Last week, I quit a relatively posh winery job in order to resume my career as a professional chef. This transition was a long time coming, and perhaps a bit foolhardy, but I ultimately had to remain true to my own aspirations. For me, there was just no way around it anymore. After three years of selling $50 Chardonnay and $100 Cabernet, my sudden return to the kitchen had caught some people by surprise, but I had been contemplating this move for well over a year, perhaps even longer. Deep down, I felt as if I still had unfinished [... read more ...]
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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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As I’ve alluded in my sidebar over there on the left, I’ll be journeying into the Crescent City in less than two weeks for a 10-day po-boy and gumbo bender. As such, I haven’t been the prolific blogger recently that my readers have come to know and love. Like an athlete training for a key event, it is now time for me to back off and rest up, so that I’m able to eat five square meals per day while I’m in New Orleans. In the meantime, I’d like to do a little campaigning on behalf of a friend [... read more ...] If footnotes indicate anything, I’d argue that Susan Pinkard’s “A Revolution in Taste” is perhaps the best-researched text available on French culinary history. Pinkard has clearly done her homework, and her book is both comprehensive and concise, and for me, it represents one of the great recent surveys of food and culture. Published in 2009, “A Revolution in Taste” may prove a bit scholarly for the casual gourmet, but for the student of Western cuisine, the book offers an approachable and well-documented account of the culinary trends that evolved from the Greco-Roman Era to the French Revolution. Along the [... read more ...] Golden brown, and then some. The fish and chips at Silverado Brewing Company remains one of my favorite comfort foods here in the Napa Valley, although this dish succeeds more on its execution than its authenticity: The fish itself is a Vietnamese catfish called basa — definitely not traditional within the dish — but on the other hand, the crispy beer batter and the house-made tartar sauce are always pitch-perfect. And that’s what really counts.
Sharing is caring… In early October, I first broke the news that the Martini House would be closing after its nine-year run in St. Helena. As I had reported back then, Paul Fleming allegedly had a hand in the purchase of the Martini House restaurant space, although the specific concept for a new restaurant was never mentioned. Fleming is the name behind Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and P. F. Chang’s China Bistro, although I couldn’t see either of those restaurants moving into sunny St. Helena (by my understanding, the Chamber of Commerce would sooner see St. Helena burn than allow any chain restaurants [... read more ...] It was a current iPhone commercial where I was recently reminded of “The Ketchup Conundrum” by Malcolm Gladwell: The article zips by in a milli-second, as a finger flips through the virtual pages of an iPhone screen. Originally published in The New Yorker in 2004, “The Ketchup Conundrum” is an intriguing account of food and marketing. If you’re like me, you have at least five kinds of mustard on hand at all times. And according to the article, lots of other folks are the exact same way. As an aside, the Heublein Company (mentioned in [... read more ...] S'more Pots du Creme: Scharfenberger Chocolate Custard, Graham Crackers, and Toasted Marshmallow Fluff. Last Tuesday felt like the last warm day of 2010. Whether or not that proves to be true, tomorrow can only tell. It’s very possible that November or December might offer an odd sunny day here or there — that happens fairly frequently here in Northern California — but as far as planning a picnic was concerned, Tuesday just seemed like the last sure-shot bet of the season. Instinctively, and with the last vestiges of summer quickly fading into fall, I felt like [... read more ...] [UPDATE: The rumor below has since been confirmed, although chef Todd Humphries will not be going to the CIA, nor Jeanty at Jack's, as he mentions in the comments.] Folks, the stories don’t get much more wild than this one, but I’m going to roll with it anyway, since that’s part of what I do: I’ve just heard that the Martini House in St. Helena will be sold to Flemings Steakhouse. I’ve been mulling this one over all morning, thinking about the possibility of this rumor being true, and what it could all mean to the Napa Valley. What [... read more ...] The Main Event: Blackened Pacific Halibut with Crispy Pancetta New Potatoes, smothered in Sauce Anthony. Here in the Napa Valley, hosting a dinner party this time of year can be a mighty tall order. The problem is finding enough guests with free time, since so many folks in the valley remain hopelessly preoccupied during harvest and crush. Among most of the people I know, they’re either working long days in the cellar, or they’re working long nights in the kitchen (tourism in the Napa Valley also hits its peak this same time of year). No doubt, as September [... read more ...] These days, when a rising-star chef leaves any given restaurant, it has the potential to become news. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve seen this phenomenon recently with Nate Appleman exiting SPQR and with Jeremy Fox leaving Ubuntu. For the guests who have come to appreciate these restaurants, the departure of an executive chef can introduce many question marks, and quite possibly, a large degree of doubt. It all makes perfect sense, of course, since today’s professional chefs now have true rock-star potential. When David Lee Roth left Van Halen, it was certainly an issue for the band’s early [... read more ...] |
 
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© 2012 The Accidental Wino |
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