Stanley Morris. photo courtesy of Meredith Fish

French Blue is a new restaurant slated to open next month in the former Vanderbilt’s store space in downtown St. Helena. The team behind this new restaurant includes chef Philip Wang (Fog City Diner, Mason’s, Carneros Inn), noted wine country architect Howard Backen (Harlan Estate, Screaming Eagle, Press, Kokkari, Evvia, Il Fornaio, Meadowood) and his interior designer wife Lori Backen, entrepreneur Leslie Rudd (Dean & DeLuca, Press), and Stanley Morris (Teatro ZinZanni, Il Fornaio, Prego and Stars). The Backens and Rudd bought the Vanderbilt building and the restaurant is named after the blue doors that graced that store for five decades. Howard Backen decided to put his offices in the back of the building, which sounds like it will make it easy for him to check on the breakfast, lunch and dinner service at the restaurant.

French Blue image courtesy of Jim Gillam

A friendship dating back to 1987 with the Backens is what helped bring Stanley Morris, 56, to the project. Morris worked with Howard Backen when they morphed Il Fornaio from a baking company into a restaurant company. Morris was Managing Partner at the Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses in Kaikoura, New Zealand until last year, when he returned to the Bay Area to manage what is said to be a temporary closure of the Teatro ZinZanni food and retail operation in San Francisco.

Morris said that the Backens are “pretty fantastic. We ran into each other after I was away, working for four years. It was clear that they needed someone who knew how to run a restaurant for French Blue, and I tossed my hat in the ring.”

French Blue will be the twelfth restaurant opening for Morris, who has three decades of hospitality experience. Morris said, “I know what it takes to make a restaurant great: a lot of love and attention.” Morris lives three blocks from the restaurant, because his goal was to “leave the car in the driveway and walk to work. French Blue is a very intimate project and business to be involved in. I wanted to live the St. Helena, Napa lifestyle.” Bay Area Bites caught up with Morris, who has considered San Francisco his home base since 1981.

Who is your mentor?
Larry Mindel, without a doubt. I worked with him for twelve years and will be eternally grateful for everything he taught me personally and professionally. He is an extraordinary man. I was 25 when I first met him and very young. I learned from him a lot about values, ethics, integrity, consistency and authenticity.

Your professional life has been exclusively around hospitality. How did that happen?
I grew up in the Sierra foothills around food and farming. My grandparents were fruit ranchers. I was a classic child of the fifties: fresh food and then have a Swanson’s TV dinner from my mom at the drop of a hat. In my family, we’d be planning our next meal as we were eating. My first job was at Baskin Robbins at age sixteen.

In college, I travelled around the world for a semester. I realized I had spent my money on food instead of on things or trinkets. I was smitten. When I headed to Eugene, for the University of Oregon, I got a job at the Excelsior Café. Both Doug Biederbeck and I got our start there. I waited tables when I was 21, and was a manager before I graduated college.

Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco had to close and move due to the America’s Cup. What’s going on these days?
We will reopen at some future date, but it’s up in the air. The city has identified a site on the Embarcadero for us, and it will be a permanent building for us. Hopefully, it’ll happen by the end of the year. It’s a big effort. Everyone’s working on it and I’m hopeful that it will happen.

Where do you get your inspiration?
Two things: travel and the Bay Area. I’ve been really lucky to travel the world for business and pleasure. I’ve been to Italy, Kyoto, Southeast Asia, Singapore and other international spots. Experiencing new food in other countries keeps me inspired.

The Bay Area is a confluence of land, politics and social awareness. I like to tell the story of when Larry Mindel and I opened Prego in 1981. We got radicchio from Treviso in Italy in a Styrofoam box. I think Chow and Prego were the only restaurants using radicchio back then. All of the sudden, there was this incredible germination and the farm to table movement kicked in. My mother in Oregon soon had radicchio on the shelf at her grocery store.

What are your favorite food spots?
A stellar example to what I aspire to in my work is Nopa. It’s an exceptional restaurant on all levels. The hospitality is sincere and genuine and quite effusive. The quality of food and style of cooing is easy on the pocketbook and body. They’re tied to the farming community. I always take people to Nopa to talk about it, look at it, chew it up, and eat.

Nopa has one of the best cocktail bars in northern California. There’s an extraordinary bartender there, Kitty. I fell in love with her. She knows I drink bourbon, and like it up. I started exploring rye and odd Kentucky bourbons I’d never heard of because of Kitty. I go there for a new drink with Kitty.

They have probably the best burger in the bay area (laughs). Being in the restaurant business, I’d be up and done and wired at 11pm at night after Teatro ZinZanni every night. When Nopa opened, I could go somewhere that is still happening and have a great meal and wind down. The restaurant industry folks could walk there at 11:30pm at night.

When I lived across the way from the Ferry Building, I’d shop there every day for eight months. It was one of the greatest luxuries of my life. I feel blessed to have been a consumer and neighbor there. It was really exciting, and put me in touch with produce and products.

The Chez Panisse Cafe is a benchmark for great cooking. After all these years I never tire of it because it’s the kind of food I like to eat every day. People make fun of it, but getting a plate of the most perfect seasonal dates, almonds, cheese or beautiful Mandarin oranges rocks my world. That’s what I want to have after dinner. I love that there’s always something to enjoy in that vein without enjoying a piece of pie.

Do you have a significant other? How long have you been together?
I’m married to Charles Trapolin, and we’ve been together for thirteen years. He’s a fine artist-sculptor-painter from a big family in New Orleans, where they’ve lived for six generations. We had a wedding with no government involved. Then when Gavin Newsom started issuing marriage licenses, we went online and got an appointment. We got married at the top of the rotunda stairs by a judge in her late sixties. We were the first couple she married that day, and she said she’d waited thirty years to do it. Then the state annulled us. Later, we got married again.

What is your favorite meal to have with your family?
Charles and I make roast chicken.

Slow cooked red beans and rice with ham hocks is another favorite because Charles’s heritage is in New Orleans. He taught me how to make red beans and rice. It took a long time for me to get the green light from him to do it.

I make homemade tomato sauce when tomatoes are in season. I do the tomato sauce by hand: peel the tomatoes, and seed them. It’s in the Italian style, with diced carrot, onion and celery as the base.

What is your guiltiest food pleasure?
No, I never feel guilty when I’m eating. That’s not true! I went off donuts because I had a real serious problem with donuts in the eighties. Recently I’ve been eating donuts because there’s this really great donut shop in downtown Napa. I’m an old fashioned cake donut guy.

Any other news?
I am completely and utterly glued to St. Helena. Enough said.

