Archival photo of Alice Waters at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Photo courtesy of CUESA

On May 18, CUESA will be celebrating the 20th Birthday Bash of the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market, with special events throughout the Saturday morning market.

For $20 a ticket ($10 for children 10 and under), market goers can create their own seasonal fruit shortcakes at stations “curated” with market ingredients prepared by four top local pastry chefs: William Werner of Craftsman & Wolves, Francis Ang of Fifth Floor, Jen Musty of Batter Bakery, and Luis Villavelazquez of Les Elements Patisserie. There will also be coffee, tea, and a juice and mimosa bar filled with fresh-squeezed juices, fresh fruit and vegetable purees (don’t miss the surprisingly refreshing fennel-frond puree), sparkling water and Champagne. The market’s founders will do a presentation at 11am.

Preview of the mimosa bar

The first regular weekly markets, held in front of the Ferry Building, happened in 1993. Do you remember 1993? I do. The scars of 1989′s 6.8 Loma Prieta quake still criss-crossed the city. A post-earthquake, post-financial crash, pre-tech boom recession meant jobs were scarce but rents were cheap. But change was coming, mostly notably along the waterfront. Since 1958, the Embaracadero Freeway had sliced across the northeastern edge of the city, throwing the piers from the Bay Bridge northwards into concrete-shadowed gloom. Ferries still left from the Ferry Building, but to get to them, you scuttled as fast as possible through the building’s dimly lit, grubby passages, no more inviting than a New York City subway tunnel. Then, in 1991, the earthquake-damaged freeway was finally removed, and the City realized it had a civic jewel–the greatly underutilized Ferry Building, suddenly revealed in all its Market Street-anchoring glory–on its hands. It would take another seven years before renovations would begin that would return the Ferry Building to a modernized, food-glorying version of its original 1898 self–but in the bare stretches of concrete out front (remember, those pretty, palm-dotted, skateboard-ready plazas are still at least a decade away), a culinary revolution was getting underway, one head of oak-leaf lettuce at a time.

Aerial view of an early Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market across from the Ferry Building. Photo: Courtesy of CUESA

In 1992, a small group of San Franciscans including Sibella Kraus, then a forager and produce-finder for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, writer, restaurant critic and Hayes Street Grill chef/owner Patricia Unterman, and local developer Tom Sargeant organized themselves into the San Francisco Public Market Collaborative, with the idea of reclaiming the waterfront for a public market that would connect farmers directly with chefs and home cooks–in fact, with any curious city eaters. After endless meetings with representatives from the City and the Port, they got grudging approval for a one-time-only open-air market in Ferry Plaza parking lot on Sept. 12, 1992. At the time, the Alemany Market, located near the freeways at the base of Bernal Heights, was the city’s only regular farmers’ market. If you were a chef, you relied on distributors and vendors from the wholesale produce market near Bayview. If you needed speciality items, you could swing through Chinatown, the Richmond, or the Mission, if you had time, but mostly, you talked to your delivery guys on the phone, and hoped they’d show up with something close to what you’d asked for.

The success of the one-day market took even the optimists of the collaborative by surprise. The group immediately began pressuring the city to give permission for a regular market, bringing farmers and urbanites together on a weekly basis. By 1993, there was already a few months of precedent: the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market had set up in Civic Center in early spring. Starting in May, the market slowly gained momentum, and word spread between interested cooks and farmers alike. Here was the place to come to get stuff fresh, straight from the ground. Farmers were learning, too, that these new customers were curious. They didn’t just want as many bunches for a dollar as they could get; they wanted to sniff and taste and know what it was they were seeing. By the time the summer was over, the farmers didn’t want to leave. They’d found a new outlet for their produce, one that required a lot of more hands-on time, but also could command a better price that wholesaling. And there were relationships forming, between up-at-3-am farmers from Watsonville and Guinda and city customers who were entranced at the idea of farm-fresh corn and just-picked melons showing up just down the hills from their Telegraph Hill doorsteps once a week. After yet more negotiating with the city, and the market became a year-round event.

Eatwell Farm stand in the early years–no crowds! Photo: Courtesy of Eatwell Farms

And from the beginning, the chefs came, too. In those first years, as I was learning my way around the city’s food scene as the weekly restaurant critic for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, every trip to the market was punctuated by running into a half-dozen other food writers, editors, cookbook authors, and chefs. It was a pretty small world, and for a few hours every Saturday morning, it really was a village. (Look, there’s Alice, sniffing the peaches!) The original core group of founders had reorganized into CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture–none of which were the food-world buzzwords that they are today. From the beginning, the market’s organizers had a larger vision: to educate minds as well as palates, and to change the way people, both home cooks and chefs, thought about the process of getting food to their tables. Meeting farmers every week, hearing how the weather or gas prices or labor issues were affecting their crops, seeing how their produce was shaped not season by season but week by week, was a living education for everyone shopping at the market. And farmers learned, too: about what they could sell, what flew off the table and what, like puntarelle, minaret-shaped romesco broccoli, padron peppers, or fuzzy-sheathed green almonds, needed a little more nudging to get piled into the chefs’ carts and make it onto menus across the city.

David Winsburg of Happy Quail Farms, who helped create the craze for padron peppers. Photo: Courtesy of CUESA

As the renovations of the waterfront and the Ferry Building got underway, the market moved to accommodate the construction, from various parking lots around the building, then north to another parking lot off Green Street near the Embarcadero. It remained for several years, then moved back, now to wrap around the Ferry Building, filling the back parking lot and wrapping around the building. I can still remember one blustery December 31, a vendor calling out, “Free rutabaga with every purchase!” and the delicious rutabaga-potato mash I made on New Year’s Day. Or the blissfully sunny February days, the market stalls glowing with sunshine-colored citrus, everyone outside eating oysters, when I’d come back to visit from self-imposed exile in gray, slushy, freezing New York City and wonder why I’d ever left. (Three years away from San Francisco was all I could stand.)

Autumn market sign. Photo: Courtesy of CUESA

There was a brief, unsuccessful attempt at a Sunday morning market; much more popular were the two lunchtime markets for downtown workers and weekday visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Innovations at the market–from the Waste Wise initiative, which brought large-scale composting and recycling to the market, to the ban on plastic shopping bags, later adopted by the city as a whole, has made a small but significant change for the better in the way we shop and eat. Hundreds of schoolchildren come through the market every year, learning where their food comes from, and how it gets from dirt to plate.

Info Booth at Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Photo: Courtesy of CUESA

Every day, says executive director David Stockdale, he talks with people from all over the world who are interested in learning from the market. Many of the vendors with brick-and-mortar shops inside the Ferry Building–Michael Recchiuti, Frog Hollow Farm, Prather Ranch, and soon Rancho Gordo and Humphrey Slocombe–started out as vendors in one of the three weekly markets. It’s become not just a market but an educational tool, a visitors’ destination, a fun place to go for breakfast or lunch, and a showcase for some of Northern and Central California’s best produce, week in and week out. Happy birthday, CUESA, and thank you for all you’ve done.

Do you have memories of the early days of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market? Please share in the comments section, below.

The Exploratorium’s new digs boast stellar water views. Photo: Amy Snyder

The museum cafe, long a place of soggy sandwiches and mediocre meals, is getting a makeover in the Bay Area. Case in point: The recently reopened Exploratorium in new digs at Pier 15 in San Francisco, which offers creative fare tied to the mission of the museum, known for its interactive exhibits and playful approach, designed to encourage curiosity and experimentation.

Think seawater cocktails. Honeycomb with almonds and apricots. And living or fermented foods.

Visitors have three eating options: The 200-seat Seaglass restaurant, complete with panoramic views, a glass-topped raw bar, and open kitchen, which serves up familiar, family-friendly fare like tacos, pizza, and sandwiches — albeit with a sustainable pedigree — along with more adventurous eats such as marinated sardines, batter-fried green beans, and kelp salad with quinoa. There’s even a local riff on Welsh Rarebit (that’s gussied up grilled cheese to the uninitiated.) A full-bar serves cocktails promising a taste of the sea and in-vogue drinking vinegars known as shrubs. Near the museum’s Embarcadero entrance, the Seismic Joint offers take-away chow such as a chickpea-battered fish fingers, various spins on clam chowder, salads, and sandwiches. Mobile food trikes (built by Luigi Oldani and crew of CRO Cafe) roam the floors, peddling espresso Thanksgiving coffee, baked goods, and Strauss organic soft-serve ice cream.

