2/24 - A Feast of Napa Cabernet

CabFestNV 2014

Napa Valley’s legendary Cabernet Sauvignons finally have their own festival!  CabFestNV is a three-day celebration that will appeal to both the expert and the novice, featuring more than 100 of the biggest names in the wine industry as well as the best of the boutiques. Through current and library wine tasting, interesting and informative panels, educational and interactive seminars and keynote presentations, CabFestNV will spotlight the many facets of Cabernet Sauvignon’s complexity and mystique. But there is much more to CabFestNV than just enhancing the appreciation and appeal of Cabernet Sauvignon. CabFestNV is out to also prove that seriously good wine needn’t take itself too seriously… which means the weekend will also be laced with great music from rock to classical, great food, and fun and fabulous events for all those who attend.

 

Michael Madden (Chief Executive),

Lincoln Theatre

 

Michael Madden also serves as the Executive Director of the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater.  His keen insights into Lincoln Theater operations, his knowledge of the local marketplace and his informed perspective on what it will take to make the venue successful, make him uniquely qualified to fulfill the mission and objectives of the Lincoln Theater Foundation and its Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater.  In his career, Madden successfully built and managed businesses with over 200 employees, he gained invaluable experience overseeing major business restructurings and he developed publishing campaigns for entertainment giants such as Sony Pictures, Fox, Lucas Film, Quincy Jones, Suze Orman and James Cameron.

 

Winemaker Celia Welch

Corra Wines
 

Celia Welch, consulting winemaker to some of Napa Valley’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon estates, is proud to welcome you to her own endeavor, CORRA.

Grapes from three prime vineyards in three of Napa Valley’s premium growing regions, Oakville, Rutherford and Pritchard Hill, combine to create the powerful yet elegant Corra Cabernet Sauvignon.

Corra, a Celtic deity representing prophecy, symbolizes this small brand’s forward-looking perspective. Showing herself on earth in the form of a crane, Corra takes wing and lifts her shadow to life.

Celia Welch’s first interaction with grapes was under the huge oak tree in her backyard in Southern Oregon, where her siblings and she plucked grape berries from stems for their father, an avid wine collector and home winemaker. Her parents also included the family on trips through Napa and Sonoma in the early sixties, and, like most visitors, she was entranced with the beauty of the rolling vineyards. 

In 1982 with a degree in Enology earned at UC Davis in her back pocket, she set out to take a peek at a few wine regions. Her travels took her to the Pacific Northwest, the East Coast, and to New Zealand. She worked harvest in the Barossa Valley of Australia, and then settled in the Napa Valley to refine her craft.

Celia had reached a fork in her career path in the early nineties, and she chose to focus on independent wineconsulting. The wines she has made create a microcosm of Napa Valley. She has made wine from vineyards on Mt. Veeder, Atlas Peak, and Howell Mountain to those in Carneros, and from benchland vineyards from St. Helena to Napa.   

In 2004 came the idea and the challenge of founding Corra. It was not easy to find vineyard sources with top-quality fruit, a winery with a bit of space to spare for barrels, and a strong team of individuals with experience in different aspects of the wine business from grapevines to websites. The results of these efforts have been tremendous; well-received wines and a project that has lead to information- and idea-sharing for everyone involved.

 

Jeff Gargiulo

Gargiulo Vineyards

As a lifetime farmer, Jeff Gargiulo has always been passionate about the land and agricultural, and today that passion is focused on the joys of grape growing and fine wine making. 30 years ago though, he and his wife Valerie only dreamed of one day building a premier wine estate. That dream took shape in the early 1980s when Jeff and Valerie and their young family traveled to Napa Valley to visit Valerie's cousins, Barney and Belle Rhodes. Napa Valley icons, Barney and Belle Rhodes had been in the Napa Valley since the late 1960s growing grapes in Rutherford at Bella Oaks Vineyard. Jeff and Valerie were inspired by their cousin’s Napa Valley lifestyle and confident that with their help and Jeff’s agricultural knowledge they would make some of the finest wines in the world. Twelve years later and with countless hours of coaching from Barney and Belle, Jeff and Valerie purchased their first vineyard in Oakville, Napa Valley, Money Road Ranch in 1992. Seven years later they purchased their second Oakville property, 575 ovx.

