What’s Cookin’

This week has been a category three hurricane of eating, like a private tasting event Sunday night at Saison highlighting Robert Mondavi Winery’s To Kalon wines (along with sniffing soil with Laura Parker—sounds hardcore but I promise, it wasn’t that kind of party), a white-tablecloth lunch at…

Ooooooh, boy! Indian summer finally showed the hell up. The hot nights remind me of living in LA—am loving riding my bike in the evening, and am all about making caffè shakerato in the afternoon (espresso and milk shaken over ice in a cocktail shaker). Looking for a place…

Oh yeah, it’s Friday, and I feel like I’m as behind in my work as when I returned home from France on Monday. Hell, I still have dusty Burning Man gear I’m dealing with. At least that jet lag thing is under control. Of course, OF COURSE,…

Hey, where’s my morning croissant and café noisette? My pre-noon glass of Champagne seems to have gone missing as well (I hope I don’t get the shakes), along with my daily allotment of cheese, charcuterie, gougères, and chocolate. Le sigh. Oui, France was amazing. I can’t wait…

Yup, I’m back from Burning Man. (Barely.) How was it? To quote the old SNL skit, “I loved it, it was much better than Cats. I’m going to see it again and again.” It was my sixth year out there in the wild dusty yonder, and clocked in…

I can’t believe I am having to write two tablehoppers in one day, but such is my “boss of me” life. By the time you get this, I will already be kickin’ it in my camp in Black Rock City, blissfully unaware of my exploding inbox, RSS feed, Twitter…

Well, yesterday was fun: I was invited to return to Michael Krasny’s Forum on KQED to discuss the local restaurant scene, along with Jan Newberry of San Francisco magazine, Jonathan Kauffman of SF Weekly, and Stett Holbrook of Metro Silicon Valley. We probably could have rapped about our favorite…

And now it’s the time of the year when I throw some gas on the fire, literally. I’m furiously getting ready to head off to the playa this Sunday for a week, and things are gettin’ crazy here at the homestead. Burning Man has quite literally exploded all…

How the hell is it August 20th. Really? REALLY? I’m very happy with my tomatoes and peaches right now, but the whirring calendar is freaking me out a bit. I guess this Gorillas in the Mist summer of ours is making me mourn its departure because it barely showed…

Last week was ridiculous—what a whirlwind. I know so many chefs, bartenders, heck, the majority of the industry is worn the hell out. The theme should be SF Chefs: Take No Prisoners. Kudos to everyone for putting on such a strong showing, especially with multiple events each day and…