Making the front page of the Dining section in the New York Times gives you bragging rights for at least a day, doesn’t it? We’re as proud as new mamas and papas here at Foodista, grinning from ear to ear that our food-wiki baby has splashed the pages of the Old Gray Lady.

Barnaby also bravely roused himself out of bed this morning at the crazy hour of 3:45 for an interview on The Takeaway, an NPR and BBC syndicated radio program hosted by John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee with co-guest Kim Severson, author of the Times article.

Cigars all around!

Photo by Axel Koester for the New York Times.

Jo Stougaard (Mylastbite.com) making Bacon Wrapped Breadsticks.

Find the recipe on Foodista:

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Categories:	Interview	12 Comments
Tags:	Food • food wiki • foodista • foodista.com • jo stougaard • kim severson • mylastbite • new york times

I grew up in a charming and picturesque resort nestled at the base of the beautiful Cascade mountain range in Central Oregon. The Deschutes river flows wide and calm through the resort, and nearby you’ll find the Little Deschutes tagging along like a younger sibling. So you can see it was aptly named Sunriver.

We moved there from the Bay Area when I was around five, my parents wanting a more wholesome place to raise their children. We frolicked in the lakes and rivers in summer and skied the powdery slopes of Mt. Bachelor in winter. Best of all, we drank crystal clear mountain water fresh and cold from the tap.

Some people say you can’t taste water, but after growing up with clean water I certainly can. Too often water tastes metallic, too “minerally,” or like you’re drinking a swimming pool. When your thirst needs to be quenched, that’s fine I suppose, but outside of Sunriver I prefer my water well filtered.

One thing I had never considered, until recently, is how the taste of water affects the flavors of food and wine. I don’t know why this never occurred to me. I mean, if you brush your teeth you know that then drinking a glass of orange juice is going to taste horrible. So why would it not dawn on me that salt, minerals, and chemicals in water could alter the flavor of the wine I so carefully selected?

I sat down with Chef Jason Wilson of Crush and Sam Giertz, CEO North America of Nordaq Fresh, for my first ever water tasting. Nordaq Fresh is a purification system that filters impurities and unwanted flavors from tap water while preserving the water’s natural salts and minerals. Sam suggested that I cleanse my mouth first with the Fresh water, so I swirled it around a bit. The best way I can describe this water is simply “neutral” – just the way I remembered my Sunriver water, only much better. I took another sip, then I tasted the nice chilled Chardonnay that Jason had selected. Very nice. I did the same with the tap water, then tasted the wine again. Good, but not great. I mean, it was a lovely wine, of course it would taste great, right? But I could definitely taste the difference. We repeated this process again and the distinction was remarkable. The flavor of the wine had much more pronounced depth than I could taste with just plain tap water.

It was like the water gave the wine Dolby surround sound.

In 2007, Thomas Keller was invited to attend a culinary event in Stockholm where he was first introduced to the Nordaq system. Seeing the potential for its application in his own restaurants he had the system installed in The French Laundry, Per Se and Buchon. Now, more fine restaurants around the U.S. are following suit and having the system installed.

But it goes beyond taste. Nordaq Fresh is  water with a conscious. Because the filtration system comes with water bottles (and beautiful sleek and sexy ones to boot) restaurants are significantly reducing the amount of glass they are recycling. Jason says he has saved roughly four thousand bottles per year (about five thousand pounds of glass) from recycling. Beyond that there’s the elimination of the transportation of bottled water from production plant to restaurant to recycling center.

To me, that alone makes everything taste better.

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Categories:	Environmental • Interview • Restaurants	3 Comments
Tags:	crush • filtered water • Jason Wilson • Nordaq • Nordaq Fresh • purified water • seattle • Thomas Keller • water

I don’t know if you remember me telling you about Bethenny Frankel before, but I first met her at ChefDance in Park City in January. Her new book, Naturally Thin, is fresh off the press and I wanted to tell you more about it.

