Category Archives: Chefs

Orlando: Backstage Eats at Epcot and A Restaurant Called the Ravenous Pig

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When I wasn’t eating my way through 27 sweet treats as a judge at the recent Pillsbury Bake-Off in Orlando, I was — well — eating still some more.

You see, the Pillsbury folks wanted to make sure none of the 12 Bake-Off judges were ever in danger of having the slightest hunger pang. Perish the thought.  So we were fed. Then, fed again. And on it went, calorie after lovely calorie.

Here are the highlights:

We were treated to a welcoming party at Epcot, where six of the theme park’s restaurants had set up cooking stations inside a large kitchen area. Epcot Executive Chef Jens Dahlmann was on hand to greet the judges and members of the media.

We mingled as we enjoyed sips of wine and tastes of cute little lamb sliders with tomato marmalade, shrimp in green curry sauce with fragrant basmati rice, duck two ways — smoked breast and leg confit with tomato and egg fettuccine, porcini-dusted beef tenderloin, and a fab fisherman’s stew by “Iron Chef America” Cat Cora’s Kouzzina restaurant.

My favorite nosh, though, had to be the martini glasses of spicy sashimi-grade tuna tartare with cucumber, daikon and pepper salad, and avocado-wasabi sauce and crisp lotus root chips. That dish, from the Hollywood Brown Derby at Epcot,  was so good that I even went back for seconds. Shhh, don’t tell anyone.

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New Eats in San Francisco

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Will it be sushi, Spanish, Mexican or California cuisine tonight?

When you’re hanging with a group of friends with varying cravings, it’s sometimes hard to settle on one eatery to satisfy everyone. The new Art’s Tapas & Sushi Lounge in San Francisco’s Marina district, a short drive from the Fairmont Heritage Place at Ghirardelli Square, makes it easy.

At this hip lounge, consulting Executive Chef Taka Yamaguchi, formerly of the Bay Area’s Blowfish Sushi restaurants, serves up a mix of small plates and libations that span the gamut of all those cuisines and more.

Enjoy grilled tofu ($7.50); Japanese-rice paella with vegatables and squid ink ($14); carpaccio with wasabi aioli on a bed of arugula and capers ($9); sushi, including “build-your-own” rolls; and crema catalana ($6).

There’s also a full bar with draft beers, wine, sake, sangria and signature cocktails. During weekday “Happy Hours,” 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. to closing, indulge in 99-cent oysters, too.

Friday nights also just got even more delicious and fun at Show Dogs in San Francisco, the gourmet sausage eatery that’s a short walk from the InterContinental hotel.

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Ad Hoc Cake Mix and Prepared Frosting

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Leave it to uber-Chef Thomas Keller to create the world’s most expensive cake mix.

Just how pricey?

We’re talking $14 for either the Ad Hoc Red Velvet, Chocolate or Yellow cake mixes sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma. Add another $19.95 for a jar of either the ready-to-spread Ad Hoc Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate frostings, also sold at Williams-Sonoma.

That’s $33.95 to make one cake right there. Not to mention the butter, plus 4 whole eggs AND 4 egg yolks that you mix into the yellow cake batter, which is the one I received a sample of recently to try.

Boy howdy, you could buy a quite decent bakery cake for that price and call it a day.

Ahh, but then, you wouldn’t have the Ad Hoc or Keller prestige attached to it.

The mixes and frostings are made from top-notch ingredients: Guittard cocoa and Nielsen Massey vanilla. I could smell the strong fragrance of the vanilla as the yellow cake batter came together in the bowl of my stand mixer. Unlike so many other cake recipes I’ve used, the directions on the back of this box call for using the whisk attachment for the mixer rather than the paddle. The result is a batter that is very fluffy and silky-creamy — almost as if there’s whipped cream folded into it.

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Ferry Building Happenings, Glam Foodie Fund-Raisers & More

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In San Francisco:

The offerings at the Saturday farmers market at the San Francisco Ferry Building just got a whole lot sweeter.

