Tucked beneath the Koolau Mountains on the leeward side of Oahu is Nalo Farms, salad bowl to Hawaii’s top chefs. There I met Dean Okimoto, owner and president. As we walked past neatly tended rows of produce, he explained that the greens he grows are different from their Mainland cousins. “Our environment is hotter — 74 to 90 degrees — and we have volcanic soil.” The conditions produce a different leaf structure and flavor.

Tiny leaves of arugula are more tender in the Islands and the additional sunlight makes the flavor more pungent. Because the leaves are thinner and lighter in weight than the Mainland variety, you get more volume. “One ounce of salad looks more like two ounces,” Okimoto said. [more…]

I just returned from Honolulu Tuesday night, after a week away for the Les Dames d’Escoffier annual conference and a few days of vacation. Les Dames is an organization of women leaders in the food, beverage and hospitality industries and membership is by invitation. The Hawaii chapter staged a brilliant conference that included a luau at the Bishop Museum and a trip to Kualoa Ranch, where we toured the gardens, learned all about poi, and boated in the ancient native Hawaiian fish ponds. This is land familiar to fans of Jurassic Park, LOST and other productions.

During any downtime, I was busy getting my fix of local foods — saimin, shave ice, plate lunch, malasadas, laulau and a Hawaiian breakfast — Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice drizzled with soy sauce. I also needed to fit in breakfast on the veranda of the historic Moana Hotel, tropical drinks with paper umbrellas, dinner at Alan Wong and 3660 on the Rise, and time for family and Honolulu friends.

But this isn’t a story about my trip. It’s really about a thoughtful presentation by the conference’s keynote speaker, Rachel Laudan, a culinary historian and author of The Food of Paradise, a book that had been recommended to me 12 years ago by Zanne Stewart, who was then executive food editor of Gourmet magazine. Laudan’s speech aligned perfectly with my craving for the local foods of my Hawaiian culinary heritage. [more…]

Years ago, when I had a laundry product client, I wanted to do a PR campaign to promote using cloth diapers just one day a week to minimize disposables in the landfill. Thank heavens we didn’t try it. Who would give up a convenient behavior — using disposable diapers — for such an inconvenient option? It would take a lot more green commitment than could be inspired by a PR program to effect that revolution.

Until recently, the same was true of another convenient behavior, eating out. With foodservice sales increasing year upon year, family cooks were ready to hang up the apron. But not so fast. Home cooking is back with a vengence. With the economy in a tailspin, more consumers are going home to the range.

And that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Despite good news about the second-largest harvest of American corn, ever, and projections of record-breaking harvests of wheat and oilseeds from the world’s farmers this year, The Wall Street Journal reports that bumper crops will not offset increasing world demand. [more…]

I am a constant reader, with ecclectic tastes. On my nightstand you might find a British murder mystery, military history (Civil War or World War II), political biography, contemporary fiction, or a literary classic (anything I never got around to reading in English Lit or any leftover paperbacks from my sons’ English classes).

Right now, I’m reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, A Memoir, by Bill Bryson, a hilarious look back at growing up in the 1950s in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bryson takes us back to American food tastes then:

“Like most people in Iowa in the 1950s, we were more cautious eaters in our house. On the rare occasions when we were presented with food with which we were not comfortable or familiar — on planes or trains or when invited to a meal cooked by someone who was not herself from Iowa — we tended to tilt it up carefully with a knife and examine it from every angle as if determining whether it might need to be defused. Once on a trip to San Francisco, my father was taken by friends to a Chinese restaurant and he described it afterward in the somber tones of someone recounting a near-death experience.” [more…]

I ate 12 desserts at one sitting yesterday. It was a recipe tasting for a client whose products are in the baking category.

People are envious when I tell them I get paid to eat desserts. It’s hard work, but somebody has to do it!

Actually, it is work. A tasting isn’t a time to pig out on food and just say whether you like it or not. This is serious business because the recipes are a critical marketing tool. Whether they are used on packaging, on a Web site, in a brochure, or for press releases to the media, recipes from food manufacturers should be designed to stimulate product purchase and usage, and ultimately, provide a positive result to motivate repurchase. [more…]

Last week was one of the first glorious summer-like weekends in San Francisco. So I spent Saturday and Sunday gardening blissfully. It was time to open the sun umbrella over the table on the deck, fire up the grill to cook up some burgers, and sit back with a cool glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade.

With the skyrocketing cost of gas and food, expect consumers to be entertaining at home in their own backyard instead of going away on vacations and dining out. And why not, with more consumers building outdoor living spaces that make staying home a summer pleasure? [more…]

I had lunch a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco at Perbacco with two friends, a New York magazine food editor and a prolific, award-winning cookbook author. When I joined the table, the place was humming — every chair filled, waiters bustling around. “There’s no recession, here,” I commented, looking around the room. To which they both replied that people of a certain income group are immune to recession and for them, life goes on.

Not so fast. Not long after that lunch, I saw a survey reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that found the rich are doing some belt tightening, too. The paper pointed out that Unity Marketing, a firm that monitors the luxury market, said its Luxury Consumption Index was at the lowest ever in January. The company’s survey found that 39 percent of the well-heeled would spend less on luxury goods in 2008 than before (16 percent would spend more). Whether or not that includes food purchases and restaurant dining is to be seen.

Meanwhile, all is not well in the restaurant world. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal’s “Weekend Journal” led with a story on “Cutback Cuisine” — how restaurants. even the luxury ones, are managing food costs by menuing more pastas, reducing portion size, using lower-cost ingredients and getting rid of low-profit entrees. [more…]

The Winter Fancy Food Show is coming up January 13 to 15 in San Diego. More than a thousand exhibitors, including international participants from 40 countries will participate. With so many booths in competition, how can you get your products noticed by the media?

As a freelance food writer, I’ve covered a number of food trade shows for the Associated Press. So let me tell you how I cover a show, from a reporter’s point of view. It will give you ideas about how you can find ways to interface with the media. [more…]

December is a busy time in my household — cooking and baking for my own holiday party, for potlucks and for our family’s Christmas dinner. This month, I’ve made four types of cookies,two Christmas wreath braided yeast breads, a double recipe of Buche de Noel with meringue mushrooms, pork pate with red onion confit, gravlax (cured salmon), two kinds of chutney to serve with Kerrygold cheeses, smoked trout spread, homemade pita chips with artichoke dip…and more.

Tonight, I’m preparing roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, followed in a few days by dainty sandwiches and sweets for a post-Christmas tea party I’m hosting for my mother and her friends. Toward the end of the week, it will be time to start prepping for the New Year, with several kinds of sushi and traditional Japanese New Year food.

I could skip all the stress by eliminating these get-togethers, hiring a caterer or buying foods already prepared. But for me, the fun and satisfaction comes from the doing. Getting out the KitchenAid and the Cuisinart is as much a part of my holiday traditions as is decorating the tree and hanging the stockings. [more…]

A little over a week ago, I facilitated a retreat in my home for the current and past board of directors of the San Francisco Professional Food Society. There were 17 people who were articulate, accomplished and just fun to be around.

The new SFPFS president, Joyce Jue, wanted to build exercises that would enable board members to get to know each other better, on the wise premise that people who have personal relationships with each other tend to work better as a team, are more likely to honor their commitments and will support each other more enthusiastically.

Through some ice breaker games, we learned fascinating stories about people’s passions, their careers and their families. And at the end of the day, everyone seemed to have walked away feeling more closely bonded to the group. [more…]