Ruth Reichl

Who Wrote the Fifty Shades of Chicken Cookbook?

There's a new novelty cookbook hitting the shelves next week (Nov. 13), just in time for white elephant party season. Fifty Shades of Chicken is a clever parody of the scandalous triology written under the pseudonym F.L. Fowler. The book tells the story of a meek chicken ("Ms. Hen") and a sexy chef ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: Cosentino Watch, Episode 10

Welcome to Cosentino Watch, where we recap the moves of San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino as he competes in Top Chef Masters. Warning: Spoilers ahead. Finally, we're at the finale, and we know what we came here to do. Chris Cosentino and Kerry Heffernan have swiftly eliminated their competition ov ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: Cosentino Watch, Episode 9

Welcome to Cosentino Watch, where we recap the moves of San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino as he competes in Top Chef Masters. Warning: Spoilers ahead. Episode 9 is called "Old School, New School." We've already seen from the preview commercial that the remaining three Masters (Chris Cosentino, Lor ... More >>

Score Bargain Cookbooks at the Library's Big Book Sale

Hey fellow cookbook obsessives, you should go to the 48th Annual Big Book Sale at Fort Mason put on by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. The sale started today in the hanger-like Festival Pavilion and will continue through the weekend, and there are two huge tables of all manner of cooker ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: Cosentino Watch, Episode 8

Welcome to Cosentino Watch, where we recap the moves of San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino as he competes in Top Chef Masters. Warning: Spoilers ahead. Episode 8 is called "Foodie Flash Mob" which conjures images of our fair chefs shuffling through the Thriller dance for their dinner. But before we ... More >>

Top Chef Judge Krista Simmons on the S.F. Food Scene, and Her Path to the Judging Table

You never know where a passion for food will take you. For food writer Krista Simmons, it was the Top Chef judges table. It all started back in 2006, when Simmons was a junior at UC Santa Cruz. She took what she refers to as the "obligatory trip" to the Bonny Doon Winery Tasting Room, and was immed ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: Cosentino Watch, Episode 4

Welcome to Cosentino Watch, where we recap the moves of San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino as he competes in Top Chef Masters. Warning: Spoilers ahead. Episode 4 is called "Grand Canyon Cookout," and we've seen from the previews that the Masters will be making something from great heights. Before t ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: Cosentino Watch, Episode 2

Welcome to Cosentino Watch, where we recap the moves of San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino as he competes in Top Chef Masters. Warning: Spoilers ahead. Episode 2's title, "You May Now Feed the Bride," offers a clue to what's going to happen even before it begins. The chefs immediately find out ther ... More >>

Good Food Awards: Judging the Nation's Best Artisanal Foods and Spirits

James Collier​The Good Food Awards, a national competition of obvious focus, hosted their second annual judgment off all things artisan, sustainable and delicious this Sunday in San Francisco. 30 judges conquered 926 entries in categories of coffee, chocolate, cheese, charcuterie, and more. B ... More >>

California's Farmworker Protection Laws Aren't Being Enforced

Not pictured: heat stroke.​Yesterday, the LA Times ran a great piece checking up on how strongly the state was enforcing six-year-old regulations requiring farms to provide shade, water, and rest periods for their workers so they don't die of heat exposure. The answer: not well. While many farms ... More >>

Seven Hot Looks for Restaurant Critics

Gael Greene. Hot.​ Earlier this week, Eater ran (or is it re-ran? I've seen this post before) a post listing hot looks for hot chefs. Faced with a magazine shoot? Hold a knife! Or a pig head! SFoodie knows all too well that restaurant critics could use some tough love from Tyra Banks on our public ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: Nostalgic Finale Edition

Bravo TVHost Curtis Stone checks in with San Francisco finalist Traci Des Jardins.​Last night brought the finale of Bravo's Top Chef Masters and our SF-based Traci Des Jardins was in it to win it. On the line was $100,000 for the cheftestants' charity of choice. For those of us rooting for the ... More >>

Top Chef Masters Recap: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Microwave

bravotv.comHugh and his magnificent eyebrow.​After last week's rerun, we were amped for last night's all new Top Chef Masters. What we were not so amped about? The episode's title, "Blinded me with Science." We didn't go blind, but we came close pulling an optic nerve rolling our eyes at the l ... More >>

Shark's Fin Ban Makes It Through Assembly, Women Who Changed The Way We Cook

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.1. Another Victory from the Shark's Fin Ban. SF Gate reported yesterday that the State Assembly just passed AB-376, which bans the sale and import of shark's fin across the state. The ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: Crickets and Curveballs

​ Last night's Top Chef Masters was for the crickets -- well, bug eaters. The Quickfire Challenge was to make a five-star dish using bugs and wild plants. Looking at the worms, nightcrawlers, and scorpions, the cheftestants were creepy-crawly freaked out. (The captioning under Alex read, "I can't ... More >>

Meet the Bloggers: Carina Ost

Carina Ost​You read them here, now find out who the hell they are: We give you the diverse group of men and women who cover the local food and drink scene for you on SFoodie. Carina Ost Blogs about: Top Chef, food porn Carina Ost moves fast. As an avid follower (read: voyeur) of her ever-buzzi ... More >>

The Food World 30 Years Ago, Old Apples, and New Cheese

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. rivalhedgehogs.com​1. A little history for you. Yesterday, I was looking up Jack Shelton, the "famous restaurant critic" listed on the Bill's Place burger menu, to find out more a ... More >>

Top Chef Masters, Week 1: Traci Snarls, La Cocina Wins!

SF CHEFS/FlickrDo not fuck with Des Jardins.​We are still suffering from a bit of Top Chef overload, but the new season of Top Chef Masters with new host, format, and judges brought us right back into the world of cheftestants, Quickfires, and knife packings. We tuned in last night for the Sea ... More >>

Outing of L.A. Times Restaurant Critic a Kind of Rape

What Ruth Reichl did to keep her identity hidden as critic of the New York Times.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. The restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times is no longer anonymous. In an incident that's caroming around the Twitterverse like the latest from Ruth Bourdain, 16-year L.A. ... More >>

Will Blog for Food: Dianne Jacob at Book Passage

Carina OstDianne Jacob updated her seminal book, "Will Write for Food," to reflect the times and technology. She spoke about the changes at the Ferry Building last week.​We headed to everyone's favorite foodie mecca, the Ferry Building, last week for a talk and book signing by Dianne Jacob, au ... More >>

Spoon Fed Author Kim Severson Reads at Omnivore

​Kim Severson, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter who now covers national food stories for the New York Times, is coming to Omnivore Books next Monday to read from her new book, Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life. (SFoodie interviewed the author earlier in the week.) Severson starts t ... More >>

Interview with Spoon Fed Author Kim Severson

​Kim Severson's byline is well known in the San Francisco food world. Before moving on to the New York Times, where she covers national food stories, she was at the San Francisco Chronicle, her reportage graduating from the food section to the front page. This April, Severson published Spoon Fed: ... More >>

Calling Bullshit on Eater's Crusade to Bust Restaurant Critics

One-time New York Times critic Ruth Reichl in disguise.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. To catch a d-bag: Tim Carman of Washington City Paper calls Eater a dick for its initiative to unmask food critics. Eater National's Greg Morabito, you see, has this ongoing obsession he calls "To Catc ... More >>

Ruth Reichl's Coming to the JCC to Gab About Mom

​At a Gourmet-sponsored event at Copia years ago, some guests were a little surprised at how soft spoken Ruth Reichl can be onstage. Find out for yourself later this month, when Reichl will be on stage at the S.F. Jewish Community Center, talking about her latest book, For You Mom, Finally (Pe ... More >>

Ruth Reichl, Anthony Bourdain Ponder Identity of 'Ruth Bourdain'

Ruth Bourdain.​Who is "Ruth Bourdain," shadowy operator of the Twitter feed that's a mashup of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain? Nobody's saying (both Bourdain and Reichl claim it's not them), but Bourdain, for one, is a fan. He says he's both flattered and disturbed by it, and thinks the Ruth ... More >>

Food Boners and F-Bombs: Anthony Bourdain Hits Radio Airwaves Thursday

JuliesRawAmbition/FlickrEric Ripert (left) and Anthony Bourdain: Their "Turn and Burn" show drops Thursday.​Anthony Bourdain has authored best-selling books, and has the enviable job of slurping his way across the planet for his No Reservations TV show. (SFoodie readers will no doubt remember ... More >>

Who Should Play Ruth Reichl in Garlic and Sapphires Flick?

