This is just sad: Heston Blumenthal is one of the greatest chefs of his generation. His restaurant, The Fat Duck in Berkshire in England, has the stature of the French Laundry. In 2007 and 2009, the Good Food Guide named it the best restaurant in the U.K., and its owner has engineered weird-science dishes that've become the signature expressions of the age, like egg and bacon ice cream and ultra-low heat cooking.
All the sadder that Blumenthal should've spent an interview with 7x7's Sara Deseran shamelessly hyping a kitchen gadget, the $399 SousVide Supreme. The chef was in town Tuesday to do a Billy Mays at CCA, and, well, he just couldn't stop pitching -- even when Deseran asked him about Chang-gate.
[Deseran:] So homecooks now have a counter filled with a toaster, an espresso maker and a sous vide machine. What's next?Read the whole thing. And have your credit card ready.[Blumenthal:] There is nothing. Life after sous vide doesn't exist. [laughs] But I think the sous vide machine has been the most important development in the professional kitchen in decades. The control that the water bath gives you means we can explore the nuances of food that we'd never been able to do before. It's as useful for the timid domestic chef as it is for a professional chef.
Between the Streets unreels tomorrow, Friday, from 5 to 11 p.m., and Saturday from 2 p.m. on into the evening. Check the TSA Web site for details about performers and film screenings
She didn't seem entirely unhappy about losing. During today's post-elimination phone conversation, when we reminded her that Tom Colicchio blogged that he thought she was ready to go home, Wickett replied, "I think I was. I wasn't hungry to win. Maybe eight or 10 years ago, I would have been more competitive. When I wanted to be famous like Wolfgang Puck and was working 90 hours a week."
She auditioned for Top Chef on a whim. "I hadn't ever watched it. I didn't even have any idea that there was a Quickfire challenge on every episode! I wanted to help my business -- the jury's still out on that. It's given me a better idea of who I am as a chef. Being on the show made me lose focus at first, but then I realized that I cook from the heart, for my clients, to make people happy. Not to feed my ego."
Since leaving the show, Wickett has done an unpaid stage at Michael Mina. "Top Chef opened my eyes. I felt out of touch with what was going on in the food world. At Mina, I did a lot of grunt work, but it made me see a different style of cooking. As wonderful as that style is, with a lot of steps involved, it doesn't always translate into a comfortable meal. The food really becomes too precious."
Not all the wares were traditional baked goods. One person brought bacon-caramel apples, while another had whipped up bacon brittle.
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Not exactly. Rainbow Grocery's self-styled cheesemonger, Gordon Edgar, told SFoodie there are sort of more cheese contests out there than even a diligent cheese expert can keep up with. "As a retailer, most of these awards don't mean a hell of a lot. What contests measure is, what is the best cheese at that contest in that room with the judges at that particular moment," he said, even as he admires many of the cheeses that won in Gran Canaria.
Instead, Edgar's excited about some emerging California cheeses that are still hard to find at store counters. "There's an exciting new Marin dairy, Barinaga Ranch, a sheep dairy up in near Marshall, making some amazing cheese in small quantities -- California makes some of the best cheeses in the country, but it doesn't make a lot of sheep's milk cheese." Edgar also pointed to goat cheese makers Bohemian Creamery in Bodega, and Marin's Bleating Heart.
Edgar's first book, Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge, is due for publication Feb. 17 from Chelsea Green. He also blogs at Gordonzola.net.
This indisputably elegant concoction is as simple as it is stylish, offering sweetness and sparkle in a tall, translucent package, and dates back to whoever first thought of sweetening their bubbly with fresh fruit and sugar. Drop a sugar cube into a chilled champagne flute and douse it with two or three dashes of Angostura bitters. Fill the glass with chilled champagne, garnish with a spiral of lemon ... et voila. As the bittered sugar dissolves it adds a whole new dimension to the wine, and if you want to get fancy and warm up the drink, a float of cognac isn't out of the question.
Other variations involve orange slices or maraschino cherries instead of the lemon, or Chambord or Campari in place of the cognac, but as with all truly elegant creations, simplest is best. The champagne should be bone-dry and high-end enough to suit the occasion (although that Louis Roederer 2002 Cristal is probably best enjoyed au naturel). Boyer and Dunne specified pink champagne, but they were in love.
Of course, these days, the classic champagne cocktail can seem as old fashioned as a Hollywood melodrama. According to Fifth Floor sommelier Emily Wines, more and more at high-end bars, champagne is showing up as a float on or an ingredient in spirits-based cocktails. Take the Stockholm: A lemon drop, essentially, with Chambord on the bottom and a layer of champagne on top. But don't worry about losing the romance of the champagne cocktail in the liquorous depths of the Stockholm. "It's a really girly drink," Wines said.
We also enjoyed the very chocolaty, dense, and lumpy chocolate cherry cookie ($1.75) and the classic beignet with raspberry jam (the same ones Arlequin makes for I Preferiti de Boriana in the Ferry Building -- $2.50). The modish beignet stuffed with maple/bacon custard ($2.50) was shocking in its intensity and fattiness: perhaps better for later in the day than as an eye-opener. But we'll happily open our eyes any time of the day with the split scone sandwiched with house-made pecan butter and glazed with Rittenhouse 100-proof rye whiskey ($2.75).
Arlequin Stand at the Thursday Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market One Ferry Building at the Embarcadero; Thu, 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., or until sold out.
ZinZanni bills is as "the perfect excuse to wear your tiara at noon." The three-course brunch unfolds in the midst of ZinZanni's typical mashup of hula hoops and gypsy story lines, though in abbreviated form. It can be anxiety inducing when a barely clad artist is pulling his or her weight up a rope or trapeze, but as far as we're concerned, sex + suspense = sold!
The current brunch menu includes sweet and savory breads with honey butter and melon, a salad of heirloom tomatoes and ricotta salata in a citrusy pink-peppercorn vinaigrette, and a choice of herb-marinated chicken with farro and broccolini, or Gruyère and potato frittata with spinach. Dessert is lemon cheesecake with huckleberry compote. Brevé happens on alternating Saturdays -- the next one drops Nov. 7. Admission is $73, with discounted $64 rates for seniors over 60, and $58 for children 12 and under.
