What was your favorite food as a kid?
Tacos
What was the first meal you made that you were proud of?
Chilaquiles, as a young dishwasher, for family meal
What three adjectives describe your cuisine?
Fresh, clean and responsible
What book most influences your food, cookbook or otherwise?
I am influenced by a lot of different cookbooks but The Flavor Bible probably gets the most use.
What chef do you most admire?
Michel Bras
What are your favorite ingredients?
Lemons, radishes and chilies
What music do you like to hear when you cook?
There is not much music in our kitchens. I find that people focus more on what’s playing than the food they are producing. When I am not in the kitchen I currently listen to Velvet Underground, Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Ween, TV on the Radio, Dr. Dog, Beta Band, The National and Andrew Bird.
What is your favorite hangover meal?
Croque Madame
What is your favorite midnight snack?
My wife always has some great cheeses in the fridge that are hard to pass on.
What restaurant in the world are you most dying to try?
Lately, I have been thinking it would be fun to catch a flight to Vegas and experience Joël Robuchon.
What kitchen utensil is most indispensable to you?
10-inch slicer, palette knife and bluehandled Joyce Chen scissors
Whom do you most like to cook for?
My 8-year-old son is rad. He has no food fears at all.
If you could do one other job, what would it be?
Sport fisherman
What do you most value in a sous-chef?
Integrity, humility and focus
What food trend would you most like to erase from the annals of history?
Fast food
What one food would you take with you to a desert island?
A pig (I would smuggle some salt as well.)
What most satisfies your sweet tooth?
Candied nuts
What would you eat at your last meal, if you could plan such a thing?
It would be a simple dinner with my wife and sons. Oysters and Dungeness crab fresh out of the ocean.
Cheeseburger or foie gras?
Both can be amazing ... cheeseburger
What’s your favorite place to go (and what is your favorite thing to order) for... ... happy hour?
Maven in the Lower Haight (SF) has great cocktails
... a splurge meal?
Ordering one of everything at State Bird Provisions in San Francisco
... breakfast?
Café 29 outside of Napa
... pastry?
Juan Calderon is doing really cool desserts at Picco in Larkspur.
... a late night/after work meal?
No question: Sol Food in San Rafael [and Mill Valley]. I always order the same thing, a Cubano and coconut water.
... a cup of coffee?
Cibo in Sausalito
... a greasy-spoon meal?
Tacos La Bamba taco truck in Sonoma. Worth the wait.
... groceries?
San Rafael Thursday farmers’ market
... kitchen equipment?
Williams-Sonoma
... ice cream?
Glen Ellen Star
... chocolate?
Murray Circle dry storage, straight out of the Valrhona box
And lastly but not leastly ... what is your favorite local wine or beer for the season?
For the summer:
Wine / Iron Horse Wedding Cuvee
Beer / Lagunitas Lil Sumpin’ Wild
This dish was inspired by a day with my wife and sons at Fort Cronkite beach near the Marin Headlands. The beach is...
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