Category Archives: Restaurants

Chef Michael Symon’s Cured Tuna

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Ahi combines with fennel, olives, oranges, and olive brine for incredible results.

We know the man has a way with pig.

After all, whenever you see Chef Michael Symon on TV, he’s usually talking or cooking pork. Who can blame this Midwestern chef with his acclaimed Cleveland restaurants, Lola and Lolita, for having such a porcine love affair?

There’s a whole lot more than pig in his new cookbook, “Michael Symon’s Live to Cook” (Clarkson Potter). Sure, you’ll find the likes of roasted rack of pork with grilled peaches and chestnut honey vinaigrette, not to mention pappardelle with pig’s head ragu.

But you’ll also find everything from sheep’s milk ravioli with brown butter and almonds, and veal chop Milanese with arugula salad to the colorful “Lightly Cured Tuna with Olives, Orange, and Shaved Fennel” (photo above).

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Heavyweights Team for Local Bocuse d’Or Extravaganza

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Chef Daniel Patterson of Coi. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Think if U2 and Coldplay teamed up for one night — and one night only — for a special benefit concert.

This is the culinary equivalent with celebrated Bay Area rock-star chefs Daniel Patterson of Coi in San Francisco and David Kinch of Manresa joining together for one night, Feb. 8, to cook a sumptuous seven-course feast to benefit the Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation.

At this unique event, which will take place at Coi, Patterson and Kinch will alternate cooking savory courses, and Coi’s Pastry Chef Bill Corbett will do the honors with dessert. Look for such wondrous treats for the eye and palate as Patterson’s “Winter Pastoral” (young carrots roasted on a bed of hay, radish powder, and shaved Pecorino); and Kinch’s “Crispy Chicken and Egg Confit” (with roasted chicken “dashi” and black truffles).

Poultry from Vacaville’s Soul Food Farm will be highlighted in the dinner to celebrate the legacy of American heritage breed poultry.

Chef David Kinch of Manresa. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Price is $195 per person, with a wine pairing available at an extra charge. For reservations, call (415) 393-9000.

For 20 years, the United States has fielded a team for the Bocuse d’Or, the prestigious Olympics of cooking. But it wasn’t until recently that the country got serious about it, when superstar chefs Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller formed the US foundation to support and train the candidate who would represent this country. Their first candidate was French Laundry Chef de Cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth, who finished sixth out of 24 teams in last year’s competition.

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Foodie Fund-Raising Efforts for Haiti

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Red velvet cupcakes for a good cause. (Photo courtesy of Sprinkles)

Buy an ever-popular Red Velvet cupcake from any Sprinkles cupcake bakery today and all proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross’ Haiti Relief and Development Fund.

A lot of Bay Area food and wine purveyors are jumping in to help raise funds, following the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Today through Monday, St. Francis Winery in Santa Rosa and Sequoia Grove Winery in Rutherford also will be donating all tasting room fees to the American Red Cross.

Head on over to the Presidio Cafe in San Francisco, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Jan. 18, for the “Wine for Haiti Fund-Raiser.”

More than 20 wines will be poured. Event organizers are asking that the public donate $50 to $100 as the entry fee. Proceeds will benefit Sirona Cares Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, and the American Red Cross. For more information, go to the event’s Facebook page.

Take a pub crawl on Jan. 19 in San Francisco, as part of a fund-raiser for the American Red Cross. Starting at 5 p.m., Rickhouse, Cantina and Rye — all in San Francisco — invite you to make your way from one bar to the next to try a specialty cocktail created at each venue just for this event. Proceeds from these unique libations will be donated to the Red Cross.

On Jan. 23, Pizzaiolo in Oakland, Gioia Pizzeria in N. Berkeley, and Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco will join forces to host a “Bakesale for Haiti.”

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A Guy Named Carlos, A Lot of Crab, & A Cheesy Time

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A wall sconce at Maria Maria. (Photo courtesy of Robby Skog Photography)

Musician great Carlos Santana opened a fifth locale of his Maria Maria restaurant late last year in Danville.

Serving “Nuevo Mexican” cuisine, it features dishes such as chicken and mole tortilla casserole ($15), grilled skirt steak with nopales salad $(19), and mixed wild mushroom fajitas ($15).

No telling how often you might spot Santana, himself, there. But he did put in an appearance earlier this week to meet and greet media.

Cheesemaker Allison Hooper and friend. (Photo courtesy of Ms. Hooper)

Cheese aficionados will want to head to the Pasta Shop in the 4th Street Market Place in Berkeley, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m, Jan. 15.

Allison Hooper, author of “In a Cheesemaker’s Kitchen,” will be on hand to sign copies of her book, discuss the world of cheese, and offer tastes of her luscious creations.

Hooper, of Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery, will be joined by other artisan cheesemakers at this free event, including those from Bellwether Farms and Cowgirl Creamery, who also will be offering samples of their cheeses.

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Dinner & A Movie — Seafood-Style

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Clam chowder, full of sustainable clams, will be served tomorrow at the Yankee Pier Lafayette event. (Photo courtesy of Yankee Pier)

Head to Yankee Pier in Lafayette tomorrow at 6 p.m. for just that, as well as a lesson in sustainable seafood.

The evening will get started with a screening of the international documentary, “The End of the Line,” which made its debut at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film by Rupert Murray is the first major documentary to focus on the crisis facing today’s oceans because of overfishing.

Yankee Pier is joining with other restaurants around the country to host the “Fish ‘n’ Flicks” screening to urge consumers to choose sustainable seafood and to forgo critically endangered species such as bluefin tuna and beluga sturgeon.

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