David Kinch of Los Gatos' Manresa, Thomas McNaughton from San Francisco's flour+water and Jörg Rupf from Alameda's St. George Spirits were all named semifinalists for the 2012 James Beard Foundation awards.
'We're like a run-on sentence. There's no end,' Alice Waters says. 'We need an end of a day, to follow the sun down. We need the end of a season and the starting of a new one -- that rebirth. It makes our lives comprehensible.'
There's more to Italian whites than pinot grigio, says wine columnist Laurie Daniel, and the whites of the Collio region give wine lovers plenty to savor.
Earlier this month, we asked you to confess your dining-out sins via an online poll, and tell us when you consider it OK to whip out your cellphone in a restaurant -- when you're tweeting about the food; when your dining companion is texting, too; when your date is powdering his or her nose; and so
You, the members of the dining public, show up with a $10 donation, pick out a bowl and start filling up on soup -- this year's lineup is black bean, potato-corn chowder, chicken noodle and vegetarian minestrone.
No one knows who will win the Oscar for best film, but the nine contenders offer plenty of culinary inspiration for an Oscar-watching cocktail party, from the Southern fried chicken of 'The Help' to a savory French tart-salute to 'Midnight in Paris,' ballpark noshes for 'Moneyball' and a Big Apple-themed dessert to complement 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.'