First, let me start by saying that I hate diets. Who doesn’t? But as a food writer and founder of a company that is all about food you could say I’m a bit obsessed with eating, and as such, would like to shed a few pounds before summer. Naturally Thin is a book about how to free ourselves from dieting, so Naturally Thin isn’t a diet, it’s a way of life. Better yet, Bethenny tells us that we don’t have to give up the foods we love. We simply need to moderate our intake.

As a natural foods chef (among many other things) her goal is to “democratize” health. That is, she wants health to be accessible to everyone, not just stars on the red carpet who can afford personal chefs and trainers to keep their bellies flat. Everyone deserves to eat well, be healthy and feel good. Amen.

She bases her no-diet tricks on 10 easy, no brainer rules. I’ll share some of my favorites with you:

1. Your diet is your bank account

Just like a bank account you need to manage how much you spend and save. It’s simply being aware of what you’re putting in your body; balancing not only the amount you eat, but also food “categories” (carbs, proteins, dairy, veggies, etc..) If you eat a hamburger for lunch, then it’s salad for dinner. Easy. No counting calories or points or any of that; just being cognizant of what you eat.

2. Get Real

This is one of my favorites because I grew up eating what I like to call “hippie food.” My mom always piled our plates high with whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and her own soups. We all get busy, but I will fall off the wagon if a diet tells me I can’t have something. Bethenny doesn’t say no to processed foods, but says to limit them and choose foods as close to their natural state as possible. And, as most of us know, raw foods are high in fiber so they fill us up more.

3. Taste everything, eat nothing

I know that sounds strange, but how many times have you been to a cocktail party with a lovely spread of food and you chow down a bit too much on the pâté and brie? Both Bethenny and I have spent a significant amount of time in Italy where we learned the expression mangia poco ma bene. Meaning “Eat little, but well.”  Bethenny says we don’t have to avoid the food table, in fact have it all, but only a taste of each. I like that, because again, if I know I can’t have it I’ll eat the whole darn thing. One of her other rules, which helps to moderate us in the “taste everything, eat nothing” rule, is to spoil our appetite with something healthy before we go to a party, that way we aren’t pigging out.

What happens when we overdo it? Bethenny says, “Don’t focus on your guilt – focus on healing.”  She has recovery recipes – light and easily digestible foods – to naturally flush our system and get us back on track. We just returned from Mexico (lots of chips and guacamole, beans, pork – you get the picture) and my jeans were a bit tighter than they were when I left. I’ve been eating her Pureed Zucchini Soup and I already feel better (and can zip up my jeans!). It’s darn good too, even if you don’t need the recovery!

Pureed Zucchini Soup

1 medium red onion, evenly chopped
6 cups chicken stock or broth
6 medium sized zucchini, evenly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
12 oz. frozen butternut squash, defrosted
1 cup plain soy milk
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Sauté the onions in a large pot using nonstick pray, until lightly soft. Add the chicken stock, zucchini, salt, and pepper. Cook until zucchini are soft.

Using a hand immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth. Add the defrosted butternut squash. Turn off the heat and add the soy milk and lemon juice. Season with more salt and pepper, to taste.

At the end of the day I like to relax with a little glass of wine or a cocktail – who doesn’t! Bethenny has a line of cocktails coming soon called SkinnyGirl. Her SkinnyGirl Margarita, in stores in May, is a low-sugar, low-cal version that she says is “the one to trust” since it’s free of all that heavy syrup you get in restaurant margaritas. She even asks bartenders to make it for her, which I now do too!

SkinnyGirl Margarita

2 ounces clear tequila (100% pure agave)
Large splash of lime juice, or 4 lime wedges
Tiny splash of orange or citrus liqueur
Optional: a splash of club soda to lighten it up.

If you’re tired of dieting, but want to look and feel good by summer, then I recommend this as a read (and no, I wasn’t paid to tell you that). Bethenny also has a cookbook coming out next year, but check out her website for more about her and other delicious recipes.

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Categories:	Author • Chefs • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • Interview	3 Comments
Tags:	bethenny frankel • books • diet • healthy eating • Interview • naturally thin

Put down what you were doing, grab a glass of wine or cup of tea, take a cleansing deep breath, and have a seat. Are you with me? Good. We all need to slow it down a bit more now and then, don’t we? Now let me tell you about a wonderful book I just finished, then I want you to read it too. You’ll thank me for telling you about it.  It’s one of those books that you just don’t want to end. The kind that makes you want to slowly relish in the flavor of a perfectly ripe and beautiful tomato or stand at the stove and lovingly stir a pot of polenta.

That book is The School of Essential Ingredients, written by Seattle author Erica Bauermeister. The story is about Lillian, a 30ish chef and restaurateur who teaches a series of evening cooking classes. Her desire is to inspire in her students a love and respect for both food and life. We follow the lives of eight students who, for various reasons, come to take Lillian’s class. Soon you’ll find yourself  hoping the smells of her kitchen will waft through your book or wishing you could hold the hand of a heartbroken husband.

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit with Erica and talk about her wonderful book, food and cooking, the joy of preparing and sharing a good meal with those we love, and life in Italy – a place where both of us have lived. What I learned from her is this: time is the essential ingredient, something we should savor, love and respect.

As Lillian says, “…every meal you eat, you eat time – the weeks it takes to ripen a tomato, the years it takes to grow a fig tree. And every meal you cook is time out of your day…” I’ll certainly be relishing in my food from now on!

Erica shares with us a recipe from one of Lillian’s students, Tom, who learned from her how the simple making of a pasta sauce from scratch can heal the heart.

Tom’s Pasta Sauce

2 T olive oil
1/2 chicken bouillon cube (Knorr – the large, soft kind))
1 cup onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground Italian sausage
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup red wine
28 oz can whole tomatoes (drained)
1 cup tomato sauce (more if you want)
salt
pepper
grated parmesan cheese (optional)
penne pasta (for eight servings)

In a large saute pan, heat olive oil on low heat until bubbles form.  Crush the half bouillon cube into the oil and mix thoroughly, then saute onion for 2 minutes.  Add garlic and saute until translucent.  Add ground sausage and cook under medium heat until meat is no longer pink.  Add milk and simmer until absorbed.  (Don’t worry if it looks strange at first; it will mellow the wine and make for a wonderful, lush sauce.)  Add wine, simmer under low heat until absorbed.   Drain can of whole tomatoes, then crush in a Cuisinart or chop finely by hand.  Add tomatoes and tomato sauce to meat.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook on low heat for 1-3 hours, covered if you want a rich, but slightly thinner sauce,  uncovered if you want a thicker sauce and the smell to roam through your house.

Place penne pasta in large pot of boiling water.  Cook until al dente.  Drain and place in large serving bowl.   Ladle sauce over pasta; top with grated parmesan cheese if desired.

Yield: 8 servings

NOTE: if you’re lucky enough to be in the Seattle area you can find Erica at the following book signing event. I highly recommend it!

WIDE WORLD BOOKS
Tuesday, February 3 7:00 PM
4411 Wallingford Avenue North #A
Seattle, WA 98103
Talk, Q&A and Signing

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Categories:	Chefs • Cooking tips • Interview	2 Comments
Tags:	author interview • book • erica bauermeister • Interview • seattle • Seattle author • World Wide Books

Last Saturday we had the pleasure of being invited to join Chef’s Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau on their weekly cooking radio show In the Kitchen. For those not familiar with this duo, they are a couple of very accomplished chef/restaurateurs/authors (Tom’s also an Iron Chef Winner) who love food so much, they spend every Saturday evening in a radio studio talking about it. We had a fun and wide ranging conversation about everything from boneless turkey to recipe intellectual property law (more on that to come).

Click here to download the show.

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While at the Sundance Film Festival I had the pleasure of sitting down with Bethenny Frankel, celebrity chef and co-host of Chefdance, the culinary “Alt Dance” of the Festival. But she doesn’t stop there. In addition to being a natural food chef she’s also taken the time to pen her new book Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself From a Lifetime of Dieting (on shelves in March 10) and launch both her low-cal cocktail line SkinnyGirl Margarita (coming soon) as well as her low fat, wheat, dairy, and egg-free line of baked goods BethennyBakes. She also happens to star in Bravo’s reality T.V. show The Real Housewives of New York City and was a contestant on Martha Stewart’s The Apprentice.

Phew! Did you catch all that? This woman is not only charismatic and smart, but obviously possesses the energy and metabolism of a hummingbird; she’s so petite I could fit her in my pocket.

Bethenny started to co-host Chefdance (along with Kenny Griswold, Founder and President) five years ago, selecting the chefs, lending a hand in planning the four-course menus and attracting the celebs. The normally 10-night event (this year is was five nights due to her hectic book tour schedule) features 10 celebrity chefs and a cast of celebrity dinners. This year the likes of Mike Tyson, Hugh Dancy, Amy Irving and Brittany Snow were amongst the guest list.

Before the event began that evening we sipped our Chardonnays and talked about her new book. The premise of Naturally Thin is so simple it will make you question why you never ate like this before. As she puts it, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself” or “Taste everything but eat nothing.” To me that makes perfect sense: don’t overload at the hors d’oeuvres table, but enjoy a bit of each offering. She says that food isn’t our enemy and that we should view our daily intake as a bank account. If we only have, say, 1500 calories for that day and we snarf down a cheeseburger at lunch, then we need to deduct those calories from our “account” and eat something healthy for dinner, like a salad. It’s not new science, by any means, but I like the way she encourages us to not beat ourselves up for what I previously referred to as “falling off the wagon.” I also appreciate the fact that I can eat whatever I’d like as long as I keep track of it and keep it in check. No one likes to diet, and weight loss is achieved more easily if we just learn to balance.

Her goal is to democratize health, meaning she believes everyone deserves to live a healthy and balanced life. We all can’t afford private chefs or even organic foods, and some of us simply lack the education, but she wants to inform people on how they can stock their fridge, live a green life and maximize their health in quick and easy ways.

I tell you, it’s great motivation to get dietary advice from a tiny celebrity in a cute little knit dress. I enjoyed my Chefdance meal immensely and followed her rules to the letter. And you know what? It felt darn good.

Stay tuned as I’ll be writing more on Bethenny’s new book on March 1o – there’s a lot more you’ll want to know and learn!

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Categories:	Events • Interview	3 Comments
Tags:	bethenny frankel • celebrity chef • chefdance • Interview • naturally thin • Sundance Film Festival

It wasn’t until I lived in Italy that I truly learned to love and appreciate a good olive oil. Drizzled on tender butter lettuce salads with a pinch of salt, spooned over handmade pastas, dabbed on a chunk of rustic Tuscan bread, and I ashamedly admit, slathered all over myself in lieu of suntan oil. I was twenty, I wasn’t thinking (but my skin sure looked damn good!). Now, many years older, I have nixed the use of olive oil as a tanning accelerant, but continue drizzling, spooning, and dabbing with molto gusto.

In Italy, early November is the time when olives will begin to be harvested for the first batch of olive oil. Gourmands around the world eagerly await this time of year for the season’s new arrival. Now I like me some good fresh olive oil, but I was not about to hop on a jet and queue up with the rest of the oliophiles. So I went local and visited Oil & Vinegar in Bellevue, Washington.

This growing franchise offers a wide and impressive selection of beautiful imported oils and vinegars. Oil & Vinegar’s product line also extends to an exclusive assortment of herbs and spices, pastas, appetizers, cooking tools, and more. Their gift sets are far from the predictable packaged sets because the product is so unique, like personalized oil and vinegar labels. Think Christmas, everyone!

What immediately caught my attention when I walked into Oil & Vinegar was their tap wall (pictured). A stunning display of glass vessels containing an array of olive, nut and seed oils, flavor infused oils and vinegars, as well as balsamic and wine vinegars. One of my favorites, a blood orange oil that nearly brought me to my knees it was so fresh and good.

As the gourmands begin their journey home from Italy carrying their precious cargo, I too, happily returned home with an armful of olive oils and vinegars. Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to use mileage.

Check out our video interview with Matt Stermer, owner of the Oil & Vinegar franchise in the US.

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In the great startup tradition, we are working out of a funky space that is connected to the the back of an art gallery. Every first Thursday there is an artwalk here in Seattle and folks walk throughout our building, which is mostly filled with artist studios. People looking for art often wander into our workspace…sometimes we tell them we are a performance art installation titled: Internet Startup.

This week they have an interesting example of the power of food to bring people together. The Blank Space Gallery is hosting an event this evening: Red, White, and Pie.

Free slices of pie will be awarded to individuals who show their voter registration card, register to vote, or give a 30 second sound bite as to why they do not intend on voting in the election this November 4th.

Peeking out our door, I see that they have a great collection of political posters and some wonderful pie. Come on down if you are in Seattle!

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Oh, we dined with such guiltless pleasure last night at La Spiga’s Ferragosto event. It was a sweltering hot evening (by Seattle’s standards), so we were thankful for the big round table on the airy back patio.

Previously, I had asked Sabrina, chef and co-owner of La Spiga, why food in Italy just tastes better than here in the US. “It’s a trio of things,” she said. “One, it’s the ingredients. When you cut corners you can tell. Two, preparation. In Italy there’s a big focus on digestability.” Onions, garlic and bell peppers are hard to digest, so there is more preparation and care in making these items easier to digest. And, three, “the mind-set in general. Food and cooking,” she says, “is very important to the culture. It’s the love of food and sitting around the table and enjoying a leisurely meal.” Here in the U.S, everything is about convenience: grabbing something quick or rushing home from work to feed the kids and put them to bed. It’s just not in our long history to sit, appreciate and savor the meal.

It smelled of Italy last night, and I was looking forward to my first bite. Our first stop along the path of gluttony was a simple, tasty assortment of assaggini (little tastes), such as buttery green olives, creamy pâté, bocconcini, pepperonatta, and fried flat bread.

Grabbing our glasses of wine we moved on to stations of porcini and truffle orechiette pasta, hand-crafted salami, imported cheeses, grilled sausage and lamb skewers, among a bevi of other toothsome delights.

The piatto principale: porchetta (whole roasted pig). Sous chef Jonathan Langley artfully stuffed the roughly-80-pound pig with toasted fennel seed, sage, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. To top it off, he shoved in a pork shoulder for good measure and roasted it for 14 hours. It was tender, juicy and herbaceously delicious.

At La Spiga, one could tell that each offering was prepared with love and care, just like in Italy. And we sat around our large round table and leisurely enjoyed every bite.

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As part of our ongoing mission to share interesting facts, knowledge and people from the world of food, I recently interviewed Sam Spencer of Spencer Roloson Winery. Sam is an old friend who built his label from scratch over the past 10 years in California’s Napa Valley. We love his wines and celebrate his success with only one reservation, now we can’t afford as much of it! Still, we are happy members of their Wine Club.

Sam, what is your philosophy of wine making? What do you see as your obligation to your drinker?

I believe in making honest wine that clearly reflects the vineyard and its topography and ultimately the winegrowers hand in a balanced fashion. I feel obligated to make interesting and delicious wines with care for my consumers.

When you think about all the work that goes into making a bottle of wine, how much is in growing the grapes vs. vintaging?

Growing is the hard part and site selection is the single most important decision you will make along the way to putting wine into a bottle. Careful winemaking is important, but the reality is that if you have a great vineyard it can carry many flaws and still produce delicious wine. I have been vary fortunate to develop Madder Lake Vineyard and the La Herradura Vineyard from the ground up. Both are exceptional and offer outstanding wine-grapes and ultimately wine. The decision to develop these sites was based largely on instinct and enthusiasm rather than experience as I was 10 years younger and both were bare land. I guess I was lucky to some degree in picking these spots. Now I am more intimate than ever with these two vineyards and I see they will continue to develop and mature along with my craft and my own maturation as a winemaker/vigneron.

