The guy who invented "the pill"

So today I had the strange experience of meeting the guy who invented the birth control pill. In addition to running Chef's Lover Catering I am also a Maitre'd at the Hayes Street Grill, and today for lunch a super old guy came in. After I seated him the owner came up and informed me that that was the man who invented "the pill." On his way out of the restaurant I said "on behalf of women, I thank you for your invention." He smiled and winked and was out the door. Honestly, the pill has been around for a while and I had no clue that the guy who invented it was still breathing- but it goes to show you that you never know who's going to walk through the door of your restaurant!

The Chef on View From the Bay!

Hey there,

See the Chef for yourself on View From the Bay, he cooked an amazing dish from the Yucatan called Cochinita Pibil click on the link below to see him working it!
Alex on View From the Bay

For more information about having the Chef cater an event for you, please check us out at Chef's Lover Catering www.chefslovercatering.com We hope to hear from you soon.

Chef Alex on TV!!

The chef himself will be on View From the Bay tomorrow afternoon 11/10 at 3pm on ABC channel 7 cooking a very traditional dish from the Yucatan called Cochinita Pibil. This dish is close to his heart because it holds in it a lot of the history of his Mexican culture. He feels like those incredible flavors should be celebrated and not forgotten! Just imagine that this incredible chef could be cooking for you! visit www.chefslovercatering.com to learn more

Sabor of Spain Dinner

The conversation:
Dad- "hold on, I gotta order lunch. I'll have a goat cheese and pear salad and lentil soup. Margot are you still there?"
Margot- "Yeah i'm here, where did you get that it sounds delicious."
Dad- "oh you know Maiden Ln? Some little lunch place over here."
Margot-"wait the Maiden ln. in San Francisco?"
Dad- "yeah, didn't you get my email?"
Margot- "uh obviously not..."
Dad- "let me check... oh I just got an email from Matt Kenney I guess i've been sending him all of my emails to you."
Margot- "great"
Dad- "well, what are you guys up to tonight?"
Margot- "we have a media dinner in Marin... uh you wanna come?"
Dad- "ok, sure sounds like fun"

So that was the premise for bringing my dad to the dinner at Sabor of Spain, he had a great time we got him nice and tipsy before his redeye cross country flight. Sabor of Spain is a gorgeous restaurant in San Rafael. The chef paired an exquisite menu with fantastic old and new world wines for a spectacular preview of his creations for the film festival.

The first course was a gold beet, fennel and red onion salad with sweet sherry vinaigrette. This was paired with Altas Cumbres Viognier 2007 Argentina. The salad was light and fresh, the beets had a wonderful sweetness that was complimented by the sherry vinaigrette. The Viognier was lovely, light with light notes of citrus. I was thrilled to see Argentine wines on the menu as they are my current obsession.

The second course was lemon infused bosc pear wrapped in jamon serrano and a basalmic reductio. The wine was Pares Balta Blanc de Pacs 2008 Spain. The pear was crisp and lovely with just a hint of sweetness and the jamon serrano had a delicately salty quality that balanced the dish wonderfully. The balsamic reduction added just the right hint of acidity. I found the Blanc de Pacs to not be as successful. It tasted vaguely like flat champagne and lacked flavor. It was a very one note wine for a lovely multilayered dish.

The third course was chicken/chorizo/ginger won tons with sweet sour pimenton dipping sauce. They were paired with a Monte Oton Garnacha 2008 Spain. The won tons were delicious and had a melt in your mouth quality. the chorizo and ginger gave it a nice spice and the dipping sauce was also delicious if slightly reminiscent of a plum or barbecue sauce. The Garnacha was lovely and light with a hint of spice as well that was a lovely compliment to the won tons. I could picture a happy evening of watching a Law & Order marathon in my PJs popping these won tons. In that sense they were delicious and playful but lacked sophistication and refinement. With a bit of work on presentation and execution this could be a very successful dish.

The fourth course was spicy marinated skirt steak with basil oil and cabrales blue cheese. This was paired with an intense and delicious Terrapura Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Chile Venganza de Diablo. The steak was cooked to perfection and was very nice with the blue cheese which I don't typically like. I didn't detect much spice to the dish but there were lovely subtle flavors that seemed to play around on my palate. The Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon was incredible. The depth and layers of flavors enveloped my senses the way that lovely ballsy reds tend to do. This was a wine that lingered on the palate demanding to be recognized and remembered. What was shocking to me was the 2008 vintage. I have been disappointing in the past with recent vintage Cabs mainly from the Napa Valley. They have a very unnerving tannic quality that makes your tongue feel like its made of velvet. This Chilean Cab was silky smooth with lovely strong qualities that earned it the title "Venganza de Diablo." This dish breathed sophistication and the chef's depth of understanding of flavors and pairing.

The final course was an incredibly rich espresso chocolate mousse with rosemary infused strawberry coulis/marscapone cream. This delight was paired with a Favaios Moscatel de Duoro Portugal. The mousse was pure decadence. Layer upon layer of flavors, unfortunately the one that I was unable to detect however was the rosemary in the strawberry coulis. The moscatel was far to syrupy and sweet for me, I have never had much of a sweet tooth and this pairing took me far beyond my threshold for sweetness. I think that separately the mousse and the moscatel would be lovely but together they were too much for me.

Overall Sabor of Spain was a wonderful experience, the one question that nagged at the back of my mind was why not call it Sabor de Espana? However that is a personal thing that links back to the fact that I am a massive dork of all things Spanish or Latin American. I would recommend Sabor of Spain without hesitation. It is a lovely restaurant with a very intelligent chef. This shines through in his wonderful interpretation of the flavors of Spain.

Blue Angles @ Aloha

Da boys at Aloha have done it again! Amazing party yesterday for the Blue Angles. Unfortunately the Blue Angles couldn't be bothered to do more then a 5 minute fly-through but the BBQ was a blast. Imagine barbecuing at a seafood company, the freshest most delicious seafood you could fathom keeps getting pulled out of the walkin! It was seriously badass. From live shrimp (oh yes, pull off the head & legs as it squirms and eat it raw) to fresh Dungeness Crab thrown on the grill (so sweet and tender) to squid, bluefish, Arctic Char, Rock Cod.... I could go on. It was a amazing. Next week Mitch will meet with Alex & I at Cumulus Radio and possibly set up a radio spot on KNBR, the Bone or KFOG. We are so thrilled to work with these guys, because we care about the integrity of product and we KNOW you care where your seafood is coming from. Aloha helps us at Chef's Lover Catering do our part to minimize the negative effect we have on our oceans by using Environmentally Safe & Sustainable Seafood. Thanks boys it was a blast!!

Our Photographer

The Chef & I just came back from a meeting at Heaven's Dog with a Photographer named Craig Lee. Craig was the lead Food & Wine photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle for years and has recently branched out on his own. Check out his photos and get in touch with him at craigleephoto.com. We are so excited because this Monday we are leaving the city with Craig at 5:30bloodyam to go bounce around Sonoma taking pictures. Hopefully he can find the right moment because both the Chef and his Lover are very awkward when it comes to being photographed! I will keep y'all updated and upload some of the photos onto the blog when we get them.

Happiness

Tonight happiness just envelopes me. I had the most ass-kicking workout EVER. I came home, treated myself to a Modelo Especial with lime/salt/tapatio and made myself a Vietnamese noodle soup with an amazing garlicky, sour, spicy broth and I am watching the incredible sunset from my apartment which happens to have a killer view of the Marin Headlands and the ocean. I am spending this Friday night by myself, in my apartment working on my brand new catering business. The Chef is in Pittsburg (CA) teaching a culinary class at Contra Costa College and at the moment I feel completely at peace with myself, comfortable with my own company and in my own skin. A feeling overpowers me that this is an incredible time in my life where at 22, my destiny is in my hands. I have been despairing for months about the way that the economy has been affecting my life and my ability to get a job. Out of crisis comes opportunity if you are open to it. Now I am not wasting away in a feeling that I am not good enough for the jobs out there, I am rising up to the challenge that I have been thrown and building an empire from a dream. There is some fear and doubt associated with building a small business but I have decided to kick them to the curb. I am fully invested in building Chef's Lover Catering and revolutionizing the catering industry. Well, perhaps it is not that I am interested in revolutionizing the industry, but we would like to give our clients something they have never experienced before in catering. The experience that we provide is fun, interactive and flashy. We are all about the show, plating to order instead of dropping off big vats of buffet food. We believe in integrity of product and presentation and use only local, sustainable product. The feeling of building something that will sustain the chef and I in many profound ways is a transformative feeling. There is something powerful about simplicity and that is the kind of night I am having. I feel true happiness at this moment and I'm ecstatic that I can share it with you.

Aloha Seafood

Stopped by Aloha Seafood today, our wonderful seafood purveyor. Mitch and "da boys" bring "da best" quality of environmentally safe and sustainable seafood. Can't wait to BBQ with them and watch the Blue Angles from pier 45! Chef's Lover Catering works only with local, sustainable purveyors and Aloha certainly fits the bill. With so much depleating our oceans and seafood population it is refreshing to work with a company that understands our impact on the earth and wants to do their part to save our oceans!

