Category Archives: Restaurants

Thomas Keller To Open Restaurant In Los Angeles

Posted on by 3 comments

Southern California, which no doubt has been starved for a stellar Thomas Keller restaurant, will finally get one in late 2009 when a new Beverly Hills outpost of Bouchon will open.

The French bistro will be on North Canon Drive in the Beverly Hills Gardens building. It will be adjacent to the Montage Hotel, which will open later this year.

“This project is a homecoming of sorts for me as I worked for many years in the Los Angeles area,” said Keller in a statement, referring to his time overseeing Checkers restaurant before he was fired for insubordination. But that wasn’t such a bad thing, as not long after that in 1992, Keller ended up buying the French Laundry in Yountville; and the rest, of course, is four-star culinary history.

World-class restaurant designer Adam D. Tihany, who created the look for Bouchon in Yountville, as well as Per Se and Bouchon Bakery in New York, will once again turn his magic on creating this Keller restaurant that will seat 225. The two-story structure will house the restaurant on the second floor and a Bouchon Bakery on the first level.

Rory Herrmann will be the chef de cuisine. He is the former private dining kitchen chef at Per Se.

Bouchon Beverly Hills will join the Bouchon family, which also includes a Bouchon Bistro and a Bouchon Bakery in Las Vegas.

Not to be left out, Laura Cunningham, Keller’s former long-time girlfriend who ran the front-of-the-house operations at French Laundry and turned service into a true art there, will be opening up a restaurant of her own in Yountville.

Cunningham, who has been a restaurant and hotel consultant all over the world since leaving the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group about two years ago, will take over the former Pere Jeanty restaurant site on Washington Street. She plans to rename the restaurant, Vita, which means “life” in Italian. It also was the first name of Cunningham’s late grandmother. The restaurant will be contemporary Italian with an emphasis on her family’s Sicilian and southern Italian heritage.

The concept, image and design will be overseen by Cunningham. The daily operations of the 120-seat restaurant will be managed by Culinary Director Jeffrey Cerciello of Bouchon and Ad Hoc restaurants, along with the team from the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group.

Celebrate Bastille Day In A Big Way At Left Bank Brasserie

Posted on by Leave a comment

Jugglers, clowns, mimes, fire-breathers, French poodles on parade, and more — that’s what’s in store when Left Bank Brasserie at San Jose’s Santana Row celebrates Bastille Day, July 12-14.

A triple-peaked big-top tent will be erected next to the restaurant for “Cirque de la Bastille,” 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. July 12 and July 13, where French circus performers will entertain. Admission is free.

Noon to 2 p.m. July 13, bring your four-footed doggie friend to take part in a competition, “French Poodles on Parade.” And no, your dog doesn’t necessarily have to be a French poodle. Registration is $10; proceeds benefit the Humane Society of Silicon Valley.

July 12-14, try your luck at pentaque, one of Europe’s most popular lawn games. Everyone is encouraged to sign up to play at no cost.

My Lunch At Google

Posted on by 4 comments

Cucumber-seaweed salad, assorted vegetable kimchee, and chrysanthemum greens with tofu.

If you’ve been wondering what happened to that wonderful San Francisco Chronicle food writer, Olivia Wu, she didn’t go far in miles, but she did do quite the about-face in her career.

Wu put down her pen and notepad to free her hands for some bonafide cooking. Since early this year, she’s been an executive chef at one of Google’s famed cafes in Mountain View. At her Oasis Cafe, she oversees a staff of 26, who turn out more than 600 meals a day for hungry Googlers.

A former caterer, private chef, newspaper reporter, music teacher, and yoga instructor, Wu says one reason she took the job was for the challenge to expand the palates and horizons of this young, techie crowd. As one of her wholesale distributors said of her in awe, “She’s cooking Chinese food. Real Chinese food!”

Forget visions of chow mein and egg rolls. Think steamed fresh fish, pork hash with pungent salted fish, homemade lemongrass tea, and fresh juice from young coconuts cracked to order. Or the menu the day she graciously invited me to come for lunch last week: cold salads of chrysanthemum greens and tofu, cucumber-seaweed, cranberry shelling beans flavored with shiso, assorted vegetable kimchee, and 5-spice beef cut from the succulent shin bone. The hot selections that day included: spicy ma po tofu, melt-in-your-mouth crystal pork (steamed pork shoulder drizzled with a soy-garlic-sugar sauce), and stir-fried broccoli. If that wasn’t enough, there was also house-made bubble tea with fresh, peeled lychees bobbing in it.

Ma po tofu, crystal pork, fried rice, and stir-fried broccoli.

Wu uses as many organic ingredients as possible (including the tofu), and only serves sustainable seafood. She’s even added a few traditional big round tables with lazy-susans to the seating area to encourage more synergy among Googlers as they dine.

Read more

Bay Area Chef Mark Sullivan Penning a Cookbook

Posted on by Leave a comment

Mark Sullivan, chef-partner of the Village Pub in Woodside and Spruce in San Francisco, is a self-taught cook who holds a degree in philosophy. Now, he’s turning that introspective nature on a new cookbook.

Sullivan is working on the book with his sister, Katy Sullivan-Morford, a Bay Area food writer. It will be about cooking in restaurants and at home, and about the importance of the shared experience of gathering around the table. There will be plenty of personal stories and photos, too.

What there isn’t yet is a title or a publisher. But given Sullivan’s talent and prominence — he was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s best new chefs of 2002 — one is bound to snap up the project.

Savoring the Fifth Taste

Posted on by Leave a comment

You know sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. But do you know umami, the fifth taste?

Attend the “Umami Symposium: New Frontiers of Taste,” 11:30 a.m. July 21 at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, and you’ll know it even better. The event, hosted by the Umami Information Center, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of umami in Tokyo, Japan.

Umami is the savory flavor we can’t get enough of in so many foods. Think Parmesan cheese, mushrooms, cured ham, soy sauce, chicken soup, meat, and fish.

The event leads off with a panel discussion featuring smell and taste scientists; food writer and food scientist Harold McGee; Kunio Tokuoka, executive chef of Kyoto Kitcho in Japan; and Master of Wine Tim Hanni. Following that, a multi-course lunch will be served, with each dish demonstrating the irresistible nature of umami. Tokuoka will prepare the dishes, along with chefs Hiro Sone of Ame in San Francisco and Terra in St. Helena; and Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Yountville.

Tickets are $100. But hurry — registration ends July 7.

If you miss that event, you can still enjoy a feast of umami at Ame, which will be offering a special tasting menu focusing on the fifth flavor,  July 14 to Aug. 3. The five-course dinner is $85, plus an additional $65 for wine pairings. Dishes include broiled sake-marinated black cod in shiso broth, grilled Berkshire pork on Carolina gold rice with tomato “risotto,” and caramel ice cream with shoyu powder.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »