Comments (5) Best Resource for Chefs - 2009
Le Sanctuaire
315 Sutter (at Grant)
San Francisco, CA
415-986-4216
San Francisco chefs and foodies have a semisecret resource: a tony, chic, and expensive spot on the fifth floor of a downtown office building, which Le Sanctuaire's Web site refers to as its showroom. The showroom is open Mondays through Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and reportedly by appointment only, although we suspect if David Kinch or Alice Waters show up, they won't be turned away. Le Sanctuaire specializes in the best ingredients: spices (including charmoula, garam masala at $32 per pound, and the fragrant vadouvan golden, a "French interpretation of Indian curry"), herbs, vinegars, condiments, pasta, rice, grains, truffles — you name it. Molecular gastronomists flock here for sous-vide equipment and such esoterica as the Gastrovac vacuum fryer, on which Le Sanctuaire has an exclusive (if you have to ask, it's $5,750). In addition to books on El Bulli and the Fat Duck, Le Sanctuaire now co-publishes the English edition of Apicius, the cutting-edge culinary magazine, limited to 2,000 copies per issue.
foam order.com
