Starting the New Year Warmly with Pumpkin, Pancetta, and Arborio Rice Soup

Posted on by 2 comments
Settle into 2018 with soothing home-made pumpkin soup and sage bread.

Settle into 2018 with soothing home-made pumpkin soup and sage bread.

 

Now that the decadent holiday feasts are over, you can’t help but long for something simpler, born of total ease and comfort.

Soup fits that bill like nothing else.

Portland, OR food writer Ivy Manning comes to the rescue with her clever “Easy Soups From Scratch with Quick Breads to Match” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy.

Sure, you could make a batch of soup and serve it with a purchased baguette. But why not up your game by pairing a soup perfectly with an accompanying bread that takes little time to make fresh at home?

EasySoups

That’s the premise of the book, which includes 70 recipes for soups and breads, which you can mix and match, though Manning gives a bread recommendation or two for each soup in case you find yourself overwhelmed by the choices.

Read more

A Delectable Time At Donato & Co.

Posted on by 3 comments
Chef Donato Scotti at his newest restaurant, Donato & Co.

Chef Donato Scotti at his newest restaurant, Donato & Co.

 

Chefs Donato Scotti and Gianluca Guglielmi have been fast friends for 18 years.

So much so that when the Vicenza, Italy-born Guglielmi, the former executive chef and vice president at A.G. Ferarri Foods, returned to Italy to open his own restaurant in 2010, Scotti persuaded him into returning to the Bay Area recently.

The lure?

Scotti’s new Berkeley restaurant, Donato & Co., which opened in October that Guglielmi now oversees. It is expected to be the first of several Bay Area concepts to come helmed by the duo.

If Donato & Co. is any indication of what’s to come, the future should be bright for Guglielmi and Scotti, who grew up in a small town near Bergamo, Italy, and now also owns Donato Enoteca in Redwood City and Cru wine bar in Redwood City.

What's an Italian restaurant without a Vespa, right?

What’s an Italian restaurant without a Vespa, right?

The 20-foot-long bar.

The 20-foot-long bar.

A few weeks ago, I was invited in as a guest of the spacious restaurant, with soaring ceilings, exposed brick columns, a 20-foot-long bar, and a vintage Vespa on display. It has the feel of a beloved neighborhood joint, one you feel right at home in from the get-go.

Read more


What To Do With Leftover Holiday Buttermilk?

Posted on by 2 comments
The method to make these biscuits is easy yet provide very distinctive results.

The method to make these biscuits is easy yet provide very distinctive results.

 

Hmm, pancakes? Salad dressing? Mashed potatoes?

How about “Cathead Biscuits”? Ones that are fluffy inside and have distinctive craggly crisp, buttery tops?

Yeah, now we’re talking.

After a run of holiday baking, I found myself with leftover buttermilk. I pulled a couple cookbooks from my shelf until I hit upon “Muffins & Biscuits” (Chronicle Books) by Heidi Gibson, co-owner of San Francisco’s The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen.

Read more

The Captivating August 1 Five

Posted on by One comment
The signature Gol Guppa at August 1 Five.

The signature Gol Guppa at August 1 Five.

 

Ask Hetal Shah, which is harder  — creating advertising technology at Google or running a restaurant — and she doesn’t hesitate to answer:

Operating a restaurant. By far.

Shah, who left her job at Google a year ago, and her husband, who still works in tech, had experience opening restaurants, having established Red Hot Chili Pepper in San Carlos in 2010, the casual take on Indian-inflected Chinese food.

But their next restaurant venture was exceedingly more ambitious, August 1 Five, which opened a little over a year ago in San Francisco’s Civic Center.

The name of the splashy, upscale modern Indian restaurant commemorates the date that India won its independence from British rule.

Conveniently located in Civic Center.

Conveniently located in Civic Center.

The bold interior.

The bold interior.

Although Shah and her husband loved the mom-and-pop Indian restaurants in the United States, they missed the more contemporary fare found at high-end hotels in India. So when she and her husband moved to San Francisco from New York, they decided to do something to fill that void.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »