‘Top Chef’ Portland’s Sara Hauman on self-confidence, yogurt and the importance of little fish
Updated May 11, 2021;
Posted May 11, 2021
"Top Chef" contender Sara Hauman at Soter Vineyards in Carlton, where she is the head chef.Mark Graves/The Oregonian
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Sara Hauman didn’t set out to become “Top Chef’s” granola-crunching, yogurt-loving “weird girl from Portland.”
The 34-year-old, one of two chefs with local ties featured on the popular reality show’s first Portland season, says that yogurt just happened to be front-and-center in the “Top Chef” fridge whenever she needed dairy, which over the first sixepisodeswasoften. And, yes, in her day-to-day life, she does use yogurt as a replacement for sour cream or buttermilk, leaning on the ingredient to add some natural tang to a dish.
Mister Jiu’s just might be the best new training ground for California cuisine
The S.F. restaurant’s alumni are setting the Bay Area on fire with passion projects from chile crisp to focaccia to hand-pulled noodles
Mister Jiu’s just might be the best new training ground for California cuisine
The S.F. restaurant’s alumni are setting the Bay Area on fire with passion projects from chile crisp to focaccia to hand-pulled noodles
When you read a lot of restaurant news, like I do every day, you develop the ability to speed-read the listings.
For instance, if a new restaurant is being led by someone who used to work at Chez Panisse, you can reasonably assume that that person will be bringing a little bit of that old magic to the new place. It’s a reflection of Chez Panisse as a training ground for culinary philosophies; chefs who worked at the Berkeley restaurant went on to open a plethora of farm-to-table restaurants and bakeries, like Greens, Stars and Acme Bread Co. Similarly, esteemed North Beach tasting-menu restaurant Coi once employed chefs like Sarah and Evan Rich of the Michelin-starred Rich Table, while Yountville destination the French Laundry’s disciples include the chef-owners behind fine dining giants Benu and Chicago’s Alinea.
Legendary Zuni Cafe gets rid of tips, joining a wage-equity movement in Bay Area
Legendary Zuni Cafe gets rid of tips, joining a wage-equity movement in Bay Area
But not all staffers think the new model, where diners get a service charge, is in their best interest
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Legendary S.F. restaurant Zuni Cafe will add 20% service charge to bills when it resumes indoor dining in a few weeks.Kimberley Hasselbrink/Special to The Chronicle 2020
When Zuni Cafe reopens for indoor dining in a few weeks, it’ll shift from a traditional tipping model to adding a 20% service charge to diners’ bills — a way to boost wages for the restaurant’s lowest wage workers. The San Francisco institution will join a long list of Bay Area restaurants that have switched to a service charge in the past several years, though some businesses have struggled to maintain a tipless model because of higher taxes and difficulty in retaining staff.
A Cozy New Restaurant and Cheese Shop Glides Into Leafy Pasadena This Summer
The upcoming Agnes marries market specialities, cafe vibes, and wood-fired hearth cooking — plus a great patio — all in one place soon
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Stefan Merriweather
Pasadena’s dining scene is quickly on the rise, as yet another opening places itself in the heart of the action on Green Street, between Crack Shack and Rocco’s. The upcoming Agnes by chef partners and owners Vanessa Tilaka and Thomas Kalb will focus on fine cheeses and regional American cooking, taking comfort in the Midwest, California, and beyond.
Vanessa Tilaka and Thomas Kalb
illustration: Loulou Yan
The spring and summer of 2020 brought a reckoning for many Americans, with a global pandemic causing mass unemployment and the murder of George Floyd spurring protesters across the country to decry police violence against Black lives. For the restaurant industry, these events brought every failure and uncomfortable truth to the forefront — and exploited and jobless workers suddenly had plenty of time for such conversations.
Social media was flooded with infographics about the racist origins of tipping and the inequities that have kept the hospitality machine running in America since its birth at the blurry end of legalized slavery in this country. Capitalism itself was under a lens, the unfair concentration of power and profit magnified with every report of another billionaire doubling or tripling wealth. Replacing this economic and political system is a long shot, but anti-capitalist practices have existed in bars and restaurants for years now. So what does this look like, and why should everyone care?
Brittany Anderson
When the two-time James Beard Award semi-finalist is not nestled in her cozy abode with her husband and their two dogs, she runs as many as four establishments - Metzger Bar and Butchery, Brenner Pass, and Black Lodge in Richmond, VA, and Leni in Washington, D.C. But before she could build businesses, she attended the French Culinary Institute in New York City and later sought an apprenticeship at the Blue Hill at Stone Barn where she learned all about sustainability and farm-to-table cuisine. What followed was a long list of culinary experiences and accomplishments that make her what she is today.
'Top Chef' Season 18, Filmed in Portland, Launches Tomorrow pdxmonthly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pdxmonthly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Bay Area's most anticipated restaurants opening this spring
After a year of casual fare, promising new fine dining restaurants are about to debut
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Mascarpone agnolotti from Bungalow Kitchen, an upcoming Tiburon restaurant by chef Michael Mina.David Varley
Many of the most exciting eats to emerge during the pandemic have been casual, takeout-oriented affairs, including pop-ups, ghost kitchens and home operations. But a rush of fine dining is on its way, with several of spring’s most anticipated openings leaning high-end and coming from chefs who used to work in Michelin-starred kitchens.
The recent lull in splashy, three-dollar-sign restaurant debuts makes sense with the pandemic, but now chefs are getting vaccinated and indoor dining is reopening across the Bay Area. Finally able to envision a future where their dining rooms can be full, these chefs have decided to open their doors this spring — and many more are likely to follow this summer and fall. Imminent arrivals include the long-awaited Cantonese restaurant Empress by Boon in Chinatown, as well as Ernest, an ex-Rich Table chef’s venture.
Ten New and Upcoming SF Restaurants to Get You Excited To Eat Out In 2021
Just like birthdays in 2020 didn't count, planned restaurant debuts that were either put on hold or scaled back are all being given do-overs now that we're in a new year that will hopefully be less dominated by the spread of a virus.
Dining out feels like the dearest and most indulgent of luxuries these days, and it's something that most of us are salivating about doing again ASAP. In San Francisco, some of the most anticipated restaurant openings of 2020 have now become the most anticipated restaurant openings of 2021, which means you have plenty to look forward to besides your tried-and-true favorite spots. And in the case of a couple of spots that have already opened in some capacity, it's likely that you haven't tried their takeout yet and they may not have tried outdoor seating just yet, so they still count as new in our book.
Snøhetta designs experimental culinary space in Tokyo
Snøhetta designs experimental culinary space in Tokyo
Snøhetta co-founder Craig Dykers discusses the architecture of Burnside – a Tokyo event space for art and design outfit En One and the Bronx chef collective Ghetto Gastro
When Snøhetta co-founder Craig Dykers met Jon Gray of chef collective Ghetto Gastro in Cuba on New Year’s Eve through artist José Parlá, little did they know that three years later they would be working together on a project on the other side of the world. Now, Burnside, an experimental culinary and event space created by Snøhetta for art and design collective En One Tokyo, is ready to open its doors in the Japanese capital. Bronx-founded Ghetto Gastro is set to kick off a residency there, and the architects are excited.