Thoughtful Gourmet Blog

Scott Clark, a chef with Michelin cred (Benu, Saison) ditches the high life for something quieter on California’s Central Coast. Coastal, a cookbook packed with soulful, spirited flavor – and plenty of umami – is the result. Good Food is Intuitive. And Takes Time. What type of stories do you like? The Journey is a […]

Do you ever walk into a restaurant and a memory of a previous visit there snaps into focus? When I stepped into the blue-washed 2025 iteration of Park Tavern, I did not recognize it, at first.  The dark walnut paneling of yore is gone (I remember them from a networking event I attend), replaced with […]

A Master of Science and Registered Dietician, Kylie Sakaida brings an easy-breezy healthful eating approach to her cookbook, “So Easy, So Good.”

Expo West, the enormous consumer packaged goods show at the Anaheim Convention Center, is a chance to see, in real-time, the future of food and drink. If my data set is accurate, these are packaged food trends that maybe, just maybe, you’ll find on a store shelf near you “soon.”

For Authentic Food, I wrote about Guerrerense cuisine, a seafood-forward region in Mexico. My experiences in Zihuatanejo and Playa Blanca were so elemental, so refreshing. And chatting with chefs in Spanish was a hoot and a half. (I did alright but thank goodness for digital transcription tools.)

I had never heard of Caffe Luxxe before a recent dinner at Tiburon’s Malibu Farm. A Malibu-based brand with coffee shops around SoCal and elsewhere, the coffee roaster also sells coffee to fellow Malibu-based brand, Malibu Farm (not Malibu Farms). After a full meal, I still managed to drink three cups, the coffee whispering sweet […]

If you had to pick a cookbook to conjure up your childhood, which cookbook would you choose? For me, the child of German-Czech immigrants, Luisa Weiss’s “Classic German Cooking” was a flavor-driven journey down memory lane.

At Alora and other San Francisco restaurant newcomers like Dalida and Movida, Persian flavors are edging in alongside Mexican and dining rooms are becoming less lounge-y.