The culinary duo behind the Exploratorium’s restaurant menu features acclaimed chef Loretta Keller of Coco500, a perennial Chronicle Top 100 restaurant, and her Coco500 partner, catering operations manager Clay Reynolds. The pair, who previously partnered with Charles Phan of Slanted Door fame to run The Moss Room at The California Academy of Sciences, have teamed up with Bon Appetit Management Company, known for its emphasis on scratch cooking with sustainably sourced ingredients, for the Exploratorium’s edible enterprises to form the Curiosity Catering Company.

Keller talked with BAB about her plans to feed people well and offer a side of education at the Exploratorium.

Clay Reynolds and Loretta Keller join forces at the Exploratorium. Photo: Gayle Laird

What got you excited about creating food for the Exploratorium?

What resonated with me about this project was a sense of place. The Exploratorium moved from this dark, cavernous space to a venue 800 feet over the water. Place is both a subject to explore and engage with at the Exploratorium. For me that means something in terms of food but also as a human being.

The environment and human experience, that’s everything to me. The importance of farming and where our food comes from is a very familiar mantra in the Bay Area. When you spend as much time as I do as a professional inside the food industry here you can get to a point where you’re in your own zip code. It can become precious and you can lose sight of the fact that our work is not done.

More than any other reason to be involved here, the museum offers a new and incredibly creative, intelligent and organic opportunity to do work on environmental consciousness, sustainability, and awareness around food and the planet. The Exploratorium is a great way to shake things up and have people engage with an exhibit in a hands-on way. That’s where the learning begins.

Is that where the honeycomb comes in?

Yes. The honeybee is in peril so by serving the honeycomb I’m hoping to help people stop and think and connect the bee with the almonds and the apricots — that’s why those things are always going to accompany the honeycomb. We want it to be a real exhibit and educational model that people will become intrigued by and realize how endangered bees are, which means your almonds are endangered, and all your stone fruit is endangered, and a whole way of eating is at risk. Bees are struggling with so many things right now; they’re overworked and experience bee jet lag. Bees want to winter in Florida, but instead almond growers in California pay exorbitant prices to have them flown or trucked here and put to work to meet demand. California is the biggest producer of almonds in the world, something like 70 percent, and people just take that for granted.

Japanese chef Sachio Kojima, who developed fervent fans for his sushi over the years, heads up Seaglass’s seafood and fermentation section. Photo: Gayle Laird

How are you incorporating living and fermented foods into the menu?

We are so lucky to have master chef Sachio Kojima, who had his own popular restaurant, Kabuto Sushi A&S, on Geary for more than 20 years, come on as our director of fermentation. He’s making seaweed and kelp salads, with kelp gathered from Marin, Mendocino, and Monterey counties, we’ll have algae on the menu too. And from our pickling program, we’ll offer traditional Japanese pickles, kimchi, and sauerkraut.

Visitors to the Exploratorium’s Seaglass restaurant can order from a raw bar full of sustainable seafood.
Photo: Gayle Laird

Where does sustainable seafood fit in?

We are doing an ocean bar, serving sushi, sashimi, and oysters that Sachio oversees as well. It’s all West Coast, Monterey Bay Watch-sanctioned seafood.

We missed the herring run this season but we’ll be serving herring next Spring. And we’ll serve anchovies in season too; these are really the last of the commercial fisheries within the bay. People have to understand that their choices are becoming so limited with regards to fish. There are very few wild fish that are sustainable. So we’ll be serving what people think of as bait and also serving whole fish. That starts a conversation in the U.S. because most people here are not used to seeing a whole fish or bait on a plate.

Sea grapes add a salty kick to cocktails at the Exploratorium. Photo: Loretta Keller

What about seawater and its connection to the new space?

My partner Clay Reynolds wanted to serve filtered seawater to drink, but the technology isn’t quite there. And then we wanted to run the dishwasher on seawater but it became clear that that was a whole project on its own. But the Exploratorium is using seawater to heat the building, which is quite extraordinary.

We’re using seawater in a cocktail. It turns out that the health department doesn’t recognize seawater as a consumable, so we’re not allowed to serve seawater per se. But there are kelps available that contain seawater, and there’s a Monterey County kelp called sea grape, that we add to our signature martini, which tastes great with a little bit of seawater. So we’re garnishing the drink with this kelp whose buds are full of seawater, when you burst them in your mouth you get a nice jolt of salt.

We’re including seawater in other ways in the restaurant too. The multi-hued glass tiles are based on a museum exhibit called “Color of Water.” To create the piece, a fixed-position camera took time-lapse photos of the bay, the color variations are caused by sunlight, tides, and microorganisms.

The piece in the dining room called “Thermal Mixing” also demonstrates the dynamics of the bay: It’s a triptych of panels of colored water of different temperatures that swirl like giant mood rings on the back wall. “Icy Bodies” is an exhibit where fragments of dry ice are pushed into a tank and spin around like comets across a sheet of water below a glass-topped bar. All these are nods to one of the most extraordinary places on the planet for moving water.

What role does food play at the museum?

By and large, with few exceptions, the food served at museums in this country is like prison food, just terrible. All this money was being spent on creating the new Exploratorium, which is a gift to residents and visitors of San Francisco, and so it’s critical that the food match the museum and its surroundings.

First and foremost we want to serve healthy, well-prepared fresh food to the museum goers, that’s our mandate. The challenge within that framework is to build in education, implicitly and explicitly, about sustainability. I get to be creative and think outside the box. We plan to do corn education tied to an exhibit and blind wine tastings at our adult nights. At the Exploratorium it’s not about looking at stuff, it’s about interacting with stuff. There’s an intimacy here that provides a direct way to get to people’s minds. And food has always been a great platform to reach people because it is so intimate and it’s a necessity; people have to eat every day. There aren’t that many mediums that offer that.

Details:

The restaurant is open during regular museum hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm; Wednesday evenings until 10pm; every Thursday evening adults only (ages 18 and up) 6pm-10pm. It caters primarily to museum guests, but the public can access the restaurant from an exterior entrance.

Chef David Lawrence in the 1300 on Fillmore kitchen. Photo courtesy of 1300 Fillmore

At events like SF Chefs, we’ve noticed again and again that chef David Lawrence has culinary offerings that stand out. His “Soulful American” bites with roots in England and Jamaica include such dishes as shrimp grits and white grits with pesto, and organic skillet fried chicken, with an upscale twist. Lawrence’s plates tend to demonstrate how the deep South can cozy up with fresh California produce, using classic French technique.

Since opening in 2007, Lawrence’s restaurant, 1300 on Fillmore, remains a draw for Sunday gospel brunch crowds, as well as those looking for a group dinner or bar snack–the fried chicken or skillet catfish; meaty ribeye; variety of grits and even warm chocolate beignets with coffee soda are almost begging to be shared. Lawrence, a London native, is 1300 on Fillmore’s executive chef and managing partner. He has cooked for royalty and was formally trained in the culinary arts at Westminster College. In 1982, Lawrence joined England’s most celebrated and honored culinarians, Albert and Michel Roux, who were definitely considered “celeb chefs” there and were the chef-proprietors of the world-renowned Le Gavroche and the Waterside Inn (at that time, both three-star Michelin restaurants). Lawrence cooked his way through five of their famous restaurants and became a sous chef, in four short years. In 1986, Lawrence became chef de cuisine at Interlude Restaurant in London, which gave him the sweet chance to make meals for none other than the Prince and Princess of Wales; Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon; and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

He left for the U.S. in 1988 in a kismet vacation moment that led to chef de cuisine work with a former Le Gavroche chef named Kurt Graising who was opening 231 Ellsworth Restaurant in San Mateo. Lawrence next landed at the (ornate and beautiful) Carnelian Room and Cityscape restaurants in San Francisco, respectively. While at Cityscape, he created the Chefs for Kids program, which raised thousands of dollars for the Tenderloin After School program. Lawrence is also generous with his time for various local charity events. We caught up in person recently to find out more about his culinary style and career. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Bay Area Bites: Can you tell us about your successes & goals?
Lawrence: The restaurant just celebrated five years of business last October. When we opened the restaurant, it was all fanfare and then the economy crashed. We survived but had to cut back and there was no sous chef, and no general manager. My wife Monetta White and I did all that. We we’re able to do so with the support of the city and the people who came in. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved. Now I’m looking at expanding.

Our gospel brunch is on Sunday. For Easter, we decided to try something different, and keep our hours to the daytime and not open at night. I saw hordes of people walking back up to Pacific Heights as they left brunch. Then when I went to Safeway, I saw a line of people, and there were families and kids walking down here. I remember when we first came here and Monetta lived at Bush and Fillmore. Back then, no one went below Bush Street.

Bay Area Bites: What are your best selling menu items…and your favorites?
Lawrence: For the best seller, it’s always the fried chicken. When I walk around and go out, people say that fried chicken is the bestseller. It is so funny because I come from Europe and have worked with Michelin-starred chefs. I have no complaints but my claim to fame is chicken. I just turned 50 in February, and it’s, “Wow, I’m 50 and known for fried chicken.”

I am the most proud of dishes like shrimp and grits and fried chicken. The shrimp and grits dishes really got me to look at this cuisine and what we do. Monetta is from Mississippi and we’ve been together for 19 years. We have a similar thing in England where I am from that is cornmeal porridge: sugar, nutmeg, and spice to make it nice and creamy. I cooked the grits more or less the same way and decided to do it without the sugar. Slowly but surely, people became interested and back then, no one was doing this.

Bay Area Bites: As a chef and businessman, what would you like to be known for?
Lawrence: It’s a fine line doing both. I’ve seen many amazing chefs open restaurants and crash. I’ve seen many mediocre chefs succeed because of their business acumen. As a chef, you have to cook what your customers want instead of what your ego wants. It’s about getting that balance. With the restaurant’s earlier days, I had foie gras, lamb, and rabbit and it was great for me but I couldn’t sell it. I never wanted a hamburger but I put one on the menu because people want it. It’s about finding the fine line between your own ego and what makes sense and sells. That way, you can hopefully still enjoy what you do.

Bay Area Bites: Guilty pleasure?
Lawrence: My thing is chocolate HobNobs. You call them cookies, and I call them biscuits. I don’t buy them because I can’t eat just one.

Bay Area Bites: Where do you live?
Lawrence: We live right above the restaurant. The commute is awesome. I love it. If I get five minutes for myself, I can go upstairs. It gives me just enough time to recharge my batteries. I can pop down if someone is here and wants to say hello, which is the least I can do if they have come all this way to eat at my restaurant. 1300 is my love and will be my love for the rest of my life.

Related Information:

1300 on Fillmore
Address: Map
1300 Fillmore St.
San Francisco CA 94115
(415) 771-7100
Facebook: 1300 on Fillmore
Twitter: @1300onFillmore

1300 on Fillmore was featured on KQED’s Check, Please! Bay Area in 2012.
Watch the restaurant segment from the show:

Christine Christy, Haley Marquette and Olga Marquette of Patton’s Caterers serve a combo plate with crawfish beignets, crawfish sack and oyster patties, a favorite of Chuck Maddox, chef-owner of Cajun Pacific in San Francisco.

He made a dish he’d been playing around with in his head, a combination of crawfish, pasta and a spiced cream reduction. He named it Crawfish Monica that night after his new wife, Monica Davidson.

Two years later, the pair, who started a food manufacturing business called Kajun Kettle Foods Inc., pitched the dish to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It sold and sold, becoming a favorite of the masses, including many Bay Area chefs with Louisiana roots who shared with us their favorite Jazz Fest dishes.

“It is a Jazz Fest sensation,” says Chuck Maddox, chef-owner of Cajun Pacific in San Francisco. “Mention Jazz Fest food and Crawfish Monica comes up immediately.”

The annual festival, now in its 43rd year, wraps up Sunday following two weekends of music that include international and local entertainers ranging from Billy Joel, the Black Keys and Dave Matthews Band to Rebirth Brass Band, Galactic and Trombone Shorty.

But the festival is also known for food from nearly 70 vendors, who’ll serve everything from gumbo and etouffeé to fried chicken and more than a dozen variations of the po’ boy sandwich. In honor of the event, we asked Bay Area chefs for their most memorable Jazz Fest dishes. We noticed familiar themes — and lots of emotion.

“This is the food that I came up on,” says Michael LeBlanc, a New Orleans native and owner of Picán Restaurant in Oakland. “It brings back memories of family, friends and distinct cultures — the epitome of Laissez les bons temps rouler. This food inspired me to launch Picán.”

Ronnie New, chef at Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery in San Francisco, says it’s hard to go wrong with anything he eats at the festival. He is now in New Orleans, attending Jazz Fest’s second weekend.

“I may be biased but I truly think it’s by far the best food at any festival,” he says.

Below are their favorites, in no particular order.

Crawfish Monica

Crawfish Monica is a blend of crawfish, rotini pasta and a spiced cream reduction.

This year’s festival marked the 30th anniversary of Crawfish Monica’s first appearance at the festival. It’s a favorite of Justin Simoneaux, chef at the Boxing Room, Brenda Buenviaje, chef-owner of Brenda’s French Soul Food, and New, of Magnolia.

“We’ve fed this stuff to four presidents, Pope John Paul and all kinds of people,” says Hilzim. “It’s taken us places neither of us would have gone without it.”

He predicts he’ll sell enough Crawfish Monica to fill a semi-truck during the seven days of Jazz Fest.

Simoneaux is featuring a dish inspired by Crawfish Monica at the Boxing Room this weekend. You can also find Creole crawfish and pasta on the menu at Cajun Pacific (Maddox once called the dish Crawfish Monica until he received a very nice letter from Hilzim’s company.).

There is also the possibility that Hilzim and Davidson will serve Crawfish Monica at this summer’s Outside Lands in San Francisco, being held August 9-11.

Soft Shell Crab Po’ Boy

These soft shell crab po’ boys are made with crabs from throughout the Gulf of Mexico, including Lake Pontchartrain, Hopedale, La., and Florida.

Dennis and Vicky Patania have been selling soft shell crab po’ boys at the festival for 36 years. The soft shell crabs are dipped in the Galley Seafood Restaurant‘s house batter of cornmeal and spices before landing on a Leidenheimer French roll with nothing but a couple slices of pickle.

“We don’t put any filler, no lettuce or tomato,” says Vicky Patania. “We also have (on the side) homemade tartar sauce, ketchup, hot sauce, lemon juice and butter. A lot of people don’t want lettuce and tomato because they want to taste the crab.”

The soft shell crabs are only available twice a year, Patania says, the result of crabs shedding their hard shells.

“Soft shell crab really is like a miracle seafood,” she says.

Nothing says Jazz Fest to Maddox of Cajun Pacific more than a soft shell crab po’ boy.

“It’s the very beginning of crab season and the burst of juicy crab flavor and crispy fried crunch means summer is on its way,” he says. “We won’t see soft shell crabs for another three weeks in San Francisco until the Chesapeake crab season starts. They are the ultimate po’ boy for me.”

He’ll serve his rendition at Cajun Pacific in the next few weeks through the summer.

Crawfish Bread

John Ed Laborde first made sausage bread, but thought crawfish would make a fine substitution.

While nothing reminds Maddox of Jazz Fest like a soft shell crab po’ boy, the crawfish bread has the same effect on several Bay Area chefs. It’s the best, says Mitch Rosenthal, co-owner of several Bay Area restaurants, including the Southern-themed Town Hall in San Francisco.

“I only see it at Jazz Fest,” he says.

The crawfish bread was the inspiration behind the crawfish beignets at Brenda’s in San Francisco, according to Buenviaje. Simoneaux also added it to the Boxing Room’s menu through Sunday.

“If I had to pick a favorite it would have to be crawfish bread, because I enjoy the kick and the cheesiness of the filling and it’s also much easier to eat in a festival environment,” Siminouex says in an email.

John Ed Laborde is flattered that the recipe he invented decades ago has made such an impression on people. It took years of petitioning Jazz Fest organizers before he finally received permission to sell the crawfish bread because it was an original recipe, not an indigenous food that is part of Louisiana’s culinary heritage.

He cooks and cools the crawfish tails before adding spices, onions and four types of cheese. The filling is rolled into a basic yeast dough and baked. Laborde goes through about 6,000 pounds of crawfish during Jazz Fest.

“Twenty-seven years ago, it was exactly the same way it is today,” Laborde says. “It is handmade in Marksville, La. I have about 15 ladies with rolling pins, they measure out the dough, they portion out the ingredients and each one is handmade. That’s why not every one is exactly the same.”

