NYC and food52

Wes and I recently took a quick trip to New York City, where we met some great people and ate wonderful food.

We began in Chelsea, where I attended the food52 launch party, hosted by the generous, friendly and talented Amanda, Merrill, Helen and Sarah (click on the link above to see their write-up). They assembled a group of gifted cooks, food writers and bloggers, many of whom have won the weekly food52 contests and will be featured in the upcoming cookbook. Party-goers included Cathy, Jennifer, Kelsey, Jennifer, Meredith, Giulia, Erin, Natalie, Amy and Tamio, and many more. Can't forget Eliza, who offered her beautiful apartment for the evening.



As you might imagine, the food was fantastic. Every dish was a food52 specialty, including fried chickpeas, Hungarian meatballs, rosemary thyme pita chips, spicy shrimp, deeply dark chocolate cookies, zucchini lemon cookies, crab dip, and salty toasted almonds.

If you haven't visited food52 yet, I highly encourage you to do so. Check it out. Cook from it. Submit a recipe. You'll be part of something special.

The following morning, per my friend menumaniac's suggestion, we walked to Irving Farm Coffee Company for some local farm roasted coffee brew and pastry from Balthazar. Next, we set out on foot and ended up at the Time-Warner building, where we stopped for a bite at Thomas Keller's Bouchon. We've eaten twice at Bouchon in Yountville, and found the New York bakery outpost to be more informal than its Napa counterpart, with an edited menu. We selected San Marzano tomato soup, chicken soup with dumplings and split a gruyere and gouda grilled cheese.

Tart tomato soup and nutty grilled cheese.

A simply stunning bowl of chicken soup.

The famed bouchons, a rich, decadent chocolate cylinder

After some more walking and shopping, we toured the Chelsea Market and watched them bake bread at Amy's.

Then, we went to Blue Hill for dinner. We have family in upstate New York, and every time we visit we attempt to eat at Blue Hill Stone Barns, and it never works out. So, this time, we vowed to stop into Dan Barber's New York restaurant, and, since we had extra reason to celebrate, we did.

We had a smokey tomato soup, sweet potato ravioli, wild striped bass with pancetta, lobster, crab and vegetables and grass fed lamb. A truly special, wonderful meal.

Warm thanks to the food52 crew, who were so kind to include me in such a lovely event, and also to Wes, the perfect traveling partner, who didn't blink when I suggested we fly to New York to attend a party of people I'd never met, who insisted I take his upgraded seats on both flights, and who simply couldn't be more supportive.

New York Bound

We're headed to New York City for a few days to attend the food52.com launch party. So Fresh Eats will take a brief hiatus. Few cities offer more for food lovers, and we have some fun plans, so be sure to check back soon for lots of new posts!

California Cruisin'

We're back from California, where we attended the annual Pebble Beach classic car extravaganza. The event offers an extraordinary array of beautiful cars and disposable wealth, but it's also a food festival in its own right. For whatever reason, car people tend to be food people, and Pebble never disappoints.

We attended the show courtesy of our friends at Mazda, who plan a smashing trip. We flew into Orange County and stayed at the fabulous Montage resort, above, where we lunched on a lovely plate of fruit, cheeses and nuts that awaited us in our room, then enjoyed an afternoon snack of icy fresh gazpacho with dungeness crab and meyer lemon oil, paired with a glass of crisp champagne. We followed that with an oceanside dinner at Studio, below, with friends Eddie and Kari.

I chose roasted Monterey calamari with baby arugula, parmesan and garlic aioli to start, and for my entree, John Dory fish with artichokes, english peas, mussels nage and semolina gnocchi, atop a velvety beurre blanc style sauce. Perfection. Dessert was pear tart in caramel paired with a pillow of rich mascapone ice cream.

Wes and Eddie had seared Maine diver sea scallops with spinach risotto, chanterelle mushrooms and port truffle sauce. Kari, a vegetarian, was presented a beautiful chef's special of onion tart with fennel, white bean puree wrapped in swiss chard and other delightful morsels. The photos, unfortunately, were a sad rendering of this fine meal, so won't be shown here. What can I say, I'm still learning.

The following day, we rose at dawn to drive Mazdaspeed 3s up to Monterey, stopping at Encino State Park for an alfresco meal of bean and veggie breakfast burritos, fruit and pastries. Then, we continued on to Villa Creek in charming, historic Paso Robles, where the focus is local, sustainable food prepared in a simple, rustic fashion.

Here, we dined on a sumptious prix fixe menu, starting with an amuse bouche of gazpacho shots, and family-style entrees of grilled salmon with strawberry salsa, string bean and sauteed mushrooms, as well as succulent spicy grilled flat iron steak, and an amazing heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad with basil and olive oil. This mixed salad was the star of this meal and the epitome of summer.

