Category Archives: Enticing Events

“Edible Selby” Book Events, Silicon Valley Restaurant Week & More

Photographer Todd Selby’s Food-Centric New Book

Fab photographer and illustrator, Todd Selby, has turned his lens on the food world.

The result is Edible Selby (Abrams), a quirky new book that showcases the kitchens, gardens, homes, restaurants, and workplaces of more than 40 food and drink purveyors, including a sea forager in the Bay Area, a Neapolitan pizza maker in Tokyo and a roof-top farmer in Brooklyn.

Each profile is accompanied by Selby’s illustrations, a hand-written questionnaire and a recipe. If that weren’t enough fun, the book also features his illustrated refrigerator magnets.

Meet Selby at a series of upcoming events in the Bay Area:

* Bar Tartine in San Francisco, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 22. Tartine Bakery’s Chef Chad Robertson will be joined by Chef Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco and New York, Chef Russell Moore of Camino in Oakland, New York Chef Ignacio Mattos, and Bar Tartine’s Nick Balla and Cortney Burnes. The chefs will be making sandwiches inspired by the book. Sandwiches are sold individually. Or you can pay $60 to receive a sandwich, book, and Selby tote bag.

* Bar Jules party in San Francisco, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Oct. 23. Price is $45 per person, excluding drinks. To purchase, call (415) 621-5482.

* SFMOMA book signing in San Francisco, 5 p.m. Oct. 25. Selby will be signing his book, as will James and Caitlin Freeman of Blue Bottle Coffee, who will sign their book, The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee (Ten Speed Press). At 6 p.m., join the three for a conversation. At 7 p.m., head up to the museum’s rooftop for a reception at the Blue Bottle Coffee Bar. Free with museum admission.

Time for “Silicon Valley Restaurant Week”

Today though Oct. 24, participating restaurants in Silicon Valley will be offering special three-course, prix-fixe dinners.

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New PopChips Tortilla Chips and A Food Gal Giveaway

New Ranch tortilla chips from PopChips.

If you’re like me, you find it dangerous to have a bag of PopChips anywhere in your house.

That’s because the air-popped potato and sweet potato chips are so crunch-a-licious. Plus, you can convince yourself that they’re actually kind of, sort of healthful because they’re all natural and have half the fat and fewer calories than regular chips. It’s enough to make you inhale the bag, which I admit I have done on occasion.

Well, your will power is about to be tested again because PopChips has introduced its newest product: tortilla chips.

Yes, made the same way with little oil in a proprietary popping process.

The triangular-shaped tortilla chips are made with stone ground masa. They come in four flavors: Nacho Cheese, Ranch, Salsa, and Chili Limon.

The texture is crisp but a little lighter and airier than a regular tortilla chip. They’re also a bit thinner than regular PopChips. The Nacho Cheese is plenty cheesy and the Ranch has the creamy-onion-garlic taste of the dressing. My favorites were the Salsa and Chili Limon because both have a little heat but still allow the corn flavor to shine through more so than the other two flavors.

They are available in four varieties.

A 1-ounce bag has 120 calories, no saturated fat and 135-190mg of sodium, depending on the variety.

Find them at Safeway, BevMo, Target, Costco and Jamba Juice. They’re also available on Amazon.com at $20.50 for 24 (1-ounce) bags.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win 12 coupons for 12 free (3-ounce or 3.5-ounce) bags of PopChips or PopChips Tortilla Chips. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Oct. 20. Winner will be announced Oct. 23.

How to win?

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Afternoon Tea at Craftsman and Wolves, Boozy Otter Pops & More

Not your ordinary afternoon tea at Craftsman and Wolves. (Photo by William Werner)

Craftsman & Wolves’ Spin on Afternoon Tea

When the very creative Pastry Chef William Werner decided to offer up a new afternoon tea at his Craftsman & Wolves patisserie in San Francisco, you knew it wasn’t going to be the usual staid cucumber sandwich affair.

Instead think apple gruyere scones, buckwheat crumpets, clotted cream and olive oil curd.

Not to mention beet root madelines and salt cod with brioche.

Choose either a pot of Naivetea’s oolong or tisane to go along with it all.

The menu will change with the seasons.

Afternoon tea, available Monday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., is $22 per person or $40 for two. Reservations are recommended by calling (415) 913-7713.

Some of the creative sweets and savories served with tea at Craftsman and Wolves. (Photo by William Werner)

Veteran San Francisco Chef Carlo Middione Hosts Two Special Dinners

Long-time Chef Carlo Middione and art connoisseur Daniel Friedlander are teaming up for two nights of wining and dining amid magnificent artwork in an 1908 landmark building in San Francisco, Oct. 18 and Oct. 20.

Middione who for decades owned the stellar Vivande and Vivande Porta Via, both in San Francisco, lost most of his senses of smell and taste four years ago following a car accident in which his small sedan was broadsided by another vehicle. Despite that, he’s still able to cook rather magnificently, as evidenced by the lunch he cooked for me when I profiled him two years ago for a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Scenes from the Third Annual Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest

A chicken dish worth of $10,000.

If you were a chicken, the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena was a dangerous place to be last Friday.

But if you were a cook, gunning to show your prowess with the country’s most popular protein, you couldn’t have picked a better venue.

The occasion?

The third annual Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest, which pitted six finalists (two each from California, Washington state and Oregon) against one another for the grand prize of $10,000, plus a year’s supply of Foster Farms chicken.

It was my third time judging this contest, and each year the recipes seem to get better and better.

The judging panel (L to R): Chef Ken Frank, the Food Gal, Chef John Ash, Lynn Char Bennett, and Liam Mayclem.

My fellow judges were: Chef John Ash, host of KSRO-AM “The Good Food Hour”; Lynn Char Bennett, test kitchen director for the San Francisco Chronicle; Chef Ken Frank of La Toque in Napa; and Liam Mayclem, host of CBS’ “Eye on the Bay.”

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Get Your Mojo On In A Delicious Way & A Food Gal Giveaway

Clif Mojo's White Chocolate Macadamia bar.

Sweet, salty, crunchy and chewy — all in one bite.

Is it any wonder that Clif Mojo bars are among my favorite energy snacks?

OK, with chocolate chips in some of them and as much as 30 percent saturated fat, they might not be the epitome of health food. But at about 200 calories per bar (varies depending upon the variety), you could do a lot worse, especially when the ingredients in these bars are 70 percent organic.

They come in a variety of flavors, including: Chocolate Almond Coconut, Dipped Chocolate Peanut, Peanut Butter Pretzel, Mountain Mix and White Chocolate Macadamia.

I like the profusion of rice crisps and nuts in them because they make for a satisfying texture.

Stash one in your desk drawer, purse or carry-on luggage, and you’re good to go.

Win one of each of five varieties.

Contest: Five lucky Food Gal readers will win a sampler pack of Clif Mojo bars (one of each variety named above). Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Oct. 6. Winners will be announced Oct. 8.

How to win?

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