Category Archives: More Food Gal — In Person

Delicious Times to Look Forward to in 2013

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One of the noshes from last year's Wine & Wishes event. (Photo courtesty of Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area)

Wine & Wishes

Enjoy the offerings from more than 50 Bay Area restaurants and wineries at the 12th annual Wine & Wishes‘ gala, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Feb. 2, on Treasure Island.

All proceeds benefit the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area organization, which grants wishes to children suffering from life-threatening illnesses.

The evening begins with a walk-around gourmet wine and food tasting, followed by a four-course wine pairing dinner by nine San Francisco star chefs, including Hoss Zare of Zare at Fly Trap, Jeff Baker of Baker & Banker, Suzette Gresham of Acquerello and Roland Passot of La Folie.

Tickets for the tasting are $150 each; tickets for the dinner (which includes admission to the tasting) are $500 each.

Meet yours truly and some of the best chefs in the country in January in Yosemite. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

Come Meet the Food Gal In Yosemite

Join me Jan. 20-24 in Yosemite, when I host a couple of events at the Ahwahnee’s annual Chefs’ Holiday Series.

If you’ve never attended one of these events, you’re missing out. For the month of January, 25 chefs from around the country will be featured over a series of eight sessions of cooking demos, receptions and gala dinners.

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Scenes from the Third Annual Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest

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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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Two Food Gal Giveaways: Tickets to FallFest and to the Foster Farms Chicken Cook-Off

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A scrumptious look at last year's FallFest. (Photo by Marcie Franich Photography)

San Francisco Magazine’s FallFest Extravaganza

You’ll have to wear loose clothing to try all the food from 40 top restaurants and vino from 40 wineries at San Francisco Magazine’s annual FallFest, noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 13 at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco.

What’s more, there also will be drink seminars, a cocktail competition, live music and chef demos by such esteemed chefs as Belinda Leong of B. Patisserie and Justin Simoneaux of the Boxing Room.

Among the restaurants that will be serving up noshes are: Brasserie S&P, Pizza Antica, Perbacco and Dosa. Participating wineries include: Bonny Doon, Natural Process Alliance and Chappallet Winery.

Tickets are $95 each. The event will benefit Meals on Wheels, which provides food for home-bound seniors.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a pair of free tickets to FallFest (a total value of $190). Entries, limited to those who will be able to be in San Francisco on Oct. 13 for the event, will be accepted through midnight PST Sept. 22. Winner will be announced Sept. 24.

How to win?

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Chocolate Fest, Chef Craig Stoll Cooking Demo & Chefs of Compassion Event

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A decadent Ghirardelli milk chocolate caramel square. (Photo by James Hall Photography)

17th Annual Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival

It’s a total chocolate weekend in store, noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 8-9, when the 17th Annual Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival rolls into San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square.

Take part in an ice cream eating contest, in which contestants will have to down a famous Ghirardelli “Earthquake Sundae.” Join the chocolate scavenger hunt. Watch chef demonstrations. And enjoy the first ever festival bake-off with treats made from Ghirardelli products.

The chocolate extravaganza is a benefit for Project Open Hand, which provides meals to those who are homebound.  Last year, $63,000 was raised.

Tickets are $20 each, which will get you 15 samples.

Deep dark chocolate squares from Ghirardelli. (Photo by James Hall Photography)

Chef Craig Stoll Cooks at Bloomingdale’s San Francisco

Craig Stoll, chef-proprietor of Delfina, Pizzeria Delfina and Locanda, all in San Francisco, will be whipping up some delicious dishes at Bloomingdale’s in downtown San Francisco, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 8.

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Judging the Del Monte “Crown the Cook” Contest

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Loanne Chiu preparing her kale salad in the Del Monte test ktichen.

Last Friday, I spent the day in the beautiful test kitchen at Del Monte headquarters in San Francisco, tasting and scoring, over and over again, to help choose the first ever “Crown the Cook” winner.

I’ll be the first to sheepishly admit, too, that I had forgotten that the canned fruit and veggie manufacturer was based in this fair city I grew up in. Del Monte actually started in Monterey, which of course makes so much sense given that city’s rich cannery history.

As its business skyrocketed, it moved its headquarters to San Francisco and branched into Walnut Creek for its R&D facilities. It also has operations in Southern California, where its pet food manufacturing, which accounts for about half of its sales, is based.

My fellow judges (L to R): Alice Harding, Loren Druz and Mario DiFalco.

More than 600 folks from around the country entered the “Crown the Cook” Facebook cook-off contest in the categories of sides, mains and desserts. One finalist was chosen from each of those categories to come to San Francisco to cook their dish before a judging panel that consisted of Mario DiFalco, Del Monte’s director of marketing; Loren Cruz, Del Monte’s director of product R&D; Alice Harding, Del Monte’s head chef; and yours truly, the only “outsider,” if you will.

Each recipe had to use at least one Del Monte product. And each contestant had 90 minutes to complete their dish, which was not as easy as it sounded. Just you try cooking while a video crew is filming all around you, a host is peppering you with questions, and Del Monte employees from all parts of the building are watching your every move and snapping photos.

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