Category Archives: Restaurants

Google’s Culinary Star Power

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Google's first executive chef. (Photo courtesy of Charlie Ayers)

If you ever had any doubts about the caliber of food those lucky Googlers get to nosh on for free, check out my story in the new December issue of San Francisco Magazine.

Charlie Ayers got the ball rolling in 1999 when he became the first executive chef at the Mountain View headquarters of that search engine giant. The delicious foundation he established helped nurture and lure a host of culinary stars. Now, Ayers is set to open his first restaurant, Calafia Cafe and Market A Go-Go in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village. Although anticipated to open this month, due to construction delays, it will most likely open in January now.

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Dining Deals

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Stroll downtown Healdsburg while enjoying a four-course feast.

If those after-Thanksgiving sales have left your wallet rather depleted, you’ll be glad to know that these dining deals will let you to indulge your gourmet tastes without breaking the bank.

Head to Healdsburg Dec. 3, 10, and 17 for a progressive, three-hour feast each of those evenings. Enjoy four courses, each at a different restaurant you stroll to on or near the Healdsburg Plaza.

Among the participating restaurants in the “Strolling Holiday Dine Around” are: Cyrus, Bovolo, and Dry Creek Kitchen. At $85 per person, it might not seem like the biggest bargain. But out of town visitors can receive up to 30 percent off their hotel stay at participating lodgings. For more information on that, click here.

Select shops in the Downtown Retail District also will offer guests a 10 percent discount on a purchase of $100 or more each of those three days.

A portion of proceeds benefits the Healdsburg Shared Ministries Food Pantry.

To reserve a spot for “Strolling Holiday Dine Around,” call (707) 431-7346.

Saratoga’s Sent Sovi invites you to dine with a free $25 gift certificate good through Dec. 31. To get a certificate, just email holidays@sentsovi.com, and the certificate will be emailed to you.

At San Jose’s Santana Row, chow down on a two-course $14.95 prix fixe lunch at any of 12 participating restaurants. The “Out to Lunch” promotion is good only on weekdays through Dec. 31.

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New Dessert Shop, New Kids’ Menu, New Wine

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Frozen yogurt with Valhrona chocolate rice pearls and sunflower seeds. (Photo courtesy of Chill).

There’s a chill in the air in San Francisco — in more ways than one.

Chill is a new dessert cafe, 125 Kearny St. in downtown San Francisco across the street from the Crocker Galleria. Owner Trang Nguyen, who sports an MBA and work experience at Kraft Foods and Revlon, serves up unique sweets with global influences.

Low-fat, all-natural frozen yogurt comes in flavors such as original tart, black sesame, and rooibos red tea. There’s also vanilla frozen custard to give you goose bumps. Choose from toppings such as chocolate agave, black sugar, and dulce de leche.

Crispy crepe cone with frozen custard and strawberries. (Photo courtesy of Chill)

Or enjoy those offerings in concoctions such as Black Sesame Fig ($5.25), a mix of fig puree, grape syrup, organic condensed milk, and black sesame fro-yo, all on a bed of shave ice. Or have it all stuffed in a crispy crepe cone. How about Banana Walnuts ($5.75), a crepe cone filled with banana chips, walnuts, dulce de leche syrup, and frozen yogurt?

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Playing With Fire

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Chef Mourad Lahlou preparing a tangia to cook in the ashes.

It was a brisk morning in St. Helena, but troughs of burning, glowing coals provided warmth as we gathered together, our appetites already primed for the charred, long-simmered delights yet to come.

We were there to watch three Mediterranean culinary stars demonstrate the ancient art of cooking over fire: Mourad Lahlou, the Marrakech-born chef-owner of Aziza in San Francisco; esteemed cookbook author Paula Wolfert; and Haouari Abderrazak, chef-owner of Haouari Restaurant on the island of Djerba, Tunisia.

It was all part of the recent “Worlds of Flavor International Conference” at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone Campus. This year’s theme was: “A Mediterranean Flavor Odyssey.”

Shrimp and fish skewers

Shrimp and fish brochettes sizzled on a grill, as Abderrazak mixed up a boldly flavored red sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, lemon juice, and harissa (a blend of chiles, cumin, coriander, and caraway) to accompany them.

Lahlou planned to make lamb tangia — chunks of lamb shoulder simmered for 12 hours with saffron, garlic, preserved lemons, and ras el hanout (a Moroccan spice blend that can contain about 50 ingredients, such as ginger, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, turmeric, and dried flowers).

Saucy Moroccan lamb tangia

It is made in a tanjia, a clay vessel that is sealed with wax paper, then buried in hot coals or wood ash to cook.

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Chef Nate Appleman On His Superb Pizza Dough Recipe

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Last weekend, I had the opportunity to talk to Nate Appleman, executive chef-owner of A16 in San Francisco, about his wondrous three-day pizza dough recipe. You might remember my original post, touting it.

I cornered him after he did a cooking demo at the “Worlds of Flavor International Conference” at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone campus in St. Helena.

I told him how much I LOVED his pizza dough recipe because it was so easy to make, and it resulted in such a soft, elastic dough. It’s featured in his new cookbook, “A16 Food +Wine” (Ten Speed Press), which was co-written by the restaurant’s wine director, Shelley Lindgren.

I mentioned, though, that I was more than a little skeptical at the start that the dough would actually rise, given it only had a quarter teaspoon of yeast in it to 4 cups of flour.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

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