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12 days: on the seventh day of christmas… (accarrino)
~ Matt Accarrino, chef at the Michelin-starred SPQR in San Francisco, has a close, working relationship with Peter Jacobsen, who has an orchard and garden in Yountville. Jacobsen used to supply a lot...
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12 days: on the eighth day of christmas… (ladner & headley)
~ Mark Ladner and Brooks Headley, chef and pastry chef of the Michelin-starred Del Posto in New York City, are two of my culinarians in America right now. Together, they are authoring some of the...
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12 days: on the ninth day of christmas… (kofoed)
~ The woods above Napa Valley were quiet when we arrived mid-morning. Cameron Rahtz, the resident forager at The Restaurant at Meadowood, took us up and off a trail, teetering across fallen trucks...
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12 days: on the tenth day of christmas… (balla & burns)
~ The first time I ate at Bar Tartine in San Francisco, I noticed a particularly dark spicing and foreign sense of boldness to chef Nicolaus Balla’s hearty style of cooking. I recall unique...
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12 days: on the eleventh day of christmas… (kinch)
~ “Lovely,” David Kinch sighed repeatedly as he walked through the hoop house at the The Restaurant at Meadowood’s garden, running his hands over trays of feathery herbs. The head gardener here,...
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12 days: on the twelfth day of christmas… (kostow)
~ The twelfth day of Christmas dawned with a second wind of excitement at The Restaurant at Meadowood. When I arrived at the kitchen in the morning, as I did every day of this dinner series, the...
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travel: blurred lines…
~ At the end of each of the last two years, I’ve looked back in awe at a calendar filled with adventures. At the same time, I’ve stared nervously into the new year, wondering how it might fill up, if...
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best dishes of 2013…
~ I literally sat in front of my computer and scrolled through every single dish I ate this year. When I was finished, I did it again. And then again. Eight years ago, I surveyed all of the dishes I...
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best desserts of 2013…
~ Three years ago, I created a separate year-end list for desserts because I wanted to recognize and record the exciting strides that I noticed pastry chefs taking. In the short time since, the...
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the best of 2013: the restaurant edition…
~ The late, great Diana Vreeland once said: “A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste––it’s hearty, it’s healthy, it’s physical. I think we could use more...
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rumination 29: we need more experts…
A group of us were huddling together in the frigid night when our taxi – one of those odd European hybrids with a cramped third row of seats in the back - pulled up. Daniel Boulud was the first to...
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travel: pacific pragmatism…
~ The last time I visited Seattle I was a rising senior in college. That summer, I spent a few days with my friend Miller, who was from the inland suburb of Issaquah. Thereafter, I went down to...
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review: heart of tartness… (willows inn)
~ Is there a happier summer soundtrack than the splash of cannonballs accompanied by the reckless hoot of youth? My friend and I arrived at the ferry slip on a warm summer afternoon to the sight of...
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rumination 30: the movable circus…
In his article “Dropped,” which appeared on the online magazine Grantland in March of 2014, Jason Fagone pens a biopic about the renowned juggler known as Anthony Gatto. (The subject is fascinating,...
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the tyrian-tinted…
I receive an unbelievably high number of requests for restaurant recommendations. While I would like to give every one a thoughtful response, it is simply not possible. For years now, I have tried to...
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travel: scatter my ashes at isetan…
~ My friend Tomo knows I have a hard time finding clothes that fit. So, she took me to Isetan. Isetan is a high-end department store in Tokyo’s hyper-commercialized Shinjuku ward (the department...
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save the dates: kansas city…
There are a couple of upcoming charity events in Kansas City that I’m helping to organize, and I’d like to tell you about them. One of them – the Harvesters Chefs Classic – I have helped organize for a...
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travel: american cool…
~ Realizing that I’ve traveled far more this year than time has allowed me to record and report, I’ve decided to set aside chronology and just write. After a poor posting record in the first half of...
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travel: until tonight becomes tomorrow…
~ When a volley of pink blossoms overtakes Gramercy Tavern and the big, picture-windows on Fifth Avenue begin blushing with brighter, bolder colors; when chefs get grabby for ramps and peas at the...
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save the date: kansas city…
~ This year marks the sixteenth annual Friends of James Beard Foundation dinner at The American Restaurant in Kansas City, the longest-running fundraising dinner for the foundation in the country....
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