Phyllis Grant chronicles cooking with children, pictured with son Dash. Photo: Matt Ross

So-called mommy bloggers, who pontificate on all manner of parenting matters, have proliferated like randy rabbits on the internet. Ditto food bloggers who fetishize everything edible. And mommy food bloggers: they permeate the worldwide web by the thousands

So to stand out from the pack, a food blog with a parenting focus has to look gorgeous, offer recipes that seduce a home cook, and showcase a unique voice.

Dash and Bella fits that brief. And Berkeley’s Phyllis Grant, a former New York City pastry chef “who tired quickly of sugar and burning her forearms and never sleeping,” is behind the blog, recently named one of the top 100 food mom blogs by Babble.

Grant slow cooks with her kids and blog namesakes Dash, 4, and Bella, 9, and isn’t afraid to throw in an f-bomb or two in posts on everything from whole beast cooking to making popcorn ice cream. Her witty and insightful musings about cooking while mothering — no chicken nuggets or plain pasta in sight  — have caught the attention of The New York Times, food52, and Real Simple.

Grant, 41, lives in the Elmwood with her husband, filmmaker Matt Ross. Just back from the Sundance Film Festival where Ross’s “Twenty-Eight Hotel Rooms” was screened, she answered questions between tending to a sick daughter, a teary son, and a senile dog.

What prompted you to start your food blog?

Two and a half years ago, I was hanging full time with my kids, taking a lot of photographs, and cooking like crazy. I was also writing a lot about parenting (just to friends). It was the summer the “Julie & Julia” movie came out, and my mother forwarded me an email about a “Be like Julie/Cook like Julia” blogging contest. I spent a crazy day cooking with my kids out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (leg of lamb and crème caramel) and then I wrote about it. I won the contest (and every Julia Child cookbook and an enormous Le Creuset Dutch oven). I also “won” an instant readership. So I kept posting.

What’s your philosophy on feeding children?

I’m brave and relaxed when it comes to kids and food. I really despise food deemed kid-friendly. I think the dumbing down of anything for kids is a mistake. I’m very passionate about cooking, but I’m also very practical and I never stress about what my kids are eating (or not eating). I cook almost every day with my kids. I’m a big fan of putting food in front of my kids, even if they hated it the week before, even if it brings on tears.

My son eats everything. I’ll give him unusual foods just to see if he’ll eat them (snail, sardines, anchovies, and frogs, to name a few). Lately, my daughter is subsisting on pizza, pasta, and bagels.

I gleefully put a chef’s knife in my four-year old’s hand, I let my nine-year old daughter use the oven when I’m out of the house (don’t tell my husband). I’ve gotten a lot of grateful emails from (mostly) women saying that, thanks to my blog, they now believe they can cook with their kids, whereas before it just felt impossible. That’s so gratifying.

Kids in the kitchen: Dash and Bella, accomplished home cooks and recipe testers. Photos: Phyllis Grant

What do you think you bring to blogging that is different?

Many food blogs have a similar structure post after post, and sometimes I really crave that consistency. But the truth is, I never know what kind of story I’m going to tell until I sit down and sift through my photos and notes. I like the element of surprise. With the cow butchery post, for example, I assumed I would just talk about the class, introduce the other students, and teach my readers a thing or two. Instead it became an emotional post about a dream, the death of the cow, and the beautiful balance of strength and subtlety required in butchery.

Savory galette featured on Dash and Bella. Photo: Phyllis Grant

How does being a former pastry chef impact how you cook with your kids?

I know how to be meticulous. But usually I’m not: my daughter cleans up after me. I’m very confident with the techniques of baking; my kids now know how to fold egg whites into a chocolate batter, make caramel, and measure like scientists.

How does Berkeley inform your cooking?

The way my parents raised me impacts my cooking choices more than Berkeley does, though I grew up here. We sat down to dinner together every night. My parents made some kick-ass beautiful food. They just kept the food coming. And that’s what I’m doing with my kids. Over and over again. Consistency seems like the best parenting tool in the world. It really works.

What’s good (and bad) about the Berkeley food scene?

You can’t get a good bagel here and that frustrates me daily. But you really can get everything else.

You’re a “mommy” blogger who swears like a trooper. Discuss.

I do anguish about the f-bombs on my blog. But for anyone who knows me (or is friends with me on Facebook), it’s how I talk, it’s how I write, and I think part of my blog’s appeal is the fact that my writing is very conversational. And parenting is so bleeping hard. I have a lot to swear about.

Is your blog a hobby, a passion, a way to make money, a chance to create community, a place to document life, all of the above or something else entirely?

All of the above. And it helps me stay sane. Writing about parenting gives me some perspective. There’s drama, stress, anxiety, and intensity. Writing about it brings about some much needed lightness — and a sense of purpose.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I don’t even know what I’m doing next week. Hopefully washing my hair and shaving my legs (those tasks never make it to the top of my list). In five years, I hope I’m still cooking, photographing, and writing every single day.

The cooking, like the prose, is sometimes spicy, sometimes sweet. Photo: Phyllis Grant

Do you have a couple of favorite blog posts that you care to share?

I usually write about something that has just happened in my kitchen, but in September I wrote a post about concord grapes, living in New York City on 9/11, watching the World Trade Centers fall, and working with pastry chef Heather Ho, who was killed in the attack. I have never written a blog post so quickly. I was so grateful to have a built-in audience for that.

And just a few weeks ago, I posted about parenting in a new way. I needed a break so badly; I was completely overwhelmed by my children and my life. It was scary to post it. I didn’t want to come off as too crazy and hormonal and impatient (all of which I can be). But it really resonated with so many people, many of them men.

Are you part of a food blogging community?

I’m not. I guess I feel more and more like a parenting blogger. And maybe someday someone will say: “Phyllis Grant is a writer. She tells stories about cooking, kids, and parenting.” I like the sound of that.

This post originally appeared on Berkeleyside. You might also like:

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Self-described eco-chef Aaron French. Photo: Elizabeth Tichenor

Aaron French, a self-described eco-chef, has headed up the kitchen at The Sunny Side Café on Solano Avenue in Albany since it opened in 2004.

For the past two years he’s served up breakfast standards (think pancakes and eggs) and simple lunch fare (burgers, sandwiches, salads) at a satellite café of the same name in Berkeley.

