Sugar Goes Glam and Elegant with Chambre de Sucre

An elephant sugar hugger. How cute is this?

The Japanese have a way of making everything more precious and special.

Even sugar for your cup of coffee or tea.

Forget the mere cubes or packets of granulated stuff. Think sugar as mini sculptures in shapes of hearts, pyramids, stars, flowers and angel wings — each individually tinted, too.

Chambre de Sucre of Cypress, Calif. is importing these sweet, tiny gourmet sugars that are handcrafted by a family-0wned business in Japan that’s more than 270 years old. They’ve been making these sugars for tea ceremonies for the royal family since the time of the Shogun.

Mini blue sugar stars from Chambre de Sucre.

Lisa Kunizaki, owner of Chambre de Sucre, grew up with these sugars, when she would visit her grandparents in Japan during the summers, where they would entertain with tea, homemade sweets and these sugar marvels.

Read more






San Francisco Cooking School Debuts, SMIP Ranch Dinner & More

The team behind the new San Francisco Cooking School: (left to right) Bill Corbett, Catherine Pantsios, Craig Stoll, Jodi Liano and Daniel Patterson. (Photo courtesy of the school)

New San Francisco Cooking School

The new San Francisco Cooking School in the Civic Center neighborhood promises to shake things up.

What makes this one so different?

It plans to do away with teaching archaic disciplines such as ice sculpture carving and aspic making (still commonly taught at other culinary schools)  for more useful, contemporary skills instead.

What’s more, some of the city’s most esteemed chefs have been appointed as deans and advisers.

We’re talking the likes of Daniel Patterson of Coi, Craig Stoll of Delfina and Bill Corbett of Absinthe as deans; and Stuart Brioza of State Bird Provisions, Melissa Perello of Frances and Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats as advisers, among others.

Read more

It’s All Greek at Dio Deka

A gorgeous blueberry-white chocolate parfait at Dio Deka.

Well, except for the chef.

Marty Cattaneo admits he’d never really cooked Greek food before taking over the head chef position at the high-end Dio Deka in Los Gatos nearly two years ago.

But that didn’t stop this talented chef who has cooked with David Kinch at Manresa in Los Gatos, Jeremy Fox at Ubuntu in Napa and helped in the development of the cookbook, “Mourad: New Moroccan” (Artisan) by Mourad Lahlou of Aziza in San Francisco. In fact, if you catch a rerun of “Iron Chef America” on the Food Network, you’ll spot Cattaneo in the background as one of Lahlou’s sous chefs in his battle.

Because of the similarities between Moroccan and Greek cuisines, Cattaneo felt comfortable enough stepping into this challenging role. Plus, it helped that he studied every Greek cookbook he could get his hands on.

He doesn’t consider what he does at Dio Deka traditional Greek food by any means. But after getting a chance to experience his food as a recent guest of the restaurant, I can attest that it’s downright delicious and inspired, nevertheless.

A peek into the open-kitchen on a busy night.

After weathering a few chef changes over the past five years, Dio Deka remains as popular as ever. Even on a Wednesday night, the dining room was packed. There were even two private parties going on at the same time. Located in the Hotel Los Gatos, it’s a loud, lively restaurant, but with quiet, subtle touches like the fresh rosemary sprig tucked into your napkin at the table.

Read more

A Food Gal Giveaway: Two Seats at A Special Tomato and Wine Pairing Dinner in Los Gatos

Indulge your summer tomato cravings.

Two of my favorite places in Los Gatos are joining for one night to celebrate “Fruits of the Vine,” a salute to summer heirloom tomatoes and stellar wines.

Sept. 15, the owners of Enoteca La Storia wine bar will be supplying copious amounts of their 25 varieties of home-grown, organic tomatoes to Restaurant James Randall for a vine-to-table five-course feast.

Chef Ross Hanson’s menu will include dishes such as Dungeness crab croquettes with tomato relish; tomato braised beef with creamy polenta and Pecorino; and roasted tomato and peach shortcake.

The  6 p.m. dinner is $95 per person, which includes wine pairings. Tax and gratuity are not included.

Advance ticket purchase is required.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will get a chance to attend the dinner with a guest — for free (though a tip for the servers would be appreciated, I’m sure). Entries, limited to those who can make it to Los Gatos on the evening of Sept. 15, will be accepted through midnight PST Sept. 8. Winner will be announced Sept. 10.

How to win?

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »