Hi gang. I just finished quite the whirlwind culinary week, whoa. I was up in St. Helena for three days at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone for the Worlds of Flavor conference, which drew a fascinating lineup of talent from all over the world, and since the theme was Asia and the Theater of World Menus, you know I was in heaven. I got to listen to and meet chefs and experts and authors from allllll over, like chefs Paul Qui from Austin, Rachel Yang from Joule, Shinobu Namae from L’Effervescence, Alvin Leung from Bo Innovation, the very thoughtful Chris Jaeckle from All’Onda, Ryan Clift from Singapore’s Tippling Club, 2am:dessertbar’s Janice Wong, Will Goldfarb of Room 4 Dessert, authors and writers like Fuchsia Dunlop and Francis Lam, and yeah, we ate ALL THE DISHES, from Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, and more. It was pretty full-on.
A huge side benefit to all this talent in town means we scored a couple of special pop-ups, including last night’s pop-up at Bar Tartine with Ivan Orkin of Ivan Ramen (they crushed it, what a beautiful collaboration); oh, and I want to share this Nowness video about Ivan and his thoughts on ramen (they showed it at Worlds of Flavor). Tonight, I will be eating yakitori (and drinking their insane coffee shochu again) from chef Matt Abergel of Hong Kong’s Yardbird at Izakaya Rintaro. Score.
I was going to stay up in the 707 an extra night, but when you get the opportunity to take Jonathan Gold tablehopping to some of your favorite SF restaurants, you kind of change your plans. Yup. He was in town for a SF International Film Festival screening of City of Gold, a compelling and deep documentary by Laura Gabbert that is as much about him as it is about Los Angeles. It’s making the festival circuit right now and will be coming out in August, and you won’t want to miss it. During my afternoon jaunt with Jonathan, we were filmed hitting up a few local spots—I’ll be sharing the clip as soon as they finish editing it (and what it was like for me to meet him)! Yeah, it was a big day for the hopper.
Tonight is the opening of Trestle from the Stones Throw crew, which we’ll be covering in tablehopper next week after I have a chance to check it out in person. Also, if you don’t already have dinner plans tonight, please think about choosing a restaurant participating in Dining Out for Life, when many SF restaurants will contribute a portion of their sales to support the free local HIV prevention and care services of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Lastly, I know we are all feeling quite helpless watching the devastation in Nepal after that horrific earthquake. The best thing we can do right now is send money—every dollar counts. Here’s an article featuring seven vetted charities doing relief work, please take a look. Thank you.
With love, Marcia Gagliardi
The beginning of the stunning pop-up meal with Bar Tartine and Ivan Ramen. Snacks! Photo: © tablehopper.com.View tablehopper Newsletter from Tuesday, Apr 28 2015
