of pizza making, will show you how to create a superb dough using a starter that will add so much more flavor to your crust.

Read more

Scenes From San Francisco’s Debut LuckyRice Festival

Roka Akor chefs assembling chiccharones topped with Mendocino uni at LuckyRice.

Roka Akor chefs assembling chiccharones topped with Mendocino uni at LuckyRice.

 

Last Friday night, the San Francisco Ferry Building was transformed into a celebration of Asian foods and cultures.

It marked the debut of  the city’s first LuckyRice Festival, which has already been held in New York, Los Angeles, Los Vegas and Miami.

Twenty of the city’s top restaurants held court, doling out Asian specialties to the sell-out crowd, as mixologists shook up cocktails created just for the occasion.

Take a taste:

The action at the Ferry Building.

The action at the Ferry Building.

RokaAkorSign

 

Roka Akor's rice cake with fig jam and El Rey Chocolate.

Roka Akor’s rice cake with fig jam and El Rey Chocolate.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »