Alison McQuade at the Clift Hotel

McQuade’s Celtic Chutneys are made by the San Francisco-based “Chutney Chef” Alison McQuade. This writer has seen McQuade’s chutneys used for private and catered events, as accoutrements with cheese and meat platters…and more. McQuade hails from Glasgow, Scotland, and has lived in the U.S. for the past thirty years. BAB contributor Amy Sherman reported in 2005 how McQuade got her start:

“One year I made chutney to give away as Christmas presents. It was my grandmother's recipe and I went online to make labels and get jars. I gave some to my hairdresser and she asked me to bring some more over for one of her customers--I thought that was a wee bit cheeky! This was a gift after all. But it turned out she had a tasting going on and her customer was one of the owners of Cowgirl Creamery. My first paying customer, she said she wanted 60 of each flavor.”

Consumers can find the chutneys locally at Cowgirl, Irish Castle Gift Shop, Falletti Foods, Cheese Plus, and Whole Foods SOMA. This growing chutney business is the winner of a 2006 Independent Food Festival & Awards. McQuade shared with BAB some recent product developments: “I'm currently introducing a new line of jellies -- pomegranate habanero, serrano pepper, pear chocolate jalapeno, zinfandel chocolate and pinot noir.”

McQuade: “I have lived in ‘Tenderloin Heights’ for years and love this area with its proximity to shops, restaurants and the park at Grace Cathedral … only two blocks away!” She’s hoping “at some point in the very near future to start a little soup kitchen with the help of some local neighbors. There are so many aging and sick people around us here in San Francisco. I'd like to pitch in and help a little more. I work with Dinner With Grace, [which is] a Grace Cathedral run service where volunteers cook food on Tuesday night twice a month. On the Wednesday, we deliver the food and eat with the residents of nearby SRO hotels.”

Here are McQuade’s favorite food and drink spots:

THE FAVORITES:
I love the Shakshuka from Cafe Zitouna (North African) on Polk Street. It's generally breakfast food, but they serve it all day with lamb sausage and it's just amazing!

Lahore Karahi -- I'm constantly in search for the best mattar paneer. I've found my favorite version yet is here. Unfortunately, they've been closed the past couple of weeks but are about to reopen so I can get my fix.

Farm:Table does such lovely bites for breakfast. I love their daily boiled eggs served on baguette gussied up with bacon and greens, mushroom, radish and even chutney! They tweet their menu every day and it's always mouthwatering! [SFoodie noted McQuade’s curry-gold habanero chutney served with said eggs last year ]

Sugar Café (soups made from scratch every week day by Ignacio the soup king): I crave his cauliflower cheese soup.

The Huntington Hotel for happy hour is one of my favorites. They oftentimes provide appetizers and there’s always something the chef has just whipped up on the spur of the moment.

GUILTY PLEASURE
Zante's Indian pizza: I will often have that delivered on a rainy night (they deliver all over the city). That's all I need … served with a refreshing amber beer!

WINE TIME
I have two favorite wine bars -- Hidden Vine (which is about to move to the financial area) but I'm one hundred percent certain something interesting is going to take its place.

Also, the Rosebowl Florist and Wine Bar, a little hidden gem in opera plaza. Deidra keeps this rather small place stocked with an interesting and well-priced selection of wine. She'll often put out little plates of food to keep the regulars happy. A nice lively selection of people frequent this place almost every evening.

FOOD SHOPPING
I do like to shop in my neighborhood as well as the Ferry Building, where I get all my fresh fruit and vegetables. I like to support the mom and pop stores and the one near where I live, Mayflower Market is the friendliest and best stocked of all the little markets. They have an incredible range of packaged food, organic, juices, [and a] and sandwich counter. Often times, the Mom will be making some delicious meatball dish with spices from scratch and she always insists everyone has a taste.

I also love to shop in Japantown--especially at Nijiya, where they have an excellent selection of fresh fish and sashimi. I always leave with some crackers or little cookies individually wrapped. They make for interesting and well-received presents!

Need a present for yourself? For readers who don’t live near any of the stores that sell McQuade’s, the products are newly available on Amazon.com.

Website: McQuade’s Celtic Chutneys
Twitter: @mcquadechutneys
Facebook: McQuade's Celtic Chutney

Fig chutney with cheese, crackers, and cashews.