Roberts (left) and Reichl: We totally see the resemblance.​Last Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Fox is making a movie based on Ruth Reichl's memoir Garlic and Sapphires. The film is "in active production," meaning fans of the legendary raven-coiffed ex-Gourmet editor can expect a r ... More >>

The Gastro-Bromance Between Francis Ford Coppola and Ruth Reichl

The Believer: A cache of soft-boiled egg strategies.​We are stoked on the January issue of The Believer (and not just because it contains this blogger's interview with a professional wrestler). Right there, on the front cover, directly across from our wrestler's glowering visage, gentler caric ... More >>

What's in Ruth Reichl's Fridge? A Few Bottles of Minor Embarrassment

Salon.comIs that Miller High Life up there on the top shelf, between the organic milks, directly in front of the tonic? Naw, couldn't be....​Salon launched a food section last week, headed up by Francis Lam, former Gourmet scribe. It's fitting then that for one of his inaugural features, Lam d ... More >>

We Totally Scored at Last Night's 18 Reasons Book Swap

M. BrodyThe books nobody wanted -- even as freebies. Sorry, Guy -- and Gourmet.​We made out like a bandit at 18 Reasons' cookbook exchange last night. We're slightly embarrassed about it. We already have a sister and two friends we regularly give castoff food books to, and we're pretty attac ... More >>

Gourmet is Folding. Maybe Ruth Reichl Will Have More Time to Scarf Bakesale Betty Sandwiches

​Like a lot of you, we were shocked and saddened to read this morning that Gourmet magazine, one of the jewels in Condé Nast's publishing crown, is to cease publishing after the November issue. Ad pages at Condé Nast have been falling off a cliff, but the smart money was on the impending fol ... More >>

Longtime S.F. Gourmet Blogger Sad About the Publication's Demise; Reichl Tweets Adieu

A magazine cover from 1947.​The long-time local blogger for Gourmet told SFoodie she was sad to hear that the 69-year-old food magazine's November issue will be its last. "You worry about who's going to do all that in-depth writing that we're all still very attracted to," said Peggy Knickerboc ... More >>

Local Heavies to Celebrate Cecilia Chiang, the Julia Child of Chinese Cooking

Silent auction prizes include signed copies of Chiang's latest book.​Famed San Francisco restaurant owner, cooking teacher, and consultant Cecilia Chiang is being honored on her 90th birthday Friday with a banquet at Yank Sing Rincon Center (101 Spear at Mission). The eight-course menu was cre ... More >>

James Beard Foundation Media Awards 2009: Media Feasts while Media Burns

Ruth ReichlIt had to happen.Just as a couple of this year's Pulitzer Prize winners had already been laid off from their paper four months before they won their award, the winner of the James Beard Foundation's 2009 award for Newspaper Feature Writing with Recipes, Rebekah Denn, wrote her piece, "Hig ... More >>

The Obama Diet: The First Foodie Family

Via: Obama-Biden Transition ProjectThe Obama FamilyAlice Waters, who has been trying for years to get Presidents from Clinton to Obama to get on board with her vision of fresh, local, seasonal, organic food for all (read her letters to Clinton and Obama here), should be happy: it seems like her ... More >>

TiVo Alert: Dysfunctional Family Re-Opens Fancy-Schmancy Restaurant

By Meredith Brody You may have noticed that there's precious little new stuff to watch during the holidays - a period which The New York Times describes as "a profound holiday slumber of repeats and musical specials." But we can't even find any musical specials, and are reduced to re-watching A Co ... More >>

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Open Sesame

Art, direct from the source

What the Hell Is Copia?

At Robert Mondavi's new $55 million foodie mecca, you'll find seminars on goat cheese and mustard; surrealist movies; a SPAM exhibit; wine tastings; figurines of pooping Catholics -- everything, in fact, but the answer to that question.

Esprit de Corps

Hotel Biron is a little bit of Paris in San Francisco

Cypress Club Undercover

Italian to a "T"

Zingari completes its classic theme with Tuscan touches