Category Archives: Restaurants

Scenes from SF Chefs Food Wine 2011

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A bevy of chefs cut a chocolate cake depicting San Francisco's skyline to signal the start of SF Chefs Food Wine. How many chefs can you name?

To kick off the start of the third annual SF Chefs Food Wine extravaganza last Friday night on Union Square in San Francisco, no simple little ribbon-cutting ceremony would do.

Instead, Pastry Chef Lori Baker — who owns Baker & Banker in San Francisco with her husband, Chef Jeff Banker — created an astounding devil’s food cake cityscape complete with chocolate buildings to depict the Transamerica pyramid and an assortment of other iconic landmarks, including her own restaurant.

On their marks, a who’s who of celeb San Francisco chefs — including Chris Cosentino of Incanto, Emily Luchetti of Farallon and Waterbar, Mourad Lahlou of Aziza, and Russell Jackson of Lafite, as well as famed New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent, who flew in just for the occasion — grabbed knives to cut into the cake to signal the start of the three-day food and wine celebration.

That was preceded by the traditional sabering of a champagne bottle, as Cosentino looked on with knife envy, having sabered a champagne bottle with a Russian sword at his own wedding.

The entrance to the tent on Union Square.

Close-up of the cake made by Baker & Banker restaurant.

Lori Baker and Jeff Banker of Baker & Banker pose with Russell Jackson

Chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto addresses the crowd.

The ceremonial sabering of the champagne bottle.

When the doors opened to the enormous tent pitched on Union Square, 1,200 folks piled inside to sample wines, cocktails and gourmet noshes prepared by 35 Bay Area chefs and to groove to the sounds of Chef Joey Altman’s band.

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A Tale of Determination at LarkCreekSteak in San Francisco

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Ismael Macias’ path to becoming the new head chef at LarkCreekSteak in the swank downtown Westfield San Francisco Centre was anything but smooth.

Hired as a dishwasher at sister restaurant, One Market in San Francisco, when he was in his mid-20’s, Macias quit after two weeks because the work was just too grueling.

And that’s saying a lot, given that the now 36-year-old Macias has been working since he was 6 years old. One of 14 kids born to a family in Mexico, he immigrated to the United States at age 25 without knowing any English. For years, he worked two jobs while going to school.

The folks at the Lark Creek Restaurant Group must have sensed his potential. They kept calling him to come back to work. Again and again. All told, they hired him, only to have him quit yet again — a total of seven times.

Chef Ismael Macias of LarkCreekSteak. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)Lucky seven it was, though, as Macias returned to One Market, where he worked his way up to become a line cook, then sous chef. Last year, he came on board at LarkCreekSteak, where earlier this spring, he was named its head chef.

“My Mom cried when I told her that I got the job,” he says.

It’s one thing when a restaurant has a great story to recommend it. But what’s on the plate still has to be worth walking through the doors. In both cases, LarkCreekSteak delivers.

Recently, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant to try the menu under Macias’ direction.

Soft jazz plays on the sound system in the dining room, warmed with maple and blonde wood, large framed images of squash and wheat, and servers decked out in stylish yet laid-back navy striped shirts and black pants.

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An Ode to Potato Salad

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My favorite potato salad recipe.

I did not grow up in a plentiful potato salad household.

With some families, summer is just not summer without a big bowl of potato salad chilling on a shelf in the fridge week in and week out for barbecue get-togethers or sleepy Sunday lunches on the patio.

Growing up, potato salad was a rarity for me, though. My Chinese-American parents never made it. But now and then, my Dad would pick up a plastic pint container of potato salad from the local grocery store to eat on weekends with sandwiches at lunch time.

I remember snapping off the plastic lid to find soft, diced potatoes smothered in mayo with a tiny bit of crunchy celery and piquant minced pickles mixed in. I’d scoop out a tablespoon or two to enjoy, savoring its creamy coldness as it hit my tongue.

Nowadays, I do make my own potato salad. But not very often.

It’s still a once-in-awhile summer treat to me. When you don’t prepare it all the time, you want the one you do make to be something special. This one definitely is.

It used to be served at Gordon’s cafe in Yountville, a family-owned joint that was a favorite of locals and tourists for its generous sandwiches and comforting entrees — all made from topnotch ingredients.

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WOW Truck Wows Food TV

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The WOW Truck draws a crowd as the "Eat St.'' crew films the scene.

If you were in the vicinity of San Jose’s Bernal Park last night, you might have noticed a line — a long line — of hungry folks.

That’s because the WOW Truck was parked there at E. Hedding St. at N. 7th St. for business of a rather exciting kind.

The food truck, which serves up Filipino fare, was being filmed by a crew from the Cooking Channel’s “Eat St.,” which is here in the Bay Area to put togeter a future episode that also will star a couple more kitchens on wheels, including San Francisco’s Le Truc.

Chef Tim Luym, co-owner of the WOW Truck, takes time out from the filming.

WOW Truck, co-owner Tim Luym, passed out free pineapple fritters (turon) to folks who braved the long wait in line to purchase his popular silogs ($7) — plates of garlic fried rice heaped with your choice of meat (everything from corned beef to pork sausage to SPAM), as well as pickled green papaya salad and an over-easy, cage-free egg.

Patrons also were chowing down on the truck’s tacos ($4) and burritos ($7.50) garnished with calamansi pico de gallo. And nobody could resist the signature adobo wings (three for $5).

The "Eat St.'' crew at work.

Periodically, the camera crew would come by to zoom in on folks taking bites of their food, especially if they happened to be young, attractive women, if you know what I mean. Hey, it’s TV, right?

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Pica Pica Maize Kitchen is Amazing

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The shredded beef-black bean-sweet plaintain cachapa is a big seller for good reasons.

Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, which serves up lusty Venezuelan food, is an ideal place for celiacs, as the menu is entirely gluten-free.

But more than that, it’s a must-stop place for anyone who just loves the soulful flavors of corn, yuca, plaintains, avocado, black beans, chiles and long-cooked, tender meats.

Adriana Lopez Vermut opened the first Pica Pica Maize three years ago in Napa’s Oxbow Public Market, with her father, Leopoldo Lopez Gil, who owns several restaurants in Caracas. A year ago, they opened their first San Francisco outpost in the Mission District, which is the one I visited when I was invited in to try the menu recently.

“Pica pica” means “a little bit of this, a little bit of that” and that’s exactly what you’ll want when you see the tempting offerings available as you scan the wall menu, then order at the counter.

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