Photos by Huge Galdones
As much as I love living off the bounty of sweet vegetables from my garden in the summer, I could not wait to feast on the succulent and smoky wood-fired meats at Cochon Heritage Fire on Saturday.  The event took place on the wooded, riverside lawn behind the River Terrace Inn in Downtown Napa under near-perfect 75 degree weather.  Cochon Heritage Fire is a branch of Cochon 555, a nationwide series of consumer events and a professional culinary competition of “snout-to-tail” cookery using heritage breed pigs.
Chochon is such a delectable word, …

Our tiny valley has some of the best restaurants on the entire West Coast, but what jump starts our days of touring vineyards and wineries?  Here are some picks for great hot and hearty breakfasts in Downtown Napa.
BISCUITS
What’s better than freshly made buttermilk biscuits with house made, seasonal spreads?   When they’re smothered in sausage gravy and topped with eggs over easy!  The “Cowpoke” below is one of their popular breakfast items.

I had mine with a side of fried green tomatoes.  The tangy herb dip with chipotle sauce was great …

As Americans become more ‘green’ and support local food, we honor those on this Earth Day weekend who help farmers, nurserymen, chefs and home gardeners grow their crops.  Yesterday, on Earth Day, I met Maya Shiroyama and Jim Ryugo, owners of Kitazawa Seed Co., two Bay Area heroes of the local food movement.  I say heroes because they rescued the seed company that by 2000 was struggling financially and would have closed were it not for their taking over the business.  And they did so not to make money since …

At the Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting in San Francisco last week, I was so pleased to meet the charming Dario Pieropan, 4th generation winemaker of the Pieropan estate in Soave, about a 20-30 minute drive east of Verona.   Soave, home to the iconic white wine made from garganega, is an important controlled appellation of origin (DOC) in Italy.  With its 16,625 acres, it is the third largest DOC producer in all of Italy, and one of its largest exporters of wine.  Soave is dominated by large cooperative wineries who …

What to do when a neighbor leaves a bag of Fuyu persimmons on your porch?  When firm, they’re great sliced in salads, for example, with baby arugula or fast pickled with carrots and daikon.  But when they get riper and softer, I love using them in cookies.  These have a little more persimmon pulp in it, making them chewy.  I almost always use the chubby Fuyu persimmons but I’m sure Hachiyas would work just as well.
1 stick Smart Balance 50/50; or 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt …

A great way to use a lot of fresh shiso leaves is to make a pesto, Asian style.  I was inspired by traditional pesto but replaced the basil with shiso and the pine nuts with widely-available edamame soy beans.  Asian flavors give the pesto lots of umami.
When shiso grows in abundance during the hot summer and early fall, making something that is cool to eat and fast to make without heat is welcome.  All you need is a stick blender and one container like a glass measuring cup.
For this recipe, …

Shiso, aka perilla frutescens, is part of the mint family that grows abundantly during the summer.  The green variety is pungeant, with citrusy, floral and mint aromas that complement asian flavors very well.  Shiso leaves are high in beta-carotene and equivalents which are great antioxidants, and vitamin K for bone health.*
Growing up, we used to call shiso our “million dollar crop” because it grew abundantly in our backyard while being sold in neatly stacked packs of ten leaves at our asian grocer for a handsome sum.  Today, it’s not unusual to find micro-shiso …

No matter where you turn, Downtown Napa has great bakeries and sweet shops for a relaxing breakfast with coffee, that afternoon treat with tea, a take-out snack or freshly-made bread to bring home.
Model Bakery at Oxbow Public Market is the go-to bakery for artisanal bread made with organic ingredients.  A branch of the Model Bakery in Saint Helena which was established over 80 years ago, the bakery serves a variety of breads – including a to-die-for Fatted Calf bacon bread on weekends – as well as breakfast breads, cakes, cookies, …

 With a brand that is synonymous with high quality fresh goat cheese in the U.S., Laura Chenel is beginning a new era with the opening of a 30,000 square foot, state-of-the-art creamery in Sonoma that promises new products due to the addition of much-needed space for ageing cheeses.  The building, which was opened to its trade partners yesterday for a preview, is scheduled to be operational on February 21st.  General Manager Marie Lesoudier demurred on the production capacity of the creamery, saying that the goal is not to increase volume, but to introduce new cheeses …

One of my favorite foods is a simple one – bircher muesli.  It’s a concoction of whole grains, nuts and maybe dried fruits soaked overnight in a mixture of milk and yogurt and then topped with fresh berries and honey.  So simple, but packed with so many good things and so appealing that it was always easy to choose this over bacon and eggs.   It was created by a Swiss physician named Maximilian Bircher-Benner for hospital patients, but has since become a breakfast staple at top hotels around the world and I order …