Clark Wolf's Rants, Raves, Diatribes...and a few other Thoughts

Celebrating spring garden in Guerneville

 

Spring Garden Celebration in Guerneville: On Saturday, the Guerneville School Garden and the Luther Burbank School Orchard host their Spring Garden Celebration from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. The garden opens at noon.

Chef Evelyn Cheatham of Worth Our Weight will present a talk and cooking demonstration; she'll be accompanied by some of her apprentices.

Marsha Guerrero, director of special projects for Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard Foundation, is the day's guest speaker. The Student Gardener of the Year and Volunteer of the Year awards will be presented at the event.

Clark Wolf, who is always both passionate and entertaining, hosts the event, which offers a delightful way to spend a spring afternoon and support a great cause at the same time.

Admission is $15 for adults and $5 for children, who must be accompanied by an adult. Donations are always welcome.

The garden is located at 14630 Armstrong Woods Rd. in Guerneville.

 

Win Exclusive Battle of the Brews Tickets

Thousands of beer-drinkers are counting the minutes to this year’s Battle of the Brews, a knock-down, drag-out People’s Choice contest to name the best brewery. In its sweet 16 year, this annual tradition hosted by the Active 20-30 Club of Santa Rosa will feature dozens of competitors vying for votes including Firestone Walker, Gordon Biersch, Anderson Valley Brewing, Lost Coast, Black Diamond, Widmer, Red Hook, Humboldt Brewing, Blue Moon, Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and many others. Local restaurants will also compete, while Love Fool and the Pat Jordan Band rock onstage.

But you, BiteClubbers, deserve something a bit more…exclusive.

The premiere pre-event at Saturday’s Battle of the Brews is the First Annual Craft Cup and ‘Wich Hunt. From 2-4p.m., 300 guests get the red carpet treatment during these two juried competitions. Craft Cup competitors will be showing off the best of their craft brews in an unique tasting experience.

‘Wich Hunt, hosted by BiteClub, pits 21 of my favorite local chefs against each other to come up with the baddest, meanest, most amazing sandwich in Sonoma County. Each of the sandwiches (and trust us, there is some major creativity going on here) will be available for sampling. Judges will include the esteemed Chef John Ash, Author Clark Wolf, Bohemian Editor Gabe Meline, Ike’s Place owner Ike Shehadeh and culinary personality, Laurie Figone in a blind tasting.

Full article here

Upcoming Spring Appearances

March 24 & 25, 2012: California Artisan Cheese Festival

3/24 Clark is moderating a panel called “Growing a Cheese Region for the Future” with panelists Mary Keehn of Cypress Grove Chevre; Jennifer Bice of Redwood Hill Farm; Jill Giacomini Basch of Point Reyes Farmstead and a representative of Laura Chenel’s Chevre.

3/25 Chef Demos

 

March 31, 2012: Clark will be one of four judges for the first annual ‘Wich Hunt at Sonoma County’s Battle of the Brews (along with Chef John Ash, Ike Shehadeh of Ike’s Place, and Heather Irwin of BiteClubEats.com)

 

April 2, 2012: IACP Conference

Clark is moderating a panel: Inside Bon Appetit's New Test Kitchen

 In Bon Appetit’s test kitchen, newly redesigned by Adam Farmerie, two of the world’s primary

exponents of experiential environments discuss new directions in culinary space design. As David

Rockwell says in his book Spectacle, "the value of being there….(is) not about something

happening to you, it's about participating.” Matt Lightner, from the newly-opened restaurant,

Atera, provides the chef's perspective. Moderator Clark Wolf leads this session on the growing

role of culinary spaces for publishing, restaurant, hospitality, education and other industries, and

the opportunities these spaces offer to culinary professionals.

Adam Farmerie, partner AvroKO design/concept firm

David Rockwell, architect/designer, founder/CEO Rockwell Group

Matt Lightner, chef, Atera

 

May 3, 2012: Clark is moderating a panel at Fales Library on the 2012 Farm Bill (part 1 of 2) from the policy perspective

 

May 19, 2012: Spring Garden Celebration at the Guerneville School Garden, celebrating the inauguration of the Guerneville School Garden into the national Edible Schoolyard Project.