What's the upside of the gluten-free, wheat-free craze? Diversity in flour! Finally, other healthful whole grains, from oats and rice to barley and kamut, are getting kitchen time and shelf space, elbowing out the tried-and-true bags of all-purpose white and whole wheat. Even if gluten and/or wheat sensitivity isn't your issue, the sudden rush to put new flours in the spotlight (and into the Bob's Red Mill product line) is a long-overdue way to get the health benefits, fiber, and nutrients of a wider variety of grains into your diet.

Oat and barley flours, I've discovered, have a pleasant, mild flavor with a hint of sweet nuttiness, and can be easily substituted into just about any quick bread or cookie recipe. I've used them for muffins, cookies, doughnuts, pancakes, and more, with great results.

I first had a version of these muffins at the Morning Glory Cafe on Nantucket Island, off the coast of Massachusetts. This popular cafe and breakfast spot was a fixture on Straight Wharf throughout the late 70s and 80s. Sadly, the cafe closed in 1994, but its muffin went on to bakery fame and fortune after founding chef Pam McKinstry published her Morning Glory muffin recipe in Gourmet magazine in 1981.

Shredded coconut, pineapple, and carrots are the glory in the original muffins, along with apples, raisins, and sweet spices. It's a healthy-sounding muffin that's really a sneaky way to eat carrot cake for breakfast. Not that there's anything wrong with that, unless, like me, you have a deep and unwavering aversion to shredded coconut in any and all forms. Even without coconut, there's still a cup of oil and a cup and a quarter of sugar in the original recipe, which makes them too cupcake-y for my first-thing-in-the-morning eye-opener. So, it was back to the kitchen drawing board, to make a less sweet, less oil-heavy muffin with all the appealing flavors of the original. Here, I drew on another excellent carrot-muffin island memory, that of the Carrot Spice muffins served at the Streamliner Diner on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, the recipe for which is given in their charming Streamliner Diner Cookbook.

And so here they are, Morning Joy Muffins, made with oat and barley flours, honey instead of sugar, not too much fat, and no shredded coconut! You can, of course, put the coconut back in, as long as I'm not invited for breakfast.

Wheat-Free Morning Joy Muffins
You can substitute whole-wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour for the oat and barley flours, if desired; you can also add 1/2 cup of shredded, unsweetened coconut to the mix. These muffins are best fresh out of the oven.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients
1 cup oat flour
1 cup barley flour or brown rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp powdered ginger, or 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 eggs
6 tbsp butter or coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup, or a combination
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 large apple, grated
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds or toasted walnuts

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan, or line with paper liners.
2. Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, melted butter, and honey together.
3. Stir egg mixture gently into flour. Add carrots, apple, raisins, and sunflower seeds, and stir swiftly but gently until mixture is just combined. No beating!
4. Spoon into muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake until just golden, about 20 minutes. A tester should come out clean when poked in the middle of a muffin.
5. Cool on a rack. Serve warm.

Petit Sale, Foie Gras a la Plancha with Lentils at Txoko

We hurried along in the cloak of darkness, skirting the lamp posts, our footsteps echoing on the wet cobblestone. We reached our destination, threw a quick look over our shoulders to make sure we weren’t being followed, and then approached the discreet door, solid, bolted. One long knock followed by three swift knocks.

Password: quack quack.

A foie gras dinner awaits.

*****

Ok, so maybe it wasn’t quite so dramatic. But with California’s upcoming ban on foie gras slated for July 1 (Senate Bill 1520), who knows what kind of clandestine measures we’ll have to take to get a taste of the forbidden foie?

I predict a healthy black market, astronomic prices, and a resurgence of speakeasy grilles in the door design world.

Vivid imagination aside, the morality of producing, serving, and eating foie gras is a hotly debated, emotional topic from both sides. At the crux of the matter is the practice of gavage, the use of a funnel inserted into the duck/goose’s esophagus to force-feed grain over the final few weeks of its life. Those in favor of the foie gras ban argue that the practice of gavage is cruel.

Those against the ban counter that the animals do not suffer from gavage because of a number of physiological reasons. The digestive tracts of duck and geese, and other similar water fowl, are made to accommodate the swallowing of large prey, whole. They lack a gag reflex. Their esophagus is not sensitive and is lined with keratin, not the delicate mucus membrane found in humans. Unlike humans, the opening of a duck’s trachea sits in the middle of their tongue. Because of this anatomical feature, their upper respiratory tract is not blocked during gavage, so they are able to breathe during the process.

High profile chefs have taken stances of the matter. In a letter to fellow California restaurateurs, Wolfgang Puck writes:

As a chef, a businessman, and someone who cares about the humane treatment of animals, I'm writing to let you know why I support this particular law, and why I hope you'll give it your full support, as well…We chefs have the ability to create delicious and original dishes our customers will love without causing torment to animals.

Charlie Trotter has also vocally spoken out against foie gras, while Jacques Pépin calls California’s banning of foie gras

Totally ridiculous.

The debate over the ethics of foie gras is full of passionate opinions, but California’s ban brings up another issue of choice.

Mark Pastore, co-owner of Incanto, brings this point to light:

Reasonable people can disagree over the ethics of one’s chosen diet and the various practices of farmers, whether those farmers produce meat, fruits, or vegetables. Fundamentally, we believe that individuals ought to be free to determine how to live their lives, including their diet…

We respect the right to oppose the production and consumption of foie gras. We relate to many of the reasons that some choose to do so. However, we no more cede control over our morality than we would presume to compel someone else to conform to our notions of how they ought to live their life. We do not grant permission to someone who has no legal, moral, or spiritual authority to impose their beliefs upon us, whether that person is demanding we adopt their point of view regarding foie gras, abortion, or what books we should read. These are all personal choices and should remain so.

Foie Gras Dinner, Txoko SF

While many restaurants have already started taking foie gras off their menu, others have done the exact opposite, choosing to honor the luscious lobe with special foie-centric menus. From the looks of the sold-out events, the countdown to July 1 has foie gras lovers eager to indulge while they can.

This month, Dishcrawl is hosting a Foie Battle -- a series of intimate foie gras dinners featuring various chefs at secret locations throughout the Bay Area.

Txoko, SF

I attended one of these dinners last week at Txoko (pronounced CHO-ko). The Basque-inspired restaurant is owned by Ryan Maxey and chef Ian Begg, the same guys behind Naked Lunch (and its claim to fame, the Foie Gras & Duck Prosciutto Sandwich).

Txoko Bar

Cocktails by bar master Jason Brown are creative and dangerously tasty. I tried the Cool Hand Luke Fizz, made with Fighting Cock Bourbon, bitters, Mexican Coke, and frothy egg whites. Basically a bourbon float. Happy times. I’m already looking forward to future pintxos-laden happy hours so I can sample a few more of Brown’s concoctions.

Glazed Marin Miyagi Oyster in Foie Gras Cream

Our decadent meal started off with a Glazed Marin Miyagi Oyster floating in a pool of foie gras cream, garnished with pickled cucumber, a chiffonade of anise-y flavored shiso, and vibrant droplets of chili oil. The starter was well-balanced and full of bright flavors to whet our palate. My dining partners and I all noticed that the foie gras cream had a familiar tang to it. After a few moments of flipping through my brain’s Filofax of flavor recognition, I had the answer: White Cheddar Cheez-Its. There was unanimous agreement that I was indeed spot-on correct. We called Ryan over to confirm. He insisted the cream was just made of foie renderings and cream…let’s just agree to disagree, Ryan. We know there’s pulverized Cheez-Its in there.

Salt Cured Foie Gras Torchon

Next came a Salt Cured Foie Gras Torchon with toasted almonds, muscato gelee, and arugula, over toasted pain de mie and slices of meyer lemon. The flavor of the foie gras torchon was beautiful, like salted butter set out on a path of seduction. The muscato gelee was a playful touch, cool on the tongue and brought out the sweetness of the meyer lemon.

Pan Seared Day Boat Scallop in Foie Sauce

Pan Seared Day Boat Scallop graced our table next, nestled over velvety potato coulis and hen of the woods cooked in a foie gras sauce fragranced with sage. The foie flavor was subdued in this dish and had to be sought out. The hen of the woods shone.

The big foie finish was the Petit Sale, a, eye-popping portion of gorgeously seared Foie Gras a la Plancha, over a bed of creamy beluga lentils, fava beans, green garlic, and mirepoix. A few rosettes of sweet duck jamon (translation for Italians: duck prosciutto) adorned the plate. The crowning jewel was a perfect crispy puff of 4505 chicharrone. The dish was at once fresh and Spring and luxuriously rich.

Foie Gras Ice Cream

I know you’ve been wondering this whole time how a foie gras dessert would pan out. The answer is Foie Gras Ice Cream. Before you cringe, hear me out. I’ve tried sweets made with duck fat before…and it is a fine line. It takes restraint and the right flavor pairings to make it work. Txoko’s Foie Gras Ice Cream succeeds in doing just that. The foie flavor in the ice cream is subtle, so that you’re delighted when you look for it. It tastes vaguely of toasted nuts and coconut milk. The ice cream base is made with cream and foie gras renderings (similar to the foie cream in our first course, minus the Cheez-Its of course). Caramel-y prunes in syrup and bits of buttery shortbread cookies accompany the ice cream for a perfect ending to the meal.

From now until July 1, you can savor your forbidden foie gras at Txoko -- their signature dish on the regular menu is Foie Gras a la Plancha, served with golden raisin sauce, caramelized Brussels sprouts, pain de mie, and duck prosciutto. They also offer a Four Course Foie Gras Prix-Fixe Dinner every Wednesday Night ($55 per person). The menu rotates on a weekly basis. All their foie gras is sourced from Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras.

*****

At the end of the day, it's hard to weigh in on this controversial topic. It's a debate that has gotten ugly before, even here in San Francisco, a place many of us like to consider above average on the tolerant and progressive scale. Will I start getting hate mail because I find foie gras delicious? (I really hope not). Is eating and enjoying foie gras ethical? Do animals suffer for my gastronomic pleasure? Are there more important issues concerning our nation's food systems that could benefit from all this energy debating foie gras? As someone who cares about what I eat, these are the questions I ask myself. At the same time, as someone who values the freedom of choice, S.B. 1520 sure feels like a slippery slope.

Why not focus on responsible and humane farming? Crafting standards, promoting reform, supporting farmers who are treating their animals with care -- that sounds like a more productive, long-term plan than outright prohibition. Ken Frank, chef of Napa Valley's La Toque recently wrote to the Los Angeles Times:

Let’s repeal AB 1520 [sic], which will create the biggest black market since Prohibition, and replace it with the world’s highest standards for humane foie gras. A black market removes any incentive to treat the animals well and focuses instead on "not getting caught." To be clear, it will not help the ducks. I’m advocating a "win-win." Every chef I know supports humane farming. We’ll be happy to work with Mr. Burton and others that support humane farming to craft standards that establish California as the global leader in Humane Foie Gras.

"The biggest black market since Prohibition" may be an exaggeration, given the market size of people who consume foie gras is a fraction of those who consumed alcohol during Prohibition, but the point is made. There will be a black market, and what will be the consequences of it?

I'll leave you with this incredible story. There is a man in the western region of Spain they call the Goose Whisperer. He cares for what may be the happiest geese in the world. They gorge on acorns and olives, figs too. They feel safe. They call to their wild brethren above and tell them to come down and join them in paradise, where they are protected and there is plenty of good food to eat. They are not force fed by humans. They produce the sweetest, richest, most sublime tasting liver possible. If we could figure out how to replicate this kind of foie gras farming, now that would be something.

Foie for Thought:

• Dan Barber's Foie Gras Parable on TED Talks – Ecological, ethical, possible
• Can Ethical Foie Gras Happen in America? – The Goose Whisperer comes to New York
• Sfoodie’s Foie Gras Countdown – Where to get your foie fill before 7/1
• Russell Jackson, chef-owner of Lafitte, on How to Store Foie Gras – Preparing for Foiemageddon

An elegant table sets the scene for a simple lunch at Montalvo Arts Center. Photo: Niki Ford

The lunch couldn't have been simpler: A green salad, a fried egg, and some spiced basmati rice with carrot and beet condiments and crispy fried onions. The long wooden table was piled high with pappadams, decorated with deeply-hued anenomes, and included elegantly whimsical, hand-drawn menus, courtesy of the chef.

Welcome to Niki Ford's world. The Montalvo Arts Center culinary fellow invited a group of media guests to lunch as part of a meet-and-greet in her new role at the international artists residency program in Saratoga. Ford's approach to cooking -- an aesthetic honed from six years in the kitchen at Chez Panisse -- is anything but fussy and full of flavor.

Like many schooled in the Alice Waters approach to cooking, she allows the choicest ingredients with impeccable provenance to do the heavy lifting. That salad, for instance, included some 20 different kinds of greens grown by local gardener Eden Israel, who provides produce to the artists program. And the eggs from Soul Food Farm were fried by the farmer herself Alexis Koefoed. The meal wrapped up with orange and cardamom granita sweetened with honey from Montalvo's own bees.

The arts center, celebrating its centennial this year, is located in the woodsy Saratoga hills a short hop from the heart of Silicon Valley. It's set on 175 meandering acres and includes an impressive kitchen garden. A grand Mediterranean-style, historic villa houses an international artist residency program for painters, musicians, writers, and such. The culinary fellowship, now in its ninth year, offers cooks like Ford the opportunity to explore sustainable food practices relevant to cultural life. For the artists in residence, the culinary fellowship means they know most nights someone else is putting dinner on the table.

With degrees in both fine and culinary arts, Ford seems like an ideal fit for the arts center's resident chef. In addition to cooking professionally, she performs conceptual art pieces and spends time exploring visual media through photography, printmaking, and drawing. And she's done stints cooking for creative types at the American Academy in Rome.

Friends and fellow cooks, Niki Ford (left) and Tamar Adler (right) present "Coming of Age in the Kitchen." Photo: Niki Ford (L): Kate Farnady, Photo Tamar Adler (R): Courtesy of Tamar Adler.

Ford is mixing things up at Montalvo. Tonight, in the first of a series of culinary events she'll curate, she's cooking up an event with a fellow Chez alum, Tamar Adler, author of the widely acclaimed An Everlasting Meal. The two friends and former restaurant mates will blend food, performance, and personal memoir in an evening dubbed "Coming of Age in the Kitchen," which begins with a short story reading by author Adler from her childhood.

Adler has previously chronicled her adventures cooking with her brother -- Sibling Rivalry at the Stove -- in an award-winning story for Gilt Taste. Tonight's reading will be followed by a meal based on the story prepared by Ford -- and a surprise guest chef or two.

Here's how the evening came about:

"A few months ago, when we were having dinner in New York, Niki stopped me in the middle of my telling her a story and proposed we bring it to a more animated life than my telling could," Adler explains. "I loved her idea immediately: a sort of triple catharsis, for teller, listener, and eater of the meal around which the story revolves."

Cooking has always been considered a low art--there to support the high arts, like theater or music, adds Adler. "But Niki is actually challenging that by having the reading of the story be the background to the meal," says the Brooklyn-based writer, who is reading from her book this Saturday at Omnivore Books and teaching a class, "How to Boil Water," on Monday at 18 Reasons.

"High and low are reversed here, or at least smashed up together a little in a way I find exciting."

Niki Ford spoke with Bay Area Bites this week about food, art, and her developing empathy for slugs.

Culinary artist Niki Ford creates still life images from her farmers' market finds. Photo: Niki Ford

What does a typical day entail for you at Montalvo?

I'm responsible for making dinner for the artists here -- up to 15 people or so -- five nights a week. We're working through how I can make a meal for Friday -- maybe a soup cooked ahead -- so that that day is my own to explore and experiment with my art work. It's important to me that this fellowship allow that space.

That said, during the week I'm shopping, prepping, cooking, and serving the food at the table. I also sit with the artists at dinner and attempt to engage with them in a meaningful way about the program. But the truth is I'm often thinking things like: "How long has that lamb been in the oven?" So I'm constantly back and forth in the kitchen. I'm figuring out as I go along how to both make dinner and show up. I find the best conversations often happen after dinner over a glass of wine.

What kind of foods are you cooking for the fellows?

I'm relying on what I know, so there's a sense of ease and flow to most of the meals I'm making. I could just make dinner like a regular person, but I do enjoy a challenge and I have high standards. So it needs to be something that satisfies me creatively. So while my food is simple, there are often several components, and these take time to put together. I'm not sure I know how to make food like a regular person.

Recently I've made pasta e fagioli, chicken saltimbocca, and potato, cabbage, and chickpea soup. I'm proud of my Italian ancestry and learned a lot in my travels there about the foods born of Italian peasants that are such beautiful poems. They really do know how to take nothing and make it into something so satisfying and nurturing. There's just something that happens with that soup where the liquids from the potatoes and chickpeas exchange and then marry into something that is greater than the sum of their parts.

Ford favors simple, aesthetically-pleasing suppers with an emphasis on fresh produce. Photo: Niki Ford

Where do you find inspiration in the kitchen?

I can find it in the most unexpected places. I may try something new from cooking with things that people have left behind here. For instance, normally I wouldn't make Italian pasta with Thai red chilies -- I'm not a complete and utter purist but I do believe in traditions. But I mixed the two recently and I liked the greenness of the chilies -- not just the heat -- it was a lesson in not being rigid in the kitchen because it turned out kind of great.

Can you give us some context for tonight's event?

It happened very organically. The story will likely stir up emotions in the people who hear it and they'll take those feelings to the table and that will shape the way they connect to the food they're eating. I thought it would be interesting to explore that.

What creative projects are you working on?

I'm writing and illustrating a children's book about the soil nutrient cycle from the perspective of a slug. I'm growing my own plants here from seed and spending time in the garden. I'm watching the slugs eat things and I'm trying to have a compassionate attitude towards them. Slugs play an important function in nature --they tell us something about a plant's health. It's developing at it's own pace, which is to say a slug's pace, which I guess is apropo.

What's the story behind your Montalvo blog, mountains in my spoon?

The posts may serve as notes for a future cookbook. But more immediately the blog is a way for me to keep a record, and bare witness to what I'm doing here, and that inspires me in a different way in the kitchen. The notion of being seen beyond the people I make dinner for challenges me to be thoughtful about what I'm doing while I'm here every day.

Details:

"Coming of Age in the Kitchen"
Reading: Tamar Adler | Dinner: Niki Ford
The Historic Villa, Montalvo Arts Center
15400 Montalvo Road, Saratoga
Thursday, April 12, 7pm
General: $65, Members: $50, Students with ID: $12
Tickets: Montalvo Box Office, 10 am-4 pm 408-961-5858

The new four-part PBS Series "America Revealed" explores the hidden food, energy, transportation and manufacturing systems that keep America running. Forum talks to host Yul Kwon about the new program, and about his unique career. The multi-talented Stanford grad has also worked at Google and the FCC. He's also the first Asian-American to win the CBS reality show "Survivor."

Original Broadcast: Fri, Apr 6, 2012 -- 10:00 AM

Host: Dave Iverson

Guest: Yul Kwon, host of "America Revealed" on PBS

Watch a preview of "America Revealed":

More info:

About "America Revealed," including broadcast schedule

All photos courtesy S+S Gastro Grub

Tempted to pass up that plate of lurid, crimson steak tartare topped by a blob of saffron egg yolk? Not so fast. If it came from the kitchen of Simone Fung and Sebastian Mendieta—collectively known as S+S Gastro Grub—this may very well be dessert. The Oakland catering couple loves to concoct dishes that trick the eye, but treat the palate and the “tartare” in question is actually chopped compressed watermelon crowned with a golden orb of mango juice and mint shards.

