The San Francisco Taste
The San Francisco Bay Area is a mecca for great food. Local, sustainable, organic dining may be a catch phrase in many cities, but here it’s the standard. You’ll find artisan chocolate, hipster coffee, the best pizza restaurant, Italian staples, dishes inspired by divas, and burritos that make grown men weep.
The following books and accessories will bring a wee bit of SFlavor into your kitchen.
Alice Waters
Alice Waters is more than a chef, she’s revolutionized the dining experience by establishing the local, sustainable, organic food movement.
Unlike other superstar chefs, Waters’ recipes focus on superior products and minimal manipulation. So you can do everything her book. Just make sure you use fresh, organic, seasonal ingredients.
Thomas Keller
While Alice Waters represents simple presentations of impeccably ripe ingredients, Thomas Keller’s French Laundry revolutionized Napa Valley dining and made Yountville a destination. Keller’s restaurants bring high-end French dining to ingredient
s grown across the street in a private garden.
Keller’s Bouchon Bakery cookbook will teach you how to make the finest French breads and sweets. It also includes the world’s finest dog biscuits.
Tartine
Bouchon’s not the only bakery making waves in the Bay Area. Tartine opens every morning to a line of hungry customers and sells out before the last one is served.
While Tartine’s bread is epic, their tarts are even fancier than those lighting up the Castro district.
This video gives you a glimpse inside the book.
Tartine Bread from 4SP Films on Vimeo.
The San Francisco Treat
Do you remember the cable car commercials and game show features for Rice-A-Roni® ? It’s the San Francisco treat! But leave it to the Kitchen Sisters to interview the family that created this iconic meal.
“Mrs. Captanian, I had a liking for her right away. So we moved in. Tommy would work until about 7 o’clock at the pasta factory and I was alone a lot,” Lois said. “I was only 18 and I was pregnant. And I had kitchen privileges. Well, I really wasn’t much of a cook. And here was this Armenian lady, probably about 70 years [old], making yogurt on the back of the stove, all day, every day. I didn’t even know what the word ‘yogurt’ meant.”
Mrs. Captanian taught Lois how to make paklava (baklava), soups and her specialty, Armenian pilaf.
“We would bring her Golden Grain vermicelli from the factory,” Lois said. “She wanted us to break it as small as rice if we could.”
Birth Of Rice-A-Roni: The Armenian-Italian Treat – NPR Radio
You can learn more about this and much more in their book.
Hipster and Artisanal
The Bay Area is also home to many small companies that are gaining recognition and rewards for their hyper-attention to quality.
At the end of the day… It’s time for a Mission-style Burrito.