Hot Sausage Po’ Boy

The Vaucresson Sausage Co. has been making Creole sausages since 1899. It was one of Jazz Fest’s original food vendors.

When LeBlanc of Picán heads to Jazz Fest, his makes a beeline for a po’ boy made with a hot sausage or crawfish sausage from Vaucresson Sausage Co., which has sold sausage po’ boys at Jazz Fest since 1970, its inaugural year.

“Over the course of the seven days, we’re selling thousands of pounds of sausage,” says President Vance Vaucresson, a third-generation Creole sausage maker.

Over the years, the family has brought variations of other sausages to the festival — turkey sausage, green onion sausage and turkey andouille, to name a few — but its hot sausage po’ boy has been a mainstay. It’s a fresh, all-pork Creole sausage made with spices and fresh vegetables, such as garlic, green onion and bell peppers, served on a roll with lettuce and tomato.

He’s not shipping sausages directly to any restaurants on the West Coast, but anyone can order the sausage from the Vaucresson website. Beware: As with shipping any perishable product halfway across the country, shipping costs can be hefty.

Cochon de Lait Po’ Boy:

The legendary cochon de lait po’ boy from Love at First Bite catering company often sells out at Jazz Fest.

When he visits Jazz Fest, New of Magnolia usually doesn’t leave without eating a cochon de lait po’ boy, a sandwich named one of the best sandwiches in the U.S. by Esquire Magazine in 2008.

“It’s pretty simple roasted pork with chunks of crispy skin,” says New, who sometimes features a cochon de lait po’ boy on the menu at Magnolia during the Mardi Gras season.

Wanda Walker has sold cochon de lait po’ boys at Jazz Fest since 2000. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Walker and her catering company, Love at First Bite, prepare the cochon de lait — French for suckling pig — by slowly smoking a ton of pork butt over hickory for 12 hours. A mound of the shredded pork sits atop cabbage and horseradish sauce on French bread.

Pheasant, Quail and Andouille Gumbo

Bob Guilbeau only makes this particular gumbo for Jazz Fest. At his restaurant in Lafayette, La., he serves a seafood gumbo, shrimp gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo, and smoked duck and andouille gumbo.

Bob Guilbeau, the founder of Prejean’s Restaurant in Lafayette, La., calls this recipe a gift from above.

Back in the early 1990s, he held several gumbo dinners in Arkansas as a thank you gesture for the help and supplies his community received from the Natural State after Hurricane Andrew. His hosts told him to only bring his roux and spices and they’d furnish the major ingredients. In a 500-gallon crawfish boiler, he and his staff made gumbo with a chicken base instead of salt (he forgot to bring it) and boneless, skinless chicken thighs, another first.

“The chef and I looked at it, smelled it, tasted it and realized we had never cooked a gumbo that good in our whole lives,” Guilbeau says. “It was a gift from God.”

Much of the flavor comes from a dark, silky and nutty roux spiked with a blend of peppers and tender chunks of pheasant, quail and andouille sausage. He cooks the gumbo in 30 gallon batches for Jazz Fest at the restaurant. He’s been selling the stuff at the festival for 20 years.

“This year,” Guilbeau says, “we prepared over 1,000 gallons.”

You can catch a live stream of Jazz Fest online through May 5 at WWOZ, as well as live TV coverage at AXS TV.

Chef Edward Lee moved to Louisville, Ky., 10 years ago to take over a restaurant called 610 Magnolia. There, he mixes the sweet of Southern food with the salt and umami of Asian cuisine. Photo: Dan Dry/Artisan Books.

Listen to the Story on Morning Edition

Post by Lydia Zuraw, The Salt at NPR Food (05/03/13)

Korean and Southern food may not seem like a natural pair. But now it’s one more example of traditions emulsifying in the great American melting pot. Korean-American chef Edward Lee makes that case with his new cookbook Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories From a New Southern Kitchen.

Fusion cooking comes naturally to Lee: He grew up in an immigrant neighborhood of Brooklyn surrounded by Jamaicans, Indians, Iranians and Jews.

“When they immigrated to America, my parents deliberately decided they weren’t going to live in the big Korean enclaves,” Lee tells Morning Edition host David Greene. “They wanted to spread out and be amongst other people. That education in cuisine, ranging from so many different immigrant groups probably left more of a lasting impression on me in cuisine than anything else.

“Their whole thing was ‘You’re an American. Be an American,’ ” Lee says.

But Korean food was a way Lee connected with his grandmother. She rarely spoke of Korea because she didn’t have very happy memories, he says, but “food was the one thing that was kind of sacred and pure and hadn’t been torn apart.”

Photo: Artisan Books” width=”250″ class=”size-full wp-image-61229″ /> Edward Lee’s first cookbook, Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories From a New Southern Kitchen, features Korean-southern comfort food.
Photo: Artisan Books.

As a kid, Lee says he would hang out with her in the kitchen, and at first, she ignored him. “I would, little by little, start helping her with things,” he says. “She got very annoyed by that at first. She’s like, ‘You’re a man. You’re not supposed to be here learning how to make kimchi — that’s women’s work.’ ”

Over the years, he says, they developed a strong bond that relied on few words.

Korean food was also how Lee established himself as a chef. In 1998 he opened a restaurant in Manhattan called Clay, which attracted a clientele that included plenty of celebrities. But the excitement wore off quickly.

“Everything seemed right on paper: Korean kid opens Korean restaurant,” he says. “But it just didn’t feel right to me, and I wasn’t incredibly proud of the food. I felt like it was just an extension of what I thought people wanted me to cook.”

He started to re-evaluate things and decided to travel around the country. The farthest his family had traveled in his childhood was New Jersey. “That was huge for us,” he says. “Although I grew up in America and I was influenced by all of the things that other Americans are, I had no idea what America was. It was this vast unknown beyond New Jersey.”

So in 2001 Lee went to places like Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., for the first time. And it was in Louisville at the Kentucky Derby that he fell in love with the South.

Within a year he had moved there to take over a restaurant called 610 Magnolia and the fusion instinct kicked in. He started mixing Korean spice with Southern comfort food.

“Southern food tends to be a little bit on the sweeter side. Asian food tends to be a little bit on the saltier, kind of umami side,” Lee says. “When they work and you put them together, they are actually are a wonderful marriage.”

Grits, for example, reminded Lee of congee, a rice porridge Koreans usually eat with soy sauce and seafood. So Lee came up with a recipe for lamb braised in soy sauce and served over grits, transforming the sweet taste of the corn into something new.

Or take fried chicken. Koreans actually have a long tradition of frying chicken, Lee says. They just have a slightly different method of preparing the chicken for frying. “The results are almost similar, but it’s just different pathways to the same place,” he says. “And I find that a lot in Asian cuisine and Southern cuisine.”

Related Stories
• Recipes from Smoke & Pickles

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Caitlin Freeman. Photo: Charles Villyard

Andy Warhol as Jell-O, Jeff Koons as a gilded white hot chocolate, and Cindy Sherman as a pink ice cream float dusted with glitter are just a few of the edible art concepts cooked up by Caitlin Freeman, an artist who creates confections and fancy snacks based on special exhibitions at SFMOMA. Her new book, “Modern Art Desserts,” details recipes and stories from her self-made dream job: responding to art through food.

Freeman co-owned Miette pastry shops before opening the Blue Bottle Coffee bar at SFMOMA’s rooftop garden with her husband James. From Miette, she brought along artist and pastry chef Leah Rosenberg, and assistant Tess Wilson. The team’s desserts are innovative, creative and sometimes controversial. A cookie plate inspired by Richard Serra’s massive steel sculptures is likely the first dessert to have ever received a cease and desist letter.

Click on any photo to view full-sized images and activate the slideshow

Freeman credits painter Wayne Thiebaud with inspiring her to become a baker, and says the book is a love letter to him. Her favorite cakes to bake are buttercream party cakes, and that’s exactly what Thiebaud is known for painting. The two cake-loving artists haven’t met yet, but Freeman throws a birthday party for him every year at the cafe. Besides her most popular cakes modeled after works by Thiebaud and Piet Mondrian, 70 modern art desserts have been created over the past four years. Textile artist Ruth Laskey’s two-color weavings became conceptual sodas where flavors were assigned to each color, creating combinations like lemon soda with bay ice cubes, and bubblegum soda (made from Dubble Bubble gum concentrate) with violet ice cubes. Freeman was interested in the overlap between colors and flavors, a concept that went through some trial and error when she focused on Andy Warhol’s self portrait in green, blue, red, and yellow. She tried to make a Bloody Mary gelée and explains, “I didn’t want to use food coloring but I figured we could use blue curacao. We made Campbell’s tomato soup Jell-O, celery, horseradish and Worcester Jell-O, and it was revolting. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but that was the one recipe that didn’t really work out.” Her aversion to food coloring had to be overcome for her Mondrian cake, a chocolate ganache grid with primary-colored cake blocks, but she’s not the only one who is wary of unnatural-looking cake dye. She says, “People easily gobble up the yellow and red, but often they’ll leave the blue square on the plate.”