French bounces between the two popular spots several times a day and jokes that the breakfast-brunch shift is the Rodney Dangerfield of cooking (it don’t get no respect).

Still, he’s proudest of his low carbon emissions menu options and his weekend food specials, a short, seasonal list that emphasizes local farms and calculates food miles.

French isn’t your typical chef. Before he cooked for a living he worked as a scientist. His interest in ecology led him to spend two years living among pygmies in Cameroon, where he studied seed dispersal by monkeys and birds.

An avid nature photographer, he’s also written about the relationship between ecology and food for the Bay Area News Group, where he penned the EcoChef column, as well as for Civil Eats and Fungi Magazine.

French, 40, is the author of The Bay Area Homegrown Cookbook, which reveals the partnerships between 29 local chefs and farmers, and features fellow Berkeley chefs Amy Murray of Venus and Revival, and Marsha McBride and Rick DeBeoard of Café Rouge, as well as local fungi foragers Mil Apostol and Lucy Collier of Gentle Giraffe Farm and Forage.

He is studying sustainability at the University of California’s Haas School of Business, lives locally, and is co-raising his preschool age daughter, who was adopted from Ethiopia.

Local mushroom foragers Mil Apostol and Lucy Collier. Photo: Aaron French

When did your interest in local food begin?

I spent part of my childhood on a small farm in Sacramento, where we grew all our own vegetables and fruit, and ate the eggs from the farm’s free-range chickens. Eating locally literally meant walking out the back door and harvesting dinner.

Where did the moniker eco-chef come from and what does it mean?

It was an insult by a co-worker at a hippie, student-run, super-crunchy, college collective called Che Café on the U.C. San Diego campus, where I worked when I got my undergraduate degree. One night, as we were cleaning up, I found myself separating the recycling from the trash. This was before recycling was routine. And my co-worker just wanted to get out of there and he said: “What are you, some kind of eco-chef?”

Years later, when I started cooking full-time, I decided to embrace the label as a positive thing. On the one hand, it means nothing really. But I’ve come to think of it as cooking in a way that supports local food systems and honors the people who raise our food sustainably and I incorporate those principals into everything I do, given the limitations I have.

I have to think about price point, so I don’t buy organic potatoes, for instance, I don’t pretend I do. I’m doing breakfast for about 10 to 12 bucks a plate per customer, so I have to work with that.

But Sunny Side was the first green-certified restaurant in Albany. We use quality local ingredients and humanely raised meats and eggs. My five-item food-miles menu, which makes up a third of our weekend business, calculates food miles, and is like my gateway drug to sustainability. I do as many things I can given what I have to work with.

Do you have culinary aspirations beyond being a breakfast chef?

The bar is pretty low for breakfast food so I actually find it’s really creative to work within the parameters of what you can do on a breakfast menu. I’m always looking for ways to increase the connections between ecology and food. That’s what keeps me going and inspires me. And the issues behind being “green” or “eco” or “sustainable” are all things I think about as I’m cooking on the line. I look forward to the day when none of us need to use these labels, which are buzzwords now, because they’re simply standard practice.

Aaron French and a panel of chefs and farmers featured in his book will discuss local, seasonal food at Berkeley’s Books Inc. tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25, at 7:00 p.m.

A version of this post originally appeared on Berkeleyside and was republished by Civil Eats.

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Cooking Breakfast at Bette’s Diner in Berkeley for 27 Years

Chef Darryl Kimble takes a break from behind the stoves to talk breakfast. Photo: Sarah Henry

In the restaurant business, chefs change jobs about as often as the lead in a Superbowl playoff. So to have stayed the course at one spot, worked your way up the ranks almost since the inception of a beloved eating institution, and still genuinely enjoy going to work every day, well, that’s worth noting.

Such is the case for Darryl Kimble, the manager at Bette’s Oceanview Diner on Fourth Street, which celebrates its 30th year in 2012. Kimble has been cooking there for 27 and a half years; he joined the kitchen crew at 19.

The perennially popular restaurant serves breakfast and lunch to an astounding 135,000 people a year, although it only sits about 50 inside.

The sign on Bette's counter says it all: the popular diner served 13% more customers in 2011 than in 2010

But diner regulars already know the place draws a crowd (just like they know there’s no ocean view). Wait times for a booth or table are a given, though counter seats turn over more quickly — early in the week anyway. Weekend waits can stretch beyond an hour.

Customers seem to take it in stride. Bette and Manfred Kroening own the diner, which has a ’50s feel by way of a ’30s Art Deco aesthetic. The menu features diner favorites: eggs any style, home fries, pancakes (including their signature soufflé pancakes), waffles, and sandwiches.

We’re not talking fancy-pants-artisanal cuisine, but familiar comfort food that transcends time and trends, though the Kroenings now grow much of the restaurant’s produce on their five-acre farm near Sebastapol. It’s there they harvest organic fruit, greens, and pumpkins for their popular pumpkin pancakes.

Kimble, 47, who lives in south-west Berkeley, usually works Thursday through Monday. We chatted at the diner on Tuesday (he was filling in for an employee), over a plate of spicy scramble and chai.

Can you walk us through your trajectory at Bette’s?

I started as a prep cook, did that for about five years, making soup, scones, and muffins. Then I moved to the back station — that’s where you make the sandwiches and salads — and then they moved me to the line on eggs. I used to work on the egg and bacon line at my previous job at the Shattuck Hotel, so I was comfortable with that. And then, reluctantly, I took over as a manager. I didn’t really want to, but Bette asked me, and so I said I would give it a try. That was about 12 years ago, maybe more.

A local landmark: Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley

What do you like about working at Bette’s?

The people I work with are friendly and cheerful. I like working for Bette and Manfred. They’re the best bosses you could have. I have freedom, I can talk with them with ease, they understand if I have a problem, or, if I want to change something on the menu, they go with it.

Everyone I work with is like family to me. I love the atmosphere here; it’s a relaxing, stress-free, and comfortable place.  And the people-watching is good.

What do you like about your customers?

They’re friendly, as well. We have really loyal customers. Some have been with us since the place opened and come in every day. We know their orders by heart.

Are there any challenges working at the diner?

