Category Archives: More Food Gal — In Other Publications

The Pizza Dough That Takes Three Days to Make

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Pizza Bianco, pre-baking

Don’t let that scare you off.

It does take about three days to make this pizza dough. But most of that time, the dough is just hanging out in the fridge, doing its own thing.

Pizza Bianco, post-baking

This recipe comes from the new “A16: Food + Wine” (Ten Speed Press) cookbook by Nate Appleman, Shelley Lindgren, and Kate Leahy. Yes, it’s the new cookbook from one of my favorite San Francisco restaurants, A16, where I have swooned over many a thin-crust, Neapolitan-style pizza.

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The Only Sustainable Sushi Bar in North America

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At Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar, it\s not business as usual.

That is just what Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar in San Francisco is believed to be.

The tiny, seven-month-old restaurant serves only seafood that isn’t overfished, farmed without proper management, or contains high levels of mercury and other contaminants.

Find out more about why business partners, Chef Kin Lui, Chef Raymond Ho, and Casson Trenor (a sustainable fisheries expert) decided to open such a restaurant by reading my story today in the San Francisco Chronicle Food section.

Tataki, the site of a former Subway sandwich shop, grabs your attention right when you walk in. A Monterey Bay Aquarium “Seafood Watch” pocket guide, which lists best and worst sustainable seafood species, is front and center on every table. A copy is also tucked into every take-out menu.

Co-chefs Raymond Ho (left) and Kin Lui (right).

Oct. 22, Tataki will be the site of the official launch of three new, ground-breaking sustainable sushi guides created in partnership with the aquarium, Blue Ocean Institute, and Environmental Defense Fund. Each will include information on as many as 60 different seafood species commonly found on sushi menus.

Sustainable artic char, similar to farmed salmon in taste and texture, but without environmental and health concerns.

Want to do the right thing? Then, you’ll stop eating unagi, bluefin toro, hamachi, octopus (tako), monkfish liver (ankimo), farmed salmon (sake), imported King crab (kani), imported albacore tuna (shiro maguro), and sea urchin (uni) from Maine — all of which are unsustainable, according to the aquarium’s new guide.

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Eat Well — Without Going Broke

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With the price of everything on the rise, we’re all tempted to cut back on buying organics and wild seafood, which can put a big dent in the pocketbook.

But there’s a way to still enjoy all of that — and eat it, too.

The key is to choose wisely. That’s the message in my latest posting on the Slow Food Nation blog, which gives tips and advice on eating right in these economically challenging times.

A Salute to Cheese

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Indulge in cheese at Slow Food NationSurround yourself with cheese, cheese, and more cheese at Slow Food Nation’s Cheese Pavilion of Taste, Aug. 30-31, in San Francisco.

Cheese lovers will be beside themselves when 54 producers from around the country show off everything from raw-milk cheese to artisan yogurt. Some cheeses are made on such a small scale that they’re not normally easily found in stores, either.

It’s just one of 15 taste pavilions that will be set up at the 50,000-square-foot pier at Fort Mason. Each will focus on a particular ingredient or food. Attendees can sample and learn more by viewing demonstrations and talking to producers. Bread will be baked in wood-burning and tandoori ovens in the Bread Pavilion, and ice cream will be hand-cranked at the Ice Cream Pavilion.

Read more about the cheese pavilion in my posting on the Slow Food Nation blog.

The Green Kitchen, part of the Taste Pavilions, has a stellar line-up of chefs from around the country who will demonstrate how basic tools and simple ingredients combine to make culinary delights.

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Read What Former Google Chef Charlie Ayers Is Up To

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Former Google Chef Charlie Ayers. Photo courtesy of Mr. Ayers.

It wasn’t always easy to please his big bosses at Google in Mountain View, says Chef Charlie Ayers, who was hired as employee #53.

After all, back in 1999-2004, those guys working there weren’t exactly big-time foodies. Google co-founder Larry Page had a thing for Subway sandwiches, and for some reason, a vehement dislike of jerky. Even free-range, artisan-made, bison jerky, which Ayers learned about the hard way.

Ayers once put some out in the free-snacks area, and the engineers gorged themselves on it. But the next day, Ayers found the remainder of the jerky on his desk. “Larry didn’t want me to serve it,” Ayers says. “The only thing he said was, ‘I don’t like it.’ I thought, ‘Okayyyyy….I’ll just figure that one out on my own.’ ”

Then there was the time he thought his bonus check had a mistake in it. He thought there were too many zeroes in it. Ayers’ bonus was tied directly to the number of employees who stayed on campus to eat. So Ayers asked his boss, who looked over the check and said, “This is correct. And if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, there will be plenty more where that came from.”

Ayers wasn’t the only one who was incredulous. His sous chef also thought the bonus check he had received must be wrong. He showed it to Ayers who deadpanned, “No, this is correct. And if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, there will be plenty more where that came from.”

Enjoy more fun with Ayers in my column, “A Girl’s Gotta Eat” in today’s Metro. Read all about his newest project, the eco-friendly Calafia Cafe and Market A Go Go in the Palo Alto Town & Country Village, which is expected to open in November.

(Note: Because the Metro is late in posting the column on its online site, the column also appears at the end of this FoodGal posting, right after the recipe.)

For those who want to turn up the heat while reading, here’s a fiery recipe from Ayers’ new cookbook,
“Food 2.0, Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google” (DK Publishing).

Google Hot Sauce

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