Tuscan cuisine is different than Sicilian—we know that much. Normandy’s food is unlike Provence’s—we know that, too. So, why do we seem to assume that there is only one “Thai cuisine”? Why does a single word—”hot”—come to mind when someone wants to go out for Thai? Thai food is a lot more than that.

For more see:  http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-12492-sab-e-lee-is-much-more-than-the-sum-of-its-heat.html

On Dec. 3, a culinary world still reeling from the loss of Charlie Trotter less than a month ago learned that Judy Rodgers was gone, too. It’s been a bad month to be a legendary chef.

Rodgers, the chef and co-owner of San Francisco’s iconic Zuni Café, has been one of the pillars of California Cuisine, bringing to it a grounded, unfussy simplicity and focus on deep flavors. The roots of her vision lay in three extended trips to Europe. On her first trip at 16,  by pure happenstance she lived in the home of the Troisgros brothers (chef owners at Les Frères Troisgrois, now known as Maison Troisgros).  After graduating from Stanford in Art History she went to work for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse—a natural fit if there ever was one.

For more see:  http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/blog-1435-zuni-cafe-chef-judy-rodgers-dead-at-57.html

And then there were three. With the closing of Hillcrest’s City Delicatessen after 30 years, San Diego is down to three top New York-style Jewish delis: Milton’s in Del Mar, Elijah’s in La Jolla and—the best of them all—D.Z. Akin’s in the College Area.

We all have an image of the classic Jewish deli, even if we only know it from television and the movies. Many of these—including the greatest fake-orgasm scene ever (Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally)—were filmed at Katz’s in New York. To a significant degree, those images have come to define the Jewish deli. A counter with breads and meats behind it, walls filled with headshots of celebrities and jars with pickles on the tables define the look of the prototypical New York deli. A casual atmosphere and waitresses who are one part Bubbie and one part New York brusque define the feel of the place. A nearly endless menu arrives, often with a thud, offering overstuffed sandwiches, smoked fish and innumerable other Ashkenazi Jewish favorites.

For more see:  http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-12467-dz-akins-is-san-diegos-best-jewish-deli.html

After finishing law school in Wisconsin, Nancy and I migrated to the Bay Area.  It was the best compromise between the cosmopolitan city to which I aspired and the natural beauty that Nancy craved.  Within a year we had moved from San Francisco to an East Bay hamlet that does not exactly appear on any maps:  Broakley.  Broakley is a far Northeastern section of the City of Oakland that is, in many ways, more connected to Berkeley than it is to Oakland.  At the cultural center of Berkeley (and, it might be said, Broakley) was Shattuck Avenue.  And at the beating heart of Shattuck Avenue was and is Chez Panisse.

At the time I did not know exactly what Chez Panisse really meant.  Upstairs at the cafe was all that we could afford on our own.  Downstairs was reserved for special occasions when my parents came to town.  I may not have understood what Panisse and Alice Waters meant in the arc of American culinary history but I tasted it.  And it was everything.

The mark of Waters’ and Panisse’s impact on the American culinary scene may best be shown by the fact that this Mission Statement on the Chez Panisse website sounds somewhat trite today.  It was revolutionary in 1971.  With her emphasis on sustainable agriculture and locally sourced seasonal ingredients she helped fundamentally change the way American’s think about food.  It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that Waters was the founder of the modern American farm-to-table movement.  It did not exist as a movement of import before her and it has ever since.

Photograph by Gwendolyn Gardiner

Daniel Barron was the very picture of the wunderkind Chef.  By the time he was 13 he was cooking professionally.  He exploded on the American dining scene in his early 20s, garnering a James Beard Award nomination for Best Chef/Restaurant Southeast.  Not long after that he moved to New York and earned a three star review from the New York Times.  It was heady stuff indeed, the sorts of accomplishments that might be many a chef’s career crowning achievements.

And then he took a left turn.