S + S have been thrilling diners at local pop-ups, underground dinners, fundraising events and private parties with sublime creations that employ the techniques of molecular gastronomy, spherification and sous vide cookery since 2007. For years, the couple indulged their mutual passion for edible inventiveness by throwing large parties in their live-work artist loft. Finally, their enthusiastic friends convinced them to start a business and they acquired a shiny black catering van in 2011.

For the moment, however, both have day jobs: Fung is office manager for a San Jose semi-conductor company, while Mendieta works as logistics coordinator for a heavy construction firm. So their food-transforming forays are reserved for evenings, weekends and holidays. But their popularity is spreading as quickly as the uni sauce under their perfectly seared scallops.

pan seared jumbo day boat scallops with uni sauce and nori potatoes

The duo has cooked at fundraisers for the San Francisco Food Bank and Old Skool Café, been part of Food Social, Behind the Cart, done a Japanese themed pop-up dinner at (where else?) a Mexican restaurant, Cosecha, as well as catered birthday celebrations, showers, and outdoor park festivities. With their multi-cultural backgrounds—she grew up in Hong Kong and he in a tiny town in Nicaragua—and extensive global street food research in travels from Malaysia to Jamaica, they resist getting stuck in a narrowly defined cultural corner. Their edible creations traverse the map and sometimes fuse elements from their two food heritages—as in marinated, sous vide, duck-tongue tacos.

something is fishy here (or not)

Fung says with a twinkle, "We like to trick people's eyes and minds. Sometimes we serve dishes without telling guests what they're eating. They think they know but then they're surprised when what they taste doesn't match what they were expecting."

A good example is their "tuna belly" which is actually made from compressed watermelon that has been chilled until it is pliable, then seared with a combination of fish sauce, honey and lime juice. It's savory, no wait it's sweet.

Mojito mix-up

S+S’s home “test kitchen” is stocked with the latest gadgets and materials necessary to perform this culinary legerdemain. Sous vide cooking slowly transforms an egg into a silky custard by a carefully controlled 50 minutes at the magic mark of 63 degrees. Spherification shapes liquids into caviar-like balls that can resemble something else; for example, carrot juice balls sprinkled on a salad convince diners they'll be crunching on tobiko. A recently devised molecular mojito dessert combines lime sorbet, mint foam, rum spheres, and a sprinkle of pop rocks to deliver a roller coaster ride of taste and textures. Inspired by farmers' markets and committed to sourcing ingredients from a 150-mile radius, S+S Gastro Grub supports local food purveyors and artisans such as Berkeley’s The Local Butcher.

63-degree egg, pork belly, creamy grits, jus, kimchee puree

Fung and Mendieta aim for modern interpretations of classic comfort food: think gumbo potpie, with okra and crawfish, mac and cheese with cold smoked pasta with a surprise hickory kick at the end. Another popular party starter is their mobile pig roaster--a charcoal-fired Dutch oven on wheels--in which they can roast a succulent whole pig or lamb at a catering venue.

This is not dessert

Their motto, “oaktown flava. napa roots,” pays homage to their favorite local eateries: Commis, Plum, and Camino, plus inspiration gleaned from Napa Valley’s Ad Hoc and The French Laundry. The duo’s dream is to expand their catering business and set up a cooking school for troubled Oakland youth. Meanwhile, watch out: that cream puff that looks like it’s filled with coffee ice cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup is actually a savory cheese puff injected with foie gras mousse topped by rivulets of maple balsamic sauce.

Next event: Friday April 20, 5-8pm, at Linden Street Brewery, S+S will offer their pickled quail eggs, bone-in pork chop buns, edamame and black bean sliders and more.

S+S Gastro Grub
(510) 969-9434
Facebook: ssgastrogrub
Twitter:@ssgastrogrub

Photo courtesy of Pine Point Cooking School

Easter and Passover might be early this year, but bringing out the eggs and afikomen means that that summer's coming soon. Which means, parents, that now's the time to make plans for your kids' school's-out activities. For adults, workshops and events revolving around thinking, writing, making, cooking, and growing food are more popular than ever, so it's no surprise that food- and farming-themed kids' camps are springing up throughout the Bay Area. Some are one-day excursions, others week-long adventures, but all involve a lively, hands-on, and, we hope, deliciously messy foray into real farm-to-table, dirt-to-dining discoveries. (Plus, petting goats!)

Take My Word for It, which teaches a variety of writing programs for kids, is presenting half-day, week-long versions of Peanut Butter and the Pen, its popular food-writing course for 8 to 12 year olds, at three locations this summer. June 18 thru June 22, the camp will be in residence at 18 Reasons in San Francisco's Mission District. The theme? Fairytales reimagined, and come to think of it, there's a lot of eating in all those bedtime stories, from the big bad wolf dining on grandmother to Snow White and the poisoned apple. Take My Word for It will also be offering more general food-writing camps for kids at the Piedmont Recreation Center in Oakland (June 18-22) as well as at Seesaw in Hayes Valley.

The Piedmont Recreation Center also offers three hands-on cooking classes. 5 to 6 year olds can get started at Beginning Cooking Camp, where they'll learn basic skills--and some eating etiquette--with instructor Jane Backus. At Little Spoons Cafe (8-12 year olds), kids work with Bauman College-trained chef Eric Pomert to make family-pleasing recipes like Indian carrot cake muffins, bang bang chicken, hazelnut chocolate macaroons, and yes, Mom's favorite, crunchy kale chips. Meanwhile, Cre8tive Design (9-11 year olds) takes cooking and sewing, those old home-ec staples, into the 21st century by combining fashion design with culinary creation in a Project-Runway-meets-Top-Chef explosion of teamwork, baking, and outfit-making. You don't have to live in Piedmont to attend, although residents do get a slightly reduced price. (Download the online catalog for dates, times, prices, and registration information.)

Your kids can take Michael Pollan's dictum to "eat...mostly plants" to heart at 18 Reasons' All Plant Parts Gardening and Cooking Camp at Sanchez School this summer. The four-day, half-day program for 9 to 12 year olds teaches basic botany by way of the garden and kitchen, as kids learn to identify, taste, and cook all the edible parts of many different plants, making easy dishes like trail mix, popcorn, fava-bean hummus, and whole-grain flatbreads.

Want your third-grader to be a bona fide San Francisco foodie? Sign him or her up for SF Foodies at the JCC, a four-day session filled with field trips to City hot spots and food trucks, followed by recipe exploration in the kitchen. The JCC has seven other cooking camps this summer, ranging from Pizzas Around the World and Famous Chefs to Farm to Table (did you know the JCC has a rooftop garden?) and, for aspiring Harold McGees and Nathan Myhrvolds, Food Science. At the Marin JCC, the week-long cooking day camps include Junior Chefs (basic techniques plus a trip to the farmers' market) for grades 1-4, and Cake Capades (cake decorating) and Master Chefs (international recipes and a "friendly competition") for grades 4-6.

