DO YOU MAKE THINGS FANCY AT YOUR JOB?

What’s your job and how did you start?  Before you had a job, did you think of how it would look? Can you make it fancy?  How would you describe it?

Those were the questions on the survey I filled out for Lucy Schmidt’s 3^rd grade class, who teaches at World Academy, an elementary charter school in East Oakland.

The class was doing an “investigation into imagination.”  I had so much fun answering their questions that they invited me into their class to give a presentation on what I do for my job.

“You know what I do for a living? I plan parties, how awesome is that?!  I get to be really creative and make people happy with the work I do, and I have a ton of fun.”

I divided the class of 18 kids into 4 groups. Chefs, servers, party planners, and drink makers.  The chefs wore chef hats and piped whipped cream cheese onto crostini and topped them with dried cherries, apricots, and golden raisins.  The servers wore aprons, and passed the appetizers the chefs made on trays and handed out business cards and cocktail napkins.  The drink makers mixed two types of Italian sodas, came up with names for their drinks, and decorated them with straws and umbrellas.  The party planners decorated desks with tablecloths, garlands, vases, and ostrich feathers and also flipped through cookbooks to find fun recipes.  The kids had a blast, and I was thrilled to be part of such a fun day before going back to work for some slightly more serious planning.

xx,

Marianne Jackson

marianne@leftcoastcatering.com

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

Dear Left Coast,

Rich’s 40th party is one of our highlights of the year thanks to your thoughtfulness, care, and awesome food.  We are truly grateful for the experience and it’s a party that isstill talked about among our friends.  Thanks again to you and your staff.

Tricia, Rich and Gracie

Below is the menu from their dinner:

LEFT COAST REMEMBERS…
Erin may well have been the most mellow and decisive bride we have ever
worked with. She knew what she wanted and that made working
with her a breeze. Her color scheme was blue, red, white, and grey
without being patriotic. The linens were Wedgewood blue with white
napkins topped with simple white vases and red dahlias. The look was
stunning. Her friends and family were a delight to serve, and they loved the
entire evening right down to the fried chicken bites!

Sandwiches from Left Coast Catering on Vimeo.

The history of a sandwich by LEFT COAST CATERING. We don’t normally try to make people hungry – our goal is to feed hungry people – but if this makes you want a sandwich then give us a call: 415-934-0600 or email us at marianne@leftcoastcatering.com. WE DELIVER!

Thanks to Nick Gage for his incredible music.

Here are some photos from the event:

– smoked trout salad, shaved fennel and radish, watercress, on a house-made potato chip

– Bacon and caramelized onion savory tart

– our chefs hard at work making thousands of delicious passed appetizers

– One of the many food displays placed throughout the California Academy of Sciences

– Another buffet of tiny tasty sandwiches

THE MENU:

To see more images click here

Here’s their menu:

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.

Not only are Spain’s people beautiful and well-dressed, but they also appear to lead a very low-stress existence. Miraculously, they eat all day long and stay relatively thin. What’s more, hams hang everywhere. Our mornings, in a very Spanish fashion, began each day with a visit to the neighborhood café where we drank café con leche and a pastry or bocadillo. We savored the morning, alongside most Barcelonians, who don’t take coffee to go but instead stay to enjoy their food and drink, catching up with friends or chatting with the café’s owner, who can almost always be found right across the counter, making your food.

In the afternoon, we visited the Boqueria Market, where it seems all of Barcelona does their shopping. Typically, markets give a good indication of what the locals are cooking, in time with the seasons, and Boqueria was no exception. We found chickens and game birds with heads still in tact, rooster combs, dried salt cod, snails, wild mushrooms, olives, fresh fish and several butchers with everything from whole baby pigs to offal. Some of the best sausages and hams in the world are to be found in those stalls.

Taking in the amazing ingredients, we worked up quite a hunger. Though there are two café’s located inside the market, we had been advised to try Pinotxo and so bellied up to its bar. Pinotxo’s menu is market driven and all the food is prepared right there, in front of you. We began with two glasses of Cava and their famous warm chickpeas with golden raisins, pine nuts and chorizo. This first plate was followed by gambas, which were still moving until they hit the plancha (sauté pan) and adorned simply with olive oil and salt, warm beans with squid and mushroom croquettes.

After an afternoon nap, we felt totally refreshed and ready for the evening. Naps really change everything. Since dinner wasn’t til 9, we needed a post-nap snack and found it at Bar Fidel’s where we drank local Mortiz’s beer and ate bocadillos. Then it was off to Tapas 24, by Chef Carles Abellan, who worked under the godfather of Spanish food, Ferran Andria, for six years. At this casual and extremely busy tapas restaurant, the kitchen was open and the service was friendly, which we soon realized was par for the course in Spain.

Though the food we ate in Spain was simply prepared, the level of service we experienced made each meal feel special. Ingredients fresh from the market, cooked in the plancha or the fryer and delivered to you in the blink of an eye with just a drizzle of olive oil. No fancy reduction sauce, no fancy description on a menu. Just fresh ingredients prepared expertly.

My time in Spain has made me re-think San Francisco style cooking and my own ideas about what comprises a good meal. Is 12 hours of preparation more appreciable than 12 minutes? San Francisco knows well by now the anthem for slow, local, market-driven fare, but heralds restaurants like Commis and Manresa, whose complex techniques are impressive, but perhaps at the expense of ingredients’ natural integrity. I think of the preparation time implied by each dish on such a menu, where the food is manipulated so completely from its original components that it can hardly be considered fresh.

I’m going to experiment with these principles for freshness, simplicity and slower pace into my life and my cooking. Although Left Coast was founded on these principles, I was ripe for a refresher course. My vision for the future feels clearer now.