 

May 23, 2012: Farm Forum at Forchetta Bastoni in Sebastopol, California

 

May 31, 2012: Critical Topics in Food Series: How Would Julia Child Vote on the 2012 Farm Bill?  (part 2 of the Farm Bill events)

The panel will be a discussion about the interests and obligations of the rest of the food industry toward farm policy from the culinary perspective

 

“Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics” a Book Talk, April 10th at NYU’s Fales Library

New York University's Fales Library, the home of one of the nation's largest and prestigious collection in food studies, and Clark Wolf, food and restaurant consultant, are hosting a book talk to celebrate the publication of Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics by Dr. Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim, on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. at the Fales Library, third floor, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, (at LaGuardia Place). A reception and book signing will follow immediately after the talk. [Subways A,C,E, B,D,M to West 4th Street; 6 line to Astor Place; R train to 8th Street.].

Calories--too few or too many--are the source of health problems affecting billions of people in today's globalized world. Although calories are essential to human health and survival, they cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted.

The conversation, moderated by Clark Wolf, host of the Fales Library's "Critical Topics in Food Series," will center on the epic view of a calorie: what it is, where it came from, what it means, how and why we count them. Nestle and Nesheim, two of America's finest nutritionists, will help decode nutritional science into a commonsense language and situate calories in their place in the wider cultural and political context.

The public may RSVP to: rsvp.bobst@nyu.edu with your name and title/date of the event. For more information the public may call Elizabeth Wiest, 212 992 9744 or email liz.wiest@nyu.edu.

MEDIA ONLY: Reporters interested in covering or attending the event must contact Christopher James at 212-998-6876 or email christopher.james@nyu.edu.      

Full article here

 

Stop Calling Yourself an Expert, Food Consultant Pleads

It would be tempting to call Clark Wolf an expert in expertise if the restaurant consultant wasn't so wary of how food writers have cheapened the term.

Wolf, who next week is moderating a New York University Fales Library panel on knowledge and influence in the culinary sphere, says contemporary critics and bloggers are too quick to assign the "expert" label to themselves and others.

"It's OK to be a lover, devotee, whatever, just don't call them experts," Wolf says of enthusiastic eaters who visit every Thai restaurant in their hometowns or learn to make cheese at home.

The complication for serious food writers who aspire to earn expert status - and the clout that accompanies it - is there's no step-by-step guide to attain the insight, track record, culinary experiences, trustworthiness and vision of Ruth Reichl, Michael Bauer or Jonathan Gold, writers with spots on Wolf's very short list of legitimate experts. Food scholars, unlike sommeliers, can't take tests to prove their worth.

"I almost want an author to be dead," Wolf says, noting it takes a lifetime to eat enough meals to write intelligently about food and another lifetime to assess the writing's lasting value.

Since it's very difficult to pry a restaurant review from a deceased critic, I asked Wolf how much expertise a living writer should have to acquire before his or her opinions can be considered authoritative. My friend Daniel Vaughn -- a barbecue blogger who writes for Texas Monthly and is working on Prophets of Smoked Meat, one of the first three books to be published by Anthony Bourdain's Ecco imprint - recently criticized the Today Show for bestowing the title of "Texas barbecue expert" on a young woman who spent three days in the state. Wolf agrees that's asinine - but also questions Vaughn's credentials.

"I don't care what he says at all," Wolf says. "He's working on a book with a guy who's a careerist, opportunist sideshow. If his book stands up in five years, call me back."

According to Wolf, a barbecue expert should have logged time working a pit. And since "context is everything," a Texas barbecue expert should be familiar with South Carolina barbecue traditions, among others. That's why Calvin Trillin is a barbecue expert in Wolf's estimation (a claim that would ruffle Robb Walsh, author of the Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook.)

Vaughn points out the majority of pit masters who participated in last year's Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, a gathering of the state's most talented barbecue producers, haven't sampled barbecue outside of Texas.

"Do I know everything there is to know about Texas barbecue? Of course not," says Vaughn, who's visited more than 400 joints statewide. "At this point I know enough about Texas barbecue to be a one-man panel discussion, but I'm still curious enough to keep learning."

Wolf says he applauds the effort.