Hidden Villa, a non-profit educational farm, ranch, and wilderness area in Los Altos offers a variety of sleepaway and day camp options. Each camp includes gardening and taking care of the farm animals, plus hiking, swimming, art projects, storytelling, and more (like ice-cream making and blackberry picking), with a mandate towards promoting social justice, a healthy environment, and a sustainable future.

The Junior Farmers programs at Slide Ranch in Muir Beach are already sold out (although you can ask to be put on the waiting list), but there's still room in their other farm, livestock, and garden-based day camps. According to their website, their camps include "milking goats, feeding and collecting eggs from chickens, carding and spinning wool from our sheep, creating nature-based crafts, preparing compost, planting seeds, and harvesting and cooking from our organic garden." Most of the camps are half days for children 5-12 years old; there's also a Junior Camp Counselor Program for teens 13-18 years old.

The Marin YMCA has two hands-on, week-long cooking classes, including La Petite Chef (Aug 6-10, 9am-4pm), teaching basic skills for children in grades K-2, and Global Eats (June 18-22, 9am-4pm), which promises fun with international recipes for 3rd through 5th graders. Both classes include time out of the kitchen for hikes, nature walks, and swimming.

DGES Educational Services, which operates in conjunction with Devil's Gulch Ranch in Nicasio (known particularly for its tasty rabbit) is partnering with the Marin Y to offer seven week-long DGES day camp sessions where campers participate in farm chores, livestock care, and gardening on a working ranch, followed by lots of nature exploration in nearby Samuel P. Taylor State Park along with traditional skill-building, including pottery, rope-making, basket-weaving, jewelry making with horns and bones, drum making, and hide tanning.

Windrush Farm in Petaluma has nine four-day day-camp sessions this summer for kids 7 to 12. At the farm, kids get busy in the garden, gather eggs from the chickens, tend the goats, cows, and llamas, create wool crafts, splash in the pond, and make pizza in the wood-burning outdoor oven.

Back in my teen years, I would have loved the chance to go to a very personalized (only 6 students per session, grouped by grades 5-7 or 8-10) summer cooking school like the one offered by Mediterranean chef Adrianna Dinihanian at her Pine Point Cooking School in Sausalito. Instead, I got my first job making pasta primavera and stuffing cherry tomatoes at a fancy little gourmet take-out shop downtown. It was a lot of chopping onions, then and now, but why not have your kids learn to make what you'd love to eat, without sending them straight into the grubby, repetitive reality that is actual paid kitchen work? The cooking sessions, which include a farmers' market trip to San Francisco, change seasonally, but might include risotto, savory galettes, Mediterranean-inspired dips and spreads, gelatos, cookies, and lots more.

Orange Custard. Photo by Rebecca Joseph

Happy Passover! What are you cooking? Passover, even more than Thanksgiving, is a home and family holiday. Of course, there are restaurants doing Seder-inspired meals; in San Francisco, Passover at Delfina brings their Edible Seder Plate, Stoll Family Matzoh Balls, and other Italian-Jewish specialties, all much anticipated by regulars. This year, they'll be serving matzoh made by their former sous-chef, Brad Joffe, who now runs Beauty's Bagels in Oakland, source of the excellent weekend bagels at Wise Sons. (And by the way, pastrami lovers, Wise Sons is closed for Passover; they'll re-open on Sunday, April 15.)

Firefly has a delish-sounding brisket and root-vegetable tsimmes on this week's menu, along with a spring vegetable plate with matzoh kugel and yellowfoot-mushroom sauce. (And for those who don't mind a little trayf, don't worry, they've still got the shrimp-and-scallop dumplings on the menu.)

But for many of us, Passover is a time to slow down, reconnect with family and friends over dinners at home, and pay attention to what we're eating. Jewish dietary laws forbid the eating of grains during the 8-day holiday, especially anything yeasted or naturally leavened. So, no bread, no bagels, no pasta, no rice, just matzoh, a flat cracker that must be mixed and baked in less than 18 minutes, to prevent any natural rising of the dough from occurring. So, much kvetching can be heard this week from toast-lovers like myself, and, for those with a sweet tooth, a whole lot of dependance on ground nuts and matzoh meal in lieu of flour, plus whisked egg whites for fluffiness.

However, Rebecca Joseph, rabbi and owner of 12 Tribes Food, a kosher catering and prepared-meals business, looks at the holiday's restrictions with abundance in mind.

"What I suggest to people who say that they dread the holiday because they can't eat bread is to think of this as a time to celebrate freedom from habitual food choices or ways of eating that may be less than optimally healthful. Also, when we focus on all the things we can eat, especially early spring produce, then Passover meals can be really delicious and seasonal."

Joseph describes her Orange Custard recipe, below, as "a very easy dessert (no separating eggs or weird ingredients involved) that's a great break from nuts and matzoh meal. It's also parve (containing neither meat nor dairy), so it's good for people who are lactose intolerant, gluten-free and/or have nut sensitivities."

For those of you, like myself, who have had egg-separating mishaps and fallen-spongecake disasters, this recipe couldn't be simpler. Only three very basic ingredients, no whisking, no folding. A splash of orange-flower water would probably add a lovely perfumey touch. With the money you're not spending on coconut macaroons in a can, get really fresh, gold-yolked eggs from happy, pasture-raised chickens. Joseph dresses her custard up with lightly toasted coconut shards, but you can also get crazy and let your guests dive into David Lebovitz's toffee-licious Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzoh Crunch as well.

Orange Custard. Photo by Rebecca Joseph

Recipe: Orange Custard
Recipe courtesy of 12 Tribes Food

Made from just eggs, sugar, and orange juice, this easy dessert takes just a few minutes to put together. Unlike a typical baked custard, it contains no dairy, so it can served as dessert after a meat meal by those following kosher dietary laws.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30-35 minutes
Total Time: 40-45 minutes
Yield: 6 custards

Ingredients
5 large eggs
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups fresh orange juice

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 325° F. In a small pot, heat orange juice until lukewarm.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a fork until well blended. Beat in the sugar. To produce a smooth, creamy custard, the mixture should be well combined, but not frothy. Slowly add the orange juice, beating to combine.
3. Pour 1/2 cup of the custard mixture into each of 6 ramekins. Place the ramekins in a large pan and pour enough boiling water into the pan to come about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until just set. Remove the ramekins from the pan of hot water. Cool for 30 minutes, then refrigerate. Serve chilled.
5. Serves 6.

