Please join me for my  featured 3-course dinner at Coffee Bar Cafe in Potrero Hill on Saturday, March 19. Three courses is just $35, with wine pairings by Coffee Bar for an extra $20. There are two seatings to choose from – either at 6:30 or 8:30. To make a reservation email the number of people in your party, the time you would like to dine, and your phone number to: henry@leftcoastcatering.com

Below is the invitation with the details and the menu – I hope to see you there!

And here are some notes on the menu:

FIRST COURSE: Nothing screams, ‘Spring‘ to me like Green Garlic soup. I’m going to finish this dish with herb croutons and a drizzle of Mani Olive Oil, which I believe is one of the greatest oils on the planet. Mani Olive Oil is made from the Koreneikoi variety of olive that are grown from small producers on the Mani peninsula in Southern Greece. I was introduced to this oil on Top Chef by Eli when we were cooking for Joel Robuchon. He pulled it from a box of ‘secret ingredients‘ and we used it as a finishing element for our dish – poached lobster, cauliflower puree, and sauce American. Lets just say that Chef Robuchon went wild.

SECOND COURSE option 1: This will be my interpretation of the traditional Coq au Vin. We use Mary’s Free Range Chicken from Pittman Family Farms in the San Joaquin Valley. They are air chilled, which saves 30,000 gallons of chlorinated water every day, and produces a better tasting chicken. Without the added water they produce a crispier skin.

SECOND COURSE option 2: Soft Egg, pipperade, and polenta – I learned to make pipperade when I was the Sous-Chef at Moose’s  in 1992.  After busy nights of service, feeding 250-300 hungry folks, my favorite meal was a warm bowl of polenta topped with pipperade and parmesan cheese. A real comforting dish and  one I still crave. With  the welcomed  addition of the soft boiled egg, I am sure you will be licking the bowl to get every last morsel of flavor.

THIRD COURSE: Chocolate pretzel tart – I made recently  as part of a beer dinner I hosted in collaboration with Marin brewing company for beer week. It was a crowd favorite and deserves another showing.

xx,

LW

Left Coast Wandering Supper Club Flyer

Laurine Wickett is returning to Coffee Bar Cafe in Potrero Hill on Saturday, May 22nd for the 4th volume of her Left Coast Wandering Supper Club. She is cooking a prix fixe, 3 course meal for $35 and Coffee Bar has chosen a wine pairing option for $55. Seatings are at 6:30pm and 8:30pm. This is a great way to taste Laurine’s sexy fresh food in a beautiful chic atmosphere.

To make a reservation email your seating time preference and party number to lwickettatcoffeebar@gmail.com

This will sell-out so make your reservation today.

Left Coast Wandering Supper Club Flyer

Laurine Wickett is returning to Coffee Bar Cafe in Potrero Hill on Saturday, April 17 for the 3rd volume of her Left Coast Wandering Supper Club. She is cooking a prix fixe, 3 course meal for $35 and Coffee Bar has chosen a wine pairing option for $55. Seatings are at 6:30pm and 8:30pm. This is a great way to taste Laurine’s sexy fresh food in a beautiful chic atmosphere.

To make a reservation email your seating time preference and party number to lwickettatcoffeebar@gmail.com

This will sell-out so make your reservation today.

Saturday, January 30th
seatings at 6:30 & 8:30pm

Sunday, January 31st

RSVP with the day, seating time, number in your party, and a phone number:
number: LWickettatCoffeeBar@gmail.com

© Henry Dombey/FACECOLLECTIVE

By now, you’ve no doubt heard that last week was my final hoorah as a contestant on Top Chef. C’est la vie.

For the most part, I feel good about my run–I made it to the final eight and I cooked some good food. Restaurant wars, the most anticipated episode of the season, was also a unique departure as a milestone in its own right, and a tough challenge. I’m glad that I made it this far and got to participate in this tradition with such a strong team. Coming off of the win on the quick fire the blue team was confident, focused and excited to be working together.

Perhaps this over-confidence was to blame for the missteps that followed. Right off the bat, we decided to skip a dessert, and in hindsight this was a mistake. A dessert course would have likely been an easier thing for Kevin to finish and/or plate, on top of the main course he was already handling…it turns into a game of What If fairly quickly. But I volunteered to tackle Front of House, and the team rallied behind that delegation, which left Mike Isabella to the first two courses, Jennifer Carroll on the second course and Kevin to prepare my lamb main course, in addition to his own pork dish. We had no trouble procuring all the items on our shopping list under budget and besides the minor drama with Robin over our “stealing” their idea to serve Pellegrino, we were in good shape at the end of the first day. Or at least we thought we were.

I finished the prep for my dish early on the day of the challenge, and turned to my colleagues to see if they needed help. Jennifer had said she had a lot left to do, but it wasn’t til I went to help that I understood how far behind she really was. Her mussels and clams still needed cleaning, the fish cut, the consommé finished. The status of the kitchen made it even more difficult for me to get out of the kitchen and into the dining room, which was my assigned post. By the time I was changed, the servers were already waiting for me and I had scarcely time to catch their names, introduce the chefs and go through the menu before I had to just put them to work. When Tom stopped by to check in, I assured him I trusted Kevin to execute my lamb and that I would be checking plates as they left the kitchen.

But once guests were arriving, time seemed to be moving at a clip and the diners arrived just as we were finishing a tasting with the servers. Although the kitchen wasn’t ready, I had to start seating tables. I visited the first round of diners and got some helpful feedback on the plates: namely, the pork loin was over cured and too salty and the fish course had just taken too long to arrive. I relayed the information to my colleagues in the kitchen, which should be useful for an experienced chef but that night seemed to only rattle their nerves. When the judges arrived hot on the tails of our first seating, we still hadn’t ironed the kinks out. I welcomed them to the Mission and then had to run off to deal with other issues; it was at that point, a matter of triage.

Which is why I didn’t linger over any one table, including the judges. A huge mistake, of course. In retrospect, one of many. From the start, we should have elected a leader. No matter how much respect you have for one another, someone should have been in charge. Also, two courses per chef was totally unrealistic. I let Kevin have final say on my lamb, another error in judgment. And personally, I lost sight of the fact that a dining experience is made up of two significant elements: food and service. I didn’t have enough experience in the latter to overcome the shortfalls of the former, and in the end, both suffered. By the end, I didn’t want to chat with the judges over their meal, I wanted the night to be over. We all left feeling defeated and it was a pretty bad night all around.

I’m not sure I was the weakest part of that team, or that I deserved to go home. But it was sort of a matter of time for me. Top chef gave me the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with really talented chefs, cooking for some of the best chefs in the world. I forged friendships and had unbelievable experiences in the kitchen, which taught me a lot about myself, my style and my thoughts on food in general. I was exposed to different techniques and approaches to cooking that were entirely new to me.

So what’s next for this Top Chef ex pat? I intend to continue pouring my heart and soul into my business, Left Coast Catering and to continue working to position it as one of the Bay Area’s top catering companies. More specifically, I’m planning some private dinners at Coffee Bar here in San Francisco on November 7th and November 10th, which will feature a three course menu. I’m also looking forward to working with the kids at the KIPP school in the kitchen and the classroom, exploring where our food comes from and the best ways to cook it.

So Top Chef may be over for me, but I feel like I’m just getting started.