Dessert is based on Garry Winogrand’s “Kerrville, Texas” (1977). Photo: Willa Koerner.

Freeman’s latest concoction, inspired by a Gary Winogrand photograph, is an ambitious multimedia project. As she describes it, “The piece we chose is these two people dancing on a platform that looks just like an ice cream cake. So we’re making this ridiculous multimedia cake that involves Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” playing from an MP3 player inside the plate, which happened to be the number seventeen song the year the photo was taken, and looks exactly like the song they would’ve been dancing to. We’ll have two images laser-cut as cake toppers that will be dancing on the cake.” The desserts are often conceptual, and sometimes literal, like the Jasper Johns-inspired grilled cheese that looks like his piece, Bread. As Freeman describes the project, “The piece is a lead panel with a piece of bread on it, so we made a grilled cheese and served it on a to-scale board painted to look like lead. It was a giant, oversized board people would have to carry back to their table.” She likes that her creations can help make the art more accessible, and says that when she walks into a gallery of California painters, “especially Diebenkorn and Thiebaud,” she often wants to take the paintings home, and says:

“Making desserts is my way of owning something, of really pretending that I’m stealing it, and making it my own.”

“Modern Art Desserts” was released this month by Ten Speed Press. Freeman’s Mondrian cakes will soon be available for purchase online (available for delivery, packed in dry ice). Keep up with her projects at modernartdesserts.com.

Photos of desserts reprinted with permission from Modern Art Desserts: Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Confections, and Frozen Treats Based on Iconic Works of Art, by Caitlin Freeman, copyright (c) 2013. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc. Photo credit: Clay McLachlan (c) 2013

Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert.
Photo courtesy of Good vs. Evil

The two rather famous best friends wore similar dark suits and their set looked like the boxing matches from the 1940s and 1950s, with one ominous lamp shining over an uncomfortable chair against a dark backdrop. It was a night that was billed as Good vs. Evil, and started out with Bourdain interrogating Ripert. One of the nicest surprises was how well Ripert was able to dish back to his pal Tony with that rather sexy French accent of his.

Orpheum Theatre. Photo: Mary Ladd

Bourdain and Ripert were in town for a short amount of time before heading to San Jose for a Saturday night show. Later tweets showed that Tony planned on hitting up a 7-11 store to find food to feed Ripert in San Jose. As for where to eat in the City, Bourdain said that he loves having a “crab with the crab fat“ at Swan Oyster Depot and Ripert responded that he wanted to go there with Tony for breakfast [which they apparently did do]. Bourdain also pointed out that the Bay Area has produce that is the envy of the East Coast.

When the talk turned to Alice Waters, Bourdain showed restraint, a gentlemanly move given the recent fire at Chez Panisse. Audience, he’s sure they would get along swimmingly if they met at a party… but do remember, he warned, that Waters chose shark fin soup as her last meal on a panel he did with her and Duff Goldman–a fact that had the audience guffawing. He appeared to have publicly forgiven Waters, as well as other famous food celebs ranging from Rachael Ray to Emeril. Ray sent him a fruit basket, and “how can I not love” someone who made a joke that Mario Batali will loan you a scrunchie if you give him a blow job—-a jab Ray made at a roast for the ponytailed chef.

Ripert got flack from Tony for letting Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, The Situation, and Snooki take their respective spots at the table at his award winning Le Bernardin restaurant. “You gave The Situation and Snooki a kitchen tour, too?” he asked, and Ripert said, “Yes.”

When pushed, Ripert said that tennis star John McEnroe is the one star he would not let dine at his restaurant. “He hurt your feelings!” Bourdain said, as Ripert sheepishly nodded under the bright interrogation lamp. Ripert later said that hipsters are allowed at his restaurant and that guests can take photos of the food at Le Bernardin as long as they don’t use a flash. Bourdain posited that hipsters are “people who are younger than us” and that Ripert felt that the founders of Le Bernardin, Gilbert and Maguy le Coze were hipsters of an earlier era.

Ripert said that he is anti-corkage fee yet also anti-bring-your own wine. He pointed out that Le Bernardin is after all a business (a fair point for any restaurant), and Bourdain said that he thought Le Bernardin had the best sommelier. Ripert waffled a bit on the bring-your-own-wine bit when he conceded that he would be open to guests bringing a great bottle of wine in, but only if they please share a glass with him.

Paula Deen is the one culinary star Bourdain will not forgive, because he is “genuinely appalled by her acts on the planet” which include hyping Southern cooking “into something it’s not.”

Bourdain gave major props to Mission Chinese Food and said that it is rare to see a San Francisco restaurant find such big and immediate success in New York. “I am sure they will take over the world,” he said. Bourdain was aware that Mission Chinese Food plans to next open in Paris, and giggled over the fact that Ripert had to run to the bathroom during his first visit to Mission Chinese, because “he couldn’t handle” how spicy the food was. Clearly Bourdain, given his far flung travels and history of eating dishes like calves brain and pig anus on air makes him the more adventurous eater. Yet Ripert aptly pointed out that Bourdain has not been a kitchen chef in fifteen years. Touché, Monsieur.

One exclusive that Bourdain and Ripert shared with us at the La Cocina meet and greet: they filmed in the mountains of Peru together for Bourdain’s Parts Unknown show on CNN. The series debuted Sunday and viewers can see the friendly pair doing a variety of activities that sound potentially interesting. “We were looking for cacao beans and cooked chicken together, which is a departure for the show,” said Bourdain. “Eric kept telling me, ‘one more mountain’ while I was stumbling around” on their way to find cacao. Bourdain rolled his eyes and laughed as he continued with, “He’s from the Pyrenees, where there’s yodeling and he’s pretty used to all those hills.” Ripert laughed and nodded at this.

They showed a comfort and ease with each other that continued through the meet and greet, where they signed everything from books to body parts while digging into a big plate of La Cocina treats. La Cocina Executive Director Caleb Zigas said that the after party event came about when Bourdain’s production company, Zero Point Zero contacted him. Proceeds from the meet and greet went to La Cocina and Zigas said the party provided an avenue for the La Cocina businesses who have brick and mortar locations. The two hundred or so guests in the green room gawked and took photos of Bourdain and Ripert, and a line snaked around the room for the chance to get autographs.

Inticing Creations baker Kelly Zubal crafted a stunning cake in the shape of a duck press for Bourdain and Ripert. She said that it took her three hours to make and she even brought an edible pen with the hopes of getting a signature on her sweet treat. Zubal confirmed with Bay Area Bites over email that, “Bourdain couldn’t believe I made a duck press and wrote ‘best cake ever’ on it. It now has a place on my cake display area at my cake studio.” Sounds like Bourdain was acting more good than evil to us.

We wish this one was televised, too: Alice Waters, Martin Yan, Joanne Weir, Virginia Willis, Nell Newman, Rick Bayless, Thomas Keller, Charles Phan, Joel Riddell and Irvin Lin were among the folks who took the stage for Tuesday night’s 2013 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) awards ceremony in San Francisco. Oakland Food Connection and food incubator La Cocina were also honored. IACP’s professional awards are widely viewed in the food world as something of a gold standard for cookbooks, food writing, digital media and culinary tours. The awards marked the closing night of the organization’s 35th annual conference, which went with a “Dirt to Digital” theme this year.

Check out the full list of award finalists and the grand list of winners. While the awards ceremony stretched out over a few hours and was oddly lacking any form of culinary nourishment (there were definite rumblings after the ceremony about that), it offered quirks, songs and even a few dick jokes courtesy of Libbie Summers, whose Salted and Styled blog won for Best Culinary Blog. On the other end of the spectrum, the evening kicked off with all guests looking up and saying “thank you” as a dedication to publisher Peter Workman, who passed away just this week. It was also emotional for Lifetime Achievement Award winner Alice Waters, who gratefully accepted her prize and joked in her speech that while she cannot farm, “I am a picker,” which got the audience laughing–wise words from the founder of Chez Panisse and the Edible Schoolyard. Waters also professed her admiration for cooking teachers because: “I cannot teach.” She immediately went on to acknowledge IACP attendee and stalwart Darina Allen, whose Ballymaloe cooking school she visits every year (for her birthday).