Coming up with new specials every day, seven days a week is a challenge. We want to make dishes that nobody else is doing. We don’t want to copy others. That’s an important distinction about the diner: we do our own thing.

How has the food changed in the past three decades?

The breakfast is pretty much the same as it was in the beginning. But we have more specials now — like fish tacos and meatloaf — than in the past. When I first started, the restaurant used to serve dinner, which we no longer do. Dinner service stopped in the late 1980s. We use more organic produce now. Bette brings it from her farm, about half of the produce we use comes from there.

Regulars flock to Bette's for comfort food like pancakes

How have the customers changed over the years?

They’re still the same, just older, of course. Some of our newer customers ask for certain things and we try to accommodate, we get the gluten-free, the vegetarians, and the vegans. We get customers now who just ask for egg whites, which we can do. But if someone asks for Egg Beaters [an egg substitute], we tell them: “No, we don’t do that.” All our eggs are good and fresh, we get them from Petaluma Farms.

How do you handle people waiting to eat?

We’re used to it. We get a rhythm going and we just don’t pay no attention to how long the wait is because we do really well for how small our kitchen is. Our record is 541 covers in a day on a weekend.

Do you dine out in Berkeley?

I don’t go out for breakfast (I’m not a big breakfast person) but I do go out for dinner quite a bit. I go to Café Rouge. I like their hamburgers and they have an open bar. I also like Kirala — they have really good sushi. And Rivoli is one of my favorite places. It serves really fresh food at good prices.

How long do you see yourself working at Bette’s?

I know I’m going to make it to 30 years working here. Just to do it. I’ll be 50 then.

What else would you like to do?

I wish I could open my own place. I’d run a soul food-barbecue joint in Hawaii. I’ve been to Waikiki and the food is pretty bad. I’ve looked at places. But I probably will still be here.

This post originally appeared on Berkeleyside.

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Good Food Awards Berkeley-based judges: Dafna Kory (photo: Jeffery Kong); Michael Pollan (James Collier) and June Taylor (Leigh Connors)

Berkeley’s food mavens will likely be out in force tonight at the Good Food Awards at San Francisco’s Ferry Building and many of the judges for this annual event — sponsored by Seedling Projects and now in its second year — hail from this city’s gourmand ranks. But only one Berkeley name may find a place on the winners’ podium.

The concept behind this socially and ethically responsible food contest is to highlight “best in show” from five regions of the country in various edible categories. This year, prizes will go to makers of beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles, preserves, and — a new area — spirits.

At last year’s soirée — with a keynote address by restaurateur and sustainable food champion Alice Waters — three Berkeley winners emerged in the beer, charcuterie, and pickles categories.

This year, only one Berkeley product is a finalist out of 926 entries from 46 states — a repeat appearance for Café Rouge, which is in contention for a prize for its duck paté.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for the charcuterie we’ve produced for 15 years,” said Café  Rouge chef Rick DeBeaord. “We’re proud of our products; it feels good to be acknowledged by other food professionals for our work.”

But back to the arbiters of taste: more than a dozen judges from this side of the Bay served as blind tasters, and the list reads like a “who’s who” of Berkeley food legends and rising stars. A judge with Berkeley connections tasted in every category except coffee, and some of the adjudicator pairings make for interesting speculation about how things went down at judging time, which took place in October.

In one corner of a crowded food hub, author and Cal professor Michael Pollan shared a brew or two with Chez Panisse Café chef Cal Peternell. In another, chocolate aficionados Alice Medrich and John Scharffenberger compared cacao notes, and in yet another veterans such as Waters and preserver June Taylor sat at a table with up-and-comers like jammer Dafna Kory and chef Samin Nosrat. Also in the judging mix this time: The Local Butcher Shop‘s Aaron Rocchino, Sunny Side Café chef Aaron French, and Acme Bar owner Jennifer Seidman.

So what do judges look for? Each category has its own unique criteria, of course, but in general judges score on flavor, aroma, texture, appearance, and balance. “I think a really good product stands out easily,” said Dafna Kory, of INNA jam, who was a member of the preserves committee and judged the pickles category.

No argument from Aaron French there, who weighed in on cheese wheels. “We judged about 20 qualities for each cheese on both positive and negative scales.  The process was designed to be both comprehensive and tough,” said French. “Most cheeses were OK to good. Cheese making in particular is a tough craft, but there were a few exceptional ones that deserved to win an award.”

What does a winner label on a product mean for consumers? “Buying a food product off the shelf is a bit of a gamble. Unless you’ve tasted the product before, you don’t know whether you’ll like it or not,” said Kory.  “A Good Food Award winner label makes it clear that lots of other people who take taste seriously like this product. So chances are, you’ll probably like it too.” It also means the product has met strict sustainability criteria.

The impact of the label bling attached to a Good Food Award win is hard to measure. Meat man DeBeaord said that last year’s award for Café Rouge’s smoked beef tongue triggered a surge of interest in the product and the accompanying label in the first couple of months after the sticker showed up at the meat counter. But that product — like the duck paté — has always done well for Café Rouge.

At work in Berkeley's Cultured Pickle Shop which won a Good Food Award last year. Photo: courtesy Cultured

Similarly, over at Berkeley’s Cultured Alex Hozven said she puts the award sticker on her jars when she remembers (and the label is featured on the company’s website), but it hasn’t made a significant difference in sales of her spicy oregano purple carrots. That may be because she sells out of pretty much everything she makes anyway, and wasn’t able to take advantage of distribution offers that came her way (some with hefty percentage takes attached) after winning the award.

Hozven submitted products again this year — including chili paste, mustard greens, and sauerkraut — but came up empty handed, which she takes in stride, since tasting, after all, is a pretty subjective matter.

While grateful for the recognition, Hozven is not convinced it’s the best way to honor food artisans — or to judge a product either. “It’s a bunch of people eating pickle after pickle out of little plastic cups,” she said. “That’s not an ideal way to taste anyone’s product.”

This post originally appeared on Berkeleyside and was republished on The Bay Citizen.

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College students enjoy homemade food and create community. Photo: Courtesy CoFED

Taking matters beyond burritos, pizza, and beer, a boot camp for college food activists from across the country kicks off today at Berkeley Student Cooperative‘s Cloyne Court Hotel. The intensive, three-day retreat is designed to help train students who want to run campus co-op food cafés and stores stocked with wholesome foods for college kids seeking something other than a steady diet of fast food.

The event, dubbed “Occupy Your Plate,” is sponsored by the year-old Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED), a Berkeley-based program that was inspired by the launch of the Berkeley Student Food Collective (BSFC), across the street from campus on Bancroft Way. Speakers at the training include People’s Grocery executive director Nikki Henderson and cookbook author Mollie Katzen.  CoFED supporters include Cal professor and author Michael Pollan.

We spoke with CoFed co-founder and UC Berkeley graduate Yoni Landau — who was instrumental in getting the BSFC up and running and, in 2009, lead a protest to keep the Chinese fast-food chain Panda Express off campus – about what’s cooking with the CoFED crew this weekend and in 2012, which has been dubbed the International Year of Cooperatives by the United Nations.

What were some highlights from CoFED’s first year?

At the University of Seattle students secured a rent-free café space for a co-op cafe in their nutrition sciences department. At UC Santa Barbara, students received funds for a mobile-powered solar food cart. And at George Washington University in DC, CoFED training attendees won the top student enterprise grant on campus. These things happened within six months of these students being inspired to start a food co-op at a CoFED training.

Raising our first 200k, having Forbes.com list us as one of the top five ideas in food and sustainability, a Huffington Post nod, and electing the dream team board of directors was also pretty great.

Probably the most lasting highlight: when we had a one word, “how do you feel” check-out at the end of our very first workshop and the quiet kid said, “inspiregized.”

CoFED co-founder Yoni Landau. Photo: courtesy CoFED

Who is coming to the training this weekend?

College students from all over the U.S. and Canada who want to learn how to create cooperative, sustainable food enterprises will attend. They are grad students and freshmen, economics majors, geography majors, sustainable agriculture majors and nutrition sciences majors.

For the most part, they are ambitious, idealistic and won’t take no for an answer. They want to help the world around them get to a great big “yes.”

Why hold the training here in Berkeley?

If you want to learn how to play jazz, you go to New York — it’s not like that’s the only place that jazz is played. Berkeley is an incubator for the food movement.

Can you give us an update on the Berkeley Student Food Collective?

Sales have steadily grown at the new storefront towards break-even, leadership has turned over, the education and event planning is thriving.  Maybe most surprising: several fridges broke in the first month the store was open. At its November fundraising gala (and one-year anniversary for the store) over 100 people dropped 50 bucks a head to watch students sing the food co-op fundraising song (mainly a capella). They rule.

Are there other successful food co-ops on campuses around the country?

There are over two dozen examples on campuses in the US and Canada. Maryland’s Food Collective is one of our favorites. It’s been running since the ’70s, does over $700,000 in sales annually, and is a thriving part of the campus “scene.” Students can volunteer for an hour to get a local, organic lunch — it’s a low barrier of entry into the community.

How is CoFED funded?

Last year we got 115 people to commit to giving 10 or more dollars a month and it was a large part of our funding.  This year we’re going to triple that with 212 new monthly donors.

Much of the non-profit industrial complex will come down with crony capitalism. If we’re looking to create a new world, we have to build it on foundations that are aligned with our ends. Too many non-profits are stuck in foundation worship mode — it’s a death stroke if you ask me. Not that I’m not grateful, and I love spending time with these people, they’re usually pretty wonderful.

But in five years, we plan to be primarily funded by monthly supporters and the ownership shares paid by our members.

Berkeley's student co-op is across the street from campus on Bancroft Way. Photo: courtesy BSFC

What is going to happen over the weekend and what do you hope to achieve?

The magic that happens at these things is hard to pin down — young people leave changed. Part of that is the weird eye contact exercise and part of it is finally finding that community of real peers that they may never have had before. Part of it is definitely learning basic accounting and business planning. Our goal is to help students leave with the inspiration and tools to create the change they want to see on their campus in the form of a cooperative, sustainable food enterprise.

What does “Occupy Your Plate” mean to you?

By occupy, we mean to remove what we don’t like and create what we do like. Western, secular culture is the first human culture to lose its dinner-table rituals. Thousands of years of cementing cultural norms over food are basically gone with us. Bringing back gratitude, honesty and empathy to our most basic social function — eating with loved ones — is the most important thing we can do to shift our culture in a holistic way.

The occupy movement has reinspired us, or me at least. It hasn’t always been easy to make every decision based on my highest values; you want to take short cuts. My friends sleeping in the cold are reminders that you can’t take shortcuts to create a more democratic, just and sustainable world. You just have to do it.

There’ll be more on CoFED’s occupy stuff coming soon — here’s a hint though, we’re being outdone by Istanbul.

In this video Landau discusses CoFED’s mission on college campuses across the country.

This post originally appeared on Berkeleyside.

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Illustration: Copyright (c) Maira Kalman 2011. Reprinted with permission from The Penguin Press from FOOD RULES by Michael Pollan.

Whether we call them goals or intentions, it’s human nature that when January 1 rolls around we vow to be our best selves in the year ahead, and that often means taking a look at what — and how much — we eat.

Frequently, by February, mantras to eat less and cook more have fallen by the wayside. But it need not be so. In his recently re-released book Food Rules, Michael Pollan offers loads of commonsense kitchen wisdom that can help any eater make better choices.

Find out more in my story “Michael Pollan Shares His Food Rules: Simple Rules for Eating Right” for Diablo, a web extra to the magazine’s January issue.

Speaking of simple, I want to cook at home more and feed more friends in 2012 without fanfare (think less dinner parties and more sharing a meal). I started the year right, making a modest rice bowl, filled with brown rice, red quinoa, pickled ginger, nori, pink onion, curly kale, avocado, and tamari. It was satisfying and went over well.

How about you?

Happy 2012!

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11 Food-Related Goals for 2011

I’ve been so busy compiling “top food stories of 2011″ lists for KQED’s Bay Area Bites and Berkeleyside, I almost forgot to compile a similar list here. So, as 2011 comes to an end let’s take a trip through the Lettuce Eat Kale archives at, arguably, the year’s best blog posts (horn toot alert).

It’s been a different kind of year here at LEK, as regular readers may have noticed. I’ve had an abundance of paid freelance work (no complaints) and thus much less time to write original pieces for my own site. So, you’ll see some crossover on my end-of-year lists this year, as most of my working days have been devoted to turning stories for other outlets, which I reprint on LEK.

I do miss penning personal posts here, and I’d like to make it a goal for 2012 to try to do more such pieces, but given my lousy track record (see exhibit A) with New Year’s resolutions, consider it an intention rather than a guarantee, okay?

Some of this year’s LEK posts spurred lots of comments, others pointed to national trends or local enterprises, some profiled well-known people and their culinary pursuits, still others focused on little-known folks who worked without fanfare on worthy food causes. Some I picked for this list simply because something about the subject or person particularly resonated with me, and I hope it does with you too.

Feel free to check out a post you may have missed, chime in on your favorite piece, or comment on those featured in this list.

And don’t be shy about letting me know what you’d like to see more (or less) of on this site in the year ahead.

I am grateful to Berkeleyside, Civil Eats, and Bay Area Bites, for sharing my stories with a wider audience on a regular basis. Thanks, as well, to other outlets who have published my work this year, including AFAR, Bay Citizen, Eating Well, Edible East Bay, California, Diablo, Great Schools, Grist, San Francisco, and Shareable.

Here’s wishing you, my loyal readers, a healthy, well-read and well-fed 2012.

Top Ten LEK Highlights of 2011 (in no particular order)

1. Covering the business of food blogging: Two posts I wrote for Bay Area Bites struck a nerve with readers — or at least other food writers. Will Write for Food, Payment Preferable generated so much attention I was worried I’d win the underpaid, underappreciated food writer of the year honor (which, seriously, would be okay if there was a big check attached.) A post later in the year, So You Want to be a Successful Food Blogger? Here’s How., annoyed some male bloggers, spoke to others, and appeared in BAB’s top 5 viewed food posts of the year. Oh, and the irony of The Huffington Post (see Will Write for Food) choosing my seafood story as its first BAB feature was not lost on me.

Artisan preserver June Taylor. Photo: Sarah Henry

2. Interviewing dozens of food folks for Berkeleyside’s Friday food column: I’ve been so fortunate to have the chance to chat with some of the most enterprising people in my hometown who work in the food and farming world, as part of my weekly food series for Berkeleyside. Highlights this year (a baker’s dozen) include Q&As with gleaner Natasha Boissier, urban farmer Kim Allen, artisan preserver June Taylor, community activist Joy Moore, culinary couple Wendy Brucker and Roscoe Skipper, jam maker Dafna Kory, cooking instructor MikeC, pasta maker Eric Sartenaer, baker Eduardo Morell, cheese purveyor Cathy Goldsmith, ghee artisan Matteo Girard Maxon, and pop-up restauranteur Nigel Jones.

3. Having a whole lot of fun with Whole Foods Parking Lot: What can I say? Sometimes a story comes your way that is just a blast to write. That’s exactly what it was like with the viral hit Whole Foods Parking Lot in two stories also for Bay Area Bites, the first of which appeared in that site’s top 5 viewed food posts of the year as well. Bonus: The fact that Dave Wittman was a super sweet interview and the story earned me cool cred with my son and his friends.

These guys had fun at a vegan speed dating event. Photo: Karine Brighten

4. Going undercover to document the perils of speed dating with a food focus: Just as well I was on assignment for Berkeleyside for this one, because social anxiety might have prevented me from attending a speed dating event for vegans and vegetarians, if it wasn’t the subject of my food column for the very next day. As you’ll see, this night was not for the faint of heart — or the hungry.

Nikki Henderson of People's Grocery. Photo: Rick Gilbert

5. Continuing coverage of the food insecure: My social justice reporting roots had me ferreting out stories about people working to get affordable, healthy food to the hungry in our communities. I penned pieces on James Berk of Mandela Marketplace in Oakland who brings produce to his people, chef Andre Green, who feeds the homeless in Berkeley, and People’s Grocery executive director Nikki Henderson, who educates people in her community and beyond about food security matters. I also stayed on the school food beat and covered the opening of the first faith-based urban farm in my area, Urban Adamah, and reminded readers on Thanksgiving to give thanks for farmworkers, the people who pick our food, often under difficult and dangerous conditions.

6. Ongoing reporting of promising food phenomenons: This year saw the launch of several food swaps, crop swaps,  food book clubs, an heirloom produce resource sharing project, and community supported aquaculture, all of which were covered here.

Talking Head David Byrne and a waiter wearing one of his designs. Photo: Christina Diaz

7. Chronicling the adventures of Alice: It was all about Alice in August. Alice Waters that is, the local food icon whose landmark restaurant Chez Panisse celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with a series of fundraisers for her edible education programs. Personal paparazzi moment: Greeting rocker David Byrne and immediately introducing him to a surprised waiter wearing a T-shirt he designed to support the Edible Schoolyard, all for a photo opportunity. Phew! (Those pics were taken by Christina Diaz, the wonderful photog I collaborated with on several occasions this year. Working with such a talented photographer was a highlight in itself.)

Scenes from the film Toast, released this year in the U.S.

8. Reviewing food films and books: There was less time for these posts this year than in 2010, but I still managed to sneak in a story about Serve Yourself author Joe Yonan and his solo suppers. I also covered an intriguing conversation between Gabrielle Hamilton, who penned the popular Blood, Bones, and Butter, and New York Times writer Kim Severson (so much left unsaid). And I had a chat with Food Rules author Michael Pollan. On the film front, I reported on screenings of the documentary Corner Store, the pilot episode of the TV series Food Forward, the couple behind The Perennial Plate online video series, and Toast, the theatrical release of British author Nigel Slater’s memoir of the same name.

Snapshots from a Wild Onion farm dinner. Photos: Heidi Gross Sandvoll

9. Turning the infrequent original post here: On rare occasion I wrote a post that just appeared here — whether it was an homage to the humble potato, a report on a visit from Michelle Obama or the U.S. Surgeon General, a reflection on the simple pleasures of a country dinner, or a reprint of a previous post (this time with awesome images of my grandmother attached) on the joys of listening and leftovers.

10. Winning an award: I was delighted, surprised, and honored to receive this year’s Karola Saekel Craib Excellence in Food Journalism award in recognition of my food writing on LEK and elsewhere. The San Francisco chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international philanthropic society of female leaders in the culinary world, established the fellowship in honor of Karola Saekel Craib, the San Francisco Chronicle reporter whose writing helped to define food journalism as we know it. Saekel Craib died earlier this year.

The $2,000 award was presented by Saekel Craib’s daughter, Anne Craib, whom I connected with over excess backyard citrus and local gleaning efforts designed to share that surplus with those in need. The award check, which came with no strings attached, was immediately put to good use: I updated my website and bought my growing teen a bigger bed. Speaking of beds, compiling this list makes me feel tired. Time to take a nap.

And that, dear readers, was the year in food over here at Lettuce Eat Kale. Let me know below if you have a favorite LEK story from 2011.

Phoenix sells pasta, pastries, sauces and that olive bread at several farmers' markets.

It’s one thing to run a successful food business. But to have two edible start-ups do well, even in a food-friendly town, is quite an accomplishment in an industry known for slim profits and fickle customers.

That’s the case for couple Eric and Carole Sartenaer, who started off with a little bakery in Kensington called Semifreddi’s — ring any bells? — sold that for a tidy sum three years later, then departed to Oregon for seven years to run their own bakery before returning to the Bay Area in 1993.

Eric worked for Fat Apple’s in El Cerrito for two years, but he was eager to start another food business. So, in 1995, he set up shop, and later a restaurant, on Shattuck Avenue turning out fresh pasta at The Phoenix Pastifico. The company also makes a line of baked goods — cookies, macaroons, and biscotti  — as well as its signature olive bread and pasta sauces.

Now relocated to a small storefront with no sign in Strawberry Creek Park (next to Café Zeste), Phoenix Pastifico has a loyal following among farmers’ market regulars and some 200 local restaurants including Rivoli, Lalime’s, Bay Wolf, 900 Grayson, and Rick & Ann’s. Much of their wholesale business is in San Francisco, with such high-profile clients as Greens, Boulevard, and Farallon. Several local shops, including Star Grocery (bread), Berkeley Bowl (bread, pasta, sauce), and Berkeley Natural Grocery (biscotti) carry their products too.

The artisan baker’s macaroons earn high marks and the olive bread — with its flour-dusted, thick, dark crust, springy interior, and plump kalamata olives — has legions of fans. Picked up warm at the market, it doesn’t always make it home. Fresh pasta comes in flavors familiar and not, including black pepper rosemary, orange fennel, squid ink, porcini, and sweet pea.

A couple of less-well-known Phoenix facts: the bakers turn out a few different pizzas on Wednesdays and Thursdays available only at the Strawberry Creek location from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. And the owners trade or buy local residents’ Meyer lemons — a key ingredient for their popular lemon pastas.

A self-taught baker, 62-year-old Eric, who credits his Belgian grandmother for teaching him how to cook, took time out to chat in the park about his culinary career, which began with a six-year stint at the Cheeseboard from 1977-1983. In true team-player fashion, Carole, 61, filled in the gaps when Eric was called away. The couple live in West Berkeley with their son, 17, who attends Berkeley High School. Except for a short time caring for their then-infant, the two have worked side-by-side for almost 30 years.

Why pasta?

When I returned to the Bay Area I knew I wanted to start another food business but I wanted to do something other than baking. I had a lot of friends in the bakery business who I don’t think would have appreciated having me back baking. I’d tried some of the pastas around and I didn’t think that much of them, so I thought I could learn it, since it was basically combining flour and liquids.

Was it easy to switch from bread to pasta?

The learning curve for us — my sister who began the business with me and myself — took a little longer than we both expected. We made some bad pasta for a while and we had to throw it away, which was hard because we weren’t making any money and these were really quality ingredients. But eventually we got it. I started by learning how to make chestnut pasta, which is one of the hardest to learn. But that was the one that convinced me to take a chance on this business; the hand-made chestnut pasta I made practicing in my mother’s garage was that good.

Mike Detar sells Phoenix products -- and serves up recipe suggestions -- at the market

Was your pasta as big a hit as your bread at Semifreddi’s?

The pasta was not an overnight success. People weren’t initially convinced that they should pay more for fresh pasta over dry. At Semifreddi’s we had lines out the door and we often sold out. So we started baking as well because we needed to earn an income. We made Belgian Danish [pastries] for Peet’s, who were our first big client.

How did the restaurant come about and why did it close?

We bought the space next to us,  so we’d have another walk-in and storage space, because business was booming; at one point we had about 300 wholesale clients. But the expansion proved not to be necessary as it ended up being concurrent with the dot-com collapse. So then we thought we’d convert the space into a restaurant, to showcase our pasta. The restaurant was a beautiful thing, a labor of love for me. I’d always wanted my own place.

We opened in 2000 and we did well until we were kicked out in 2006, because one of the owners wanted to start a restaurant with one of his friends. But that venture only lasted four or five months. It was totally wrong for this area but they saw that we were busy and they thought they would be too. It’s now Corso.

What’s the back story behind the bread?

It came from someone who worked for me, who had learned it from a Sicilian baker in Seattle. He made it for us while he was here and, when he left, I asked if he would mind if I kept making it. He said: ‘I don’t mind but I’m not going to teach you how.’ So I made it myself, I changed it a bit, but I liked it well enough to learn how to bake it.

Do you eat dry pasta anymore?

Why? I don’t think I could go back to it, though I ate dry pasta for years. Dry pasta has been dry for a long time. Our pasta is a living food. And I think it’s fairly priced, given the cost of the ingredients, including organic flour.

Do you see yourself doing this for another ten years?

I like the business, always have, it’s exciting, it’s as close to theater as you can get, especially when you do a restaurant. It’s live entertainment, I like the open kitchen, I like the communication with the customers. I like to eat well. I’ll work with food for as long as I can. I’ll probably die on the job.

Is this a jointly run venture with your wife?

She’s as much the reason for our success as me, if not more. This is her story too. We wouldn’t be where we are today without her.

This post originally appeared on Berkeleyside. You might also like:

Cheese Board Collective: 40 Years in the Gourmet Ghetto
The Culinary Couple Behind Berkeley’s Rivoli and Corso
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I am Honoring: Served up at Cafe Gratitude, but not for long.

Update, 01.26.12: Café Gratitude co-owner Terces Engelhart announces that the Berkeley restaurant on Shattuck may not close after all. “Wanting to let you know that we are planning on being able to keep Berkeley Café Gratitude open!,” she writes in a January 24th email. Stay tuned.

Original story: Last week’s unexpected announcement that all eight Northern California Café Gratitude restaurants — including the one in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto — will close because of former employee legal action prompted a range of responses from readers and eaters from “I am Sad” to “I am Amused” to “I am Indifferent.”

The raw-and-cooked organic, vegan food chain, where every item on the menu is an affirmation that begins “I am…” prompted one wag on Twitter to comment that the naming convention in itself was actionable.

Citing “aggressive lawsuits,” owners Matthew and Terces Engelhart revealed the pending shuttering on Facebook and, later, on their website, a few days after Thanksgiving. “Although we believe that we have done nothing wrong and our policies are completely legal, it will cost us too much money to defend them in court,” read the Facebook message. The margins in the food business are notoriously slim and, the couple maintain, they simply don’t have the finances to fight a protracted legal battle.

Café Gratitude on Shattuck in the Gourmet Ghetto. Its closure will leave a gap in the restaurant district.

Café Gratitude has always had its devotees and its detractors. Some embrace the cafes’ concept, which celebrates abundance, espouses so-called sacred commerce, and encourages personal transformation. “It’s a magical place where you’ll have a completely different dining experience. Everyone is positive and happy,” said Berkeley’s manager Alice Liu in a Berkeleyside profile last year. “There’s a good vibe here. We believe you can be in business and treat your employees in a kind and caring way.”

Not everyone has warm and fuzzy feelings for the joint — and not just because of its New Age speak and cult-like following. There are currently two legal challenges. One lawsuit takes Café Gratitude to task for its allegedly illegal tip pooling practices. A second suit, filed by a former bookkeeper, is a claim for disputed unpaid overtime wages. No workers from the Berkeley location, which employs around 25, have filed suit to date.

An attorney for the plaintiff in the unpaid overtime dispute isn’t buying the pleading poverty defense from the Engelharts. “These are not huge cases. There’s no reason, financially, for them to close eight locations,” said attorney Stephen Sommers, to Chronicle‘s Inside Scoop, adding that the suit is unlikely to cost more than $200,000. “They are not closing these restaurants because of these lawsuits. There’s something else.” The lawyer didn’t speculate what exactly, but in the social media swirl following the announcement some suggested that the restaurants’ founders may not want to be subjected to discovery, where one’s dirty laundry might be exposed.

Owners Terces and Matthew Engelhart on their Be Love Farm in Vacaville.

But Terces Engelhart maintains it’s all about the money and that the speculation otherwise is based on “the incorrect information that it would only take $200,000 to settle these cases,” she told Berkeleyside. “The plaintiffs have said the cases are worth over $600,000. Defense costs could be over $200,000. If we lose, we would also have to pay plaintiffs’ attorney fees, which could be $400,000. We simply do not have resources sufficient to stay in business given these potential costs.”

Café Gratitude is no stranger to controversy. Last year the East Bay Express reported that a café employee was fired from a San Francisco location, in part for refusing to attend Landmark Education.

Regardless of how people feel about Café Gratitude’s philosophy (expansive self empowerment, mind-control cult, or something in between) many people who have actually eaten there appreciate the food. ”I’ve enjoyed working with Café Gratitude as a stop on my Gourmet Ghetto culinary tour for the past three years,” said Lisa Rogovin, owner of Edible Excursions. “I’m not saying Café Gratitude is everyone’s cup of tea, but on the whole people like the experience. I’ll miss their smoothies and corn tortillas and masa for the tamales from their Vacaville farm.  I’m sure it’s going to be a bummer for people with dietary restrictions who found they could eat everything on their menu.”

The Engelharts opened their first Café Gratitude in San Francisco’s Mission District in 2004; the Berkeley store followed soon after. Only the Los Angeles restaurant — popular with the celebrity set — will remain open, because it is under a separate ownership structure. A planned outpost in Kansas City (yes, you read that right), will also proceed under separate ownership, said Englehart.

The end of Café Gratitude leaves a gaping hole in the Gourmet Ghetto. “The association is sad to see Café Gratitude go. They have been an active and generous member of our business community,” said Heather Hensley, executive director of the North Shattuck Association. “Café Gratitude was also a great complement to our culinary scene, offering a unique menu and perspective on food. We hope another restaurant will fill the space soon.”

The prime Gourmet Ghetto spot makes it an attractive piece of real estate for another edible enterprise. “The Berkeley café had an offer on it earlier this week, which was rejected by the landlord,” Englehart told Berkeleyside, indicating that new offers are under consideration. Stay tuned.

This post originally appeared on Berkeleyside.

You might also like:

Giving Thanks with Cafe Gratitude
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Cheese Board Collective: 40 Years in the Gourmet Ghetto

Meet the Gilman Street Gals: Christine Falatico Frey, Anastasia Widiarsih, Clarine Hardesty. Not shown: Carolyn Wong

In a teeny tiny, dark commercial kitchen on a small shopping strip on Gilman Street in Berkeley’s Westbrae neighborhood, four full-time, female food artisans, and a few part-timers too, are turning out sweet baked goods that have earned them mad props in the Bay Area.

Think of these enterprising edible producers as the Gilman Street Gals. In the cast: Clarine Hardesty, of Clarine’s Florentines, who holds the lease to the kitchen, which is co-owned by Bob Kelso of Toot Sweets down the block. Joining her behind the stoves: seasoned wedding and specialty cake maker Carolyn Wong, whose signature style is simple, elegant, and artistic. Also in the mix is Anastasia Widiarsih, herself no slouch on the designer cake front, whose main focus these days at Indie Cakes & Pastries is baking scones, cookies, and cakes for wholesale café clients, including Saul’s Delicatessen + Restaurant. Relative newbie in the kitchen crew: Christine Falatico Frey of CiCi’s Italian Butterhorns; her sugary, buttery, cinnamon walnut cookies are featured holiday picks in the December issue of Diablo magazine – along with Clarine’s Florentines and June Taylor‘s christmas cake.

It’s refreshing to encounter a group of women bakers — some with extensive culinary chops, others with more modest home-cooking origins — who get along, help each other out, and have found friendship in an industry better known for its cut-throat competitiveness.

One of Carolyn Wong's creations.

Carolyn Wong has the longest culinary resumé and the shortest commute. The North Berkeley resident can walk to the kitchen, where she’s been baking for the past two years, if she’s not hauling dry goods to work. “I began in this business over 25 years ago when it was mostly men in restaurants and bakeries; all that testosterone is not necessarily a bad thing,” said the 54-year-old, who ran her company from a commercial kitchen in Emeryville before Pixar bought the block.

“But I do enjoy working in a place where everyone genuinely likes each other and is super supportive.” With a degree in art from UC Berkeley, cooking apprenticeships in France, and culinary experience in fine-dining hotels and restaurants in the Bay Area, Wong has a rep as a pastry chef with creative flair, whose cakes have bridal publications buzzing about their craftsmanship, color, and style.

Frey, 48, is a former stay-at-home mom from Lafayette who launched her butterhorn business when empty nest syndrome hit after her two children went off to college. “I just felt like it was my time,” said the self-taught chef, who learned to cook sweet and savory Italian fare from her Nana. Much to her delight, CiCi’s has become a family affair: Frey’s daughter helps with baking, her son maintains her web presence and marketing, and her husband packs product and schleps boxes.

Cici's Italian Butterhorns: Doing bumper business over the holidays.

Her co-workers have chipped in to lend a hand too. “I’ve learned so much from the women in this kitchen,” said a grateful Frey, who has seen demand for her product take off in just over a year of operation. (Find her cookies locally at The Pasta Shop, Star Grocery, and Country Cheese Coffee Market; $9.99 for eight.) “The day Carolyn came in with chef’s clothes for me and said: ‘you made the cut and I didn’t think you would’ (I knew she’d been watching me) was a really big day for me. She’s excellent at what she does, a true master. It meant a lot to get that kind of acknowledgment from her.” Frey says the more experienced chefs have helped her with everything from labeling and licensing advice to weighing out ingredients and dealing with dough disasters.

Anastasia Widiarsih makes cookies like these for local cafés.

Widiarsih, who grew up in Indonesia where her mother ran her own at-home baking business, began her independent culinary career as a specialty cake maker too. Despite her own impressive pastry chef credentials and training, she was a bit nervous  about working in a kitchen that included Carolyn Wong, whom she called a legend in the wedding cake world.

But such concerns fell away quickly, Widiarsih said, when everyone got down to work. Today, much of her business has morphed into serving the wholesale market. She makes chocolate chip and salted chocolate cookies, along with carrot cake, mocha chocolate cake, and cheesecake, for Saul’s.  “I feel at home in this kitchen, which is just as well, because I spend a lot of time here. I work seven days,” said the 37-year-old single mom, who lives in Oakland and has baked on Gilman Street for a few years now. Tacy Traverso, Saul’s general manager said of her cookies and cakes: “We strive to support small, local business owners who are working hard to do what they love.”

Another holiday favorite: Clarine's Florentines

Hardesty, who also hails from Indonesian heritage and a family of female bakers, hand picks who comes to work in the kitchen, in consultation with the other full-time chefs. She’s careful to select candidates who have like-minded values (made-from-scratch cooking with quality ingredients) and similar cooking needs. All the artisans are wary of sharing quarters with anyone who favors pungent spices — cross contamination with garlic or chili can ruin a delicate buttercream — which is one reason why INNA jam‘s Dafna Kory worked the night shift at the kitchen when she rented space here, so her jalapeno-infused preserves didn’t affect the smell or taste of other people’s products.

A former 2nd-grade school teacher, Hardesty, 35, also from Lafayette, has handed off the actual making of her florentines, a chocolate-covered Italian specialty, to chef Gerardo Gonzales (the only man in the bunch) and his sister Maria, without any hiccups in the kitchen. Gonzales gets along well with and assists the other chefs. Hardesty, who began her baking business four years ago, manages the marketing of her company and keeps on top of kitchen concerns (when a freezer breaks, she’s the one people call). Her sweet treats ($10 for six) are sold locally at The Pasta Shop, Berkeley Bowl on Oregon Street, and Star Grocery.

The camaraderie among these women continues outside the kitchen, with quick lunches at nearby Tiny Thai, Picante, and Vik’s, and birthday celebrations over meals further afield, including Ad Hoc in Yountville, Hawker Fare in Oakland, and Sea Salt across town. “There’s great chemistry and kindness among our group,” said Frey. “I think we’ll stay friends beyond our kitchen time together.”

In such a small space there are, of course, challenges. Work stations are tight and it can be tough if someone needs to stretch out to meet a big order. Storage and fridge space is at a premium too. And with only two convection ovens, there’s a need to negotiate so everyone gets their goodies cooked. All four women said that there isn’t a strict oven schedule, they simply communicate and everyone tries to accommodate. Somehow everything gets baked on time. It helps that Wong’s peak period — typically spring and summer — doesn’t conflict with the winter holiday production push that Frey and Hardesty encounter. Still, some among the current kitchen crop may need to move on to larger quarters as ramped up demand dictates.

But for now, it works. At the end of the day, from Wong’s perspective, it’s not worth getting stressed about obstacles that do arise. “It’s just food. As a society we seem to have put a greater value on it,” said the former college culinary teacher. “There’s nothing very glamorous about what we do. It’s just really hard work.”

“I tell the others: Do it because you love it, not for the money. I don’t think any of us in creative fields — chefs, artists, writers — should go into it thinking we’ll make a bunch of money. For every Brad Pitt there’s an actor who can’t get hired. Likewise, for every Rachel Ray there’s someone toiling anonymously in a kitchen — usually an immigrant — who isn’t getting any recognition and is working two jobs.”

For these four small-batch bakers producing a quality product in a convivial atmosphere that has found an appreciate audience makes the physical demands, long hours, and cramped conditions worthwhile.

This post originally appeared on Berkeleyside.

You might also like:

June Taylor’s Artisan Way With Fruit
Jam Maker Dafna Kory Turns Hobby Into Thriving Business
The Artisan Kitchen in Richmond: A Co-op Cooking Space
A Family Recipe Becomes a Business: Mamie & Makhi’s Sweet Potato Pie
Alice Medrich’s Sweet Life