Lovely, slightly sweet and tart gazpacho shots.

Medium rare salmon fillets with the sweet bite of strawberry salsa, a unique pairing,
atop crisp green beans and trumpet mushrooms.

Savory, rich steak with heirloom tomato salsa.

Caprese, California style, featuring the best heirloom tomatoes I've had this season.

We ended this mid-day feast with the best dessert of the week: a mixed berry crisp with whipped cream. Fresh tart berries, lightly sweet cream and buttery, nutty crunchy bits. Homespun, yet sublime.

Once we arrived in Monterey, the feast continued. Highlights include a scallop and shrimp salad at Porta Bella's in Carmel, and, at the Clement hotel, chopped green salad with dungeness crab over greens, lemon zest, cornichons, sweet pea shoots, farm fresh egg and a romanesco style dressing. The perfect lunch for sitting by the bay and watching the dolphins.

Finally, in what's become an annual event and one of the hottest tickets of the weekend, our group walked to the Culinary Center of Monterey for a night of cooking and eating. Mazda hosts this terrific evening, and Chef Mary Pagan puts on an amazing spread for her amateur cooks. The evening came complete with a wine tasting, all local vintages paired specially with the cuisine.

We prepared a variety of dishes, including pork and lemongrass potstickers, deconstructed chicken wontons, tomato and goat cheese risotto cakes with tomato and cilantro chutney, Salinas Valley greens in a tomato vase with Asiago doilies, paella Valenciana, Korean BBQ ribeye on sugar cane skewers, homemade pizzas and handmade truffles.

Deconstructed chicken wontons.

Me and a fabulous chef skewering steak onto sugar cane.

It was all delicious, fun, enlightening and a little frenetic. The center's talented chefs set up multiple stations in their very well-equipped kitchens and we did as much or as little cooking as we wanted. We sauteed, rolled, stuffed, dredged, and skewered, then ate the results. I finally learned to shape and make a decent dumpling, wrap a spring roll properly and stuff a risotto cake. For me, it was a little slice of heaven, with a side of bliss.

The main kitchen. One of several.

Doling out rice noodles into spring rolls. Apparently it requires intense concentration.

Shaping the perfect spring roll. This is sticky business.

Rolling the potsticker dough. Fun!

If all this weren't enough, the evening also featured a guest appearance from Mazda racecar driver Patrick Dempsey, aka McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy. Funny, charming and yes, as dreamy in person. Plus, willing to cook pizza.

Patrick shapes the dough with Chef Mary Pagan. Below, with Wes.

Finally, on our last day, our tastebuds sated and tired, we met friends Heather, Jeremy, Thom and Patti for breakfast at the hotel. Preparing to order standard eggs and bacon, Heather instead turned me onto a fantastic new favorite: egg white scramble with sliced chicken-apple sausage, fresh spinach, diced tomato and local artichokes, topped with melted cheddar cheese, with a side of whole wheat and mixed berries. So good, and it kept me satisfied through a long day of travel. Can't wait to make this again and again in my own kitchen.

So we're back, exhausted and full of memories of great food with great people. Oh yeah, and the cars weren't so bad, either.

Dispatch from Barcelona

My husband Wes is the executive editor of AutoWeek magazine, and his work takes him across the globe. He's had the good fortune to eat in hundreds of fine restaurants, and today he contributes this guest post to Fresh Eats. Watch for his guest post from Scotland.

At ABaC, Barcelona's only two-star Michelin restaurant, I had the chance to enjoy the work of chef and molecular gastronomer Xavier Pellicer. Pellicer chose cooking as his trade when he was just 13, having grown up around fine food and wine -- how could he not with a Catalan father and French mother?

Pellicer moved among Europe's Michelin-starred restaurants, arriving at ABaC in 1999.

ABaC is located in a refurbished mansion that had been privately owned and also was once the U.S. consulate. There are two dining rooms, one large and one small, both decorated in what I'll call modern Spanish: Creams and whites and indirect lighting and elegant, neutral shades. 

The kitchen wherein Pellicer works his magic is actually an ancient theater where the original families who owned the mansion staged plays.

Our meal was simple, elegant and delicious. Pellicer started us with a beautifully plated dish of prawns, watercress and artichoke. Next we moved on to grouper in a warm, nutty, almond emulsion. As a seafood lover I was in heaven: The prawns and grouper struck the perfect balance between clean fish flavor without being too fishy, one of my seafood pet peeves.

Next, the main dish, a Barcelona specialty, Iberian suckling pig. It was sublime, with a crispy skin and, once we cut into it, succulent juicy meat, flavored to perfection.   

The entire meal was served on gorgeous Versace china, of course. It was an experience I won't soon forget.