When Charles Phan won in the Chefs and Restaurants cookbook category for his “Vietnamese Home Cooking” (co-authored with Tasting Table Senior Editor Jessica Battilana), he confessed that he did not have a speech but had enjoyed some bourbon to presumably get warmed up. Phan thanked Battilana, his agent and wife, Angkana. “My wife made sure I turned the book manuscript in, so I wouldn’t have to return the book advance money to Ten Speed Press.”

“Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, received the award for Cookbook of the Year, and Marion Nestle garnered a prize in the Food Matters category for her weighty tome, “Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics.” The deeply satisfying sugar-rush images in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook garnered an award for Food Photography and Styling, and the Dining Around with Joel Riddell radio show won in the Long Format Audio category. The team at Chronicle Books may still be celebrating given their author Diane Morgan won for her book, “Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes.”

Culinary Tour Operator of the Year went to Copita chef Joanne Weir, who shared that as a child, she told her father that she wanted to be a bus driver, so that she could drive a bus on every road in the world. Her confession seemed to scare him a little. Weir dedicated her prize to him because he passed away last year. Food blogger Irvin Lin won the Best in Show prize for his photography, and he asked the IACP crowd to “hire me, I’m available,” a sentiment which was echoed by the next winner.

The conference itself is that rare chance to possibly figure out how to eke out a living doing things in the culinary field–it can be exciting but also daunting in the number of possibilities it presents. There were various declarations for members to support each other and that each one “stands on the shoulders” of those who have come before and after them. That may sound hokey and like general conference speak yet three people we spoke with found these pronouncements to be inspiring.

Many attendees shared with Bay Area Bites that the chance of learning from so many different people doing interesting things is one of the main draws of shelling out $750 to $950 to register for the full conference—that’s on top of the $280 it costs to initially join IACP. Off the record, we were told that IACP is in the midst of something of a revamp and that costs and programming issues have been noted if not yet changed. These folks said that they attend as much for the learning sessions on, say, the meaning of restaurant reviews in the era of Yelp to getting a lowdown on sourdough or video content strategy. The coffee breaks are also highly valued and networking even happens in the bathrooms. Yes, really.

Kale salad and eating local may remain a big trend, but IACP attendees see much, much more at play in the food world. We asked some notable thought leaders to answer a few questions in person:

• What is this conference about for you?
• The theme of the conference is Dirt to Digital; what does it mean to you?
• How does the theme translate to the food industry?
• What did you learn about in the workshops and what are the clear trends that emerged from the conference?

Here are insights from Corby Kummer, Danielle Gould, Sandor Katz, Joanne Weir and Sarah Copeland. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Corby Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine. Known as “the dean of food writing,” Kummer’s 1990 Atlantic series about coffee is a benchmark for excellence in long-form food writing. He is the author of “The Joy of Coffee,” based on his Atlantic series, and the recently published “The Pleasures of Slow Food.” Kummer is the recipient of three James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.

Kummer: This conference is about seeing people who are following food issues on the level of the home cook. It’s about how the things that we in the media are interested in and write about play out in real life and the home of a consumer.

IACP has always been the most connected to the real world of any group because it’s people making their living as culinary professionals. They are in touch with sustainability, farming and local issues. I thought the conference was brilliantly named “Dirt to Digital” because online is where all of the IACP members need to be marketing themselves and their products.

With social media, no one yet knows how to master it but everyone’s trying to learn. IACP has always been at the forefront of practical and real world applications. That’s a unique role because being so smartly focused attracts the most interesting, lively and active people in the food world. And I’ll take any opportunity to connect with them.

Danielle Gould is the Founder and CEO of Food+Tech Connect, a media company and network for innovators transforming the business of food. Through news and analysis, events, and custom research, Gould helps companies of all sizes drive innovation and understand how information and technology are changing the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed. She is also a founding member of the Culinary Institute of America’s Sustainable Business Leadership Council and is a regular contributor to Forbes.

Gould: This is my first time at IACP and they invited me to talk about food and tech trends and hackathons as a model for food innovation. Our panel touched on the opportunity and the medium, as well as how to demystify technology. It is also about helping people understand the knowledge and the challenges that are out there. We’re trying to empower people to put that knowledge out there where they’re collaborating with designers and developers to solve that problem. I travel the whole country and spread the gospel and learn about how people are thinking. It’s about using technology to help solve problems, spread messages and improve business models and just accelerate innovation that’s happening on a small scale.

In the past, a book would take you two years and a product would take 18 months. For a food producer or chef, that means that it takes awhile to market things. Technology offers opportunities: now you can self-publish that cookbook in close to real time, and get feedback on your product.

“Dirt to Digital” is at the heart of what food technology is. You’re looking across the supply chain, and food is interconnected. It is a system, and that goes to the consumer. A lot of times when people think of digital, they think of consumers. Emerging trends and what role technology is for each trend is a part of that. Technology is very broad and means so much to so many different people.

I just love learning how people respond to technology and food and how they use it. The other major takeaway was a lot of the panels weren’t very popular or not as sexy but were about funding. Everyone’s having trouble making money in the food space.

Sandor Ellix Katz, “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene” according to The New York Times, is a self-taught fermentation experimentalist. His books “The Art of Fermentation” and “Wild Fermentation,” and the fermentation workshops he has taught across North America and beyond, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts.

Katz: I’ve never been to IACP before. I don’t think of myself as a culinary professional. The work that I do is demystifying and sharing skills with people who aren’t necessarily culinary professionals. The highlight for me has been to meet people whose books are influential. [Katz was sitting with Bruce Aidells when we caught up with him and Aidells shared the table with us while we caught up.]

Aidells: What’s good sauerkraut without good sausages?

Katz: A kraut — quesadilla is my fast food, and I make it with Pepper Jack. That’s one of my standard meals.

The theme of the conference is significant. What does “Dirt to Digital” mean? I was just on this panel that was high tech versus low tech yet I don’t necessarily see things that way. I’m interested in understanding these processes in their simplicity. So that doesn’t mean you can’t use technology to have more control over the processes. It’s very empowering to see how the underlying principles don’t need equipment. If you get involved in sausage making, you can use a funnel for the casing. You can also just be there with you hands, pushing the meat through to the casing.

For cheese, you can buy nice molds, perhaps. There are elegant crocks to make things but you can also do it with a jar that’s already in your pantry. I appreciate the conference and there’s much information spreading by digital means but it may be telling people how to use their hands.

Joanne Weir is a James Beard award-winning cookbook author, cooking teacher, host and executive producer for the award-winning television series Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence. She is the chef-owner of Copita, a tequileria and restaurant in Sausalito. The author of 17 cookbooks, including the newly released “Cooking Confidence,” Joanne is the Culinary Editor at Large at Fine Cooking! magazine. She travels and teaches extensively around the world as well as in her studio kitchen.

Weir: This conference was so interesting because I’ve approached it differently as a restaurateur this year. I usually approach it as “I write for magazines” or my cookbooks or how to fill your cooking classes. This time I’m taking in things that are really different. I want to sit in on the reviewing and Yelping session.

I still love to see all the people I know when I come to IACP. And I love that it’s in SF and I get to share Copita–they’re going over by ferry. I did a tour on Saturday and people loved it. I’ve shared in a different way and am still excited about my restaurant.

For me with “Dirt to Digital,” I don’t know if I put the two together. Yet every single thing I do is fresh. I have an organic farm — and my next series is called “Fresh” for TV. I am always interested in digital media. The market has changed and the whole landscape is changing. My hope is it that it goes back to dirt and less digital. Is that so ‘Chez Panisse’ of me? (laughs) I do digital but food is still my passion. Perhaps next year the IACP theme should be “Back to Passion.”

IACP is pretty current on things. What they’ve done this year is now bloggers have been integrated. I left feeling in past years that I had to do so much on my own blog. I’ve always done food that is following my passion and on what brings about major possibilities for me. I attended a book session that talked about book advance spending and how book tours are back and rely on the digital medium.

