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Culinary lip synching? In response to yesterday's story in which we imagined the rock-star equivalents for a couple dozen famous chefs, one of Grub Street San Francisco's followers, dubbed the Dapper Diner, replied with a zinger about our Alice Waters/Joni Mitchell comparison. "Alice Waters would be Milli Vanilli ... is she really a chef?" Now, this discussion of whether Waters was ever truly a chef so much as a restaurateur has dogged her a lot over the years, and most people are pretty well over it. But this prompted newly minted Twitter addict Jeremiah Tower (who just announced plans to publicly cook in San Francisco for the first time in over a decade) to chime in regarding his old friend Alice.
As Tower explained to Grub Street last year, his much talked-about feud with Alice was "really mostly — well, at least half, or two thirds, I don’t know the proportion — whipped up by the press." He added, "There’s still a lot of love between us." But he couldn't miss an opportunity to remind everyone who was really cooking back there when Chez Panisse earned its first buzz: him. [JeremiahTower/Twitter] Read more posts by Jay Barmann Filed Under: go ask alice, chez panisse, culinary twitterings, funnies, jeremiah tower, kerfuffles, rivalries |  |
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Chef Anthony Strong "The inspiration for our pig's blood item is a Gushers candy," says chef-testant Anthony Strong (Locanda), regarding the dishes he's working on for this Sunday's grand pork fest known as Cochon 555. "Also," he tells us, "since salumi is typically impossible given the short period of time, we're hustling out a few 'quick-curing' items just for the challenge." As you may already know, and as we showed you last year, Cochon is the ultimate celebration of heritage pigs and all things pork and pork-offal. Five chefs are challenged to create as many dishes as they can to impress a panel of judges, and the attending public, with a single pig, vying for the title of Prince or Princess of Porc. Each chef gets a different heritage-breed pig, and they've only got a week to figure out and execute everything they're going to make with it, in addition to their regular restaurant duties. Chef-testants are judged in part on their full use of the animal, blood, brains, and all, and most take this pretty seriously. (We're thinking of Fifth Floor chef David Bazirgan's brain flan last year, and Bar Agricole's Brandon Jew doing wonders with offal scraps in a rustic ciccioli.) This year's contenders, besides Strong, are Traci Des Jardins of Jardinière; Thomas McNaughton of Flour + Water; Nicolas Borzee of Bouche; and Jason Fox of Commonwealth. Also, Grub Street will be in attendance, as a judge. We hear there are still a few tickets available, but this thing usually sells out. The VIP hour (recommended) starts at 4 p.m., and the event opens up at 5 p.m. This all happens at the Fairmont Hotel on Sunday, May 20. May the best pork artist win. Cochon 555 [Official Site] Read more posts by Jay Barmann Filed Under: foodievents, anthony strong, jason fox, locanda, nicolas borzee, thomas mcnaughton, traci des jardins |  |
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Forget that cotton-candy-flavored vodka crap. Hayes Valley's own Straw, the amusement-park-themed restaurant, is doing a cotton-candy cocktail, albeit with double-barrel-aged sake and sparkling wine, but with real cotton candy that melts as you assemble the drink. Ah, novelty. [Thrillist] Read more posts by Jay Barmann Filed Under: booze you can use, straw |  |
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Salumeria This is just a friendly reminder that up next in the wave of Mission openings you'll be seeing in the coming weeks and months will be the daytime deli attached to Central Kitchen (20th and Florida), called Salumeria. The resident salumi guy, Matt Sigler, is working alongside chef Thomas McNaughton as we speak to prepare dishes from a single heritage-breed pig for Sunday's Cochon 555, and then, after Memorial Day, we should be seeing the opening of Salumeria, with sandwiches and cured sausages galore. As we showed you earlier, the space, across the patio from Central Kitchen, is in what was formerly the cooler room for a German sausage factory early in the last century. We'll alert you to the exact date as soon as we hear it. Read more posts by Jay Barmann Filed Under: previews, central kitchen, empire building, flour and water, lunch, matt sigler, salumeria |  |
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Rumors A new tenant has just taken over the onramp-adjacent spot at 7th and Harrison that was most recently home to the short-lived revival of The Line-Up (which had actually lived there before way back in the eighties). The bar-restaurant is called Rumors now, and it's gotten a new coat of paint, new owners, and a brand new website. The dinner menu features burgers, fried stuff, and some of the usual bar bites you'd expect, as well as spaghetti and meatballs, roast chicken, and a $14 steak-and-fries. It's unclear what day they're opening, or if they're softly open already (the Facebook page has no announcement and no one's answering our calls), but we'll alert you as soon as we know. Read more posts by Jay Barmann |  |
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Presidio Social Club We've got two update reviews of Presidio Social Club this week, one from Michael Bauer in the Chron and one capsule review from the Guardian's Virginia Miller, all following on the April addition of new chef de cuisine Wes Shaw. Well, Bauer is a little displeased by how the portions have shrunk since he was last there, and it bears mentioning that Shaw is no longer at the restaurant as of the last couple of weeks — he's moved out of town for personal reasons, and this is something they haven't gotten around to announcing because a replacement is still in the works. Nonetheless, founding chef Ray Tang has always kept a close eye on the food and designed much of the menu, so things won't be changing too drastically. Among Bauer's complaints are that the roast chicken, while delicious, doesn't come with any sides; and the liver and onions is now more refined, but he liked the big rustic slab o' liver with a mountain of mashed potatoes that they used to do. Also, the service wasn't perfect, and Bauer's server committed one of his biggest faux pas: bringing only one cocktail menu for a table of four. He still loves the smashed peas with mint, and says the desserts are solid. All told: two stars. [Chron] Miller mentions the new barrel-aged cocktail menu, in particular the Aged Reasons Rye cocktail with rye, Punt e Mes, and Cointreau. She also loves those smashed peas, and she's a big fan of the meatloaf, writing that it was "a seemingly bigger slice than I remember in years past. Like mom would make if mom was a gourmand." [SFBG] Read more posts by Jay Barmann Filed Under: the other critics, michael bauer, presidio social club, ray tang, virginia miller |  |