Chef's Lover Catering

The Chef & I are thrilled to announce the birth or our lovechild: Chef's Lover Catering. Our company is dedicated to local, sustainable California cuisine and working with our clients to customize the perfect menu and service for their event. From passed hors d'oeuvres to multi course tasting menus we exist to make your event a success. For inquiries please contact Margot Kenney, Event Planner at margot@chefslovercatering.com or 415-283-5299. www.chefslovercatering.com

Sun Warmed Farmer's Market Heirloom Tomatoes

My parents always made this dish when I was growing up and I always hated it. In fact I hated all tomatoes. That is until they started to use homegrown ones from their garden... This lovely dish is how I discovered good tomatoes.
This morning upon discovering that San Francisco was having an uncharacteristically beautiful August Sunday, and discovering that all of my friends seemed to have other plans I decided to walk down to the Farmer's Market in the Inner Sunset for inspiration. I went around 1pm, right before they closed and scored big! For $22 I purchased 2 heirloom tomatoes, a yellow peach, 2 cucumbers, 3 heads of broccoli, a poppy seed baguette, green beans, an olive tapanade and an artichoke-lemon dip. The trick is that right before they close, vendors are so eager to get rid of their goods that they are willing to negotiate.
My recipe for Sun Warmed Farmer's Market Heirloom Tomatoes is:

1. slice up an heirloom tomato and layer on plate as shown
   
2. sprinkle salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
3. chop up a few leaves of basil and sprinkle on top (the more the better!)
4. drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top
5. enjoy!
   

Dinner Friday July 31st 2009

On the menu for tonight: Rosemary & Parmesan Chicken Rulot served with crimini mushrooms, community garden swiss char, scalloped potatoes, a dark chicken consumee and pomegranate gastrique... the perks of dating a chef ;-)

Pepinillos

So my favorite snack is Pepinillos:

• peel a cucumber and slice it up
• get your ingrediants, 2 limes, salt and hot sauce (I use tapatio)
  
• squirt some lime juice onto the bottom of the plate and layer some cucumber slices on top.
• sprinkle on salt to taste, a dash of hot sauce and some lime juice, continue layering slices marinating them as you go. at the end squirt whatever lime juice you have left over it.
  

I swear this is a million times better then popcorn and way more healthy too. Now here's the kicker, after I chow down on these delicious cukes I drink the juice... It feels like a smack in the face, but then you come back for more. I swear you will love them, just try it! Super easy to make, cheep ingredients and a delicious treat! Don't forget to let me know how you liked em!

Transformers 2

So the Chef and I went to see Transformers 2 last night at SF's Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. This venue is fun because they let you drink booze while you watch the film! The booze bit turned out to be necessary for this particular film. It was completly filled with anti-Obama propoganda making his staff look incompetant and glorifying the military (gag). I could have sworn Sarah Palin bankrolled the whole shebang. It is importantly to think critically while watching high testosterone action packed movies such as this. It was a laughable experience and I would definately NOT recommend it. The action stuff wasn't even really that cool.

In other news the Chef and I will attempt homebrewing a brown ale tonight, I will keep y'all posted on how it turns out!

Cheers,
The Lover

This Morning's Tea, Tortillas and Purple Potatoes

It is a BEAUTIFUL day in San Francisco! The sun is out, there is minimal wind which means that I am a happy lover today! As much as I loathe and despise Starbucks (or Starcraps as I like to call it:-) This morning's Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte really hit the spot! For lunch i'm whipping up some quesadillas and bacon. I use Queso Oaxaca from "El Chico Produce #3" in the Mission, it is just like Mozzarella except with more flavor and waaaaaaay cheaper! Also, I always use corn tortillas.

Tortillas have an interesting history in Mexico, in the North where things tend to be more Americanized and industrialized flour tortillas are favored, but in the more indigenous South corn tortillas are prized. This is because corn or Maize is close to the earth, it is such an integral part of Mexican cooking and culture. As a Latinamericanist I always go with the corn tortillas, in addition to just being tastier, I also like to eat them (with everything) and bear in mind their history and relevance.

In Andean societies, indigenous groups such as the Quechua and the Aymara believe in "La Pachamama" or mother earth, anything that comes from the earth is powerful because it is close to her. Purple potatoes which are found deep inside Peruvian soil are thought to have aphrodisiac powers because they come from deep within the earth and are therefore more powerful. I have a few Peruvian Purple Potatoes sitting around and have been debating what to do with them, perhaps I will surprise the Chef later with some purple mashers or some such thing... any thoughts or recipes are welcome!

Cheers,

The Lover

Dinner Sunday June 21st 2009

Just came back from a camping trip in Sonoma...

