Category Archives: Thomas Keller/French Laundry/Et Al

The Most Anticipated Restaurant of the Year, Benu, Opens Today

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Expectations are through the stratosphere for Benu, which opens today in San Francisco, to unparalleled fanfare.

Discriminating diners have been salivating over every detail that has emerged over the past few months about this new restaurant from Chef Corey Lee, the esteemed former chef de cuisine of the French Laundry in Yountville.

Reservations already have been going fast on OpenTable for Lee’s first restaurant, with tables already nabbed as far out as late September.

But that’s not surprising, given Lee’s stature in the culinary world. The James Beard award-winning chef has built a restaurant, where every detail has been meticulously considered — from the specially designed porcelain plateware to the private wine lockers to the first-of-its-kind Viking cooking suite in the kitchen.

Indeed, Lee’s architect, the award-winning Richard Bloch of New York, calls this the most custom restaurant he’s ever worked on. It’s also the first restaurant that the French Laundry’s Thomas Keller has invested in that’s not one of his own.

Learn just what it took to build this elegant restaurant, housed in the former Hawthorne Lane-cum-Two restaurant space just a hop away from the W Hotel. Read all about it in my story in the September issue of Food Arts magazine.

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Ad Hoc BBQ Goodies

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When it carries the name, Ad Hoc, synonymous with the high-quality famous at Thomas Keller’s lauded, family-style Yountville restaurant, you know it will come with good taste and a high premium.

Such is the case with the new Ad Hoc Apple Bacon BBQ Sauce and Ad Hoc Sweet & Spicy BBQ Rub, both sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma.

Recently, I got a chance to try out samples of both — the 13-ounce jar of barbecue sauce, which sells for $16; and the 3-ounce canister of rub, which is $12.

The hubby, aka Meat Boy, smeared the rub on racks of ribs, then brushed on the sauce after they came off the grill.

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Ad Hoc Cake Mix and Prepared Frosting

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Leave it to uber-Chef Thomas Keller to create the world’s most expensive cake mix.

Just how pricey?

We’re talking $14 for either the Ad Hoc Red Velvet, Chocolate or Yellow cake mixes sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma. Add another $19.95 for a jar of either the ready-to-spread Ad Hoc Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate frostings, also sold at Williams-Sonoma.

That’s $33.95 to make one cake right there. Not to mention the butter, plus 4 whole eggs AND 4 egg yolks that you mix into the yellow cake batter, which is the one I received a sample of recently to try.

Boy howdy, you could buy a quite decent bakery cake for that price and call it a day.

Ahh, but then, you wouldn’t have the Ad Hoc or Keller prestige attached to it.

The mixes and frostings are made from top-notch ingredients: Guittard cocoa and Nielsen Massey vanilla. I could smell the strong fragrance of the vanilla as the yellow cake batter came together in the bowl of my stand mixer. Unlike so many other cake recipes I’ve used, the directions on the back of this box call for using the whisk attachment for the mixer rather than the paddle. The result is a batter that is very fluffy and silky-creamy — almost as if there’s whipped cream folded into it.

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Ad Hoc’s Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs with Olives, Lemon and Fennel

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Fat is flavor.

Big time.

How often have you heard chefs equate fatty goodness with deeply developed, satiating flavor?

Countless, I’m sure.

This simple recipe for “Crispy Chicken Thighs with Olives, Lemon and Fennel” from “Ad Hoc at Home” (Artisan) by Chef Thomas Keller is a prime example of just why they espouse that.

Chicken thighs get seared golden brown in a pan, then removed to a cooling rack. Peer into the pan and you’ll see a small pond of glistening, rendered liquid fat at the bottom.

Don’t be afraid.

Healthful, gym-rat me was tempted to pour out that fat, while good food-loving me was smacking my lips at the lusciousness pooling in the pan. In the end, the latter me won out, especially because Keller makes no mention in the recipe of cleaning out the pan before proceeding with the rest of the directions.

For good reason.

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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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