In the space of what seemed like mere minutes, I had a lovely conversation with Chef David Tanis of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse. He is not just “of” Chez Panisse, he IS Chez Panisse, crafting the daily menu at one of the most famous restaurants on earth for the past 20 years.

He will be at Bookworks on Monday signing his superlative new book and then, Pat Keene and her staff at the Artichoke Cafe will be preparing a dinner based on David’s recipes for a captive audience. If tickets are still available, snatch them up ASAP – a single meal’s ticket includes a book, so you’ll be all set to create your own dishes after the evening has concluded.

Because my interviewing style is not quite as wondrous as, say, Jon Stewart, I captured a lot of tidbits from the conversation that I hope will give you a great idea of the kind of man and chef that David is. Enjoy!

I just “ogle the vegetables” – how David loves to choose his produce for the day when visiting the farmer’s market

“I like to go from the beginning to the end” creating menus that flow from the very first bite all the way through to a simple and sweet dessert.

All I need is a “wooden spoon, cast iron pan, knife” – David’s only cooking essentials, if he were reduced to a desert island style restriction. This speaks so well to how he cooks at home – it must be meditative and fresh and something you can do with unfussy attention, perhaps while sipping wine or chatting with guests.

When you cook, “it connects you with your friends, it connects you with your community”. Essentially, by injecting your own labor into raw ingredients you are making a transformation that benefits your fellow diners as well as supporting whatever fresh vendors have supplied those ingredients – the more local, the better.

Seasonality RIGHT NOW, “here in california we are getting rain, end of season tomatoes, eggplants, great squashes and wild mushrooms”. Visit Chez Panisse this week and these are the ingredients on which the kitchen will work their magic.
What was the last meal you cooked? “A little pot of beans – on toast, just like in the book; fresh pinto beans make the best meal of all.” I’ll concur, the book’s photo of beans on toast is one of the most drool-inducing simple concepts I’ve seen in months.

Enjoy, go see David, and BUY HIS BOOK. Your cooking world will be enhanced in ways that will transcend the cover price.

In a hugely overhyped headline, one of the Van Rixel Brothers, of the chocolate company The Chocolate Cartel is reportedly “in trouble” over pot in their chocolate.

KRQE’s story may get views (and I’m not even going to link to them), but it is so far off the mark I’m a little pissed. They are not in trouble and it seems much of the controversy is at the behest of this story.

So, what are they doing? They are trying to trademark a name: “Bhang: The Original Cannabis Chocolate“, and beginning to manufacture the medical marijuana product in California for sales in California only. That’s it. I was only freaked out thinking they’d stop selling their heavenly truffles and gelato here in Albuquerque, but for now that seems to be not in danger. Whew.

Carry on, cannabis boys. Hopefully everything will work out – it looks like the patent office is starting to have second thoughts about allowing the whole trademark process in the first place. Sheesh. Make me some hemp truffles, too, eh? Those are legal here in NM.

Well, the Groupon “thing” is firmly in place, like it or not. If you’re a small business, you might like it quite a bit – getting butts in seats and all that. How does it work? Who makes money? TechCrunch did a fantastic analysis a few months ago.

But if you are a small business and/or restaurant with an upscale target market and a really polished image, it might not be the best thing for you, especially if you’ve opened recently. Google for “groupon sucks” and the #1 hit you will see is a blog post from a spa marketing company talking about how discounting is not always the best way to attract new customers. It is certainly food for thought and a great post, but targeted at “luxury” goods like hundred-dollar treatments and the like.

What if your per-check average is well under $20? Is it such a bad idea to discount, then?

A friend just told me that they were hesitant to try a local restaurant because it always looks empty. I know for a fact that the restaurant‘s food is quite good and told him so. They have a dining room too big for their needs and that hurts them with walk-by traffic, as my friend’s perception shows. This place might benefit from a quick-and-dirty campaign to get more people in the door. Or perhaps you can skip giving half the money to Groupon and just go to the restaurant. Do we have a deal? Good. Also try out another local place experimenting with Groupon – but just go instead of buying the coupon. Their sandwiches are amazing.

I responded to another blogger’s comments about being ruined for veggies for many years as a kid eating salads with bad iceberg lettuce, and went off on a rant and just had to share.

Iceberg is but the tip of this iceberg. . .  there are lots of early-exposure problems that cascade into picky/limited eaters later.  Even one typical meal holds numerous traps:
1. stale lettuce with
2. pale flavorless tomatoes flanking
3. anemic carrots underneath
4. fatty yet boring dressing as a precursor to
5. overcooked underseasoned meat alongside
6. baked potato in a coffin of bacon bits and cheese next to
7. brown, mushy green beans or
8. greying soggy broccoli not to mention
9. horridly pale and bland peas & carrots drizzled with rancid butter meant to be the homework before the recess of
10. chocolate cake dark with color yet light on cocoa with its layers of
11. hydrogenated frosting so sweet it makes the scoop of airy vanilla ice cream nearly savory

This is long before you get into the esoterica like liver, lima beans, beets, fish (!!!), eggplant….

Saving the native varieties of chiles is part of the mission of the Chile Pepper Institute in Las Cruces, but particularly I love Chimayo chiles, maybe even more than Hatch.

They are delicious and worth keeping around – even if consumers will need to pay higher prices because they are more difficult to farm and manage.

Saving The Chiles – article posted a few days ago online.  Decent reading if you’re new to the chile preservation subject.