From the beginning, the Gargiulo’s committed themselves to creating a world class Cabernet Sauvignon wine estate. From his years spent farming, Jeff Gargiulo, knew that if he didn't start with the very best land, he could never expect to grow the best grapes. For this reason, the Gargiulo's chose Oakville to establish their namesake winery. Then, like today, Oakville was considered to be amongst the preeminent places to grow Cabernet Sauvignon in the world. The very first vintage of Gargiulo Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon was 2000, and since then Gargiulo Vineyards has quietly taken its place among the most highly regarded Cabernet Sauvignon producers in Napa Valley. Not ones to rest on their laurels, Jeff, Valerie, daughter, April and the entire Gargiulo Vineyards’ team continue to strive to make Gargiulo wines the most pure and breathtaking expressions of their two esteemed Oakville vineyards.

 

02/17 - Speratus Winery - Wine for Scholarships

 

 

 

Speratus Winery

Speratus takes its name from the Latin word “sperare” - "to hope'. It is hope that Speratus provides for families in need. Sales of Speratus wines provide scholarship funds to low income families, so that they may have the opportunity to secure a great Lasallian education for their children.

 

Inside Story

Swiss native Jean Hoefliger trained at some of the world’s greatest wineries, including Bordeaux’s Château Lynch-Bages, before going on to helm the cellars at cult Napa wineries Newton and Alpha Omega.

Jean Hoefliger

Kelly Trevethan

 

Kelly Trevethen is a member of Alpha Omega’s board, a wine connoisseur and a passionate supporter of Lasallian education. He asked Hoefliger, who consults for wineries all over the world, to work with him on a boutique wine label whose proceeds would fund scholarships for needy and at-risk children to San Francisco Bay Area Lasallian high schools. Thus, Speratus was born.     Kelly Trevethan, Founder The grandson of Italian winemakers, Kelly inherited his family's passion for wine and wine making.  It was this passion that inspired Speratus Winery.  Kelly started his Wealth Management career in 1983 at Bear Stearns & Co. and has earned the designation Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA), and the Investment Strategist Certificate from the Investment Management Consulting Association, completed at The Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania. From 1995 to 2008, Kelly managed The Trevethan Group at Oppenheimer & Co. , where he was a Managing Director of Investments with the firm and was a member of the Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Chairman's Council, a prestigious recognition awarded to their top Financial Advisers. Kelly also co-founded The Physicians' Financial Resource Group, a team of financial advisers whose broad financial services platform focuses on sub-specialty physicians and medical groups. He is a past member of the Saint Mary's College Board of Regents, Investment Management Consultants' Association (www.imca.org), the Financial Planning Association (www.fpa.org), the San Francisco Estate Planning Council (www.sfepc.org), the National Committee on Planned Giving (www.ncpg.org). Mr. Trevethan is a member of the De La Salle High School President's Advisory Board (www.dlshs.org), and also on the board of Alpha Omega Winery (www.aowinery.com).

 

Robert Jordan

President, Justin-Siena High School –

Justin-Siena is a Catholic, college preparatory high school in the Lasallian tradition which serves approximately 635 young men and women in grades 9 - 12. The School is located on forty acres in the City of Napa and in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. The school is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and the Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA). Justin-Siena serves a variety of students from Napa, Sonoma, and Solano Counties.

 

Omar Lopez

De La Salle, Concord, and recent graduate from St. Mary’s College in Moraga.

 

“I am currently a fourth-year physics major at Cal Poly. I graduated from De La Salle in 2009, and I cannot stress how much the experience has resonated within me since then. Being a man of faith, integrity, and scholarship makes more sense to me each passing day, and I honestly feel more complete because of it. The values that De La Salle instills in its students are something of profound importance not only for the students, but for all the people that these students eventually influence. Without the Bishop Cummins Scholarship Program, I might possibly not be writing this letter to you today.  The Bishop Cummins Program put further emphasis to my experience at De La Salle by truly challenging me as to how I defined myself as a man, and what I could do to get better.  Besides the much appreciated financial aid, the Bishop Cummins Program ensured that I had mentors constantly pushing me, to take my character to the next level. These mentors were a force of nature when it came to reminding us how we ought to act. I still keep these things in mind to this day and hope that, one day, I may return to De La Salle to contribute to this great experience for others.”

 

 

 

Lasallian Scholarship Programs

 

Lasallian High Schools are Catholic college-preparatory school for boys and girls, sponsored by the Christian Brothers. These Schools are committed to keeping great education accessible to families of limited means.

Embodying this commitment are the school's unique scholarship program that serves the children of families in poverty. These various scholarship programs are designed for students who show academic potential and have a strong desire to attend a Lasallian High School, but whose families have an income below 185% of the adjusted federal poverty level (as of 2010, this means a family of four earning less than $41,000 annually).

These scholarship programs aid these families not only with tuition but also with the predictable expenses of normal high school life. The children of poor families live lives full of challenges and responsibilities: they take care of siblings, stand in for absent parents, earn money for the household, and deal with many kinds of difficulties.

The scholarship program's success has been remarkable. One of the scholarship recipients, who is now in college recently said, "I realize now that everything you said was right. It was hard work in high school, but it really prepared me. College is hard - but I'm prepared."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

02/10 - Kitchens Connected; The Worlds of Flavor

Kitchens Connected - The Culinary Institute of America’s 2013 Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival

In this 16th edition of The Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival, we explored four intersecting thematic areas—Millennial Appetites, Information Technology, Creativity, and Culinary Science—to discover how the world’s most inspired chefs leverage change and global touch points to build community and success around their culinary vision.

Copenhagen, Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, Sydney, New York, Istanbul, Lima, Singapore, Barcelona, San Francisco, London—when thinking about menu concepts, dishes, and flavor profiles, we increasingly turn our adventurous palates to multiple centers of global influence to complement the best of local sourcing and seasonal ingredients. Chefs visit each other's kitchens both literally and virtually, making use of airplanes and social media interchangeably to gain access to other food cultures and culinary spaces, in turn sharing everything from photos to fragments of their creative process with their colleagues, customers, and the media.

In this Conference & Festival, The Culinary Institute used four intersecting thematic areas—Millennial Appetites, Information Technology, Creativity, and Culinary Science—to discover how our most inspired chefs leverage change and global touch points to build community and success around their culinary vision.

Our moderator, BILL BRIWA, C.E.C., C.H.E., is a chef-instructor at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Chef Briwa graduated top of his class at the CIA in 1980 and was the recipient of the Keating Award having been voted most likely to succeed by his peers. He has worked in a variety of culinary positions in Northern California, including the French Laundry, the Sugar House Bakery, and Domaine Chandon. He has held the position of executive chef at the CIA's Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant, the Hess Collection Winery, and his own bistro, Palmers Cafe. As the culinary chair of the Napa Valley Wine Auction in 2003 he helped raise more than $8 million for local charities and has been an active supporter of the local farmers’ market, having served on the board of directors for three years. Bill has traveled to study and teach cooking in Greece, Sicily, Tunisia, Turkey, Mexico, China, and across the United States. His writing on food and wine has appeared in Sunset magazine, the trade journal Flavor and the Menu, and Fine Cooking. (Napa, CA).

Peter Gilmore

Executive Chef

Quay Restaurant, Sydney

 

Peter Gilmore is one of Australia’s most influential and talented chefs; many would argue that he is our greatest. Since 2001, Peter has been executive chef at Quay, and his creative and original cuisine has seen the restaurant receive an unprecedented number of Australian and international awards, and establish itself as one of Australia’s best and best-loved restaurants.

