Archive for the ‘Home Chef’ Category

5 tips to keep Whole Foods from becoming ‘whole paycheck’

veggies

I’m guessing that 90% of Whole Foods customers have made the ‘Whole Paycheck’ complaint at least once in the past 10 years.  Why not?  This crack gets a laugh. Me?  I’m starting to get irritated.  Because what I’m realizing is that the complaint comes from lazy shoppers.  Here is my take on why the Whole [...]

June 12, 2013 Home Chef, Killer Techniques 0 Comments

Holiday wine pairing advice

christmaswine2

Ready or not, the holiday season is here.  And as if there isn’t enough to worry about – gifts to buy, decorations to get up, etc., etc. – if you are hosting a holiday meal you’re likely wondering what wine to pair with dinner. Let me reiterate some advice from an earlier post:  don’t spend [...]

November 12, 2012 Dinner Party How To, Home Chef, Perfect Pairings, Wine 3 Comments

Review: Fatted Calf, Please Throw Me a Bone

lamb loin chops

I greatly appreciate that Fatted Calf is in my SF neighborhood, and the meat/product quality that it delivers to every corner of the shiny glass case.  The staff is simply awesome. The issue I have is this: they charge an outsized premium for what they do, and so I rarely come out of the shop [...]

September 22, 2012 Featured Posts, Home Chef, Local Chef, San Francisco Food Experience 0 Comments

100+ Thanksgiving side dishes

This turkey cake featured on Chow.com, did not make the cut for innovative side dishes at my family table this year. No doubt turkey cake is good, but I can't get my head around the "form." If it's on a cake plate, it should be dessert, right?

If you’ve been to my house for an evening, you know that I use dinner parties as a platform for experimentation. Thanksgiving, not so much. I learned a hard lesson about experimentation – which I later dubbed the “Disaster of ’96,” when I gave the family Thanksgiving dinner a modern, ‘sophisticated’ facelift without asking my [...]

November 19, 2010 Dinner Party How To, Home Chef 0 Comments

Holiday wine – pairing to the people

IMG_5431

Ugh.  The first holiday wine pairing request just came in…which ones will go best with a Thanksgiving dinner featuring thyme-roasted turkey with gingered-cranberry stuffing?  My answer: beer and Boone’s Farm.  Gewurztraminer and Coke.  Pinot and Pelligrino. I know that’s a wacky answer.  But I’m serious.  Thanksgiving dinner is NOT the place to play a headdy wine-to-food [...]

November 15, 2009 Dinner Party How To, Home Chef, Perfect Pairings, Wine 0 Comments

Corkscrew FAIL

Pulltap's-Black-NWP

I used to be into high ceremony and flashy accessories when it came to opening wine. When having guests over, I would proudly walk over to my laminated box full of glitzy accessories and conduct the ritual that I thought ‘serious’ wine drinkers should perform — you know, the foil cutter, an antique wine funnel [...]

September 21, 2009 Featured Posts, Home Chef, Killer Techniques, Wine 0 Comments