The Arlequin booth, manned by Luis Villavelazquez, executive pastry chef of Absinthe restaurant in San Francisco, will now be a regular fixture at that Saturday market, just steps from the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, beginning May 1.

The booth, which already had been up and running at the smaller Thursday farmers market there, will be selling the likes of malted cupcake with banana cream and Oreo frosting; strawberry and tobacco-infused scone with creme fraiche; spiced ramp and provolone biscuits; and milk chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

Find the Arlequin booth next to Blue Bottle Coffee’s exterior stand,  8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday and Saturday.

If luscious libations are more your thing, you won’t want to miss “Berries, Citrus and Rhubarb,” a fun cocktails class at the Ferry Building, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. May 7.

Master mixologist Scott Beattie will conduct a hands-on class to teach you how to make market-fresh strawberry margaritas, classic mai tais, and gimlets.

Master distiller, Lance Winters of St. George Spirits in Alameda, will talk about micro-distillation.

The Ferry Building’s Il Cane Rosso also will serve up cocktail-friendly noshes. Additionally, participants will get to take home a recipe booklet.

The class will be held under the North Arcade of the Ferry Building. Tickets are $45.

City College of San Francisco invites you to its 12th annual “Wok on the Wild Side,” a benefit for its culinary arts and hospitality studies department, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. April 26.

Participating in the star chef-studded affair are Staffan Terje of Perbacco in San Francisco, Bruce Hill of Picco in Larkspur, Laurence Jossel of Nopa, Jennifer Biesty of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco, and Mauricio Sibrian of John’s Grill in San Francisco.  They will be honoring City College alum, Tom Sweeney, the famous Beefeater doorman who has been welcoming visitors to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel for more than 30 years.

The chefs will be cooking up their specialties and being assisted by the students and faculty of the program.

Tickets are $150. For information, call (415) 239-3152.

You won’t want to miss another gala chefs gathering, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. April 29, when “Taste of the Nation San Francisco” rolls into town on the Club Level of AT&T Park in San Francisco.

The benefit for Share Our Strength, will feature tastes from more than 40 top San Francisco chefs, including Dominique Crenn of Luce, Mark Sullivan of Spruce, Hoss Zare of Zare at Fly Trap, and Matthew Accarrino of SPQR.

Live music and a silent auction will add to the festivities, which will benefit one of the nation’s largest organizations dedicated to alleviating childhood hunger.

Regular tickets are $85. VIP tickets, which get you into the event an hour earlier, are $140.

Monday, April 26, dine at a Pasta Pomodoro in San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area to do a good deed.

That night, the restaurant chain will donate 25 percent of profits from every “Cena di Familia” meal to local food banks to help families in need. The three-course, family-style meal, which feeds four, comes with choice of salad, pasta and dessert for $35.

Around the Peninsula:

Take a taste of more than 100 wines from all over Italy in one spot. You can at “Enoteca 100 Primavera,” an Italian wine tasting at Donato Enoteca restaurant in Redwood City, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. May 1.

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Sara Moulton’s Speedy Moussaka

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Sara Moulton, the executive chef of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine, reinterprets the look of dinner in her newest cookbook, “Sara Moulton’s Everyday Dinners” (Simon & Schuster).

Why settle for boring ol’ chicken with a veg and starch on the side, when you can whip up the likes of “Fried Eggs with Crispy Kimchi Rice,” “Spring Soup with Bread Dumplings,” and “Reuben Pizza” for dinner instead?

Her recipe for “Speedy Moussaka” especially caught my eye. I love a good rendition of this traditional Greek casserole. But I often feel in need of a serious snooze afterward, what with the greasy, fried eggplant slices and the heavy bechamel sauce covering everything.

Moulton’s version calls for a mix of ricotta, feta and yogurt in place of the enriched French milk-butter sauce. The eggplant slices also are baked, rather than fried. The result is a moussaka that’s not only faster to make, but lighter tasting, too.

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