Yes, it’s potato chips and cookies all in one.
Talk about the ultimate guilty pleasure.
When it comes to home decor and entertaining, Martha Stewart may be all about what’s prim, proper and precisely right. But you gotta give the woman a hand for sticking up for her fair share of junk food.
Her “Potato Chip Cookies” do just that.
Not only will you find crumbled potato chips in the dough, but rolled all around each cookie, too.
Woodside’s Village Pub will offer special “Sunday Suppers” all through July.
The four-course Sunday dinners are $65 per person and available via Gilt City through Wednesday.
The dinner starts with butter-poached lobster lasagna with sweetbreads and white corn. That’s followed by a changing seasonal market-fresh course, then seared duck breast with Sauternes-poached peaches. The meal concludes with crepes flambe with roasted cherries and creme fraiche ice cream.
Meet Chef Marcus Samuelsson, acclaimed chef of Red Rooster in in Harlem and victor of “Top Chef Masters,” at a series of July events in the Bay Area to celebrate his new memoir, “Yes, Chef” (Random House).
Samuelsson’s path to cooking stardom was far from the norm. Orphaned in Ethiopia at age 3 after his mother died of tuberculosis, Samuelsson and his sister were adopted by a family in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was there in the kitchen alongside his adopted grandmother, Helga, that Samuelsson grew to love cooking.
The book recounts his culinary growth, including his earning a three-star rating from the New York Times while head chef at Aquavit. At the time, he was only 24 years old, the youngest chef to receive that coveted ranking.
Last Friday, I spent the day in the beautiful test kitchen at Del Monte headquarters in San Francisco, tasting and scoring, over and over again, to help choose the first ever “Crown the Cook” winner.
I’ll be the first to sheepishly admit, too, that I had forgotten that the canned fruit and veggie manufacturer was based in this fair city I grew up in. Del Monte actually started in Monterey, which of course makes so much sense given that city’s rich cannery history.
As its business skyrocketed, it moved its headquarters to San Francisco and branched into Walnut Creek for its R&D facilities. It also has operations in Southern California, where its pet food manufacturing, which accounts for about half of its sales, is based.
More than 600 folks from around the country entered the “Crown the Cook” Facebook cook-off contest in the categories of sides, mains and desserts. One finalist was chosen from each of those categories to come to San Francisco to cook their dish before a judging panel that consisted of Mario DiFalco, Del Monte’s director of marketing; Loren Cruz, Del Monte’s director of product R&D; Alice Harding, Del Monte’s head chef; and yours truly, the only “outsider,” if you will.
Each recipe had to use at least one Del Monte product. And each contestant had 90 minutes to complete their dish, which was not as easy as it sounded. Just you try cooking while a video crew is filming all around you, a host is peppering you with questions, and Del Monte employees from all parts of the building are watching your every move and snapping photos.
No matter where you dine in the Bay Area, you’d be hard pressed to find a menu that did not have this particular lettuce gracing it.
Whether served cold and crisp in a salad or braised or grilled in a main dish, Little Gem lettuce is the new darling ingredient that chefs and diners just can’t seem to get enough of. Whether at Frances in San Francisco, Redd Wood in Yountville, Camino in Oakland or Mamacita in San Francisco, Little Gem is sure to be there front and center.
With luxe boutiques and restaurants galore lining the main interior roads, it’s easy to confine your gaze at San Jose’s Santana Row to street level.
But that’s a shame because you would be missing out by not looking up.
Three stories high to be exact.
That’s where you’ll find Citrus Restaurant in the Valencia Hotel.
A bit hidden and an elevator ride up three floors, the dimly lit restaurant with bare dark wood tables that overlook a sunny central courtyard, is worth making the trek.
Executive Chef Robert Sapirman, who previously headed Parcel 104 in Santa Clara, is slowly but surely personalizing the menu since coming on board a year and a half ago. He’s awaiting the planned top-to-bottom renovation of the hotel, though, before transforming the menu completely into one of eclectic global tapas. That major hotel remodel, which has already been pushed back a couple times, may start later this year. For now, you can get a good feel for what’s to come cuisine-wise, as Sapirman’s menu already boasts many Asian and Spanish influences.