PREFACE OPENeducation: Napa Valley Bee Company

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My A-HA! moment during OPENeducation in Berkeley was when Bob Cannard asked me “Who was the last person that made noodles in your family?” When I became red-faced and unable to answer the question, he followed up with another: “Isn’t it time that you started taking
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OPENeducation was a daytime event at the Berkeley Art Museum, and part of the Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary weekend. The event gathered 15 or so organizations creating an outdoor classroom, with kids and adults doing the educating, learning and eating.

There was a lot to experience at the event. I surveyed
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Maiden Lane in San Francisco on Wednesday at 12:30 was swarming with people chowing down on really affordable organic lunch boxes. The event was sponsored by the Edible Schoolyard and Levi’s and went something like this: get in line, grab a lunch for a suggested donation of $5, eat at long farm
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SF Chefs spanned three days, August 5-7, and looked like it landed from somewhere in outer space, onto Union Square (notice how the tent is “punctured” by the Dewey Monument pole in the photo below). I went on Sunday around 1pm and the sides of the ginormous tent were lined with 25 chefs’ booths. We somehow
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Chef Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern prepared this dish for the recent 4th Annual Taste of the Greenmarket benefit in NYC.

Update from The Modern (Tues. 7/26, 12:45pm EDT): The dish is Needle Panna Cotta with Nasturtium flowers and Riesling broth, Fingerling potato crisp and extra virgin olive oil.

Photo by
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Paystyle and Vanessa are in New Orleans this week for the annual cocktail fête of the year, Tales of the Cocktail–hands down the most important event in the world for cocktail heads, bar chefs, liquor companies, alcoholics, et al. I’m sure P + V have been trashed since they landed at
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“Are we really doing this?” I asked, uncertainly nibbling on a grilled shiitake mushroom.

Eriko paused before answering. “I know I was talking some pretty ambitious stuff the other night, but I think we should try it,” she replied. “We could end up pulling off something really cool.”

I vividly recall the tipsy conversation that had
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Mash-ups has been en vogue for over seven years now. Every time Britney or Gaga release a new smash hit it’s instantly mashed up with an old Kylie Minogue or Human League hit. Sometimes, it’s because mixing and mashing creates an entirely new song. Sometimes it’s for promotional purposes. And other times, it’s done
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Do you serve your best food on ugly plates? Are you still using the saucers from your mom’s back closet from when you moved away from home? Or do you instead spend all your birthday money on new additions to your Floral Heaven dinnerware set, dreaming of one day completing the whole
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The Japanese Grill: A Whole New Level of Summer Favorites Thursday, June 16 @ 6:30 pm Japan Society, NYC

You may think grilling is a signature American summertime sport, but it has been used in Japanese cuisine for a very long time as well. Unlike babyback ribs, burgers, or dogs, Japanese grilling has
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