For more see:  http://npaper-wehaa.com/sdcitybeat/2013/11/19#?page=18

Brian Malarkey can still cook fish, and he does so really well. Despite the pressures of celebrity and the exigencies of managing a rapidly expanding (and contracting) restaurant empire, the mako shark with crispy onions at Searsucker (611 Fifth Ave., Downtown) serves as a reminder to those who ate at Oceanaire before Malarkey’s run on Top Chef: The man can cook fish.

A year ago, Malarkey was flying. He was the face of the ever-growing Enlightened Hospitality Group (EHG) “Fabric of Social Dining” restaurant empire: Searsucker, Herringbone, Gabardine, Gingham and Burlap. Malarkey was the face of the San Diego culinary world, our most recognizable and marketable figure. His new foodie television game show, Taste, was about to debut on ABC, and his flagship restaurants, Searsucker and Herringbone, found both critical and business success.

That was then.

For more see:  http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-12445-searsucker-is-tantalizing-but-troubled-after-turbulent-year.html

It was 5:30 p.m. on a Friday night many years ago. I had ducked into my office and closed the door at 4:30 because I knew my boss would be trolling the halls looking for someone to keep him company on his weekend labors. He had no life to speak of. I did. Unfortunately, I was still a half-hour commute from that life. I emerged, hoping he’d given up and gone home—he had—only to see three colleagues doing the same. Home would wait a bit longer. It was time for a beer and, perhaps, a bite. 

That is an Americanized version of the attraction of the yakitori tradition: co-workers emerging from the bowels of the machine, seeking an antidote to the long hours of the week and finding it in grilled chicken skewers and libations. 

For more see:  http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-12423-yokohama-yakitori-koubou-perfect-antidote-to-the-imperfect-boss.html

The Culinary Historians of San Diego’s next event in its monthly public lecture series will be this Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 10:30 a.m. at San Diego’s spectacular  new Central Library at 330 Park Boulevard.  Chef, food writer, cooking instructor and “foodstorian” Arlyn Hackett will speak on “Cookbooks and the Women Who Wrote Them.”

Chef Hackett, a former San Diego Union-Tribune food writer has written five cookbooks, taught cooking to all ages including young children, teens, adults and professional chefs. Currently he is a Culinary Arts instructor in the College Career and Technical Education program of the San DiegoUnified School District.  The focus of Chef Hackett’s talk is the reality that cookbooks, especially antiquarian cookbooks, are often more than just a collection of recipes. Prefaces and introductions to recipes often reveal incredible information about the prevailing attitudes, standards and prejudices of the time. Arlyn Hackett will present  readings excerpted from period cookbooks, ranging from 1796 to the present, and has juxtapositioned the selections to give a revealing, informational, sometimes humorous and sometimes jolting look at the history of American cooking and American women. The readings will be delivered by professional and amateur actresses.

For more information see Culinary Historians of San Diego’s website at:   http://chsandiego.com/

The black metal doors of the barbecue pit at Coop’s West Texas Barbeque have the sort of patina that suggests they have stories to tell. One imagines these stories are about men, like Brad Cooper, who do things the old way, the right way, the only way they know how, men not entirely unlike the cowboys who remain the iconic image of the West Texas plains from whence Cooper hails.

For more see:  http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-12401-coops-west-texas-barbeque-does-it-low-and-slow.html

A year ago I had the opportunity to stage for three days at Addison Restaurant in the Grand Del Mar.  During lunch one day I asked Chef William Bradley who (other than Thomas Keller) are the chefs he most respects.  One name came up immediately:  Chef David Kinch of Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, California.  I have not yet had the opportunity to eat at Manresa, but a reading of his first cookbook, Manresa:  An Edible Reflection, has only whetted my appetite to do so.

Kinch will be in town this weekend as the next chef and author at the Good Earth/ Great Chefs Series at the Chino Farm on Sunday, November 10, 2013 from 11am -1pm, featuring that cookbook.  This book signing and culinary event will include small bites inspired by Kinch’s recipes and the seasonal produce at the Chino Farm, along with beer pairings from local craft brewer Steven Strupp of Rule of Thumb Brewing Co., and caramel samples from the Caramel Collective.