Peter is, by his own admission, obsessed with flavours and textures. His dishes at Quay reflect his constant exploration of new combinations of the intense flavours and textures found in nature to create what he describes as “purity”. He takes elements as diverse and unexpected as a smoked pig cheek and marries it with shiitake, shaved scallops and fried Jerusalem artichoke leaves to create a dish which is an explosion of texture and flavour and yet, at the same time, has perfect unity.

This quest for purity is also reflected in the produce Peter uses. In his first book, Peter described his cuisine as "food inspired by nature". A passionate gardener, Peter was one of the first chefs in Australia to truly embrace the vegetable garden and its diversity, forging unique relationships with small-scale growers to re-introduce forgotten plant species and to develop bespoke produce exclusively for Quay. He collaborates closely with all his suppliers, from fisherman who hand dive and line catch seafood in pristine Australian waters, to farmers who rear rare breed animals with superior flavour and texture for the restaurant. Peter plans his menus from the ground up a season ahead; a way of working which has strengthened his appreciation of the seasons and the natural world, and is directly reflected in his cuisine.

Says Peter: “What we try to do is to produce original, beautifully crafted food with a big emphasis on layers of texture and flavours to create an overall sense of purity. We create food that tastes of where it is from, that is beautiful, and that takes you on a journey of discovery.”

Peter was born and bred in Sydney, and knew from his teens that he wanted to cook.  He started his apprenticeship at 16, and spent his twenties working in kitchens overseas and in country New South Wales, developing his own style. Critical recognition came in 2000 when Peter was the Head Chef at De Beers Restaurant at Whale Beach and Terry Durack, food reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote “De Beers houses a young chef with a real talent for sending out beautifully structured food with innate simplicity”. Peter’s next step was as head chef at Quay, and he has never looked back.

  

After more than a decade with Peter at the helm, Quay has collected an impressive list of local and international awards. Quay has been included in the fabled S Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants for five years in a row, and named Best Restaurant in Australasia three times. Locally, the restaurant has received Three Chefs Hats for eleven consecutive years and been named Restaurant of the Year five times in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, and has three stars and has been awarded Restaurant of the Year three times in the Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. Peter Gilmore was also named “Chef of the Year” in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2012 Awards.

Peter’s first book Quay: Food Inspired by Nature, a showcase of Peter’s nature-based philosophy and the organic presentation of his stunning cuisine at Quay, was published in 2010 and has sold worldwide. Peter is currently working on his second book, due out in 2014. 

Peter regards himself as immensely lucky to be a chef in Australia today, with access to extraordinary produce and with the freedom to explore new ideas and draw on a culture which embraces so many people and parts of the world. He continues to refine his food, bringing new and exciting dining experiences to the table, with picture perfect dishes that celebrate nature’s beauty. He is a chef in his prime, whose combination of extraordinary talent and rare humility has earned not just the highest culinary accolades, but also the respect of his peers and admirers all over the world.

I’m looking to nature for my inspiration.
Letting the natural produce speak.
There’s so much out there, so much elegance and beauty.
To me, it’s about the organic nature of food and letting flavours and textures speak for themselves.

Peter Gilmore

Jared Rivera

Cofounder and CMO

Chefs Feed

“I’ll Have What They’re Having”

Want to know where Mario Batali gets his carnitas taco fix?
Where Wolfgang Puck goes for sushi or where Thomas Keller goes for pasta?

Chefs Feed has the answers. With thousands of high-end to hole-in-the-wall restaurant
recommendations straight from the mouths of the country’s best chefs, you’ll learn where to go, and most importantly, what to order.

Learn where and what the best chefs in your city eat when they're out on the town and find out what makes those dishes so special. Quickly find food based on proximity, neighborhood, cuisine type and more. Each dish offers insightful chef reviews plus other relevant info. Track, plan, and share your culinary adventures with friends as you build your network and your flavor profile. Receive live information straight from the chefs and people you follow plus learn when new chefs and dishes have been added to the guide.

