Category Archives: Chefs

You Won’t Believe How Much Ginger Is In This Scone

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Tender, cakey ginger scones to start your day with.

You all know by now that I have a thing for ginger.

Big time.

So when I spied this recipe for “Ginger Scones” in the Los Angeles Times’ food section last year, it was only a matter of time before I made these lovelies.

They tempted me with their 1 cup of diced crystallized ginger, and their 1/2 pound — yes, you read that correctly — of fresh ginger.

Just how much fresh ginger is that exactly? See that pile below? All of that — yes, indeedie — went into making a mere 10 scones.

A whole lotta lovely ginger.

Don’t let that scare you. It may seem like a lot of ginger, but I promise that your throat will not be ablaze. This is no four-alarm bowl of chili. This is far more nuanced and measured. It’s subtle heat that merely tickles.

The recipe comes from Chef Hans Rockenwagner, who bakes these scones at his Rockenwagner Bakery in Los Angeles and 3 Square Cafe + Bakery in Venice.

The scones bake up crisp on the outside. The interiors are not crumbly like traditional scones, but more tender, moist and cakey in texture. Bite into one, and you get the sugary-tingling hits of candied ginger immediately, followed by a warm, soothing, noticeable yet surprisingly moderated burn of fresh ginger at the every end.

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Cooking with Chef Guillaume at Marche in Menlo Park

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Look familiar?

No, that’s not him above.

But Chef Guillaume Bienaime does bear more than a passing resemblance to the Alfredo Linguine character from the movie, “Ratatouille,” especially with the glasses drawn on. You have to love a chef with the playfulness to keep a Pez dispenser like this on a shelf in his bustling professional kitchen.

Below is the real Bienaime, executive chef of Marche restaurant in Menlo Park. And believe me, he doesn’t need a cute talking rat named Remi or anyone else to help him do his job. This 27-year-old chef is a talent, and a giving one at that. Last Sunday, on what was supposed to be his day off when the restaurant is normally closed, he decided instead to teach his first cooking class.

Chef Guillaume Bienaime of Marché at the Menlo Park farmers market.

Marche opened its doors that morning to 16 eager students — most of them regular diners at the restaurant — as well as yours truly and the chef’s Mom to partake in what was the first of four seasonal cooking classes planned annually. And believe me, you will not leave hungry from this $105 class.

We met up with the chef at the nearby Menlo Park farmers market to help gather peppers, corn, peaches, squash, and tomatoes for the dishes we would cook back at the restaurant.

Marche gets all its tomatoes from Baia Nicchia Farm in Sunol, which sells at the Sunday farmers market. Owner Fred Hempel, a geneticist, owns 9 1/2 acres where he grows 30 types of tomatoes, half of them varieties he has created, himself. Indeed, Chef Bienaime is working with Hempel to create a signature “Marche” tomato, resulting from cross-breeding a couple varieties together. It will take two years of tinkering before the tomato will be ready to be grown for the restaurant.

Fred Hempel, geneticist turned tomato grower.

Baia Nicchia Farm's tomatoes.

We carried the provisions back to the restaurant, where we divided up into teams of two or three. The chef explained the dishes we could be cooking that day: Roast Pork Loin a` la Provencal, Summer Squash a` la Grecque, Confit Tomatoes, Summer Corn “Polenta,” Piperade Basquaise, Gratin of Swiss Chard, and Plum & Peach Shortcake.

Chef Bienaime, though, had a special plan for my buddy, Carissa, and I. He was going to have us make Escargots Sommiroise, a traditional dish from Saint-Guilhem Desert in the Langueduoc region, which is snail country. Neither Carissa nor I had ever cooked with snails before, so we were eager to give it a go.

Cooking in Marché's kitchen on a Sunday morning.

Plating the just-baked shortcakes.

We all donned aprons and set to work in the restaurant’s gleaming stainless steel kitchen, grabbing knives, chinoises, copper pots, and food processors. And no, we didn’t escape doing dishes. But we didn’t mind, what with the restaurant’s nifty machine at our disposal. You rinsed off the dishes, piled them into a rack, and slid it all into the machine, where everything would emerge spotless in just three minutes. Why can’t we have one of these at home, we all thought!

At Marche, the garlic is almost always grated into dishes, using a Micrcoplane, rather than chopped or sliced with a knife. Bienaime says he likes how the garlic disappears into a dish this way. Skin on bell peppers is always peeled off, too, even if they are not roasted. The chef does this, he says, because he finds that the peppers are more easily digested this way.

Center cut pork pork loin being smeared with a mixture of grainy mustard, anchovies, garlic, rosemary and thyme.

The pork just after it came out of the oven.

Sliced for serving.

All through the kitchen, students worked at shucking corn; peeling tomatoes; blanching herbs; sauteing chanterelles; and slicing open large pork loins to fill with a spread of grainy mustard, anchovy, garlic, rosemary and thyme.

Now and then in the close quarters, someone would call out “Behind you, behind you — hot, hot, hot!” as a simmering pot was ferried from the stove to a counter. There’s major heat generated in a professional kitchen when all the burners and ovens are turned up. So much so, that we all breathed a sigh of relief whenever we had to make a trip to the chilly walk-in to grab an ingredient.

It wasn’t long before the aromas of roasting pork, toasted nuts, and sauteed garlic were making us very, very hungry.

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From Convict to Celeb Chef

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Meet Chef Jeff Henderson. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

If you haven’t heard Chef Jeff Henderson’s story, you should.