You are known for making wines from varietals not common to California, like Tempranillo, Viognier, and Grenache Blanc. What’s unique about working with these lesser known grapes?

I think the advantage to growing Tempranillo and Grenache Blanc along with Syrah and Grenache Noir is that we are defining the style and benchmarks as we work with these grapes. There is also the downside, as these wines are often misunderstood by the press who drive sales via their scores. But I like it that way, the successes are all ours, as are the failures. You can’t hide behind the masses when you are the only one making Tempranillo.

You recently got onto the wine list at the French Laundry (congrats!), can you tell us how that came about?

We have had our regular bottlings of wine at the French Laundry for several years. That came about naturally as we show our wine to the all of the restaurants in the Valley and beyond. What I think you are referring to is the Premier Auction Lot that the Laundry has purchased from us for two years running. I made a block designated syrah in 2005 from the La Herradura Vineyard called BLOCK ONE that Paul Roberts of the Laundry bought. The 2006 Premier lot is called Le Ferrieur and is a Tete de Cuvee from that vintage. We make a few very special wines each year for charitable events. For the last three years we have participated in the Premier Napa Valley, a barrel auction that is only open to the trade and the press. The wines offered are en primeur/barrel samples of the very best wines made in the valley, special cuvees. The proceeds support the Napa Valley Vintners and our marketing efforts. This is a very different auction than the grand Auction Napa Valley. Basically it is a bake sale for the NVV—albeit a much more lucrative bake sale than most.

Spencer Roloson has gotten a number of 90+ ratings in well known wine magazines, but I’m always fascinated by how wine quality and price are determined. For you what makes a bottle of wine good or great?

Ratings are subjective, but there are better wines than others. Again the vineyard is going to dictate that. The 90+ ratings are key to sell wine in a certain sector of retailers. I don’t like to pitch my wines that way because I think it reduces years of work into a simple score. But who has the time to learn about every vineyard? the scores ease the mind of the consumer who wants to know that that bottle of 90 point wine will go well with their chicken.

Wine is great when the trinity of good food and wine are coupled at the table with good company; when you can decipher the vineyard in the wine, feel its place and taste fruit more than the barrels, with balance, intensity and clarity. That is what I think makes great wine.

So if ratings are subjective, is there truly objective way of evaluating wine? May some sort of chemical analysis?

There are analyses that are evolving daily. They can interpret the architecture of a wine. The new ones go beyond normal wet chemistry, pH-TA-ETOH etc. They offer a look into the building blocks of color, tannin and phenols to give you a snapshot of the developing grapes in the vineyard and the wine in all of its stages from unfermented must to bottle. I use a technology that allows me to interpret very fine gradations in fruit maturity and in wine during the elevage. I use the data to make more informed choices in the field and the winery. It offers me a predictive strategy for each block and resulting wine, giving a slight advantage in a process that only happens once a year.

So where do you come down on the cork vs. screw top debate?

I am particularly fond of cork in spite of its shortcomings. We perform extensive sensory evaluation of our corks to ensure their quality and have seen a marked reduction in TCA taint since we began doing so. I am also a big fan of the glass stoppers that are newly available for closure. Synthetic sucks in every way, screw caps are allright, the glass has a nice feel to it.

I’m always amazed by the limited the selection and high prices of wine in most of the country. How many states is your wine sold in? What challenges have you faced in building your distribution network?

We are in 20 markets and managing that distribution chain is the biggest problem I face. The system as it is with mandated tiers –Producer-Wholesaler-Retailer– is broken and needs a major overhaul. I am always looking for improved ways to sell directly to my consumer, so we can have more of a conversation.

——————————————————

Here’s a nice review of Sam’s Grenache Blanc at Vinography

And a slideshow from a vineyard visit:

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Categories:	Beverages • Interview • wine	2 Comments
Tags:	Food • foodista • French Laundry • Napa • wine • Winemaking • Winery