From the category archives:

food businesses

Oakland’s Flourishing Food Scene

May 22, 2013 edible east bay magazine

Four more reasons to eat in Oakland.

Coming Soon: A Supermarket in West Oakland

April 15, 2013 bay area bites

People’s Community Market, projected to open in West Oakland in the fall of 2014, is inching closer to full funding. Brahm Ahmadi explains to Sarah Henry why the supermarket has been a long time coming and what local residents can expect.

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Commercial Community Kitchens: Trending Now

February 19, 2013 baking

Commercial kitchens with a community focus are popping up all over. Read about three with distinct flavors of their own.

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Troubled Waters: Efforts Underway to Save Oysters

November 30, 2012 civil eats

Ocean acidification is killing baby oysters. But farmers and scientists are teaming up to save briny bivalves.

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Hana Fresh Feeds the Food Insecure in Paradise

November 15, 2012 farmers' markets

A nonprofit farm, farm stand, and medical center seeks to improve the health of Native Hawaiians in an isolated hamlet in Maui.

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Maui Rides Another Culinary Wave

November 1, 2012 baking

Maui’s culinary scene is thriving — thanks to homegrown chefs and farmers with a focus on local food. A report from the field.

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The East Bay’s Artisan Food Producers

October 22, 2012 baking

The people and craft behind the East Bay’s artisanal food movement.

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Good Eggs Goes Beyond the Produce Box

September 27, 2012 baking

A new start-up connects local food artisans with a public hungry for good grub grown and produced closed to home. Meet the good eggs behind Good Eggs.

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Preserving Excess Bounty

September 7, 2012 canning & preserving

Canning guru Merrilee Olson on CAM FoodWorks’ busy first year in the kitchen.

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Rogue Cafe: Backlash in Berkeley Over Backyard Brunch

August 3, 2012 bay area bites

Care for a little controversy with your morning coffee and scrambled eggs? The renegade Rogue Cafe comes under fire.

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Why Sustainability Matters in the Restaurant Business

July 26, 2012 bay area bites

The head of sustainability for the Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich restaurant empire dishes on what her job entails — and offers a rebuttal to critics who sniff at whether sustainability discussions belong in the culinary world.

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What’s Cooking with Sustainable Seafood?

May 20, 2012 edible east bay magazine

Find the latest on sustainable seafood practices — along with seafood cookbook recommendations, recipes, and advice on choosing sustainable seafood too — in the summer issue of Edible East Bay magazine.

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Culture Clash: D.I.Y. Yogurt vs. Mass Market

April 20, 2012 food businesses

Yogurt is becoming an increasingly popular item at the grocery store, though some eaters are opting to make their own or find artisan varities without additives.

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Kickstarter Food: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

March 30, 2012 food businesses

Kickstarter earned its reputation as the go-to place for up-and-coming filmmakers, gamers, and designers looking for funds. But increasingly it’s become a hub for those in the sustainable, local food scene seeking cash for their creative pursuits.

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FoodWorks: Canning Company Preserves Marin’s Produce

March 11, 2012 bay area bites

Canning queen Merrilee Olson lends her expertise to a new preservation project designed to help Marin farms — and county children fed by the Head Start program — by producing an artisan product from excess produce.

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Latin Flavors Lie at the Heart of Casa de Chocolates

February 29, 2012 berkeley bites

Two Chicanas join forces to share their love of Mexican chocolate with distinctive Latin flavors.

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Marc Kelly Dishes on the Story Behind Berkeley’s Soop

February 20, 2012 berkeley bites

One man’s mid-life crisis, another person’s comfort food. Get the back story on Soop, nourishing customers for six years.

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The Boxcar Grocer: Rethinking the Corner Store

February 3, 2012 civil eats

A brother and sister team up to provide fresh food in a cool setting in an Atlanta neighborhood long lacking in good grub.

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Latinas Share Wealth in Food and Farming

January 26, 2012 farmers' markets

Call it Latin influence: A growing group of successful Latina entrepreneurs are serving as role models for the next generation of food artisans and farmers with Latin roots.

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

January 20, 2012 berkeley bites

Chef Darryl Kimble cooks eggs, pancakes, and waffles at a popular diner in Berkeley for almost 30 years.

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Good Food Awards Tap Local Judges for National Contest

January 13, 2012 bay citizen

The second annual Good Food Awards highlights “best in show” of sustainable, craft products from around the country — judged by many of Berkeley’s well-known food mavens.

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Best Blog Posts from the 2011 Lettuce Eat Kale Archives

December 28, 2011 baking

Wherein we look back at the stories of 2011 on LEK, pick the best of the bunch, and then take a nap.

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Farmers’ Market Favorite Phoenix Pastificio

December 21, 2011 baking

Phoenix Pasta is popular among restaurant chefs and farmers’ market customers for its pastries, olive bread, and, of course, pasta in flavors both familiar and not.

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What’s Behind the Cafe Gratitude Closure, What’s Next?

December 12, 2011 berkeley bites

Cafe Gratitude announces it’s shuttering all its Bay Area locations due to pending legal action against the vegan-raw restaurant.

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Gilman Street Gals Cook Up Sweet Treats in Berkeley

December 2, 2011 baking

Four women who share a small commercial kitchen space talk about their pastry products and why they enjoy working together.

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The Bread Project: Cooking up a Future for People in Need

September 30, 2011 baking

A profile of the Bread Project in Berkeley, which provides basic culinary training for low-income job seekers who want to find jobs in the food field.

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Hush Supper Club Quietly Reveals Spicy Secrets

August 14, 2011 bay area bites

The popular Washington. D.C. underground dinner, Hush Supper Club, serves up a trio of dinners in the Bay Area this summer. Find out what’s on the menu at these spicy salons.

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Cooking Camps for Kids: Top Chefs and Solar Ovens

July 31, 2011 berkeley bites

Summer cooking camps teach young food lovers how to make pasta from scratch, what happens when you don’t follow a recipe, and the value in working as a team in the kitchen.

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On the Corner: Berkeley’s Convenience Store Owners

July 25, 2011 berkeley bites

Meet the people who run corner stores in Berkeley. Find out where they’re from, what they sell, and their hopes for the future.

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First Lady, Food Deserts & New Fund for Hungry

July 21, 2011 bay area bites

First Lady Michelle Obama announces a new food financing initiative designed to increase access to healthy, affordable food in underserved communities in California.

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Sustainable Seafood: New and Noteworthy Resources

July 12, 2011 bay area bites

Choosing sustainable seafood can be challenging for consumers. Some resources to help take the guesswork out of tricky, fishy business.

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Cheese Board Collective: 40 Years in the Gourmet Ghetto

July 8, 2011 baking

A profile of a beloved anchor institution in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto, The Cheese Board Collective, which paved the way for other food enterprises and spawned other food cooperatives in the area.

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Chef Banks White on Chez Panisse, Berkeley Food Scene

June 20, 2011 berkeley bites

Chef Banks White of restaurant Five on staging at Chez Panisse, cooking for the Berkeley crowd, and missing good barbecue.

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Off the Grid & Bites on Broadway: Food Trucks Debut in East Bay

May 31, 2011 bay area bites

Food truck hubs are setting up shop in the East Bay this summer. Off the Grid opens in North Berkeley June 1; Bites on Broadway begins in Oakland June 10.

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Berkeley’s Kitchen on Fire Booms During Economic Bust

May 27, 2011 berkeley bites

Cooking classes at Kitchen on Fire in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto really took off when the economy took a nose dive.

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Slow Restaurant in Berkeley Finds Fast Following

May 18, 2011 berkeley bites

Meet Kyle Anderson, the chef behind Slow Restaurant, a low-key eatery dishing up good food fast in Berkeley.

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The Artisan Kitchen in Richmond: A Co-op Cooking Space

May 10, 2011 baking

The Artisan Kitchen, a cooperative kitchen in Richmond, California, serves as an incubator for budding food businesses in the Bay Area.

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Ghee Artisan Sets up Shop in Berkeley

May 6, 2011 berkeley bites

Matteo Girard Maxon makes artisan ghee for Ancient Organics, the old fashioned way: During the waxing moon, with a mantra playing in the background, in small batches by hand. Find out why.

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James Berk of Mandela Foods Brings Produce to His People

May 4, 2011 civil eats

A profile of a young West Oakland man who decided to do something about the lack of good, affordable food in his community. Meet James Berk, one of the owner-workers of the Mandela Foods Cooperative.

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Pop-up Restaurants Popping Up Around Berkeley

April 29, 2011 berkeley bites

The pop-up restaurant phenomenon pops up around Berkeley.

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Beyond Produce: Other Edible CSAs Bring Mixed Results

April 22, 2011 baking

Can the CSA model work for food artisans as well as farmers?

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Mission Reinvention: Food Businesses Buck Recession

April 11, 2011 bay area bites

Edible entrepreneurs in San Francisco’s Mission District find creative ways to sell food during hard financial times.

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Produce for the People at Berkeley Bowl

March 18, 2011 berkeley bites

Berkeley Bowl produce picker Nick Christopher on the joys of kale salad, winter citrus, and Tokyo turnips — and why he doesn’t eat bananas.

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From Psych Ward to Bagel Mensch

February 25, 2011 berkeley bites

Noah Alper overcame obstacles early in life and went on to run a wildly successful West Coast bagel business, Noah’s Bagels. He shares lessons learned from his successes in a recent book.

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