After many years heading up the kitchen at Chaminade, Beverlie Terra is now the Executive Chef at Pino Alto Restaurant, the showcase for Cabrillo College's culinary arts students. This Friday, Nov. 1, Terra and her protegés collaborate with winemakers of the landmark family-owned Guglielmo Winery and Yellow Wall Farms for a four-course pairing of locally grown ingredients with Central Coast vintages.
Tickets are $65 per person, plus tax and gratuity—and it's just possible that if you act quickly you can reserve one of the last remaining seats. The meal begins with a first course of gnocci with porcini cream and a 2012 Chardonnay. Salad of little gem lettuce with beets, squash, feta and pomegranate vinaigrette will be joined by a 2012 Pinot Noir. The main course of lamb chops with pumpkin risotto (whoa, does that sound good) will be served with a 2008 Syrah, and dessert of warm apple crumble and persimmon ice cream will arrive with Guglielmo's sparkling almond champagne.
Call (831) 479-6524 to reserve seating at Sesnon House, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos. And if dinner is sold out, then join me next week at Pino Alto's Farm to Table dinner (Burrell School is the winery) on Friday, Nov. 8.
Bookshop Santa Cruz Cooks: Well, not literally, but literarily at least. Next up in the bookshop's autumn culinary booksigning series is Suzanne Goin, of Los Angeles' A.O.C. restaurant who will talk about her new book—The A.O.C. Cookbook—on Nov. 6 starting at 7pm. Goin specializes in sophisticated but unpretentious recipes, the sort that are heartily endorsed by Alice Waters and like-minded cuisinartists. Come meet the author/chef and check out her new cookbook showcasing seasonal cookery. And on Tuesday evening, Nov. 12, 7pm, join best-selling vegan cookbook author (Veganomicon, Vegan with a Vengeance) Isa Moskowitz, who will dish the hot tips, recipes, tidbits and strategies for making terrific and easy vegan meals for everyday success. That's at Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz.
Fall Faves: My favorite recent meals have included more than one pass through the Italianate divinity that is Pizzeria Avanti's reginette (think papardelle with fluted edges), slathered with meatballs and the finest marinara in town. Killer dish for $12. And then there's the addictive pumpkin tea cake from Companion Bakeshop. Moist, fragrant and loaded with spicy attitude, this is the best way you can possibly spend $3.
Also, a recent dinner at Oakland’s Haven let me sample some technique-driven dishes that reminded me of the heyday of “designer cuisine” only now inflected with ultra-fresh, seasonal ingredients and miles of creativity. These are vegetarian dishes so brilliantly balanced that the very idea of meat never crossed my mind. An opening salad of mixed chicories laced with nuts and fruit, all mounded atop a thick glaze of duck liver mousse—such wonderful contrasts of sweet and salty, buttery and crunchy. I was impressed. Prices tended to be on the high side for entrees, but I'd have to say that in terms of value they were worth every penny. The housemade Cynar—seriously, can you believe that level of high alcohol nerddom?—well, it was a noble effort, but just a bit too bright and vegetal (Cynar is a high-proof fermentation of artichoke, plus herbs and spices). It missed the deep mystery of commercial Cynar, and yet what a noble effort. It might be worth the drive to Oakland just to see what this glamorous Daniel Patterson Group restaurant on Jack London Square is up to next.
Who knows? Maybe downtown Santa Cruz' upcoming Assembly (kudos to the Penny Ice Creamery entrepreneurs) will offer similar housemade exotica to keep dinner times exciting.
