Walking the Talk

An Interview with Rancher Brian Kenny Brian Kenny is relatively new to the grass-fed beef business, but he has a great deal of experience in both specialty agriculture and artisan food marketing. He is also a regular contributor to Edible East Bay. We caught up with him recently to discuss Hearst Ranch Beef the growth…

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In Memory of Laura Jane Trent

Our farming community suffered a terrible loss with the recent passing of Laura Jane Trent, an extraordinary and humble farmer who died suddenly on September 28, 2006. Laura’s 23-acre Tip Top Farm in the Vacaville region supplied exceptional produce to the Berkeley and Oakland farmers’ markets, and graced the tables of Chez Panisse, Oliveto and…

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Vineyards in Berkeley?

No, not exactly, but we have plenty of wineries here in the East Bay’s waterside cities—15 of them, at last count. In the summer of 2006, the East Bay Vintner’s Association came to life with the objective of promoting the wineries located in Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, and Emeryville. These urban wine makers, who started to…

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Cuisine in Translation

Jewish Life in Food To my family fortune, recipe boxes remain from my mother and my great-aunts, adored sisters to my grandmother. Kugels, blintzes and gefilte fish are remembered delicacies, dishes that bring nostalgia and love of family to the table. Keeping kosher was important to my great grandfather, Menachem Mendal, first American patriarch of…

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Roadside Diaries

Sierra Adventures, Part I Story by Cheryl Koehler | Photos by Mark Middlebrook We don’t have much of a winter here in the East Bay. Rather than a glistening cloak of frigid white, we get carpets of plush grassy green. It makes me feel frisky—like a newborn lamb in springtime. It was in such a…

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Urban Forager

  Matsu=Pine, Take=Mushroom By Anthony Tassinello The idea of finding dinner in the wild is a foreign one to most people, let alone those of us who grew up in the shadow of the big city. Perhaps this is what drew me, some 10 years ago, to forage for a near-sacred wild mushroom that grows,…

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Monterey Market

MY BEAUTIFUL GROCERY STORE A Grower’s Valentine to Monterey Market By Lisa Brenneis I started paying attention to grocery stores when Jim and I started looking for customers for our Pixie tangerines. Since then, I can’t seem to stop thinking about grocery stores. Let me explain. Jim searched in LA, but prospective customers were either…

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Flavor Most Fowl

FLAVOR MOST FOWL: A Chicken Saga BY MARK MIDDLEBROOK   PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAROLE TOPALIAN Michael Wild, executive chef and founder of the Bay Wolf, was on a roll. I’d expected him to wax poetical about duck, for which the restaurant is renowned. Instead, he was riffing on chicken: “People love chicken. I love chicken. I…

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FIVE STAR NIGHT STILL SHINING BRIGHT

BY CHRISSA VENTRELLE   The East Bay food community is a generous bunch. Nowhere is this more apparent than at Five Star Night, the annual fundraiser for Alameda County Meals on Wheels. This event showcases our abundant local culinary talent as top chefs volunteer their time and skills to prepare a gourmet meal for about…

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Contents Winter 2007

   FEATURES VINEYARDS IN BERKELEY? IN MEMORY OF LAURA JANE TRENT MY BEAUTIFUL GROCERY STORE A Grower’s Valentine to Monterey Market WALKING THE TALK An Interview with Brian Kenny A DAY IN A LIFE FULL OF CHOCOLATE Recipe: Chocolate Shortbread Cookies FLAVOR MOST FOWL A Chicken Saga with recipe DEPARTMENTS EDITOR’S MIXING BOWL CUISINE IN…

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Editor’s Mixing Bowl

Like the majority of people living in the United States today, I do not walk the path of need in my daily existence. I’m driven by motivations to achieve and prosper, which generally involve sifting through myriad options rather than grasping to fill basic requirements. And so on an afternoon when I was heading into…

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Café Esin’s Grilled Salmon with Winter Citrus Salad

From Citrus Recipes by Curtis and Esin Decarion at Café Esin     Serves 4-6 1 navel orange, zested, peeled, sectioned, juice reserved 1 blood orange, peeled and sectioned, juice reserved 1 grapefruit, peeled and sectioned, juice reserved ½ Meyer lemon, zested, juice reserved 1 tablespoon shallot, finely minced 1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, chopped ¾…

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Citrus Recipes from Café Esin

      By Chefs Curtis and Esin Decarion of Café Esin Citrus is important to our cooking at Café Esin, perhaps because it is embedded in our backgrounds. Esin and I grew up in different countries—she is from Turkey and I am from Miami—but both of us had fruit trees at our homes as…

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What’s in Season?

Kiwifruit  By Barbara Kobsar   In other parts of the country, it can be an arduous task shopping for produce in the winter. Not so here in the East Bay, where farmers’ markets continue to showcase in-season produce from farms operating year-round. Choices may differ from what we find on our summer shopping sprees, but…

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What’s in Season?

Citrus By Barbara Kobsar       The citrus scene in the East Bay seems to be ever-expanding. When I was growing up, there were two choices in the orange department: Navels most of the time and Mandarins during the Christmas season. Both remain favorites, but there’s so much more to enjoy these days. Climatic…

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Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

  From A Day in a Life Full of Chocolate Recipe courtesy of Caroline Romanski Makes about 60 cookies 1⅔ cups all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons Valrhona cocoa powder ¼ teaspoon salt 1 pinch ground cinnamon 1¼ cups soft unsalted butter ½ cup granulated sugar ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract 2 egg yolks for egg wash Turbinado…

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Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe

A Day in a Life Full of Chocolate Story and photos by Anita Chu It’s five-thirty in the morning and the storefronts on College Avenue in Rockridge are dark and quiet, but the kitchen in the back of Bittersweet Chocolate Café is glowing with life. For the next three hours, all the pastries that will…

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Lemon Meringue Tart with Gingersnap Crust from Café Esin

From Citrus Recipes by Curtis and Esin Decarion, Café Esin       Makes 1 9-inch tart Crust 6-7 gingersnap cookies 2 tablespoons melted butter Crush cookies in a food processor until fine. Stir in melted butter. Press mixture into bottom and sides of 9-inch tart pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 to 12…

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