The San Francisco Giants home opener game will be at AT&T Park on Friday, April 13. Public House is the ballpark’s restaurant and pub with a full bar and over 75 different beers and ales. Just in time for game day, Public House has streamlined its menu and food options. Customers can use a secret door leading from the restaurant into AT&T Park, with a “Grab-n-Go” food and drink station. Chris Wade, 28, is the new Executive Chef for Public House, and is working with Chef Traci Des Jardins and Sous Chef Jorge Lumbreras to update the beer-friendly menu.

Before taking the helm at Public House, Wade worked at Prospect, Boulevard, Postrio and for the Plumpjack Group. The California Culinary Academy grad also worked with Patrick Campbell and Barbara Lynch at No. 9 Park in Boston; Massachusetts is his home state. After No. 9 Park, he moved to Philadelphia to work for Michael Solomonov at Zahav. It was from Philadelphia that he and his wife Sarah, a pastry chef, decided to return to San Francisco to work at Prospect. The Wades have been married a year and a half and live in the lower Haight.

On Monday, April 9, he will be cooking a special “Welcome Back, San Francisco Giants” $49 three course prix-fixe dinner at Jardinière, which is Des Jardins’ French-influenced Civic Center restaurant. Three artisanal beers selected by Bar Manager Greg Stone are included, and Passover and vegetarian options are available. Wine pairings will be available on request. Reservations can be made at (415) 861-5555.

Here is the menu:

Zuckerman's Asparagus Salad,
Macaroni and Cheese Croutons and Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette
••••••••
Beer Braised Pork Cheeks,
Toasted Barley Risotto, Fava Beans and Crispy Onion Strings
••••••••
Old Rasputin Brownie Sundae,
Chocolate Covered Potato Chip Ice Cream and Salted Caramel Sauce

Bay Area Bites interviewed Chris Wade in person and via telephone.

What was it like coming up with new Public House menu items (sliders, sandwiches, pretzels and potato chip crusted mac & cheese) that are game day friendly?
I wanted to make it easier for people to order, so that they could take the food with them to the game.

I’m trying to make the food my own. That’s kind of hard, but getting there is also fun. I’m making the food a little more technique based. So it’s still frying, but done in a more thoughtful way. (Wade uses leftover potato skins rather than Panko crumbs to make his croquettes, a green way of thinking that gives the fried exterior a pleasant crunch).

You’ll see stuff that I enjoy eating: deviled eggs and mac and cheese. My favorite things to make here are the 4505 Meats sliders and the mac and cheese. (Wade’s recipe for Potato Chip Crusted Macaroni and Cheese Bites is featured below).

What will you do with your staff to prepare for the baseball season?
The Bay Bridge series on April 2 and 4 gave us a chance for “all hands on deck” practice runs. We overstaffed those days so that the crew can see what happens on game day. It’s a good way to produce things in a timely fashion and to get grouped.

How did you and your wife Sarah meet?
We met at Postrio, when she was working pastry and I was working the savory stations. We’ve worked together for Barbara Lynch, and then in Philly. She’s the pastry chef at Prospect.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We’re both big beach people, so we went to Kona Village, to a place that had no TVs. We had a relaxing beach trip together. It was later knocked out by the tsunami.

Ravi Kapur is one of your mentors. He is one of the reasons you and Sarah returned to San Francisco. What was the move from one coast to the next like?
I was texting and keeping in touch with Ravi after working with him at Boulevard. Sarah and I were visiting SF from Philly for our friend's wedding. I met with Ravi and talked to him about Prospect. Sarah and I were toying with coming back here anyway. It turned out that Prospect’s Sous Chef had to get back to New York. To begin working at Prospect right away, I left Philly two days after our honeymoon. Sarah puts up with quite a bit, because I had to rush out here to make it happen. I slept on a friend’s couch for one month while she moved everything out here. We spent our first month as a married couple apart.

What are your favorite spots to shop for food?
Whole Foods, for seafood.
I go to the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market, too. Baby fava beans are my favorite thing of the year. They’re only here for two weeks out of the year.

What are your favorite off-night spots?
We go in phases. Right now, it’s an Asian phase. Halu is good, for all the yakitori and ramen. We live four buildings away from Toronado, and I like to support it. I’ve been going there for a long time. My favorite day off is to go to Rosamunde, then Toronado, and then to Amoeba Records.

We go to Maven a lot for the drinks, since we know the folks there from Prospect. They have a pretty decent selection.

What is your favorite meal to have with your family?
My favorite day of the year is Thanksgiving, because of the food. One year, we did a cassoulet Thanksgiving, with family, which is less traditional food-wise. We’ve had good Thanksgiving meals with restaurant friends, too.

We try to eat healthy at home, so it’s a lot of salad, grains, fish, and chicken. We do love Fatted Calf’s steak, meat, and pork chops. Their porchetta was really good... we ate it in less than five minutes, with veggie sides.

What is your guiltiest food pleasure?
Ice cream. I could eat a quart every day. I love all flavors of ice cream. We serve Humphry Slocombe at Public House. At home, I get Ben & Jerry’s full fat ice cream. I love soft serve, too.

What else is new?
We’re in the process of getting a chocolate lab (dog). I had Labrador dogs as a kid. Sarah had a golden retriever, but that’s too much for me... all that hair.

Potato Chip Crusted Macaroni and Cheese Square with other Bar Bites

Recipe: Potato Chip Crusted Macaroni and Cheese Bites with Tomato Jam

Makes: 30 bites (enough for 10 people as an appetizer)

Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:
2oz butter
2oz flour
2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup of each cheese grated, white cheddar, provolone, Gruyere, and Monterey Jack
1/2 tsp. cayenne
Salt and pepper to taste (approx. 1 TBSP salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper)

Instructions:
Make a roux with the butter and flour in a small heavy bottomed saucepan. At the same time bring the cream to a simmer in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Once the cream is hot, carefully whisk in the roux and allow to cook for 5 minutes to thicken. Add the grated cheeses, cayenne, salt, and pepper, and whisk vigorously to incorporate. Turn the heat down to low and allow cheese to melt to a smooth consistency, whisking regularly to prevent scorching. Once cheese is melted and homogenous, turn off heat but keep sauce warm.

Macaroni

Ingredients:
1 QT raw elbow macaroni
1.5 gallons water
1 cup salt

Instructions:
Bring the water and salt to a rolling boil. Add macaroni and cook for 2 minutes less then directed to on the package. Once cooked strain and rinse with cold water to stop the macaroni from cooking.

Once macaroni is cooked, fold it into the warm cheese sauce and cook together over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heat resistant spatula. When macaroni is tender remove the pan from heat and slowly pour macaroni and cheese mixture into an 8x10 inch sheet tray or baking dish that has been generously sprayed with nonstick spray. Place in the refrigerator to cool overnight. The next day cut around the edge of the pan to help release the block of macaroni and cheese and unmold it onto a cutting board. Portion into 1.5 inch squares and return to the refrigerator until ready to bread.