Jared Rivera

Favorite Dish:Lamb 'Frankie' @ Dosa

Prior to launching Chefs Feed, Jared co-founded Rivera Public Relations, which grew to include 250 top restaurant and beverage clients at the time the company was acquired. Jared is a partner in several three-star restaurants, giving him an opportunity to get in the trenches and keep his finger on the pulse of the dining community. He writes about his experiences in columns he contributes to The Huffington Post and San Francisco Chronicle (you may even read his “Top 100 Pet Peeves of Servers”). You can also see his work on camera as he co-hosted the Virgin America + Chefs Feed Documentary. When not working on Chefs Feed, Jared is making wine with his father & brother at their family vineyard in Napa Valley or he's eating pasta with his fiancée Jenn at his mother’s house like

02/03 - A German Feast

 

Slow Living Radio continues its coverage of the Fancy Food show with a line up of guests from the wonderful German Pavillion,  where 11 German main exhibitors present their food and beverages. It is promoted by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in cooperation with the association of the German trade fair industries. Our introducing guest is Bernhard Tauscher, Secretary, German Society of Flavor Research.

In 2014, Germany took part in the Winter Fancy Food & Confection Show in San Francisco, and will be also at the Summer Fancy Food & Confection Show in New York for the fifth time. The official German pavilion is organized and supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). In Germany, the ministry’s remit covers food and agriculture. The ministry supports German enterprises’ participation in trade fairs worldwide. It is important for companies, particularly small and medium-sized companies of the farm and food sector, to be able to start their forays into new markets with support and under the official “Made in Germany” designation.

The BMEL is active at national, European and international level, aiming to promote a balanced, healthy diet of safe food; clear consumer information regarding the purchase of food; strong and sustainable agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors; and good prospects for the future of our rural areas.

Read more about the BMEL and also their Fair Trade Program.

 

Eric Schneider

Ritter Sport

 

The history of RITTER SPORT begins where most romance films end: with marriage. The confectioner Alfred Eugen Ritter and Clara Göttle, owner of a confectionery shop, were married in 1912. Together they founded the chocolate and confectionary factory “Alfred Ritter Cannstatt” – the love of good chocolate, therefore, resides in the family.

In 1932, the chocolate square is launched. Clara Ritter’s proposal to produce a square chocolate bar quickly meets with agreement in the family. Her argument: “We’ll make a chocolate that fits into the pocket of every sports jacket, doesn’t break, and still weighs the same as a normal long bar of chocolate.” The chocolate square is named “Ritter’s Sport Chocolate”. Included in the assortment are long chocolate bars, pralines, and Easter and Christmas articles.

RITTER SPORT is now sold in 95 countries and its success story continues to be written by the family’s third generation, Alfred T. Ritter and sister Marli Hoppe-Ritter. RITTER SPORT is not just a family business that has grown over the years into a large company. RITTER SPORT is, above all, a large company that has remained a family. This is felt by the 1.000 employees in Waldenbuch and by its many customers worldwide. This is because the RITTER family uses its own name to vouch for the quality of each bar of chocolate that leaves its premises. Guaranteed.

In 2012, Ritter celebrated it's 100th anniversary.  The company, renowned for its square and colorfully wrapped chocolate bars has a strong commitment to quality, environment and sustainability.  They use no nuclear-generated electricity in the production, their wrappers are fully recyclable, and no GMO ingredients are ever used.  There are over 13 different chocolate masses in the production of their bars and only natural flavourings. 
 

Could Alfred and Clara Ritter have chosen a more beautiful location for their company’s headquarters? Doubtful. Anyone who comes here becomes quickly enamoured of the delightful landscape, the city’s special flair, and the Swabian hospitality. Waldenbuch is a place for feeling good, for enjoyment, and a good destination in the Stuttgart region for art, nature, folk culture, and history.

What awaits you here at RITTER SPORT? On some days – when a low-pressure area rolls in – a fine chocolate fragrance descends upon the whole town, warning the residents of impending rain.

