Delicious Doings

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Redwood City's new Donato Enoteca. (Photo courtesy of the www.diLuNa.org)

Hungry for braised Niman Ranch oxtail and asparagus tips served over “bigoli” pasta ($14)?

Or pizza topped with house made spicy sausage, broccoli rabe, tomato, and fresh mozzarella ($11)?

Or Mediterranean sea bream sauteed with prawns, mussels, clams and tomato sauce ($18)?

Then, head to downtown Redwood City’s new Donato Enoteca. It’s the new venture by Executive Chef-Owner Donato Scotti who cooked at the Michelin-starred Ristorante dell’Angelo in Italy, and most recently at La Strada in Palo Alto. Originally from Bergamo, Italy, Scotti’s menu reflects his northern Italian heritage.

The wine program focuses on smaller-production wines, most of them Italian. A large variety of grappas is also available, as it’s one of Scotti’s favorite spirits.

Ubuntu Annex is open for business. (Photo courtesy of Ubuntu)

In the market for upscale gourmet cookware, plus stylish yoga clothing?

Then, you’ll be glad to know that Ubuntu Annex has opened next door to acclaimed Ubuntu Restaurant in downtown Napa.

Find specialty dishware, specialty salts, artisan olive oils, and Ubuntu chef coats and aprons. Wines also will be available by the taste, vertical flight, or bottle at the wine tasting bar.

Colorful houseware available at Ubuntu Annex. (Photo courtesy of Ubuntu)

Wine specials can be had at Lark Creek Restaurant Group establishments throughout July.

For the seventh year in a row, every bottle on every wine list at every restaurant in the group will be offered at half price for brunch, lunch, and dinner during that month.

For instance, at Yankee Pier in Santana Row in San Jose, a bottle of 2008 Honig Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley that’s normally $32, can be enjoyed for $16.

Wine aficionados will find more to like at One Market and LarkCreekSteak restaurants, both in San Francisco. Through July and possibly beyond, both restaurants are touting a premium wine special.

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Tantalizing Preview: Ad Hoc Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe By Thomas Keller

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Just-baked chocolate chip cookes from the upcoming Ad Hoc cookbook

Confession time.

I have “The French Laundry Cookbook,” the “Bouchon Cookbook,” and the “Under Pressure” sous vide tome, all by Thomas Keller.

These oversized, coffee-table books reside in a prominent place on my bookshelf. I have leafed through them all, savoring the recipes, and lusting after each and every magnificent dish photographed so dreamily.

But I’ve yet to cook from any of them. Maybe I’ve felt unworthy. Maybe I’ve lacked the equipment necessary. And maybe I’ve lacked the time for some of the rather involved dishes that my husband joked he’d have to take days off from work to help me pull off.

That is, until now.

Until a promo brochure for the upcoming “Ad Hoc At Home” (Artisan) book arrived in my mail, and I fairly ran to the kitchen to start pulling measuring spoons and bowls out of my cabinets.

I’ve had the pleasure of eating at Ad Hoc in Yountville a couple of times. I’ve always been won over by the impeccable quality of the seasonal, family-style food served at this casual eatery. It’s comfort food done with utmost fun and finesse.

Salmon tartare cornets I’ll leave to the French Laundry staff to construct. A Bouchon recipe for French onion soup that requires a half day to caramelize onions ever so slowly (I’m exaggerating, but not by much) makes my eyes glaze over. Sous vide anything makes me start to tremble.

But chocolate chip cookies? OK, this I can do.

Making the dough.

Keller acknowledges his other books might be intimidating to most of us. He goes so far as to refer to the new Ad Hoc book as “the long-awaited cookbook for the home chef.” It’s described as uncomplicated, the way Keller cooks at home — without intricate garnishes or an immersion circulator. Though, knowing him, I’m sure he cooks in the world’s most organized, uncluttered home kitchen around, with everything labeled and alphabetized, and every electrical cord neatly wound just so. He can’t help himself.

The book won’t be available until November. But the promo materials give a hint at the very doable, very delectable dishes in store: leek bread pudding, blow-torch prime rib roast, caramelized sea scallops, and pineapple upside-down cake.