Tonight's dinner:

Striped bass that the Chef caught today out of Lake Sonoma served over steamed white rice. Simple, fresh and delicious- the California way!

Post-Grad Blues

So graduation came... and it went. The whole process was really quite anti-climatic and I am starting to realize that the accomplishments you achieve while in school are what matter, not some hour long ceremony. I am working for free now (I certainly didn't see it coming) for a pretty cool company that is working on a very cool event. The event is scheduled in SF for August and is called SF Chefs. Food. Wine. It will feature many of the big cheeses in the food/wine world talking, cooking, pouring and being generally accessible for a full 3 days! I will be running around in their midst organizing, pampering and assisting where necessary. The preparation that goes into planning these events is monumental, but it comes at a good time. It is a time where people are so desperate for work that if you dangle a vague promise in front of their face they will throw themselves into virtually anything, not even hoping to learn anything from it FOR FREE hoping that maybe they will get a job out of it. Which is a necessary step in this new world of economic doom and gloom. Before I graduated I never had trouble finding a job, employers seemed to love my chipper "can do" attitude and my low maintenance persona. After graduation... and this is when I am supposed to have that full time job that I've always been offered but never been able to take because I HAD TO GET A DEGREE! So now, Bachelors of Arts in Latin American Studies in hand I find that all of this holding out for a diploma did not help me! There is no 9-5 job with advancement potential, not even close. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this event will help me build some connections that will take me out of my unhappily unemployed status. At least I have my chef who is able to create a culinary masterpiece out of our vacant refrigerator! So I will forge on, battle my post-grad blues and keep blogging!

The Lover

I am the lover, I am originally from Boston, am a huge Red Sox Fan and recently sat by myself in the pouring rain in Raider stadium decked out in Patriot's gear to see them play, it was amazing. I was surprised to escape unscathed. I will graduate from USF with a degree in Latin American Studies on May 22nd at noon...29 days away and counting! I met The Chef about 2 1/2 years ago and he has successfully turned me into a big food snob. I have worked in a variety of obscure industries from flipping pizzas, to teaching tennis, to a brief (and miserable) stint in retail, to restaurants, to working on a major PR campain to assist victims of human trafficking in SF (where my heart still lies), back to restaurant work (Quince & Gary Danko), finally landing as an up and coming restaurant PR tycoon where I hope to remain as long as possible. I have realized that life is impossible to plan and I will only drive myself insane trying to control things, so I try to be open to opportunities and experiences. This has lead to a couple waste of time interviews but that's how it goes! I enjoy eating, drinking, taking long sniffs into beautiful glasses of wine, listening to embarrassing music (ABBA rocks!), dancing in my kitchen, attempting to cook, reading trashy novels, watching movies and just about anything outdoorsy. The Chef & I are absolutly determined to eat and drink outselves silly as often as possible. Enjoy!

The Chef

The Chef that I am in love with has quite a story. He immigrated from Morelos, Mexico when he was only 12 to New York City where he lived with an older brother. He simultaniously learned English, went to school and got a job as a dishwasher to pay his bills. He rapidly learned that he loved the kitchen environment and that he was extremly talented. He moved up quickly garnering respect as he went. By 17 he was a line cook in top New York restaurants working for restaurateur giant Pino Luongo in the then famous Mad 61 and Monkey Bar. He later moved onto Windows on the World at the top of the late World Trade Center. He developed his passion and personal style, becoming lead line cook. In 1997 Alex moved to San Francisco and opened Farallon Restaurant in Union Square. He spent 5 years there moving up to Sous Chef before moving on to Nancy Oaks' restaurant Boulevard. The lucky guy got to experience the birth of the food movements in both New York and San Francisco, oh yeah somewhere in the New York stage he went to Culinary School but left because he was already working for many of his professors and he decided that he could learn more from a kitchen then a classroom. A few years later in San Francisco Alex opened several restaurants as an Executive Chef including Nectar Wine Lounge (in the Marina), U street Restaurant, Colibri Mexican Bistro, Consuelo Mexican Bistro & El Jardin (in San Jose). He then got in his Vegas experience at the MGM Grand cooking for celebrity guests. He soon realized that Vegas was a bit of a wasteland compared to the culinary oasis of San Francisco and returned working for the Beach/Park Chalet and opening Miss Pearl's Jam House for Joie de Vivre Hospitality. Alex enjoys cooking "his food" at home, drinking good wine, foot massages (who doesn't!), fishing, bumming around the Russian River in Sonoma, camping and EATING! Being the lover has been an awesome adventure, and we are absolutly determined to eat our way through the city and beyond!