My trend is always Mexican, and that comes with owning Copita. I saw the trendologist Kara Nielsen here and she said, “You couldn’t be in a more trendy thing, with Mexican food and tequila.”

I do modern Mexican food.

We used to think of Italian red tablecloths and Chianti — yet now Italian food has come a long way. One of the trends here is taking cuisines and elevating and educating around the cuisine. Thomas Keller was talking about that and I have seen that in this conference.

Sarah Copeland is the Food Director at Real Simple and author of “The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and For Each Other.” Her book, “Feast” will be published in December this year and she has authored numerous articles and recipes for Real Simple, Saveur, Food & Wine, Health, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens and Food Network Magazine. She has appeared as a guest on The Martha Stewart Show, Good Morning America and ABC News Now.

Copeland: A lot of the conference is about relationships. I see faces from every different facet of my career and have been reconnecting and catching up on what people are doing that is new and exciting. There’s a chance to celebrate successes while hopefully helping a few people too.

On “Dirt to Digital,” one of the most challenging things of this industry from my perspective is that I started in print. That part has changed so dramatically in ten years or even five years. For most food people who are in love with food, it is very tactile how we communicate yet that is changing so much. The dirt part communicates place, smell, and touch, which are all the good things. It includes the agriculture, and the farmer. There are so many layers and it is complex with dirt. That’s how food is to me: we touch humanity and civilization, nutrition and wellness. In the digital sphere, how do you capture that? I think we are all figuring that out.

I did a panel on recipes and copyright for the conference. There were folks from Pillsbury there who were trying to figure out their contest. We also had teachers, bakery owners and bloggers. As Food Director at Real Simple, I have to be savvy and think about those aspects.

On almost every panel I ask, ‘What’s the best panel?’ This year, everyone is focusing on video. I worked at the Food Network — and yet this industry has been print for so long. With Hungry and YouTube and different avenues, it’s just so video-focused. The trailer for my first book is a minute and a half but my next one will probably be half that, to seventy-five seconds. My new book ‘Feast’ from Chronicle Books is coming out in December and I’ve learned a few things that I’ll do differently. I am coming away from the conference with the feeling that there is room for every voice and every talent. If you are generous, they will help you, too.

My editor and I wondered what it is like to be a woman in the culinary field right now. I talked to three Bay Area women: Elvia Buendia of the newly opened La Luna Cupcakes, Prospect Restaurant Chef and Partner Pam Mazzola, and Strong Table Owner Fontaine McFadden. I asked them about their own personal growth as a woman in the food industry, their experiences being female in the culinary profession, whether or not they have female mentors, the “state of women” in culinary arts, and what it is like to work with other women in the food industry. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity. Here are their thoughts, in their own words:

Elvia Buendia. Photo courtesy of Eric Wolfinger

As a woman, I have received so much support from local organizations like CEO Women, a nonprofit based in Oakland that no longer exists, and La Cocina, the incubator program based in San Francisco. Both programs target and assist entrepreneur women, like myself, to succeed in the world of business. Before participating in CEO Women, I had no idea how to do a business plan, in fact I did not even know what that was or its importance!

My passion for pastries and baking pushed me to pursue my dream in opening my own cupcake shop despite physical struggles such as English as my second language, finances, and even social discouragement. In fact, many people constantly asked me, “how are you going to open a business if you don’t even speak English?” And I always told them, “I’m going to sell my cupcakes, not my English skills.”

Being a woman has been a blessing and has encouraged me to push myself for my own well-being as well as for the well-being of my family. I wanted to inspire my children, now 15 and 21, to reach for their dreams no matter how many struggles they faced to meet their goals. I think so far I’m doing well with constant support from programs such as La Cocina.

La Cocina has been a huge help and I admire the women that have given me words of wisdom regarding food and business, among those included are Leticia Landa, Carola Mulero, and Daniella Sawaya. Without their help, support, and words of wisdom, I do not know where I would be.

Overall, my culinary experience is related to the pleasure I receive when I see people eating and enjoying my cupcakes. I am truly honored to contribute to the culinary and baking world, as I bring a mixture of different flavors from my own cultural background and I look forward to continue my professional development as a baking chef in the field.

Pam Mazzola. Photo courtesy of Jeannie O’Connor

I started my career cooking at the Fairmont Hotel in a male-driven kitchen and quickly realized this was not the direction I wanted my career to go in. My entire cooking career has been at single-owner, female chef-directed restaurants. This has allowed me to be very focused in what I do. Having worked with a great partner and true collaborator (Nancy Oakes) for the past 25 years has allowed me to achieve the success that I have. As in any solid relationship, Nancy and I have always shared in the responsibility of what we do together. We have common goals, a similar sensibility in food, and are like-minded in terms of desires for our careers as well as our lives outside of the restaurant. I raised three children while I was cooking at Boulevard, and I don’t think that would have been possible if I had not been working with someone who was sensitive to my family needs and with whom I shared a deep trust.

I’ve seen a marked growth in gender equality in the restaurant field. Female chefs share equal status with male chefs. The difference I see is that there is a natural camaraderie between women in this industry, and a real sense of shared responsibility between women who work together.

Fontaine McFadden. Photo courtesy of Fontaine McFadden

My experience in the culinary world started with my first job out of college working the front of the house at an Italian restaurant on Nantucket Island. I then worked as a florist for years, had a brief and uninspiring job in marketing, dabbled in sustainable building and did some personal organization before finding my way back to food when I enrolled in culinary school. I lucked out with my externship turned job at Hands On Gourmet where I worked between the kitchen and the office as the Director of Operations for two and a half years. In November of last year I left to start my own business and am now reveling in that best/worst decision ever. I run a prepared Paleo meal service available for pick up out of local Crossfit gyms. It’s been crazy and amazing and I have a long way to go, but I’m excited to take on the hard work ahead.

To get at the very broad question of what it’s like to be a woman in the culinary field I would have to rewind a bit and start with what it was like to grow up with my Dad and big brothers. I have been wholly shaped by them and can’t really separate out my experience in the workforce as a woman without first pointing to them.

I grew up on an organic farm in Mendocino county and my Dad put me to work, treating me as an equal to my brothers. We all drove tractors, we all did carpentry, we all got up at 5 a.m. and worked in the vineyards until it was too hot to be out in the sun. I built fences, I branded cattle, I installed solar panels and I even did some time in the office. My Dad did an incredible job of instilling a strong work ethic in us all, regardless of the fact they were boys and I was the little girl. And it was the same story with school and sports and social activities; we were all held to an equal standard of excellence. Growing up working, playing and competing with my brothers prepared me to jump into a world dominate by men in charge and taught me how to thrive in that environment. I’ve been really lucky in that way. My life has not been shaped by discouraging moments or impossible obstacles attributed to my sex alone. I have always seen my abilities and inabilities to be based around who I am as a person and don’t believe that something is possible or impossible just because I am a woman.

Having said that, I realize that this is not the norm and the fight for equal rights among the sexes is not over (what fight against inequity is truly over?). I have encountered plenty of situations where my own view of gender equality is definitely not shared. In those instances I use that ignorance to fuel my motivation beyond what is inherent in me. Maybe by throwing back dirty kitchen talk, or changing a tire in a dress… whatever it is, I like to mess with gender-based assumptions. And in brandishing this viewpoint I have found that I generally end up working harder than I might otherwise, thus becoming more successful and proving my point all the more.

Obviously, there are many avenues to explore within this broad topic of women in the workplace. One of the more interesting and applicable ones for me, is the struggle for balance between masculine and feminine. I believe that chivalry is not dead. I love having doors opened for me, but I also want to be taken seriously in my career and respected as a member of my community. Luckily, these are not mutually exclusive. As I’ve gotten older I have found a better balance between my more overt tomboy tendencies and my girly-girl attributes (of which there are many). I used to think that it was one or the other but thankfully I am finding ways for those two to coexist. For me, the most important thing is that I act in a way that is indicative of how I want to be treated. That is all I can control and if I do my best in that area then I’m feelin’ good.

“I’m always going to err on the side of whole foods, that’s my philosophy.” Rebecca Katz

Rebecca Katz. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Katz

(Get recipes for Golden Roasted Cauliflower and Bella’s Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato Salad below)

Included in the book is a list of the Super 16 Power Foods, foods that “nibble for nibble offer the highest levels of antioxidants.” I liked the list, but it was missing some of my favorite medicinal foods. Where was the broccoli with its anti-cancer and hormone balancing effects; or turmeric, the potent anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer Asian spice? So, I was pleased to find that the second chapter of the book contained a culinary pharmacy — a list of over 80 foods that are used as ingredients throughout the book along with their various health benefits. Here I found turmeric, medicinal mushrooms, broccoli and many more. There are also notes included with many of the recipes that talk about the health benefits of specific ingredients. These notes go into greater detail and explain the benefits of important foods that aren’t included in the Super 16 or the Culinary Pharmacy like flax seeds.

