Category Archives: Restaurants

Instead of Fighting the Crowds at Big-Box Stores Over the Next Few Days…

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Meet brothers Michael and Byran Voltaggio at Williams-Sonoma. (Photo courtesy of Williiams-Sonoma)

Meet Chefs Michael and Bryan Voltaggio

Michael and Bryan Voltaggio — sibling chefs who strutted their culinary prowess on “Top Chef” before younger bro, Michael, walked away with the title — will be making appearances at two local Williams-Sonoma stores next week.

First up, they will be at the Stanford Shopping Center store at 5 p.m. Nov. 28. The next day, 5 p.m. Nov. 29, they’ll be at the San Francisco Union Square store.

At both events, they will be signing copies of their new cookbook, “Volt ink.” (Weldon Owen). The books must be purchased at Williams-Sonoma in order to be signed.

Give the Gift of A Restaurant Gift Certificate

San Francisco’s Treatful makes gift-giving for the foodies on your list a whole lot easier.

Founded by two Stanford Business School grads, the online site allows you to purchase gift certificates to more than 250 restaurants in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Among them are Aziza in San Francisco, Jar in Los Angeles, Rye in Brooklyn, and the Girl & the Goat in Chicago.

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Amber Dhara Makes Its Mark In Palo Alto

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Shrimp Assamese flavored with galangal, tamarind and lime leaves -- a a dish from North-East India.

A budding new Indian restaurateur recently remarked to me that the establishment he most hopes to compete with is Amber India.

It’s easy to understand why.

The Indian restaurant group, which started more than 13 years ago with its first Amber India restaurant in Mountain View, practically pioneered the art of modern Indian cuisine in the Bay Area.

Weeks ago, it opened its fifth restaurant, Amber Dhara in downtown Palo Alto, in the former location of Junnoon, another modern Indian eatery. If that weren’t enough, you can look for a second Amber Dhara to open in San Francisco’s Mission District in January.

The look of the Palo Alto place hasn’t changed much. Heavy silk drapes and peach banquettes cocooned in dark wood still lend a glam, exotic ambience.

Last weekend, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant to try some of the new dishes. Amber Dhara, explains Corporate Executive Chef Vittal Shetty, emphasizes small plates and little-seen regional Indian specialties. Think roti ($3.75) — but made with nine grains to give it a deeper, heartier flavor; and “Duck Two Ways” ($20) with a spice confit duck leg plus a seared breast in orange curry. There’s also a range of specialty cocktails, including the “Ginger Sutra” with fresh ginger, vodka and jaggery, which I couldn’t resist.

A tangle of mung lentils, pomegrante seeds and sweet pear slices.

We started with the moong lentil salad ($7) — a vibrant mix of full-throttle crunch from pomegranate seeds and crushed peanuts, as well as sweet Anjou pear slices. A zingy key lime vinaigrette tied it all together.

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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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Easy Peasy

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This dish really is easy peasy.

Especially because I cheated by using frozen peas, which allows you to make this simple side salad any time of year.

“Sweet Green Peas & Feta” is from the new “Kokkari: Contemporary Greek Flavors” (Chronicle Books) by Chef Erik Cosselmon and food writer Janet Fletcher, of which I recently received a review copy.

The famed San Francisco modern Greek restaurant, Kokkari, makes this dish only in spring, when fresh peas are at their sweet peak along California’s coast.

But I tried it with thawed, frozen peas with great success. It lets you skip the shelling and blanching of fresh peas, too, so that this dish comes together in a snap of the fingers.

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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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