Thoughtful Gourmet Blog

It’s no secret – apples and cheese make great bedfellows. At the 8th Annual California Artisan Cheese Festival, held March 21 to 23, 2014 in Petaluma, chef and cheesemaker Sheana Davis of Sonoma’s The Epicurean Connection adds a new dimension to the cheese & apple get-together: cider. Just one of the numerous seminars, tastings and […]

David Wilcox is not one to let grass grow under his feet. Newly departed as chef of Mill Valley Beerworks, Wilcox is busy developing a series of pop-ups in Mill Valley, San Francisco and Los Angeles that benefit food-focused non-profit organizations. On Thursday, March 13, Wilcox gets the party started right. He will man two […]

The happy result of summer’s bumper crop of Amish paste pumpkins is a freezer full of pumpkin paste (purée). I defrosted two pounds of cooked pumpkin with the intent to make pumpkin pancakes. Which I did. I used the remaining pumpkin purée in three ways: 2/3 cup as a substitute for applesauce in a gluten-free […]

As wine and food go, Germany, Switzerland and Austria stand deep in the shadow of their big brother to the west – France – and of their big brother to the south – Italy. For the next eight weeks, this region’s unique cuisine and terroir-driven wines are the showcase at Oakland’s Barrel Room. Here, at […]

Wine should never be taken too seriously. Instead, wine should be a pleasure, an enjoyable addition to a meal of any size. Spin the Bottle Cellars takes the enjoyment of wine to a clever, new place. Three varietals, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and a Red Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot, the grapes sourced from […]

There’s never a dull moment in Napa. After writing about the emerging truffle industry in wine country, I was invited to participate in a weekend’s worth of tasting and information events about truffles. A few highlights: Eating cockscomb At a truffle lunch at Nickel and Nickel Winery, I learned from chef Carrie Nahabedian of Chicago’s […]

NPR recently wrote about the need for college campuses to accommodate people with food allergies. Because of changes already implemented in its dining program, Dominican University and their food service provider, Bon Appetit Management Company, appears well situated to manage any changes required to their dining program by a ruling such as this. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/01/08/168872161/college-students-with-food-allergies-make-legal-gains “DOJ’s […]

They may have been raised on organic milk and farmers market veggies, but when students line up at Marin’s high-ed campus cafes, are they still chowing down on the same starch-heavy, overcooked food that their parents most likely remember from their college days? Not quite. While it may not mimic dining at Marin’s local, sustainable […]