Category Archives: Chefs

A Trip Down Memory Lane at the New California Academy of Sciences

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Soft pork taco is served at the new California Academy of Sciences -- a vast improvement on what once was offered.

As a kid growing up in San Francisco, I happily remember elementary school field trips and teen-age outings to the magical Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

I recall sitting back in pitch darkness and watching the stars overhead in the Morrison Planetarium, thinking this was the absolute coolest place on Earth. I remember staring at the antelope and cheetah on display in the natural history museum. I remember how I couldn’t take my eyes off the ancient manatee in the Steinhart Aquarium, even if he hardly moved much.

And I remember listlessly eating burgers and fries in the museum cafe that had been left under heat-lamps for god knows how long.

Well, Dorothy, we’re not in that Academy of Sciences any more. Welcome to the revamped, utterly dazzling new California Academy of Sciences that will finally open its doors on Saturday. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview on Monday night.

The original 1953 museum was the first scientific institution in the West. After being damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, it was closed. After a $488 million renovation and expansion, the new institution is now the only one in the world to house an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and world-class research and education program under one roof.

Light fills the building designed by a Pulitzer-Prize winning architect.

It was redesigned by Pulitzer-Prize winner Renzo Piano, who also created the Pompidou Center in Paris. Like that fanciful French center, the academy boasts an extensive use of glass, giving it a modern, airy, and organic feel. Designed to be the greenest museum in the world, it is expected to earn a “platinum” rating (the highest possible) by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The living roof.

There is a “living roof” planted with native species, which is expected to reduce storm water runoff by up to 3.6 million gallons of water annually. A glass canopy with 60,000 photo voltaic cells will capture sunlight and is expected to produce up to 10 percent of the building’s needs. Additionally, building walls are insulated with old denim jeans.

The food also has gotten a much needed update, and how. San Francisco culinary legends, Charles Phan (chef-owner of the Slanted Door) and Loretta Keller (chef-owner of Coco500) have partnered to create the casual food-court-like Academy Cafe, and the full-service Moss Room. All the food served will be local, seasonal, and sustainable.

Charles Phan's newest venture, the Academy Cafe.

The cafe is arranged into stations such as “Slow Cooked,” “Steamed,” and “Sizzle.” Think soft tacos filled with juicy, slow-cooked pork; Vietnamese spring rolls; steamed chicken buns; tamales; fish & chips; green papaya salad; and vegetarian paninis.

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A Shout-Out to Two Asian Restaurants on the Peninsula

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A manly meal of crispy pata at Bistro Luneta

If you’ve never experienced the bold, pungent flavors of Filipino food, Bistro Luneta in San Mateo is a great place to get an introduction to this under-appreciated cuisine.

With Spanish, Chinese, and Malaysian influences, the cuisine is a harmony of salty, tangy, sweet, and savory. Husband-and-wife proprietors Jon and Janet Guanzon, along with Executive Chef Emmanuel Santos have given a modern interpretation to the cuisine.

A special of Korean ribs with citrus at Bistro Luneta

Standouts on the menu include Tokwa’t Baboy, an appetizer of grilled pork slivers crowned with crusted, fried tofu that’s lightly crisp on the outside and amazingly custardy on the inside. Even tofu haters won’t be able to stop eating this dish.

Eskalops Adobo bring perfectly seared scallops together with meaty, caramelized portobello, all in a deeply flavored adobo sauce. The Crispy Pata, a staple on Filipino menus, gets the star treatment here. A pork leg is cooked till the meat is fork-tender, then deep-fried until the skin is a crackling shell that you’ll need a sharp knife to break through.

The Guanzons host winery dinners at the restaurant regularly. In the near future, they also hope to invite other Filipino-American chefs from around the Bay Area to come cook on special guest-chef nights.

In Palo Alto, Proprietor-chef John Le Hung of Three Seasons restaurant in downtown, has revamped his nearby former iTapas & Wine Bar, 445 Emerson St.; (650) 325-4400. It has been renamed Bistro D’Asie with a new concept. After one too many confused customers walked through the doors of iTapas expecting Spanish tapas, rather than Asian/International ones, he decided to craft a different menu.

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Get Ready For A Meal of A Lifetime

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Grant Achatz's elegant new cookbook

Think of it as like the Rolling Stones in concert with U2. Or De Niro starring with Pacino. In their prime, of course.

In this culinary version, it’s Grant Achatz, chef of Chicago’s molecular gastronomy mecca, Alinea, teaming with his mentor Thomas Keller of the incomparable French Laundry in Yountville and Per Se in New York, for three very special dinners.

Keller, the only American-born chef to possess seven Michelin stars, and Achatz, who survived a harrowing bout with cancer to win the 2008 “Chef of the Year” award by the James Beard Foundation, will cook together Nov. 11 at Per Se, Dec. 2 at Alinea, and Dec. 9 at the French Laundry.

We’re talking 20 — yes, 20 — courses paired with wines. Each chef will prepare 10 alternating courses that reflect their best creations that honor their 12-year friendship, and to celebrate the publication of each of their new cookbooks.

Thomas Keller's new tome on sous vide cooking

Early on in his career, Achatz sent Keller his resume every day for nearly a month until Keller hired him to work at the French Laundry. Achatz quickly distinguished himself, and rose to sous chef, before leaving for Evanston, IL in 2001 to open Trio. Four years later, he opened the highly innovative Alinea. This will mark the first time Achatz will be cooking with Keller since leaving the French Laundry.

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Meet Moroccan Cooking Expert Kitty Morse

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Kitty Morse, the woman who taught me how to make preserved lemons

Want to learn how to make the perfect tagine? Then, stop in at a Bay Area Le Creuset store on Sept. 20 and 21, when veteran cookbook author and Moroccan cuisine expert, Kitty Morse, visits to do a book-signing and cooking demo.

The events are free, too.

I always will be indebted to Morse because she turned me on to making my own preserved lemons. I almost always have some in the fridge now, made with Meyer lemons that have been partially cut, stuffed with Kosher salt, then packed tightly into a sterilized glass jar. After the jar sits on the counter for a couple of days, the lemons will exude their juices and combine with the salt to create a thick preserving brine.

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The Dawn of Celebrity Chefs

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(left to right) Clark Wolf, Jonathan Gold, Zoi Antonitsis, Joey Altman, and Scott Hocker

Restaurant consultant Clark Wolf remembers the pivotal moment when chefs were first transformed into celebrities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was in the 1980s, when the visage of larger-than-life Chef Jeremiah Tower, of fabled Stars restaurant, graced a billboard advertisement for Dewar’s Scotch.

“That’s what started it in the Bay Area,” Wolf recalled. “Everyone thought, ‘How will Tower ever be taken seriously again?’ ”

He was. And the fame he garnered became the touchstone for stardom that legions of chefs after him coveted mercilessly. Nowadays, chefs are the new rock stars, the new reality TV idols, the ones groupies snap photos of, and seek autographs from. What has this era of celebrity chefs really resulted in? That was the intriguing topic earlier this week at a San Francisco Professional Food Society panel discussion at the new Miss Pearl’s Jam House in Oakland.

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