Yours truly is proud to be moderating a fun and timely panel, “Rethinking Your Holiday Meal,” at 7 p.m. Nov. 16 at Books, Inc. in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village.
I hope you’ll join me and four wonderful, local cookbook authors as we talk about ways to make your holiday feasts less stressful, more enjoyable and downright fool-proof.
The panelists:
Over the weekend, the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena presented its 13th annual “Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival.”
It was the first time that the conference — attended regularly by top chefs, restaurateurs, purveyors, food scientists and media — focused entirely on the cuisine of Japan.
For good reason.
Everywhere you turn these days, you can’t help but notice the influence Japanese cuisine is having around the world — from sushi being sold in most every American supermarket to ingredients such as edamame, yuzu and nori finding their place in professional kitchens around the world.
Turn on the TV to watch the excitement of “Iron Chef”; visit New York to wait in line at Chef David Chang’s wildly popular Momofuku Japanese-style, street food-inspired restaurants; or pick up the latest Michelin Guide, which awarded its highest honor of three stars to an astounding 12 restaurants in the Kansai region of Japan — more than any other area in the world.
The conference, “Japan: Flavors of Culture, From Sushi and Soba to Kaiseki,” was attended by 750 people, including more than 54 presenters from Japan, some of whom were visiting the Napa Valley for the first time.
It was a kick to see Masaharu Morimoto, Hiroyuki Sakai and Yukio Hattori — all of “Iron Chef” fame — wandering around the storied culinary campus. And even more memorable to hear Morimoto belt out an a cappella song in Japanese at the end of his cooking demo.
And what cooking demos there were — from watching a chef from Japan painstakingly make soba noodles from scratch on stage to the intricate details that go into making a perfect dashi stock to seeing Chef Doug Keane of Cyrus in Healdsburg prepare a broth made with his favorite matsutake mushrooms, which he confessed to loving even more than prized European truffles.
Twenty-four top toques will be cooking at the 10th annual “Taste and Tribute” by the Tibetan Aid Project on Nov. 19 at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco.
The chefs will cook in teams of two to prepare four courses, with each table experiencing a different menu. Among those pairing up for the night to intertwine their culinary skills are: Bruce Hill of Bix, Picco and Zero Zero, all in San Francisco, with Liza Shaw of A16 in San Francisco; and Bruno Chemel of Baume in Palo Alto with Martin Brock of Gary Danko in San Francisco.
A silent auction will feature items such as vacation packages, wine tastings, and handmade Tibetan art.
Tickets are $350 per person.
Proceeds will help preserve and ship traditional Tibetan texts, art prints and prayer wheels to Tibetan refugees in the Himalayan region.
Mark your calendar for Nov. 10, when more than 30 restaurants, cafes, markets, ice cream shops and even food trucks in San Francisco will be donating 25 percent or more of sales to Mission Graduates, a non-profit that helps neighborhood youths prepare for and complete college.
The “Food for Thought’‘ event last year enabled more than 100 kids to attend a five-week summer program, and helped secure more than $250,000 in college scholarships to support high school students and their families.
Satisfy your gingerbread craving while doing a good deed, too.
You can if you purchase a bag of star-shaped, iced gingerbread cookies for $10 from participating Lark Creek Restaurant Group establishments throughout November. All proceeds will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which makes wishes come true for children with severe illnesses.
The cookies, available on the dessert menu, were designed by One Market Pastry Chef Patti Dellamonica-Bauler. Glam them up with frosting, sprinkles and candies to enjoy at the restaurant or take them home with you in a decorative box.
Meet Harold McGee:Bay Area author Harold McGee’s seminal “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” (Scribner) is beloved by home cooks and professional chefs alike.
Now, he’s come out with a new book that’s sure to be another classic: “Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes” (Penguin Press).
The new book is filled with useful information, based on scientific findings, that will no doubt make us all better cooks. For instance, did you know that you should reboil refrigerated meat or fish stocks every few days, as they are so perishable that they can spoil even in the fridge? Did you know that figs are so perishable that they can be spoiled inside without obvious external signs? Or that you should not use foil to wrap acidic foods or to cover steel or cast-iron pots as aluminum corrodes in contact with acid or non-aluminum metal containers?
You can meet McGee, when he’ll be signing copies of his book at various events around the Bay Area:
* Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at Kepler’s in Menlo Park.
* Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Sobrato Center for Non-Profits, 1400 Parkmoor Ave. in San Jose. The event, hosted by the Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley, is $10 for members and $15 for non-members. For tickets, call (408) 847-7730 or click here.
* Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. at Omnivore Books in San Francisco.
* Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. at Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz.
Longtime food writer for the New York Times, Amanda Hesser, will be leading an adult writer’s seminar, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Women’s Building, 3543 – 18th St. in San Francisco.