Here are the three major reasons why I found “The Longevity Kitchen” to be a valuable resource.
• The first is quality. The ingredients in the recipes are truly health promoting. Katz emphasizes fresh, organic, unrefined foods in each recipe.
• The second reason is that the book is almost entirely gluten-free. There are a few recipes that contain gluten but most include easy substitutions for people with sensitivities. In fact, many of the recipes are also free of eggs, dairy, soy and sugar making “The Longevity Kitchen” a valuable resource for people with allergies and special diets.
• The third and most important reason is that the food actually tastes good. I have tested recipes from every section of the book, from Latin Kale to Mango Lassi and they have all been delicious. I have served these dishes to friends and even to my four-year-old twins. People love them. I got so many compliments on the Parsley Mint Drizzle that it felt like cheating; its only six ingredients in the blender after all.

As a naturopathic doctor I focus on optimal nutrition for each patient, and this often involves diet change. It is relatively easy for me to tell people what they should and shouldn’t eat. It is much harder to tell them how to prepare those foods. This book does an excellent job of bridging the gap and making healthy food accessible and flavorful. One caveat is that most of these recipes require some basic cooking skills to prepare. People who don’t already know how to chop, dice, mince or zest may need to brush up before attempting them.

This month I had the opportunity to interview Rebecca Katz about her new book and her philosophy on food. Excerpts from our interview are transcribed below. The content has been edited for length and clarity.

Your previous two books, “One Bite at a Time” and “The Cancer Fighting Kitchen” were specifically targeted to cancer patients and their families and this book is targeted to the general public. I’m wondering why you made that shift?

Katz: If I had one more person come up to me and say, “these books are great, but when are you going to write a book for the rest of us.” …A lot of people are afraid of the word “cancer.” So even though the recipes in both of those books are yummy for everybody, number one — people who have been through cancer and are on the other side don’t want to look at the word anymore. Number two — there was a larger audience to reach. Many of the same rules apply when we are talking about eating for a cancer-fighting diet and eating for longevity. We are still dealing with the major chronic issues that we all face which are free radical damage, inflammation, and getting a lot of antioxidants. Nothing really changes. What changes is the way the story is told, but not the principles of eating. One of the challenges with this book, in dealing with the topic of longevity was how to grab people’s attention and make it relevant to their lives.

Absolutely, one of the things I experience in working with people with cancer is that I’ve become really passionate about prevention. You see all of the steps that led to the development of the disease and you want to help other people make changes earlier.

Katz: There are very few things in our lives that we have control over. But one of the things we do have control over is what we put in our bodies and it can be a joyful experience. We are talking about longevity and our connection with food being one of joy. This is a book about all of the things that you can have, not simply a list about all of the things that you can’t have.

I was really interested in your list of 16 foods. I was a little surprised to see coffee, chocolate and green tea on the list. We know that all of those foods have a very strong profile of phytochemicals. But I wonder if you believe that people need some level of stimulation to be optimally healthy and happy?

Katz: Honestly it was really hard to get it down to 16. Here was my criteria, number one was the antioxidant properties, number two was some of the latest research coming out on brain health which shows that a little stimulation can go a long way. But really every recipe and every ingredient in that book could be considered on that top sixteen. So I was really looking for a blend of nutrient dense, antioxidants, phytochemicals, the right amount of stimulation and I wanted people to look at that list and be able to recognize those foods. I also think there is a psychological component — giving people permission to indulge in some of the foods that they resonate with. Food is such an emotional issue and if you take away everything, people really get upset. When I take something away, I always have to give something back. Just because you want to eat well and be healthy doesn’t mean you should be relegated to the sidelines.

How did you become a cookbook author, specifically one focusing on cancer prevention and longevity?

Katz: I had a motivation at the very beginning. My father was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2000. I took a leave of absence and went to take care of him and I didn’t know anything about cooking for people with cancer even though I was trained chef. There was nothing out there! There was nothing. So my father was my guinea pig. Food was the platform of his life, so it was not an option not to feed him well. Then I got a wonderful opportunity (to work) at Commonweal Cancer Health Program. I really believe, truly, in that connection to food and to being a nourisher — I felt like I had found my calling. One Bite at a Time came out of my experience working with people individually and The Cancer Fighting Kitchen came out because there was so much new science appearing. I was now at a different level, I had gotten my masters of science in nutrition, I was witness to this evolution. I look back and think, wow what a wonderful gift.

I think that is the gift that everyone is looking for in a career, being able to find the thing that you are meant to do in the world and be paid for it.

Katz: Yes, I feel incredibly grateful.

EVENT:
April 5, 7:15pm: Rebecca Katz will be signing books at Book Passage in Corte Madera

RECIPES:

Golden Roasted Cauliflower

Roasting cauliflower completely transforms it into a candy-like delight that yields to a gentle fork. The spices—cumin, coriander, and turmeric—really make this dish sing. Turmeric has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, and holds great promise for maintaining (and possibly improving) brain health.

Golden Roasted Cauliflower. Photo: The Longevity Kitchen

Serves 4

1 medium head of cauliflower (about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds) cut into 1 1/2 inch florets (about 8 cups)
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley or cilantro

Place the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Toss the cauliflower with 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, turmeric and garlic. Spread the cauliflower mixture in an even layer on the prepared pan. Bake until the cauliflower is golden and tender, about 25 to 35 minutes. Toss with spritz with fresh lemon juice and parsley or cilantro.

Variations: If you’re not in a spicy mood, omit the spices and toss the cauliflower with olive, salt and pepper. You’ll love how sweet this vegetable tastes after its oven “sauna.”

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes
Storage: Store refrigerated in airtight container for 2 days

Notes: Chopping cauliflower releases enzymes that increase the bioavailability of its nutrients. Delaying cooking for 5-10 minutes after cutting helps insure that heat won’t destroy these enzymes’ effectiveness. Also, the enzymes need Vitamin C to activate, which can be accomplished with a hit of lemon or lime juice.

Bella’s Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato Salad

This is proof that exposure to vegetables expands one’s horizons, whether they have two legs or four. My 8 year old Portuguese Water dog Bella had become known around our house for her love of carrots. She literally comes running every time she hears the carrot peeler come out of the drawer. We figured ‘hmmm, that’s different for a dog,’ and played the approving parents. Well, she’s expanded her palate (or maybe she just likes orange-colored veggies). Now she’s on to sweet potatoes. No sooner do they hit the counter, than she’s dancing and singing around my feet. I quarter and square off the potatoes so she gets the ends, and she’s been known to get some serious hang time under her paws as she leaps for a toss. Seriously, Air Bud has nothing on Bella. Maybe she heard about how good sweet potatoes are for health. Their natural sweetness is perfectly balanced with high fiber content, slowing the rush of sugar into your system. That’s great for vasculature and mood. All I can say is, whenever I make this salad, Bella’s awfully happy.

Bella’s Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato Salad. Photo: Courtesy of The Longevity Kitchen

Serves 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup onion, diced small
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 pound orange-fleshed sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (2 medium sweet potatoes)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt,
1/2 cup filtered water
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (preferably blood orange)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 teaspoons maple syrup
2 tablespoon lemon juice
12 pitted kalamata olives cut in half
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup toasted almonds or pistachios roughly chopped

Heat the olive oil in a deep sauté pan over medium heat, then add the onion and a generous pinch of salt and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes until onions are translucent and slightly golden. Add the ginger, cumin, paprika to the onions and sauté for 1 minute. Add the sweet potatoes, sea salt, the water, orange juice, and zests. Cook covered for 20 minutes, remove lid and continue cooking until potatoes are tender and the liquid is reduced to almost a glaze. Add the maple syrup and the lemon juice, and olives. Gently combine. Taste and add another pinch of salt or squeeze of lemon juice if desired. Transfer the potatoes to a bowl and garnish with the parsley and nuts. Serve at room temperature.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Storage: Store refrigerated in airtight container for 5 days.

Recipes courtesy of Rebecca Katz, The Longevity Kitchen