Hello Friends,
For what may be my shortest email EVER, here’s a summary:
- I’ve got two more holiday events to consider
- I won an award (woot!)
- My Sparkling Wine gift guide is live
- My latest podcast with John Wohlfert is up
+ panettone, cioppino, + some crazy AI at AURA
It’s busy around here…
What’s Hot: Ladurée Est Arrivée, Art Deco Dinner and Dance + More
Not all together and not all at the same time. These are just a few of the food and food-adjacent events that have caught my attention in early-mid December.
Ladurée holiday cart at The St. Regis Hotel, San Francisco
Ladurée Afternoon Tea at The St. Regis (thru Dec 31)
The legendary Parisian maison de pâtisserie, Ladurée, celebrated (mostly) for it macarons (gluten-free!), is part of a holiday edition Afternoon at San Francisco’s St. Regis Hotel. (This is Ladurée’s first-ever appearance in San Francisco.)
Step into the Tea Salon to savor tea from tealeaves alongside bites of:
- Smoked Salmon Éclair with cream cheese, dill, and caviar
- Fig Toast with fig jam and goat cheese
- Phyllo Spiral with sundried tomato pesto
- Quiche with caramelized onion, speck, and Swiss cheese.
- Gingerbread Cookie with gingerbread ganache
- Chocolate Peppermint Entrement with dark chocolate ganache
- Crostata with cranberry and orange
- Eggnog Choux Puff with eggnog mousse
- Fruitcake Scone with Christmas jam and Devonshire cream
- Ladurée Eugenie with chocolate ganache and cookie
- Ladurée macarons
There’s also a Ladurée gift for each diner.
Daily, 12 – 4 p.m.
$175 per person
Dinner and Art Deco Dance at Nob Hill Club (Dec 20)
Holiday Gift Guides
You probably know that curating gift guides doesn’t happen in a blink. I start researching items to include in Janaury and fill in any gaps by late October. For the past five years, I’ve created four guides – Cookbooks, Food, Booze (and booze-adjacent) and Sparklers. As 2025 turns to 2026 (ack!), I’ll also share my Best Bites of 2025. (Here’s last year’s Best Bites.)
My Sparklers gift guide is now available!
17 Sparkling Wines to Welcome 2026
This year, I’ve created groups: Californian, Old and New French Sparkling Wine, Charmant & Italian Method, and a few Non-Traditional selections. Skip stuffy and lean into fun sparkling wine. Anytime is the right time.
18 Boozy and Non-alcoholic Gift Ideas for 2025
Fresh, West Coast amaro, artist-driven bottles from California wineries, a non-alcoholic spritz that’s actually delicious, and a fabu Portuguese vermouth top my list of boozy gifts and non-alcoholic drink gifts this year.
As a food lover and food writer, I am asked what my favorite foods and restaurants are all the time. For my gift guide for food lovers, I looked for items from small businesses based in the American West, with a notable exception (it’s Swiss!). My list includes incredible shellfish and seafood from Washington, the cutest honey pots you’ve ever seen, a dinger of a caviar box, and some hella delicious Swiss-style cheeses. Plus chocolates and olive oil, of course.
25 Cookbooks for Everyone On Your List
My list includes cookbooks published in 2025 from the doyenne of Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi, and digs deeper into regional and blended cooking styles around the world. Alongside a cookbook that considers Korean temple cooking are two books that look at the threads that bring together the cooking from Eastern Europe to China, a Christmas cookbook highlighting the Gilded Age, two cookbooks geared towards gluten-free baking and cooking, and one from the gal who opened a cooking school in Julia Child’s Provençal home.
Purchase links are embedded in each review.
Where to Read My Work
While I plug away at launching a new website and newsletter (aiming for a New Year drop), I’ve got a few tidbits for you to chew on:
As Scoma’s (in Sausalito and San Francisco) celebrates its 60th year (!!!), I chatted with Chef Gordon Drysdale about what he changed in Mama Scoma’s cioppino recipe in “Scoma’s 60 Year Special” for Edible Marin and Wine Country magazine.
And, also for Edible, I chatted up Gary Riulli and learned all about his multi-step process for making his famous panettone in The Panettone Master.
I Won A Writing Award!
It is humbling to win an award of any kind and I am honored to have my name in lights for my series on sustainable packaging. Thank you, Marin Magazine for letting me share lots of pages of thoughts on what’s new and exciting in sustainable packaging, including takeout containers, straws of all kinds, and wine and spirits bottles.
Here’s the words on the goods:
New Wine and Spirits Packaging Is Here. Will Consumers Buy It?
New Sustainable Wine and Spirits Packaging is Here. Will Consumers Buy It?
6 Ways California Restaurants are Embracing Sustainable Takeout Solutions
6 Ways California Restaurants Are Embracing Sustainable Takeout Solutions
The Time for Compostable Cutlery is Now
And my IG post about it: