Category Archives: Pizza

Patxi’s to Open in Campbell, Unique Chefs of Compassion Event & More

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Time for deep dish. (Photo courtesy of Patxi's)

Patxi’s Opens This Afternoon in Campbell

Get ready for some deep deep dish.

Patxi’s Pizza, which specializes in Chicago-style deep dish pies, is opening its seventh Bay Area location at 4 p.m. today, 1875 S. Bascom Ave. in Campbell in the Pruneyard Shopping Center.

What’s more, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 21, the Campbell locale will hold a grand opening with complimentary samples.

The first Patxi’s (pronounced pah’-cheese) opened in Palo Alto in 2004 by William Freeman and Francisco “Patxi” Azpiroz, who previously worked at the legendary Zachary’s Pizza in Berkeley. The restaurant features four types of pizza (stuffed, pan, thin, and extra-thin), as well as three types of dough (regular, whole-wheat, and a new gluten-free one).

The new Campbell location has special meaning for Freeman, too. “I have deep roots in the Campbell area –my family has farmed land here for a century, and my dad grew up on a walnut and apricot farm on Lawrence Road,” he said in a statement. “So this is a real homecoming for me.”

Exec. Pastry Chef Carlos Sanchez of Parcel 104 picks his ingredients from the food pantry. (Photo courtesy of West Valley Community Services)

Chefs of Compassion

So many chefs are used to cooking with every gourmet product at their disposal.

But what happens when four Bay Area chefs are charged with making a showstopping dish from ingredients found only in the West Valley Community Services food pantry?

You’ll find out if you attend the “Chefs of Compassion Cooking for a Cause” fund-raising event, 5 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Addison-Penzak JCC of Silicon Valley, 14855 Oka Road in Los Gatos.

Executive Chef Chris Schloss of Cin-Cin Wine Bar in Los Gatos; Executive Pastry Chef Carlos Sanchez of Parcel 104 in Santa Clara; Executive Chef Jay Essadki of Morocco’s Restaurant in San Jose and Mountain View; and Executive Chef Nanci Wokas of Cooking with Class will each be preparing one of four courses at this dinner, which will help fund West Valley Community Services hunger and homeless programs.

"Breakfast for Dinner'' by Carlos Sanchez of Parcel 104. (Photo courtesy of West Valley Community Services)

Yours truly will be one of the judges, charged with picking the winning dish, along with Tracy Lee, founder of Dishcrawl; Sheila Himmel, former Mercury News restaurant critic; Linda Zavoral, Mercury News travel editor; and Abby Schwartz, South Bay manager of Yelp.

Tickets are $100 per person.

Chef Daniel Humm Returns to Campton Place for One Night

Chef Daniel Humm of New York’s Eleven Madison Park is returning for one evening to the establishment where he got his start — Campton Place in San Francisco.

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Palio d’Asti Offers New Gluten-Free Options

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A tangle of linguini with Dungeness crab at Palio d'Asti.

When the economy took a nosedive, Chef-Owner Dan Scherotter of Palio d’Asti in San Francisco’s Financial District did something quite clever.

Seeing his once-bustling lunch crowd diminish as nearby offices closed or laid off employees, he revamped the pricing of the dinner menu in hopes of enticing more diners in at that later hour.

The once a la carte dinner menu became completely prix fixe two years ago with quite reasonable prices. Two courses are $31, three courses are $39 and four courses are $45. Indeed, as Scherotter explains, unless you come in just for a salad at the noon-hour, dinner is actually more of a bargain than lunch.

With gluten-free such a craze now, he’s also spot-lighting wheat-free dishes on the menu, including polenta with a choice of five different toppings and tagliatelle made entirely with buckwheat.

The new pricing seems to be drawing folks in, as evidenced by a recent Thursday night when I was invited in a guest of the restaurant. When I arrived, the bar was abuzz with a large, boisterous after-work crowd sipping wine and cocktails. There also was a private party in the rear dining room.

The dining room has a medieval vibe.

Palio d’Asti, which has been around since 1990, is named for an Italian bareback horse racing festival in Asti that dates back to medieval times. That spirit is alive in the restaurant, which has a definite medieval feel to it with its soaring ceilings, coat of arms flags, artwork of castles and an installation of metal mesh horses in full stride across the long, dining room wall.

The menu is large, though, some dishes are decidedly stronger than others. The pastas, made in-house, are definitely the high point.

Although my friend and I decided to go with four courses each, the chef sent out a few extras.

Two types of Acme bread are brought to the table, along with a sampler of pickled veggies that included green beans and fennel, which was a nice touch.

Silky scallops with escarole.

We started with the day boat scallops with braised escarole, toasted sesame seeds and “Sicilian caviar,” which apparently is bottarga (the dried, salted roe of gray mullet or tuna). The scallops were sweet, tender and dressed up with a shower of black and white sesame seeds. But there was a sandiness that detracted from the dish.

Fried calamari arrived hot and crisp with an airy batter and a velvety pool of roasted red pepper sauce underneath to dip in.

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Pure Pizza Dough Heaven — The Recipe From Pizzeria Mozza

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Pizza nirvana.

Hands down, this is the best pizza dough recipe — ever.

I don’t say that lightly, either. And believe you me, I’ve tried many others, some quite good.

But the one from “The Mozza Cookbook” (Alfred A. Knopf) by baker extraordinaire, Nancy Silverton, and her chef, Matt Molina, and food journalist Carolynn Carreno, is truly astounding.

It’s got so much character and developed flavor that I could eat the crust plain. How many pizza crusts can you say that about?

As Silverton explains in the new cookbook, of which I recently received a review copy, it’s not an exact replica of the one served at her Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles that she owns with Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. But having enjoyed the real deal at Mozza every time I’ve visited Los Angeles, I can attest that the recipe in the book makes a pretty darn close approximation to the pizzas that come out of the restaurant’s ferociously hot wood-fired ovens.

They both sport one of the most varied crusts around — at times crisp, chewy and airy. Each bite of crust brings a new texture — from the edges, which puff up in the blistering heat of the oven, to the patchwork of air holes like that of a wonderful ciabatta to the cracker-like center. The flavor is that of a great artisan bread. And no wonder since Silverton practically single-handedly started the gourmet bread trend in Los Angeles when she opened her landmark La Brea Bakery.

I’ve loved this pizza crust from the first time I ever sank my teeth into it years ago in Los Angeles. I can’t be more thrilled to know that I can duplicate it at home now, too.

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Delfina’s Perfect Pizza Dough Recipe and A Great Pizza Stone

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Tomato sauce, homegrown tomatoes, homegrown basil and mozzarella top this pizza we made.

When I spy the words, “best homemade pizza dough we’ve ever tried,” well, you know I’ve got to try it.

Especially since those lofty words come from none other than Sunset magazine’s exacting editors.

That’s just what they proclaimed  this recipe for “Delfina’s Pizza Dough”  from the acclaimed San Francisco restaurant, Pizzeria Delfina.

The recipe can be found in “The Sunset Cookbook” (Oxmoor House), of which I received a review copy last year and have been happily cooking from ever since.

Just as they promised, the soft, supple dough is easy to work with. And it bakes up crisp with a slightly puffy edge.

The recipe calls for 1 generous teaspoon of fresh yeast, which can be found in refrigerator cases of certain supermarkets. I didn’t want to make an extra trip to the store, so I searched online until I found the proper conversion for using active dry yeast instead. Turns out it’s about 1 1/4 teaspoons, so that’s what I used.

The great Emile Henry pizza stone that I got as a sample to test out, fitted inside our Big Green Egg.

The pizza, ready to be served.

You can bake this pizza in the oven. But we did it on the grill, using a new Emile Henry round pizza stone ($49.95) that I got a sample of from the kind folks at Williams-Sonoma. Glazed in black, it’s beautiful to behold, so much so that you could easily serve guests right from it. Sur La Table also carries the pan at the same price, but in flame red.

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My Favorite East Bay Haunt — the Cheese Board

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My VERY favorite sourdough cheese rolls. Heaven! ($2 each)

If I am ever in the vicinity of the East Bay, there is one place I always have to stop — the Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley.

It doesn’t matter if I happen to be headed to Oakland or Emeryville. I gladly make the detour, put up with finding parking in Berkeley’s congested Gourmet Ghetto, and happily wait in line at this bakery.

Because the baked goods are just that good.

I’m talking sourdough cheese rolls so incredible that I almost always inhale one right when I get back into my car; the freshest English muffins with a plethora of lovely nooks and crannies; sweet, crumbly corn cherry scones the color of sunshine; and moist, deep, dark, wonderful chocolate cake loaves with a hint of coffee.

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