Marion Nestle on What to Eat

This past weekend I was treated to a Spring Breakfast by the Bay with Marion Nestle, a benefit for CUESA (CUESA operates the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market). It was a most delicious breakfast but I'm not going tell you anything about it because the main attraction was really hearing Marion Nestle speak. Marion Nestle is the author of What to Eat , (just now out in paperback) Food Politics , and Safe Food . She is Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. She has strong links to the Bay Area having received her BA, PhD and MPH from UC Berkeley, she also spent a decade on the faculty of UC San Francisco's School of Medicine. This past Saturday she talked about her latest book What to Eat and how it came to be written after people kept asking her, what should they be eating? She thought the answer was simple enough until she began visiting supermarkets. From the moment she walked in she saw the flowers and produce and was aware of how sto......

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Portabello & Sausage French Bread Pizza: Recipe

Last week on the Epicurious blog Tanya Steel wrote about serving a Proscuitto and Taleggio macaroni and cheese to a friend who it turned out, preferred the blue boxed verson. When I was little I enjoyed that mac and cheese that comes in a box too. But years later when I tried it again, I realized it wasn't very good. The sauce made from powder was artificial tasting and the macaroni was pasty. As an adult there is no question, my tastes had changed. The other packaged food I remember liking way back when, was Stouffer's French Bread Pizza. I still remember how tasty that crunchy pizza was. Of course, if I tried it now I would probably not be as impressed, but as a 13 year old babysitter, it seemed like a very delicious treat. I'd rather recreate what I loved about those french bread pizzas than be disappointed trying the original version. This recipe took a couple of tries to get right. It's a little messy but also savory, crisp and cheesy. In other words, delicio......

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Chocolatiers come to town

Ever since Lee's doctor told him to eat a little chocolate everyday , I've kept a stash of over 70% cocoa chocolate bars in a drawer in the kitchen. My everyday bar is Chocovic's Ocumare which uses Venezuelan criollo beans. That's probably why I am so fond of Michael Mischer's chocolate bars which also rely on the Venezuelan criollo. They aren't easy to find in San Francisco but today you can not only find them, but also find Michael Mischer of Michael Mischer Chocolates from noon until 2 at Fog City News. You just know there are going to be samples, right? Fog City News sells one of the largest selection of chocolate bars anywhere. They sell all kinds of chocolate and are a good place to find something unusual or hard-to-find from the world over, including Valrhona’s new 2006 Vintage Estate Grown chocolate bars, Coppeneur of Germany, Rococo of London, Domori of Italy, and more. The shop is located downtown just a hop skip and a jump from the Ferry Build......

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In Search of My Perfect Scoop...

I have ice cream on the brain. And it's not that headache you get from eating too much of the stuff, it's the feeling that everywhere I turn, there it is again. Symptoms include a combination of the publication of The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and A Passion for Ice Cream by Emily Luchetti plus several newish places that have sprung up where you can get premium crack ice cream. I'm beginning to think ice cream is the new cupcake. So what's a girl to do? I have no room in my packed freezer for a canister to make ice cream, I barely have room for a pint. The idea of an old-fashioned ice cream maker or even an electric version that uses rock salt and ice won't work for me. It's just not apartment friendly. I desperately want that Glace-A-Tron 6000 that Derrick keeps talking about. Speaking of which, cut it out, Derrick! Even on sale the monster costs over $200. The ice cream in David's book are really what have me itching to make it myself, espec......

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