Did you like your presents? Although I was hoping for cashmere socks, the funniest, etsy-est thing I got this year was a little poster from my sister, printed in block type, that read, "Today I will be happier than a bird with a French fry." Words to live by, my friends!

And what else do you have, in the holiday aftermath? The days after Christmas are often the best part, when the stress-inducing members of the family have gone up to the Wharf or down to Disneyland, and you're left with the fun sibs, the leftover booze, and a fridge full of leftover cold turkey and ham.

What's better than a stiff drink and a ham-and-turkey sandwich with people you never have to impress? I'll tell you: a ham-and-turkey sandwich dolloped with chutney, that's what. And not just any common-or-garden chutney, no sirree Bob, but McQuade's Celtic Chutney, made by red-headed Scotswoman Alison McQuade in small, aromatic batches, just like you would at home, if you were lucky enough to come from chutney-making people.

Hailing from Glasgow, McQuade comes by the Celtic appellation honestly, but her chutneys have a distinct California twist, thanks to the spark of heat and spice that zaps each one. Habanero and apple, fig and ginger (made with dried figs), and spiced apple are her mainstays, with other varieties rotated in depending on what's in season.

Walking through the darkened downtown San Francisco restaurant where McQuade rents kitchen space in the off hours, I could smell the sharp, sweet zip of spice and vinegar the moment I stepped in from the street. Back in the small, fluorescent-lit kitchen, McQuade and an assistant are stirring two pots on the stove, each half-full chopped figs, cider vinegar, brown sugar, raisins, apples, lemon zest and a plum pudding's worth of spices—nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, cinnamon—all cooking down to a rich and fragrant gloss.

On the counter are boxes of fresh Fuyu persimmons, a backyard gift from the owners of the Hidden Vine wine bar nearby, a favorite hangout of McQuade's. They'll go into a new winter favorite, persimmon-habanero chutney. At the cozy Farm:Table cafe just a few blocks away (where McQuade often starts her day), jars of ruby cranberry-mandarin Christmas chutney are stacked up by the cash register. For McQuade, the chutney business is as much about building relationships and forging community as it is about filling jars.

Much of McQuade's ingredients are sourced locally, from farms like Torey's Farms, which she loves for their top-quality stone fruit and citrus. Cooking in small quantities (each batch usually fills about 30 7-oz jars) allows for a lot of flexibility. If something good turns up—fresh spring rhubarb, those backyard persimmons, a great deal on bananas or pineapple—she can adjust (or invent) a recipe on the spot, tossing the new variety into her ever-evolving product line.

Like many small-scale food artisans, McQuade had a long professional career first, working for the British Consulate and at law firms in both New York and Los Angeles. Missing the chutneys her grandmother had made while she was growing up in Scotland, she set to making a few jars for family and friends, bringing them to parties and giving it as gifts. Her hairdresser happened to try some, and a few days later called her from the salon. Get down here now with your chutney, she demanded. There's someone here who needs to try it. McQuade, mystified but intrigued, grabbed a few jars and headed over. The woman in question took a taste and asked for 60 cases on the spot.

She turned out to be Peggy Smith, one of the founders of Cowgirl Creamery, whose cheese shops have remained one of McQuade's best customers. That was 5 years ago, and now McQuade's chutneys are available in shops throughout the Bay Area, including Bi-Rite, Falletti's, Tomales Bay Foods, Whole Foods, Cheese Plus, and more. Restaurant and bars like Range, Hidden Vine, and the St. Francis Hotel's Clock Bar have found uses for her sweet-spicy-tangy spreads, adding it to cheese plates, even putting it into cocktails themselves.

Lately, she's been exploring more savory ways of using her chutneys, like shrimp stir-fry made with habanero chutney, or pork roast glazed with fig. Scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, just about any kind of cold meat or sandwich: they're all the better for a smear of chutney to keep out the cold. Even peanut butter's better for a chutney hookup: the late (and much-loved) novelist and food writer Laurie Colwin often waxed rhapsodic about chutney, fondly recalling a tiny, perfect peanut butter-and-chutney sandwich she'd been served once at a cocktail party.

For next year, McQuade is working on a line of savory shortbreads flavored with fresh herbs like thyme and rosemary. Will they go with chutney? Did you even have to ask?