But the chocolate factory offers more than just an early weather-warning system. It offers the RITTER SPORT SCHOKOLADEN, for example, with a chocolate exhibition, a chocolate workshop for children, and a chocolate shop for all RITTER SPORT fans.

 

Andreas  Meier

Historische Wurstküche

 

By the Danube whirlpools right next to the Old Stone Bridge you´ll find the over 500 year-old historical "Wurstkuchl". Little has changed since the days where in the Middle Ages Regensburg stonemasons and dockers treated themselves to refreshment at this tavern: with its charcoal grill, homemade sausages purely of ham of pork, sauerkraut fermented in their own cellar and of course the Wurstkuchl mustard following the original historical recipe of Elsa Schricker.

Bratwursts without the traditional sweet mustard would only be half as enjoyable, and because it is particularly important for their mustard to have that unmistakable special character, we still produce the recipe that has been passed down by Elsa Schricker. Only selected ingredients such as various sorts of ground mustard powders are used – and a pinch of horseradish provides that characteristic aftertaste. Those wishing to relish this mustard outside the Wurstkuchl can buy it in selected delicatessen shops or order it here in the online store.

 

Daniel Armbruster

Armbruster W. Teigwarenfabrik

The Armbruster W. Teigwarenfabrik  pasta factory goes back to a small village bakery, founded by Catherine and Andreas Armbruster in Schutterwald LangHurst in 1906. Zunächst wurden, wie damals in den regionalen Bäckereien üblich, neben den Backwaren auch Teigwaren manuell hergestellt und in der Bäckerei angeboten.

In the 1960s, when the bakery was already in its second generation of Eugene Armbruster, manual production could not keep up with demand so the family built their first pasta machine factory in LangHurst. The range covered was already about 40 different pasta varieties, including their signature spaetzle..
First, even the spaetzle pasta was made as in the regional bakeries in addition to the baked goods made by hand and offered at the bakery. Dieser Geschäftszweig wurde mit der Zeit immer weiter ausgebaut. Now, the company still focuses on the finest quality ingredients, including organic, and their spaetzle remains true to the recipe of their founders.

Spaetzle:

If you have ever made ​​spaetzle by hand, you'll know it to be a strenuous and sticky matter. Bei der Herstellung haben wir die traditionelle Machart komplett nachempfunden: Wie bei der manuellen Herstellung bei Spätzle durch Grossmutter wird auch bei uns der Teig durch eine Spätzleform gedrückt und in kochendes Wasser gegeben. In production, Armbruster have used the traditional style modeled completely: by their grandmother - the dough is pressed through a spaetzle mold and placed in boiling water. Das ist ein zentraler Unterschied gegenüber allen anderen Teigwaren, die nicht vorgekocht werden. This is a key difference from all other pasta, that are not pre-cooked. Hieraus rühren auch die besonderen Eigenschaften der Spätzle: Ihre individuelle Form und ihre rauhe Oberfläche . This gives Spaetzle its specific characteristics, its individual shape and its rough surface.

 

Elisabeth Kreutzkamm-Aumüller

Dresdner Backhaus
Kreutzkamm
 

 

Traditionel artisan producer of finest handmade Dresden Christstollen (fruit loaf) and Easter bread, as well as Baumkuchen (Tree cake), cookies, Gingerbread, Marzipan, Chocolates and many more delicious Pastry products.

For 185 years, Elisabeth Kreutzkamm-Aumüller's family has been baking the quintessential German Christmas pastry: the stollen, a loaf-shaped cake with dried fruit and covered with sugar. Despite its Germanic roots, stollen is also popular in other latitudes and her company distributes the popular dessert—particularly in November and December—to 58 destinations.

Notable clients of the Kreutzkamm bakery have included Walt Disney, who in the 1950s used to give a stollen as a gift to his staff and family. Her bakery only interrupted operations after World War II, between 1945 and 1950, when her father was a prisoner of war but has been running non-stop throughout its history.