The Culinary Timeline is a side-project that I've been working on since October. I'm hoping to have most of it complete by the end of January, with any luck. Until then, updates around here will be weekly, rather than twice weekly. Do stay tuned.
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The welcoming sign for Toulouse Vineyards, Anderson Valley.
I’d spent most of the spring stockpiling some quality Napa Cabernets, taking advantage of the lauded 2007 vintage. But while these big reds gain some age and finesse, I needed a mixed case of white wine and sparkling wine to provide some relief from the summer heat. I suspect that the weather here in the Napa Valley could become very serious in the near future, and while most of June has been relatively cool by Napa standards, the end of the month did deliver a more realistic taste of summer, [... read more ...]
"A Night on the Town," dedicated to Schramsberg's legendary riddler of more than 36 years, Ramon Viera, who retired last December.
As a Napa Valley local, I’ve visited Schramsberg maybe half a dozen times over the last few years, but today I’ve finally decided that this winery offers the mother of all wine tours, hands down. The deep history, the unique property, and the world-class sparkling wines are practically unrivaled here in the Napa Valley, and for these three reasons, Schramsberg truly belongs in a class by itself. I’ll just leave it at that. Below, I’ve posted [... read more ...]
Bravo’s “Top Chef” has offered me added interest this season, ever since I discovered that one of my old CIA instructors, Lynne Gigliotti, was a contestant. I had “Chef G” for my Skills III class, which meant that she was just my second culinary instructor at the CIA. Coincidentally, my very first CIA instructor was Chef Theo Roe, who was one of the subjects in Michael Ruhlman’s 2007 book, “The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooks in the Age of Celebrity” (as one of Chef Roe’s very first culinary students, I was also mentioned in Ruhlman’s book, though only [... read more ...]
I don’t think that anyone has ever claimed that Nutella was actually healthy, but some proposed European Union (EU) labeling laws have placed Italy’s much-adored, chocolate-hazelnut spread in a sticky situation (I apologize, that’s my best material at the moment). Apparently, it’s not just Americans who have been grazing their way towards obesity for the last several decades, but weight-related health issues are also beginning to plague the citizens across the Atlantic as well. In order to enact change, the EU has recently drafted a measure that would mandate more conspicuous labelling for foods that have especially high percentages [... read more ...]
I took a quick trip into San Francisco yesterday to visit some old chef buddies, two of whom work at Perbacco Ristorante in San Francisco’s Financial District. Although I did learn that their chef, Staffan Terje, fell just short of winning the National Cochon 555 Cook-Off in Aspen over the weekend, it was nice to sample some of the restaurant’s new dishes nonetheless (incidentally, the 2010 winner of Cochon 555 was David Varley of Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak DC). Here are a couple photos of Perbacco’s appetizers…
Sauteed porcinis with a 63ºC egg.
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The Chilaquiles @ Miguel's Restaurant, Calistoga (minus the sour cream)
I was first introduced to chilaquiles while I was living in Los Angeles. Back then, I was working a prep cook at Houston’s Santa Monica, trying to get some real-world kitchen experience before heading off to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Since I was working mostly mornings at that time, the “family meal” at Houston’s was often chilaquiles, which I would best describe as breakfast nachos, for lack of better terminology. These meals would assume varying forms from day to day, based upon whatever [... read more ...]
The weather finally became warm enough to uncork a 2008 Merry Edwards Russian River Sauvignon Blanc, which I had been hoarding for what seems like an entire year now. It may very well have been that long, considering the 2009 Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc is already out on the market, and I did acquire the 2008 vintage very early during its release. Anyhow, as the 2008 Merry Edwards approaches its second full year of age this fall, it was the perfect time to finally take a peek, and see what my remaining stash could offer in the future. [... read more ...]
So, I did a little web consulting the other day for my old buddy Geoff Harner at Mosher & Company Wine Importers. How it works: I help Geoff rebuild his company website, and he fuels my creativity with some European wine (nice work, if you can get it). We met up on Tuesday morning and tasted through a couple of really nice bottles, beginning with the 2005 Keller “Hubacker” Riesling, which is produced by one of the up-and-coming superstars of German wine, Klaus-Peter Keller. The 2005 “Hubacker” is a dry Riesling, and one of four or five “Grosses [... read more ...]
As I’ve continued to explore the culture of breakfast and lunch here in the Napa Valley, I felt that it was certainly worthwhile to mention a few of the better pastry options out there. After all, even if you’ve enjoyed a large breakfast in the morning, pastries remain a great take-away item, especially if you plan to spend the day wine tasting, when lunch can often get pushed back, or pushed aside altogether. Without a proper lunch, that same cheese danish that may seem gluttonous in the early morning can actually become your salvation in the early afternoon (and [... read more ...]
Sure, I could easily lead off with some typical wine-blogging cliché about it “being summertime” and “time for rosé,” but that’s all been done before, and frankly, I’m much better than all that. Besides, most non-sparkling rosé isn’t even worth drinking, unless there’s nothing else available. After all, much of the still rosé on the market is nothing more than a by-product — an after-thought, if you will — to more serious wine-making. For those who might not be hip to the game, when winemakers begin to ferment their red wines, they will often “bleed off” some of [... read more ...]
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