San Francisco’s delightful little bakery, Miette, is getting a whole lot bigger.
The bakery, which sells all manner of lovely cupcakes, homemade candies, princess cakes, banana cream tarts, and yes, fabulous little melt-in-your-mouth macarons, has opened a third location, 2109 Chestnut St. in San Francisco.
 
In the parlance of journalism, Clark Wolf is what we reporters gleefully call a “quote machine.”
If we need a pithy, memorable quote about food, chefs, restaurants, or eating trends, who we gonna call?
Invariably, Clark Wolf.
The restaurant consultant, who lives in Sonoma County, has a gift for gab, a way with words, a wondrous wit, and is not shy in the least about giving voice to the downright outrageous. Plus, as a former manager for the San Francisco Oakville Grocery and a foodie who’s rubbed shoulders with everyone who’s anyone in the culinary world, he definitely knows his stuff.
Former New York Times food writer Marian Burros and I once joked to each other that the day was coming when our respective publications would issue a moratorium on Clark Wolf quotes because they were just so prevalent.
Fortunately, that day never came.
You’ll still find him being quoted in many a food story. And now, you’ll also find him on the book shelves with his new “American Cheeses” (Simon & Schuster) tome.
Wolf, who ran a cheese shop in San Francisco in 1976, profiles the men and women whose work created the incredible artisan cheese industry in this country. He also includes recipes for everything from A Perfect Pimento Cheese to Escargots with Roasted Garlic and Gorgonzola. And it’s all told in a way only he can tell it.
“The way a cheese, or any food, looks has a lot to do with my decision about whether or not to toss it into the shopping basket,” he writes in the book. “Some of it is learned. A lot of us have gotten over the need to pick what looks like picture-perfect fruits and vegetables, realizing that sometimes, say, an apple bred for visual perfection can taste a lot like packing material. We’ve come to know that a bruise here, a funny stripe there, an odd shape, or a varied coloration, can, for the right variety, mean peak seasonal bliss.
“So, too, with cheese. Sometimes the moldy, aged, smelly slime on the outside suggests creamy within.
“But mostly, it is good if it looks good. And if it looks like fermented roadkill, it might be best to ask a few questions and inquire about trying a little taste.”
You have to smile at that. And at this sublime macaroni and cheese recipe from the book. This one was created for a restaurant Wolf was a partner of in 1990s. The dish was then redeveloped for the SoHo Grand Hotel in Manhattan. Finally, Burros adapted it into a more home-kichen-friendly version in her book, “Cooking for Comfort” (Simon & Schuster).
Alas, I don’t think I’ll be boarding a plane to the UK anytime soon. Not with my pitiful bank account.
And alas, that means I won’t be dining anytime in the near future, either, at the acclaimed Fat Duck restaurant.
So I did the next best thing.
I made “New Style” Ragu alla Blogonese, a recipe published a year or so ago in Saveur magazine that was inspired by one in “In Search of Perfection” (Bloomsbury), the book by the Fat Duck’s award-winning chef, Heston Blumenthal.
A Brit cooking an old-school Italian dish?
You bet.
A Brit adding ketchup, fish sauce, and star anise to ragu?
Heck, yes.
Along with Worcestershire sauce, those ingredients heighten the meaty or umami taste of the dish. In fact, I even added a tad more fish sauce to up the ante.
I can’t say that this particular bolognese edged out my favorite one, Perbacco’s 5-Hour Pork Sugo. But it’s a definite contender. Unlike the Perbacco version that calls for ground pork, the Blementhal one uses boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1/4-inch dice. Whereas the Perbacco version cooks up into a cohesive, thick, rich sauce, the Blumenthal one has a texture more like chili, with distinct chunks of meat.
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.
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.”
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.