Breading

Ingredients:
1 cup panko
1 cup crushed potato chips
1 cup all purpose flour
3 eggs beaten

Instructions:
Combine panko and potato chips in a food processor and pulse until chips and panko are roughly the same size. Take portioned macaroni and cheese one at a time and toss lightly in the flour, then dip in the beaten egg mixture, and then toss in the potato chip/panko crust.

Once all bites have been breaded cook them in a fryer or Dutch oven filled with rice bran oil set to 350F until crust is golden brown (approx. 4 minutes). Strain onto a paper towel and lightly sprinkle with kosher salt. Serve immediately with your choice of dipping sauce (we use a spicy tomato jam) or as a crouton substitute with a salad.

Tomato Jam

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
1/4 white onion
1 TBSP olive oil
1 QT crushed tomatoes with juice
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 1/2 TBSP Tabasco sauce
1/2 TBSP kosher salt

Instructions:
Slice the onion and garlic and sweat with the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Once tender add the chopped tomatoes cayenne and salt and cook over medium heat until the tomato liquid has reduced by 1/4. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before blending in a food processor with Tabasco sauce.

Homemade Tomato Pie

When it comes to challenges in the kitchen, I tend to get a bit fixated. If a recipe fails (sad face) I go straight into problem-solving mode until I have exhausted every single possibility. I guess it's the neurotic perfectionist in me.

My most recent challenge involved Tomato Pie. Tomato Pie is not like pie pie. There's no pastry crust, no mayonnaise, no raw tomatoes decoratively placed on top. No, Tomato Pie is more like a Sicilian-style pizza but without the cheese on top. It's a simple pleasure of thick, soft crust, and sweet, tangy tomato sauce.

Roasted tomatoes = more flavor

I've discovered how difficult it is to find it outside of the Philly area (and Utica, NY, so I hear) and it appeared I was not alone in my quest for a decent recipe. Years ago, I tried my hand at making homemade Tomato Pie and posted about it. Blogger friends, you know how you sometimes go back and read your earlier posts and cringe? Well, the cringe for me on this one was that I knew I could do better. The sauce was spot-on and needed little tweaking, but the crust. Sigh. The crust I was not satisfied with.

Magical rising dough

I recently received an email from a reader who had moved from Philly. Her family missed Tomato Pie terribly and she wanted to make it for her daughter's 4th birthday party. This was just the motivation I needed to master this Tomato Pie crust, once and for all.

The pie from Corropolese is my gold standard. Their crust is soft and spongy, airy and chewy. That's the kind of crust I wanted. It was more like focaccia than a regular pizza dough, so that's where I started. I cross referenced multiple recipes, experimented with bread flour, tested different proofing times, baking temps, and saucing techniques…I got a little nuts. Three flour runs and one messy, sticky, dough explosion later and I nailed it.

The dough should be pliable, like warm, elastic play-doh, but tastier.

The crust I ended up with is adapted from Tyler Florence's Fabulous Focaccia. It results in a crust that is airy, soft, and chewy inside. I'm definitely keeping this recipe on hand for times when I just want to make straight up focaccia.

Hello, Tomato Pie!

For my Tomato Pie modification, I ended up baking the crust about 2/3 of the way done before adding the sauce, to prevent the dough from collapsing and getting too dense. I found that if I added the sauce first, the dough didn't rise as well, probably because of the weight of the sauce. Best of all, this recipe requires no overnight proofing, no multiple proofing, and I discovered an easy clean up trick with the use of some parchment paper.

Next time I won't be lazy and will press the dough out all the way to the edge, promise.

The sauce I simply updated to vine-ripened tomatoes, and used more of them than in my first version.

It is with pleasure and pride that I present to you, Tomato Pie 2.0! Enjoy!!

Tomato Pie 2.0

Recipe: Tomato Pie 2.0

A simple pleasure of thick, soft crust, and sweet, tangy tomato sauce. I've updated (and vastly improved) my old recipe for Tomato Pie, and could not be happier. The crust is airy, soft, and chewy, as it should be. The sauce is just right. Enjoy, new and improved, Tomato Pie 2.0!

Prep Time: 2 hour, 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Yield: (1) 13x18 inch pie; 12 servings

FOR THE CRUST

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 cup water, heated to 110 degrees
2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 cups (1 lb 2 oz) all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil for greasing pan
grated Parmesan for garnish

Preparation:
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the yeast with the warm water and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let stand 5 minutes until it looks foamy.
2. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the flour to the bowl. Dissolve salt in 2 tablespoons of water and add it to the mixture. Pour in 1/4 cup olive oil. When the dough starts to come together, increase the speed to medium. Stop the machine periodically to scrape the dough off the hook. Mix until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary. The dough should be like warm, elastic play-doh when it's done. (Note: If you don't have a stand mixer with dough hook, just knead it old-school by hand until you've reached the right consistency).
3. Form the dough into a round and place in an oiled bowl, turn to coat the entire ball with oil so it doesn't form a skin. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. One hour before baking, adjust oven rack to upper-middle position, place baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. (Note: If you don't have a baking stone, use an overturned rimmed baking sheet.)
5. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Place the dough on the baking sheet, slide it around to coat the bottom and sides with oil, then flip dough over and slide it around again. Using fingertips, press dough out toward edges of pan, taking care not to tear it. (If dough resists stretching, let it relax for 5 to 10 minutes before trying to walk it out again.) Using a fork, poke entire surface of dough 25-30 times, popping any large bubbles. Cover pan with plastic and let dough rest for 30 minutes. The dough should become slightly bubbly.
6. Place pan on baking stone (or overturned baking sheet) and lower oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes (or until top is lightly golden). Top with tomato sauce, rotate pan, and bake for another 10 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove the tomato pie from the pan by lifting the overhanging parchment paper and return to the rack to finish cooling. (Note: If you didn't use the paper, loosen the pie from the pan using a metal spatula while it's still warm to prevent sticking). Top with some grated parmesan and serve warm or at room temperature.

FOR THE SAUCE

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes (about 6)
29 oz tomato puree (3 cups)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice the tomatoes in half, or quarters if they're large. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and roast in oven for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients in a large saucepan and let simmer until thickened. Add roasted tomatoes when they're done and mix until there are no large chunks (you can puree the roasted tomatoes first if you want to get precise about it). Continue to simmer until most of the water has evaporated and the sauce is thick. Set aside for the tomato pie. (Note: This can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator in an air-tight container until ready to use. You'll have more sauce than you need for the pie.)