Blueberry souffle from the Fifth Floor. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant.)
For those of you who favor the sweet over the savory, you can’t miss the new dessert tasting menu featured at the Fifth Floor in San Francisco through the end of summer.
Executive Pastry Chef Francis Ang offers up a four-course tasting menu for $35 per person (or with wine pairings for $60 per person).
William Werner of Craftsman and Wolves at his demo at SF Chefs.
Not all the action of SF Chefs was going on underneath the tent on Union Square in San Francisco.
One of my favorite parts of the three-day food-wine-cocktail extravaganza was “Industry Day,” when food professionals got to sit in on panel discussions and cooking demos featuring some of the Bay Area’s most talented chefs.
*William Werner of Craftsman and Wolves of San Francisco showed how he makes his best-selling “Rebel Within.” The savory cake studded with Boccalone sausage hides an oozy egg inside. But did you know that was an accident? Werner admitted he originally intended to put a hard-boiled egg inside, but took the pan out too early. Just goes to show the most successful creations often are “mistakes.”
Werner’s famed “Rebel Within” is breakfast all in one.
The lovely runny egg hidden inside.
*Evan Rich of Rich Table in San Francisco demonstrated his famed sardine chips. He is rather astounded how popular they’ve become. It’s the only item on the menu that has never been taken off. His kitchen turns out 600 of these crisp potato chips that have a whole sardine woven through. He’s around sardines so much, he joked, that he can’t even bring himself to order the fish if he sees it on someone else’s menu when he’s dining out.
Would you believe this is a cake? Yes, made by the Ahwahnee Hotel.
It’s hard to believe that SF Chefs, that deletable extravaganza that celebrates the Bay Area’s singular food scene, is five years old already.
Last Friday was the official start of the weekend-long affair, when the mega tasting tent on Union Square in San Francisco opened with a dramatic cake-cutting with chefs Tyler Florence of Wayfare Tavern and Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn joining Mayor Ed Lee in the honors.
Enjoy some scenes from the first day:
Inside the tent, just before the festivities were to get underway.
Take one guess as to which chef this food station belonged to.
Eggplant curry from a very special cookbook.
Did you know that 70 percent of those living on less than $1 a day are female?
Women also are disproportionately affected by war. We’ve all read the horrific stories of women in conflict-torn countries who have been raped, who have lost their husbands, forced from their homes and are left the sole providers for their family.
Zainab Salbi set out to help when she founded Women for Women International in 1993. The organization helps women rebuild their lives. It now operates in eight countries: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan.
Now comes a remarkable cookbook, “Share: The Cookbook That Celebrates Our Common Humanity” (Kyle). The book, of which I received a review copy, features a collection of recipes from celebrities involved in humanitarian issues, including Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Emma Thompson, Desmond Tutu, Mia Farrow, Ashley Judd, Nelson Mandella, America Ferrera and Christiane Amanpour. The book also includes recipes by renowned chefs who have taken up the cause, including Alice Waters, Jesse Ziff Cool, Greg Higgins, Jamie Oliver, Susan Spicer and Rene Redzepi. Moreover, 16 recipes and stories are included from women in these strife-torn countries, whom the organization has helped.
Where’s the perfect place to spend a Sunday morning in summery August?
At Santana Row in San Jose, of course, where I’ll be hosting a different chef cooking demo every Sunday that month, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m..
The free demo will be outdoors under the sunshine at Santana Row Park and include plenty of tastes to rev up the appetite.
Each Sunday will feature a different chef from one of the restaurants at Santana Row.