Being the cookie fiend that I am, though, it was the recipe included in full for chocolate chip cookies that got me pumped up.

With so many chocolate chip cookie recipes already out there, how could this one be any different?

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Oooh La La For Ooba

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A thirst-quencher flavored with lovely hibiscus flowers.

Ooh who, you ask?

That’s Ooba, the new sparkling hibiscus drink by the Pleasanton-based HiBix Corp.

Yes, that’s hibiscus as in the flower that’s used in Red Zinger tea, and in Mexican-style aqua frescas. Ooba is made with all-natural hibiscus extract from hand-harvested flowers from around the world that are shipped to California.  The extract is blended with water and cane sugar, then carbonated.

Company CEO John-David Enright, a pharmaceutical industry veteran, touts the fat-free beverage’s antioxidants, and high level of Vitamin C. Eight fluid ounces — half of one bottle — has 90 calories.

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Foodie Happenings

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The winery that put California on the map. (Photo courtesy of Chateau Montelena)

You’re invited to take part in a James Beard Foundation gala event to honor one of the Napa Valley’s — and the world’s — most lengendary wine-making families.

The Barrett family of Chateau Montelena helped put California wine on the map when its 1973 Chateau Montelena won the famous “Paris Tasting,” beating out all other wines, including notable French ones.

To honor the family’s historic contributions to the wine world, the foundation is hosting a “Legends of Wine” event, July 11-12, in the Napa Valley.

It starts with a tasting, tour, and lunch at Chateau Montelena in Calistoga on July 11. A flight of Chardonnays, going back 15 years, will be sampled, along with a tasting of Estate Cabarnets. Lunch will be prepared by Chef Ken Frank of acclaimed La Toque restaurant in Napa. That night, dinner also will be prepared by Frank at his restaurant.

The next day, La Toque hosts a gala dinner with guest chefs that include Neal Fraser of Grace in Los Angeles, and Michel Richard of Citronelle in Washington, D.C.

VIP tickets that get you into all the events are $1,500 per person. If that’s too rich for your blood, the gala dinner is $500. For reservations, call (707) 257-5157. The event is a fund-raiser for the James Beard Foundation.

For more fabulous wines to enjoy, don’t miss “Pinot Days San Francisco,” now through June 28.

The event thatl celebrates everyone’s favorite varietal, includes a grand festival that features more than 200 pinot producers from around the world, as well as winemaker dinners, and focused tastings. Tickets range in price from $50 to $150.

A wine deal at Terzo. (Photo courtesy of Art Gray)

Terzo restaurant in San Francisco has a deal for wine afficionados. Sunday through Thursday through Labor Day, the restaurant is offering all $40 and under wines on the menu at half-price for dinner guests. Just order two small plates or one large one per person to take advantage of the vino special.

To commemorate San Francisco’s Pride Parade on June 28, Macy’s Union Square Cellar is hosting a cooking demo, noon June 27, with some of the Bay Area’s top toques. They include Adam Jones of Market Street Grill in San Francisco; and Jennifer Biesty, former contestant on Bravo TV’s “Top Chef” and now chef at Scala’s Bistro in San Francisco.

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Drunken Pasta

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No, you don't have to be drunk to enjoy this delightful, impromptu pasta dish. But you do have to add a little booze to the mix.

This is what results when you find yourself with 2 pounds of fresh clams, a craving for pasta, and some already opened containers of booze lying around.

Although my husband, Meat Boy, loves to grill and roast big hunks of meat — hence the nickname — he also loves making seafood pasta. I know, I know. One has nothing to do with the other. But that’s just him. And you got to love a guy for his contradictions, don’t you?

He found a recipe online. But it called for chorizo. We had none, and didn’t want to make an extra trip to the grocery store, so we used bacon instead, along with a liberal amount of red pepper flakes.

The recipe also called for white wine. We didn’t feel like opening a bottle that night just for this dish, so we decided to use a mix of vodka and absinthe instead. After all, I still had a quite full bottle of St. George Spirits Absinthe Verte, and it did add such a nice touch to the Manhattan Bay Scallop Chowder I made this past winter. So why not give it a go in pasta?

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