"(Vaughn) is a fairly experience barbecue investigator," he says. Like other writers intent on becoming true experts, he adds, "he needs to keep eating, keep traveling."

Full article here

 

THE MEAT OF THE MATTER

Our national culinary identity is all wrapped up in meat.

Meat has taken on such a prominent role in the American diet that it’s become so ingrained into our national identity that most Americans, when eating a steak or biting into a juicy cheeseburger on any given day of the week don’t give this delicious luxury a second thought.

But it’s worth some consideration as evidenced by the fact that restaurant consultant Clark Wolf recently convened a whole panel of experts to discuss this very topic. Wolf notes, “The drought in Texas causing prices to rise, a greater basis of sustainability in animal practice, a strong interest in community husbandry, and the start of the holiday season make this [American’s consumption of meat] an important timely topic.”

He continues, “In a different economy our iconic protein warrants discussion. Our job is to highlight the many viewpoints not always addressed.

Wolf led the spirited discussion titled “The Changing Center of the American Plate” at New York University’s Fales Library. Joining him was Jenifer Harvey Lang, food journalist and Managing Director of the renowned Café des Artistes in Manhattan, Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, writer and self-proclaimed Semitic Swinologist, Mark Gilman, cheese maker, and Betty Fussell, Food Historian & Author of Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef.

Full article here

Beef Will Be What’s for Dinner for a Long Time, Panelists Say

Have you been persuaded that beef is waning on the American plate because it’s too destructive to the ecosystem, too hormone-pumped and too corn-fed artery-clogging?

“American steak is here to stay — it’s iconic and you don’t bring down icons,” said Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University.

Betty Fussell, the food historian and author, most recently, of “Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef,” was emphatic that “meat is making a comeback, even among some vegetarians, thanks to the thoughtfulness” in the production of locally raised American beef.

They had gathered on Thursday in the Fales Library of New York University for a panel discussion on “The Changing Center of the American Plate,” and beef seemed right there at the bull’s-eye of the platter

“Meat is still at the center of a lot of plates,” Dr. Nestle said, adding that in Manhattan, “23-ounce steaks are not that unusual, even now.”

Ms. Fussell added that beef has always been an American staple “because steak is raw, violent, macho, sexy and big.” Her book offers an indictment of confined feeding operations where thousands of steer are raised, and the way that beef cattle became commodities. As panelist she traced the historical ascendancy of beef over pork in America “to the refrigerated railroad car, when people had the opportunity to taste fresh beef instead of the previous ho-hum salt pork.”

The moderator was the restaurant consultant Clark Wolf, and the other panelists were Jenifer Harvey Lang, who long ran the Café des Artistes restaurant in Manhattan; Mark Gillman, a Connecticut specialty cheesemaker who offers his $20-to-$30-a-pound product at three New York Greenmarkets; and Jeffrey Yoskowitz, a student of pigs and pork who identifies himself as a “swinologist” and who said he was “curious to see if, increasingly, American steak becomes a status symbol in China.”

Full article here

Fall at Shone Farm

 

Shone Farm on Pick Your Own Day.  So beautiful, and great to see families out there gathering and snipping and sniffing and hay riding...  What a perfect spot to learn about how much goodness grows.

I Love to Eat

 

It was rather amazing - bordering on surreal - to sit comfortably at the Indianapolis Repertory Theater for the Premier of James Still's wonderful one man play about James Beard.  I Love To Eat was a spot on theatrical representation about the Father of American Cookery that engaged and entertained, while highlighting a number of the basic philosophies he espoused (ok, bellowed) making him as relevant today as he was back then.

So nice to see my old friend (he fed me about once a week that first year I lived in New York) up there, chatting away on telephones, passing along critical information (sometimes called gossip) and reveling in all things gustatory.  Wow.  I'm guessing we'll see this in New York and San Francisco at the very least.

Tomato Celebration at Santa Rosa Farmer's Market

 

Celebrations large and small are all about the tomato this year. Long, slow, cool summer and some early fall rains, between pops of Indian Summer, and we’ve had some amazing tomatoes.  These are from Redwood Empire Farm on Middle Rincon Road, in Santa Rosa, at their stand at the Saturday Vets Building Farmers Market.  Dry farmed and amazing.