The Soy of Cooking - Japanese Ingredients Revealed

What a jam packed Wednesday! I met photographer Mark Rutherford and a very special make up artist in Novato at the Fresh Starts Cooking School in the morning, had an exciting meeting in a Market Street high rise in the afternoon and a panel discussion about Japanese ingredients complete with a full buffet in the evening. Phew! Check out Mark's work here:  http://www.mrutherford.com/ 

The Golden Gate Bridge was wet and cloud-covered due to some unseasonal rain. The plants are loving it, the people are a bit cranky. Me, I'm with the plants. I just can not complain about the weather out here. San Francisco is beautiful, rain or shine and that bridge, it moves me.

I was excited to re-join the San Francisco Professional Food Society, a brilliant group of food writers, chefs, teachers and purveyors. We met at Ketchum PR, a San Francisco firm specializing in culinary promotions. The panel was superb, with two of my favorite culinary luminaries Eric Gower "the Breakaway Cook" and Yoshi Tome, CEO of Sushi Ran , a treasured Bay Area restaurant. I was excited to meet panelist Chef Seiji Wakabayashi of Michelin starred Bushi-Tei. I had read so much about him.

As the panel discussed ingredients such as soy sauce, sake, shoyu, burdock root, matcha and shiso, Eric brought up one of the best points of the evening. "Why" he asked, are we so afraid of screwing up?!" As chefs and teachers we need to encourage everyone to try things. "It is just FOOD!" he said. By this, he did not mean to waste, but try, ask and explore. So try this. Yuzu. It is now very, very popular. It is a citrus fruit, now just beginning to be cultivated in the US, near Sacramento. It is treasured for it's zest, which is made into a juice. A small bottle is about 9$, but wow, it is so delicious. Kinda Meyer- lemon- meets- lime- meets- jasmine. It sings. So, how to use it? How do you use lemon or lime juice? You know on fish and chicken in sauces, TRY IT! It is great on anything. Try "Yuzu-It" a yuzu hot sauce. I am eating it now on a spoon. Research.

The buffet was fabulous, thanks to Kikkoman. It was served in the Ketchum teaching kitchen which over the years has seen hundreds of famous chefs including Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. My favorite dishes were the Seared Beef Sushi and the Wasabi Potato Salad with Edamame. I learned so much. What a great night. Then I got to drive back over that bridge.

Here is that evening's Facebook post:

Returning home tonight from SF, cold drizzle and a bright city scene on the Golden Gate Bridge, White Stripes "7 Nation Army" on the radio, windows down. San Francisco and I are passionate about each other. We are in love.