Tasting Terroir In A Surprising Way

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Which rib-eye will be victorious?

Its flavor was straightforward. Perhaps a little mushroomy. Maybe a little gamey. And as I swallowed, the finish lingered moderately so.

Nope, it wasn’t a glass of Pinot Noir that I was tasting blindly.

It was a rib-eye steak, of all things.

It was a steak-off in the comfort of my own home, where I tasted four different rib-eye steaks from four different ranches, without knowing which one was which. If you’re used to just chewing without giving it much thought, tasting meat in this way is an eye-opening, palate-awakening experience. When you concentrate on texture (or body), flavors, and finish, just as you do with wine, you pick up a spectrum of nuances you might otherwise miss.

The box of meat.

Santa Rosa-based Oliver Ranch invites you to experience it for yourself. The company, which sources sustainably raised beef from across the country, has created a tasting pack of steaks, each from a different rancher. Choose from filet mignon, New York strip, top sirloin, or rib-eye packages. Prices start at $79.95.

Cook each steak the same way, then taste, jotting down notes with the handy tasting guide that comes with each kit. At the end, you can peek at the pamphlet to discover where the meat was raised, how it was aged, and what breed it is.

“It’s a way for people to enjoy the terroir and provenance of beef,” says Oliver Ranch founder, Carrie Oliver. “The breed, the growing area, the practices of the rancher and of the slaughterhouse — all those things can make a difference in taste and texture.”

Oliver created the kit in 2007, after noticing that when she tasted beef blindly with friends, they all had different opinions on what they liked best. The kits are now the most popular items the company sells.

“It’s not a hard sell,” she says. “I ask people, ‘You like wine tasting? How about trying a beef tasting then?’

“You should see their eyes light up. And it’s not just men.”

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Pigging Out at Ad Hoc

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Ad Hoc's mascot. (Photo courtesy of Ad Hoc)

Satisfy your porky appetite at Ad Hoc in Yountville on March 25, when the restaurant will be featuring whole roasted pigs cooked in a caja china.

Sealed inside a big roasting box, each young pig is cooked for hours underneath a big layer coals. The result is fork-tender flesh and skin so crisp it shatters.

The three-course “Wine & Swine” meal, served family-style, includes greens from the French Laundry’s garden, and dessert by French Laundry Pastry Chef Claire Clark. The price of the dinner is $65, including wines. For reservations, call (707) 944-2487.

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Twelve Chefs Plus Six Farmers

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Chef Dominique Crenn of Luce restaurant. (Photo courtesy of the InterContinental Hotel)

Put them together and you get, “A Moveable Feast,” a series of seasonal suppers held at a different restaurant each month to celebrate the relationships between local chefs and local farmers.

The event is the brainchild of Dominique Crenn, executive chef of Luce Restaurant in the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco.

Each multi-course dinner, which will be prepared by two chefs, will be held the first Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m., beginning March 3, and continuing for the next six months.

Each dinner is $80 per person or $100 with wine. A percentage of each ticket sale will benefit CUESA, the Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture, which operates the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco. Purchase tickets online  here.

Chef Bruce Hill of Picco. (Photo courtesy of Picco)

Here’s the line-up:

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South Bay Chef Battles In Kitchen Stadium

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David Kinch of Manresa restaurant challenges on "Iron Chef America.'' (Photo courtesy of the Food Network)

There have been a parade of big-name San Francisco chefs who have duked it out on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America.”

But now, those of us in the South Bay, finally will have one of our own to cheer on in Kitchen Stadium.

None other than David Kinch, chef of the two-Michelin-star Manresa in Los Gatos, will challenge an Iron Chef on Sunday, March 15. Of course, we can’t be a spoiler and tell you how he fared or what the secret ingredient was when he taped the show. But we can say that he goes chef’s knife to chef’s knife with Iron Chef Bobby Flay.

Those who know Kinch’s earnest demeanor and perfectionist nature when it comes to cooking might be surprised that he agreed to participate in such a zany cooking competition.

“We are serious about what we do, but hopefully don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Kinch says. “We like to have fun, too. And more than anything, I knew it would be a new experience and a lot of fun.”

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Take Five with Chef Charlie Palmer, From Pigskin Passion to Pig Parts

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Chef Charlie Palmer. (Photo courtesy of Dan Waldbridge)

When you hear the name, Charlie Palmer, there’s probably one quintessential image that comes to mind immediately: the sexy, cat suit-garbed “wine angels,” hanging from wires, and scaling the enormous tower of wine bottles at his Aureole restaurant in the city of neon, Las Vegas.

It’s a flashy, glamorous picture, to be sure. It’s also a far different one than Palmer’s very humble upbringing. The son of a farmer-plumber-electrician who could fix anything, he grew up in the small town of Smyrna, New York.

It’s a place where high school football is a huge deal. But for the young Palmer, who was a burly 6-foot-tall by the age of 14, the love for cooking eventually won out over his passion for playing the sport.

His love for pigskin, though, definitely remains.

March 20-21, the mega chef-restaurateur will host his fourth annual Pigs & Pinot weekend. A celebration of the swine and the grape, it will feature guest chefs Michael Mina of the eponymous San Francisco restaurant; Christopher Kostow of the Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena; Philippe Rispoli of France; and Graham Brown of New Zealand.

Palmer prepping pork belly.

Festivities include a cooking class, wine seminars, the “Taste of Pigs & Pinot” (where you can sample a variety of pork dishes and Pinots), and a gala five-course dinner with paired limited-production Pinot Noirs. A renowned judging panel will bestow the “Pinot Cup” award on the best wine.

Tickets to the separate events range from $75 to $300.  For more information, go to http://www.pigsandpinot.com/. Proceeds benefit Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger organization, and the Healdsburg School, a private K-8 school.

Recently, I had a chance to hang out with the 49-year-old chef at his restaurant, Dry Creek Kitchen in the Hotel Healdsburg.

Although he still shuttles to New York every two weeks, this native New Yorker and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, has called Sonoma County home for the past few years. He visited here 15 years ago for the first time, and it was love at first sight.

Q: You have 11 restaurants nationwide now. Is it a scary time to be a restaurateur?

A: I’m a huge optimist, so I’m not scared. I think we’re in an unprecedented time. I think a lot of people are being unrealistic about how long it will last.

We’ve felt it in New York for sure, because we’re so close to Wall Street. Not so much here, though. Knock on wood.

Dry Creek Kitchen Chef de Cuisine Les Goodman plates pork belly two ways.

Q: Are you still working on new projects, despite the dire economy?

Aureole in New York will be moving in May to a new Bryant Park high-rise that’s platinum-rated for energy efficiency. The new location will have a bar-lounge area, which we’ve never had before, plus a wine mezzanine.

We’re working on a 400-room, non-gaming hotel in Las Vegas that’s not on the Strip. It’s a 10-year project.

We’re also building a new small, 36-room hotel a block and a half from the Healdsburg Square, which will open in spring 2010. It’ll be less expensive than the Hotel Healdsburg, and be called H2Hotel.

I’m also working on a pork book that’s not light-hearted. It’s actually bizarre. There are some pretty extreme photos, plus recipes. It’s an art book. At one point, the photographer was doing a photo shoot with two Scandinavian twins in a slaughterhouse in Denmark.  It’s blood, animal parts, and beautiful Scandinavian girls.

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