Pop-Ups by Former Ad Hoc Chef, Love Apple Farms Celeb Cooking Demo, and More

Posted on by Leave a comment
Chef Dave Cruz will be cooking in Oakland. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Chef Dave Cruz will be cooking in Oakland. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Chef Dave Cruz To Do Pop-Ups in Oakland

You know him as the original chef for Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc restaurant in Yountville. Now, after leaving the Keller fold, Chef Dave Cruz is embarking on a series of pop-up events in Oakland — a prelude to opening his own restaurant some day.

The first dinner, May 18, will feature Chefs Simone Fung and Sebastian Mendieta of S+S Gastropub, cooking with Cruz at their downtown loft on Jackson Street in Oakland. The five-course dinner that night will be reminiscent of the hearty, seasonal meals he did at Ad Hoc. Dishes will include salad of Asian baby greens with slow cooked egg; crisp pork belly and clams; and strawberry shortcake with strawberry sorbet, Tokaiji-macerated strawberries and arlette cookies. Price is $85 per person.

Two seatings are available for the BYOB dinner: 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The exact location of the dinner will be emailed to guests after a reservation is made.

Read more

Fall in Love with Roasted Carrot Dip

Posted on by 12 comments
An addicting dip made with roasted carrots.

An addicting dip made with roasted carrots.

I don’t know if this “Roasted Carrot Dip” will guarantee you 20-20 vision.

But with four large carrots in it, this dip will have you seeing this common root veggie in a whole new light.

The recipe is from “Modern Mediterranean: Easy, Flavorful Home Cooking” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), of which I received a review copy. Raised in Greece and New York, Melia Marden, executive chef of The Smile in New York City, offers up 125 Mediterranean-inspired recipes made for the home-cook. You’ll be inviting friends and family over in no time flat for a Greek-style feast with everything from fava bean crostini to Moroccan meatballs to Greek-yogurt panna cotta.

What caught my eye about this particular dip is how relatively healthful it is. So many favorite dips that we can’t stop dunking into are loaded with mayonnaise or cream cheese, leaving us with a caloric-hangover before we know it.

Read more


Maui Part IV: Eating Around the Island

Posted on by 8 comments
Dining in the open air at Merriman's Kapalua.

Dining in the open air at Merriman’s Kapalua.

Merriman’s Kapalua

Thanks to the Maui visitor’s and conventioner’s bureau, which invited me to be its guest on Maui, I was able to sample an array of island eats — from low-brow to high-brow.

Chef Peter Merriman is one of the original founders of Hawaii regional cuisine, and his restaurants have long been a favorite of any visitor to the islands. Ninety-percent of his ingredients are sourced locally, and the seafood is caught sustainably.

With its ocean-side setting, Merriman’s Kapalua restaurant is a great place to watch the sunset while you dine.

An assortment of fried root chips is set down on the table, accompanied by smoked taro hummus, and fresh, crunchy slices of cucumber and radish.

Read more

Maui Part III: Two Very Different Resorts

Posted on by 6 comments
Sous Chef April Matsumoto delivers fresh-made garden smoothies at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua.

Sous Chef April Matsumoto delivers fresh-made garden smoothies at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua.

Ritz-Carlton Kapalua

When I was invited to tour the organic culinary garden at the posh Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, where I was staying courtesy of the Maui tourism bureau, I was expecting a modest plot.

Not the spacious grove of paradise that the hotel has managed to create past the swimming pools and near the auxiliary tennis courts, which will soon be torn out to enlarge the garden.

Frank the gardener, who’s a former engineer, tends the lush swath fragrant with kaffir lime and lemongrass. All manner of herbs, greens, figs and citrus grow here. Flowers are planted all around, including a shrine of orchids, the blooms of which had been discarded by guests that Frank has then brought back to life. Butterflies flutter all around, landing here and there on the many blooms.

A paradise for people and nature.

A paradise for people and nature.

RitzCarltonKale

The larger of two culinary gardens, which will expand to become even larger in the future.

The larger of two culinary gardens, which will expand to become even larger in the future.

Guests of the resort can enjoy herb garden tours on Mondays. The highlight is when Sous Chef April Matsumoto comes bounding down the garden path with a tray of smoothies for everyone. Made with many of the home-grown goodies from the garden, that morning’s smoothie was redolent of banana, papaya, pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, kaffir lime, spinach, celery and cilantro.

Read more

Maui Part II: The Island’s Bountiful Agriculture and Aquaculture

Posted on by 9 comments
Snails -- being raised for escargot and other gourmet dishes -- on an urban Maui farm.

Snails — being raised for escargot and other gourmet dishes — on an urban Maui farm.

Napili FLO Farm

If former massage therapist Monica Bogar has her way, Maui restaurants will some day spotlight organic snails on their menus.

After all, there’s already a waiting list of restaurants eager for the mollusks she is growing aquaponically in ingenious systems devised by her and her Uncle Tony. I had a chance to visit their homestead on the west side of the island, during my trip to Maui, courtesy of the tourism and conventioner’s bureau.

An urban farmer for the past 12 years, Bogar started her Napili FLO Farm a year ago. She now sells her microgreens, edible flowers and watercress to Maui restaurants such as Star Noodle, Hula Grill, and Pineapple Grill, the latter where Isaac Bancaco is chef and a huge supporter of hers.

Monica Bogar and Chef Isaac Bancaco inspect one of Bogar's aquaponics systems.

Monica Bogar and Chef Isaac Bancaco inspect one of Bogar’s aquaponics systems.

Pick you way through Uncle Tony’s backyard to find a miraculous series of tanks — built from scavenged items, including styrofoam boxes, old fish tanks and a grandson’s former wash tub. “We are aquaponics dumpster-divers,” Bogar says proudly with a chuckle.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »