UC Berkeley’s Saru Jayaraman, on a mission to improve the working conditions of restaurant employees around the country, is the author of Behind the Kitchen Door.

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Sodium Girl Jessica Goldman Foung Finds Flavor Sans Salt

March 3, 2013 bay area bites

Sodium Girl Jessica Goldman Foung finds flavor without the salt shaker.

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A Cuban-American Chez Panisse Chef Explores Her Roots

March 1, 2013 bay area bites

A Cuban-American line cook talks about her recent trip to Cuba as part of a Chez Panisse connected culinary diplomacy tour.

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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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Argentine Chef Francis Mallmann Plays with Fire

January 29, 2013 food books

An interview with iconic Argentine chef Francis Mallmann who taps into fire’s feminine side.

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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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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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Acupuncturist Finds Bliss in Seasonal Food

October 8, 2012 berkeley bites

Nishanga Bliss, author of Real Food All Year, on eating seasonally and well.

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Chez Panisse Chefs Head to Cuba, Public Welcome

August 8, 2012 berkeley bites

A crew from the acclaimed Chez Panisse restaurant are headed to Cuba later this year — and the public are invited to join this cross-cultural, culinary expedition.

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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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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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Homegrown Truths From Chef Aaron French

January 24, 2012 berkeley bites

Sunny Side Cafe chef Aaron French explains why he thinks local, seasonal, sustainable food is important for people and the planet in The Bay Area Homegrown Cookbook: Local Food, Local Restaurants, Local Recipes.

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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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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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Farm-to-fork Tours Spotlight Local Green Businesses

September 24, 2011 berkeley bites

Bay Area Green Tours introduces people to local, successful, sustainable farm and food enterprises.

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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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The Culinary Couple Behind Berkeley’s Corso and Rivoli

May 28, 2011 berkeley bites

Chef Wendy Brucker and Rosco Skipper, who together own Rivoli and Corso in Berkeley, on the joys of running a restaurant with your ex.

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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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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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Josh Thomsen Gathers Local Talent for Berkeley Wine Fest

March 11, 2011 berkeley bites

Josh Thomsen, executive chef of the swanky Claremont Hotel, Club, and Spa in Berkeley, teams up with local cooking talent for this year’s Berkeley Wine Festival.

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Organic Food Cafes: Emerging or Established Trend?

February 7, 2011 bay area bites

Taking stock of the organic eatery trend with panelists (and owners) at the recent EcoFarm Conference.

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Ten Top Food News Stories of 2010: Part Two

January 3, 2011 bay area bites

Highlights from the 2010 food news files: food security, new york food, animal food, sweet food, virtual food.

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Giving Thanks with Cafe Gratitude

November 24, 2010 berkeley bites

An interview with the general manager of Berkeley’s Cafe Gratitude, a Bay Area chain with its devotees and its detractors.

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Alice Waters’ 40 Year Campaign for Good Food

October 22, 2010 bay citizen

The mother of the modern food movement talks about her lifelong edible adventure, feeding children well, and teaching people to cook.

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Veteran Restauranteur Dishes up Recipe to Success

September 24, 2010 berkeley bites

Chef-owner Michael Wild of BayWolf in Oakland reflects on his 35 years of success in the fickle food world.

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Fearless Critic Brings Blind Tasting To UC Berkeley

September 17, 2010 berkeley bites

Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better? Not necessarily so says Fearless Critic Robin Goldstein, who continues his research into how price and marketing impact people’s palate in blind tasting research at UC Berkeley.

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Berkeley Bites: Elmwood Cafe Feeds People and Funds Worthy Projects

September 3, 2010 berkeley bites

A decade ago, and fresh out of North Carolina, Kara Hammond landed a gig at Cafe Fanny, a tiny slip of a place in North Berkeley opened 25 years ago by, oh, a certain famous local chef. Hammond, who had run a homespun bakery in Greensboro, wanted to get some kitchen experience in the Bay [...]

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Berkeley Bites: Tu David Phu, Saul’s Delicatessen

August 20, 2010 bay citizen

What’s a nice, young, tattooed Vietnamese boy from West Oakland doing as the top chef in a Jewish deli in North Berkeley?

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Slow Food Folks Serve Fast Food with Style

August 6, 2010 berkeley bites

Chef owners Paul Arenstam and Charlene Reis have a slow food sensibility in a take-out business better known for fast food. That’s because the culinary couple (partners in life too) come with stellar cooking credentials: She’s an-ex Chez Panisse pastry chef, he did stints at upscale L.A. joints before landing at San Francisco’s acclaimed Rubicon. [...]

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Epicurean Concierge Leads Food Lovers Through Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto

July 23, 2010 berkeley bites

What you can expect on a food tour of Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto with an epicurean concierge. Great eats — and a celeb sighting too.

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Learning to Love the ‘hood on Foot: One Edible Adventure at a Time

July 22, 2010 berkeley bites

Getting to know the edible offerings in my neighborhood, on foot.

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Berkeley Bites: Christopher & Veronica Laramie, eVe

July 16, 2010 berkeley bites

This culinary couple met cute at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, no less. He followed up his gastronomical studies with a stage at the prestigious Georges Blanc (three star Michelin) outside of Lyon, then the two headed to Miami, got married, and went to work at posh nosh spots in South Beach; Blue Door for [...]

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Berkeley Bites: Samin Nosrat, Ex-Eccolo Chef & Co-Creator of the Pop-Up General Store

June 25, 2010 berkeley bites

A profile of the fleeting food market co-founder Samin Nosrat, a poster girl for the current culinary reinvention trend.

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Farmer Jane: Females in the Fields

May 4, 2010 civil eats

A queen of green focuses her first book on female farmers, a subject author Temra Costa comes to organically. Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, grew out of Costa’s career in sustainable food, and her passion for eating locally and seasonally.

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Marvelous Mushrooms

February 17, 2010 comfort food

Regular readers may recall that every so often I get a bee in my bonnet about a particular kind of produce. Persimmons come to mind. Brussels sprouts too. No surprise that a blog named Lettuce Eat Kale showcases a certain dark, leafy green, whether roasted or dehydrated. Today, mushrooms get their due. Recently, I’ve become [...]

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Valentine's Day Dining Out: Just Say No

February 12, 2010 food flotsam & jetsam

Allegedly, this coming weekend is a good one for amore. That’s debatable, of course, depending on how your love life is looking. What’s indisputable: It’s a great weekend for restaurants. This year, Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday, so presumably there’s a wider window (tonight might be a tad early, but tomorrow or Sunday works) of [...]

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Sprouts Cooking Club: Growing the Next Generation of Chefs

February 1, 2010 baking

It took a teenager from Wyomissing, PA who had never heard of Alice Waters to figure out what was missing on the culinary scene in Berkeley. When Karen Rogers landed at UC Berkeley in 2005 she couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a cooking club on campus. So she started one. But the Cal Cooking Club [...]

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Book Giveaway: My Nepenthe

November 13, 2009 baking

It’s always tricky to write about a pal’s book, you don’t want to come off sounding like a fawning friend, frankly. So, in the case of My Nepenthe by Romney “Nani” Steele, I’m going to let others hand out the praise. Sunset describes Nani’s cookbook-cum-memoir as “a valentine to one of the most beautiful places [...]

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Six Reasons to Eat in Sydney and Beyond

October 20, 2009 restaurant food

Indulge me, if you will, just one more vacation/holiday post before it’s back to regularly scheduled programming. Well, as any of you who head home for the holidays know, spending time with your family and friends in your hometown is technically not a vacation. In my mind it’s a visit, a way to keep connected [...]

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Friendship by the Numbers

October 9, 2009 restaurant food

5 gals 2 become firm friends at age 8 12 the age we all get together and become great mates 4 years tanning our legs along the C block wall 7 countries, 4 continents 5 marriages 4 partners from overseas 3 exes 1 20-year union 10 babies, ranging in age from 3 to 18 1 [...]

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What Kind of Diner Are You?

September 17, 2009 restaurant food

I’d make a lousy restaurant reviewer. Here’s why: When I go out to eat I often choose the same dishes I know and love at a favorite eatery. If I’m trying a new (to me) joint, I’ll opt for recommendations from friends or scan reviews before hitting the dining spot to find the best picks [...]

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Simply Delicious

September 16, 2009 comfort food

Dudley’s Rhythm & Motion dance class on Sunday. Yogurt, granola, and berries for breakfast — topped off with a fig, no less — from around the corner at the architecturally splendid Stable Cafe, once the site of the San Francisco mayor’s carriage house in the 1800s, now adding some sparkle to an otherwise scruffy stretch [...]

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