Meet this fascinating chef at a free event in Oakland, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 18, when he talks about how he turned his life around from that of a convicted drug dealer to the first African-American chef de cuisine at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

He’s also been featured on the Food Network in the show, “The Chef Jeff Project.” After 10 years in prison, Henderson chronicled his tale in “Cooked,” which is being turned into a motion picture.

I heard Henderson speak at a food conference a few years ago, and found him thoroughly mesmerizing.

He’ll be appearing at the East Oakland Youth Development Center, 8200 International Blvd., and talking about the power of making positive life choices. He’ll also conduct a mini cooking demo with the students in the center’s cooking program.

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Tasteful Authors and Other Foodie News

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Ruth Reichl (Photo courtesy of Gourmet)

Gourmet’s Editor in Chief, the one and only Ruth Reichl, will be meeting and greeting in Palo Alto, 5:45 p.m. Sept. 29.

The award-winning former restaurant critic, author, and foodie extraordinaire will discuss how we’re eating differently today, and share some of her favorite recipes from the new cookbook, “Gourmet Today” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

The event, presented by the Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley, will be at Cubberley Community Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Road.

Price is $15 for members, and $25 for non-members. Premium ticket holders ($100) also get access to a reception catered by Draeger’s, a copy of the cookbook, and reserved seating. For reservations, call (800) 847-7730 or click here.

You may remember my good buddy and former colleague, Sheila Himmel, as the former restaurant critic of the San Jose Mercury News. Since leaving the newspaper, she’s written her first book, which has just been published.

“Hungry” (Berkeley Trade) was written by Himmel and her daughter, Lisa. It’s the unusual, true memoir of a restaurant reviewer who makes her living eating and her daughter, who in an ironic, almost Shakespearean-twist, is battling anorexia and bulimia.

You can meet both Sheila and Lisa at 7:30 p.m, Tuesday, Sept. 15 at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, when they will discuss the bittersweet, powerful, and ultimately uplifting road they have traveled together.

Andrea Nguyen is another prolific and busy friend. The Santa Cruz author of “Into the Vietnamese Kitchen” (Ten Speed Press), has just come out with her second book, “Asian Dumplings” (Ten Speed Press).

Meet her 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 26 at Omnivore Books on Food, a jewel box of a book store in San Francisco that’s dedicated solely to cookbooks. Nguyen will be discussing the global varieties of dumplings she showcases in her book. She always brings food to her events, too, so do come say hello to her at this free event.

What food blogger doesn’t know Pastry Chef David Lebovitz, the cookbook author and widely read blogger who chronicles all things sugary in Paris? Now, you can meet him when he stops by Fog City News in San Francisco, noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 25.

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With Madera, Looks Are Deceiving at First Glance

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King salmon with a salmon sausage at Madera.

Don’t let the ho-hum, earth-tone, low-slung buildings fool you. Nor the location right off the traffic-clogged Sand Hill Road exit off of Interstate 280.

The new Rosewood Sand Hill resort might not look that impressive from the outside. But just step inside.

Its Madera restaurant will catch you off guard with its unexpected sophistication. You’ll practically forget where you are when you step inside the California-elegant dining room with its soaring A-frame wood ceiling, roaring stone fireplace, copper-trimmed open kitchen, and floor-to-ceiling windows that open out onto a terrace with a view of the rolling hills. At sunset, there’s no better seat than one outside. You feel as if you are ensconced at a breathtaking Napa resort.

Rosewood, also the owner of such premier properties as the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, and the Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe, knows how to do warm, comfortable luxuriousness well. And if the recent Saturday night I was invited to dine was any indication, folks on the Peninsula are basking in it, as the restaurant was packed.

The wine service is exceptional. No surprise since the wine program is overseen by Paul Mekis, a veteran of the Plumed Horse in Saratoga, and Aqua in San Francisco. He offers a number of wines by the glass that aren’t usually available that way, including an ’06 Nickel & Nickel Merlot ($25). Varietals are served in the newest line of Riedel stemware, which have unusually thick stems attached to the bowls, giving them a rather bold and modern sensibility, and making them very comfortable to grasp.

Executive Chef Peter Rudolph, formerly of Campton Place in San Francisco and the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, showcases a menu focused on local, seasonal, and sustainable. In fact, the evening my husband and I were invited in, East Palo Alto farmer David Winsberg of Happy Quail Farms had just given a talk to the kitchen staff about his famed peppers, including Japanese shishitos, that he is supplying to Madera.

As we were seated, the hostess deftly positioned a metal hook on the edge of the table to drape my purse, so that it didn’t have to sit on the floor. Soft, airy house-made focaccia was set down on the table, along with a cube of butter with a well in the center of it that held a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

A lovely amuse of crab and radish.

As we perused the a la carte dinner offerings, a creamy-crunchy amuse bouche arrived of crab salad, radish, and turnip puree.

White corn soup with the intense taste of summer.

I started with the glorious white corn soup ($11). A bowl was set down in front of me with rounds of salmon mousse inside. Then, the creamy, sweet soup was poured over it, with the concentrated taste of just-cut-off-the-cob imbued in it.

Crispy veal sweatbreads over a bed of wild mushrooms.

My husband’s veal sweetbreads with lobster mushrooms and white corn ($13) were exceptional, especially because they arrived at the table very hot and crisp, which is not always the case with fried foods at many restaurants.

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