Thoughtful Gourmet Blog

Let me get this out of the way upfront: I do not own a panini press. But I do like sandwiches. Ideal platforms to showcase leftovers, sandwiches have a structured elegance, the layers of ingredients ensuring the capture of all the flavor components. To enjoy Kathy Strah’s 2013 “The Ultimate Panini Press Cookbook”, you do […]

With construction underway at their new location at 115 San Anselmo Ave (across the driveway from MH Bread & Butter), Greenbrae’s Bistro Vis à Vis will soon become San Anselmo’s Bistro Vis à Vis. The final meal, i.e., the last supper, at the Bon Air Shopping Center location will be Saturday, September 14 with a […]

Trademark southern touch intact, new executive chef Tim Humphrey has taken over the stoves at Tiburon Tavern. Humphrey, who built his career working as sous chef to his executive chef brother, Joseph, brings the same caliber of experience (Meadowood, Murray Circle at Cavallo Point, Dixie) in fine dining to the fore at Tiburon Tavern. As […]

It is impossible to walk into Bisou Bistro, an unimposing restaurant at the edge of the Castro, and not notice the red velvet. A long banquette that runs underneath the upstairs gallery is swathed in the stuff; cherry red velvet wraps seat cushions, the wall and the lowered ceiling in its intimate embrace. It is […]

cover of "The Warm Kitchen" Cookbook by Amy Fothergill

In Amy Fothergill’s gluten-free cookbook, “The Warm Kitchen,” lasagna and linzer cookies are fit to feed everyone.

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 […]

Chef 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 […]

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 […]