By Clark Wolf Journalists love to declare certain restaurant locations “jinxed” when a couple of enterprises try a spot and fail – usually for very good reasons that may be entirely invisible to even the most well trained investigative eye and blog. The rent structure may be completely unreasonable. The street may need to be dug up for two years. Scaffolding may be about inhabit the land. Partners may hate each other and – with landlords- may be embroiled in on-going conflicts that none can safely reveal but that hamper urgently needed action. In fact, we saw just such a... Continue reading

This is me at IACP accepting the award on behalf of another Rizzoli entry La Cucina Italiana. Looks like I’m just happy to be there! Continue reading

Cecily Brownstone’s nephew gives the Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection CB’s rolodex, with Julia Child’s phone number! Continue reading

The future of food may well be really, really local. Or should I say close. How about calling it Wall to Table (as in hanging gardens), or maybe Cellar (a nicer thing to call a basement) to Table? Maybe even in a planter box right on our dining table. Chia Pets with a side of Russian Dressing, anyone? I mean, how in heaven's name are we going to feed billions more people if we grow, raise and make food the way we’re doing it now? Can we really rely on underpaying emerging nations and subsidizing corporate farmers to sell bland... Continue reading

There is just something indescribable that happens when two extraordinary people sit and have a simple conversation about things they know well and hold dear. Nancy Skall is, as I have often said, a lot of why I moved to Sonoma County and back to California. Her strawberries alone make... Continue reading

The Bernier family has several generations working together on a couple of properties in some magical places. In the middle of a sea of vineyards they grow garlic and strawberries and other good, wholesome foods, and pass along their hopes and dreams to young farmers from towns nearby. They have... Continue reading

Carol A. Mandel, Dean of the New York University Division of Libraries, Marvin J. Taylor, Head of Fales Library & Special Collections, and Clark Wolf cordially invite you to celebrate the naming of the Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection at the Fales Library & Special Collections New York University Thursday, April 18, 2013, 4:00 PM Please join us at: Fales Library Elmer Holmes Bobst Library 70 Washington Square South, Third Floor New York, NY 10012 RSVP to rsvp.bobst@nyu.edu with your name and title/date of event Program at 4:00 PM; reception to follow Continue reading

Usually, journalists who cover food trends like to see at least three strong examples of something going on before they declare it a Trend, capital T. I’m gonna go out on an artisan limb here and proclaim something I see that I hope will spread like bad gossip in a hot kitchen. We’re going to stop wasting fully built restaurants just so we can exercise our design egos, take what we find, make it a little better and start serving really good food. It’s very French. And generally European. A place gets sold, the new owners paint the bathroom, fix... Continue reading

A corner of Lower Manhattan that has long been thick with corporate towers but thin on interesting cuisine is about to get a vast new food court filled with the kind of small, idiosyncratic vendors normally found in Brooklyn or on the Lower East Side. Eight “fast casual” restaurants have signed leases with Brookfield Office Properties to occupy a $40 million second-level gallery adjacent to the glass atrium and palm trees of the Winter Garden, in the World Financial Center. To be called the Dining Terrace, it will extend the length of a football field — 300 feet from north... Continue reading

I can’t think of a more quintessential Sonoma County farm family than the lovely folks at Redwood Hill Creamery. Jennifer Bice has lead the way for the sweet and natural growth of what her parents started 45 years ago. She has gathered some of her family around her, repurposed legendary... Continue reading

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If I had my druthers, the Big News in Food in the New Year would be chicken, chicken and more chicken. Food is the largest industry in the world and yet any little thing that happens, even in a tiny locale, can have a huge impact across the globe. Let’s face it, there’s chicken everywhere, on everything and for the most part, well, it’s really pretty bad. I had the pleasure of being on British Airways, in first class, going to Paris recently. When the attendant asked me what I wanted for my dinner, I asked how the chicken was.... Continue reading

This is me talking to the DC chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier about the NYU Rizzoli book 101 Classic Cookbooks, 501 Classic Recipes. Event was at the home of Dame ( pronounced dahm, really) Joan Nathan who wrote a book included in the Book. Got to meet Carla (also pictured) and tell her that her show The Chew was my idea. She tells me they're slowing it down and adding more conversation. Nice! Continue reading

Pork foods and the pigs that become them have been part of the American table for generations. Here in Sonoma County some of the more artisan practitioners have been leading the way to a sort of heritage pork renaissance that transcends fad or even trend in culture, moving all the... Continue reading

101 Classic Cookbooks: 501 Classic Recipes Edited by Marvin J. Taylor and Clark Wolf (Rizzoli, $50). If anyone wants to get a thorough sense of the development of American gastronomy over the last 150 years, this is a book that will do it delectably, through more a a hundred cookbooks ranging from Fannie Farmer's seminal Boston Cooking School to The Joy of Cooking, from Alice Waters to Edna Lewis, some with essays by noted authorities like Jessica B. Harris, Judith Jones, and Marion Nestle. The repros of covers and pages from these cookbooks are a delight and will be a... Continue reading

Check out a video sample here! Contact: Brandy Bulawsky: 415-401-1999 Email: bbulawsky@kofytv.com Website: www.kofytv.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Big Dish to Premiere This Sunday:KOFY TV’s Home Cook Reality Competition Show San Francisco, California – November 27th, 2012 - KOFY TV20-Cable13 ‘s The Big Dish, a local reality cooking competition show premiering this Sunday at 9:30pm. The Big Dish succeeds Dance Party, Creepy KOFY Movie Time, Carpool Showdown and B.Y.O.B. TV, four successful local programs launched by KOFY TV. The Big Dish, hosted by nationally known restaurant consultant and food expert Clark Wolf, highlights 2 home cooks each week as they... Continue reading

Welcome to the Sonoma County Food & Farming Project! We are thrilled to launch Chapter One of our ongoing video series. The SCFFP will highlight the many different voices and perspectives of the people that are participating in the agricultural movement back to small-scale farming and attentive land-use and seeks... Continue reading

To most of us, the name Jack London is connected to a famous writer, long gone, a perfectly nice public square in Oakland and now a beautiful State Park worth rescuing from budget cuts. But the fact is that London was the sort of celebrity we often hope for. He... Continue reading

It’s hard to imagine that for me, and a lot of folks, it all started with a transcendent tamale scarfed quickly in a parking lot turned Farmers Market in Sebastopol. Little did I know then that the hands and heart behind this simple, ancient and traditional food – so elemental... Continue reading

Farmers markets are a special kind of celebration, have a certain sort of mystery and are always a mother lode of good food and warm community. Highly public and deeply personal, the stories and personalities, histories and families, romance and color are legendary, surprising, inspiring and, often, a hoot and... Continue reading

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I’m not sure anyone really fully appreciated the importance and potential impact of that visit to the State Department. Not even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had invited us. It was the official launch of an effort to institutionalize using local, seasonal and artisanal foods in all U.S. diplomatic efforts. We had all gathered – cheese makers, meat curers, olive oil pressers, farmers, chefs, writers and other pros – to share good, simple food and clear, purposeful thought. Throughout the evening, we discussed the details of the program. Chefs from across the country will help the State Department in... Continue reading

I was listening to an older, slightly wiser David Chang on NPR talking about food and cooking and yet again apologizing for statements he says were taken out of context decrying the lack of innovation and creativity in Bay Area restaurants several years ago, and I just had to laugh. The thing is, that if nobody maintains benchmarks, nothing makes much sense after a very little while. It’s hard to do a flip flop (or hip hop) version of a time-honored dish if those classics aren’t carefully guarded and lovingly maintained in the first place. That stalwart position is a... Continue reading

Chef Jason Larkin at the State Department bringing great American foods to the diplomatic table. And the gift bag had olive oil and syrup from Sonoma County! Here's White House chef Sam Cass leading the charge for good American food. This is the table even without the little plates of tastes. Delicious! A dish for every occasion at the State Department ... Continue reading

So many wonderful things to see at the 2nd Annual National Heirloom Expo in Sonoma County. Tomatoes go Goth at the Heirloom Expo. Tomato Tartar. A river of Heirloom goodness. A kingdom of natural wonders - all deliciously edible. So many kinds of apples. And we grow them all 'round here. Not every grape goes in a bottle. Curious? Learn more about the Heirloom Expo here. Continue reading