Fixation Magazine

fixation

No. 67

Ruin your lipstick

Pairing coffee with food is not just for dessert

Inform yourself on: Coffee Breakdown Aromas, notes, & tastes

Food Porn

Restaurants turning down photography savoring diners Their pet peves & what other diners think of the situation

Holly— Market

Farmer’s Market Farmers Celebritity status Q&A With Farmer: Brandii

August 2013 * Fixation 1

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August 2013 * Fixation 3

fixation ingredients

august

P22

P12

Let’s Eat!

P15

Sweet Comforts

P17

The Foodist

4

ReScue family dinner from hectic schedules with these recipes

These desserts are as decadent and easy to make as they are hard to resist

Pig tails and Georgia olive oil made in the ever-grumbling Andrew a very happy guy this month

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table talk The Foodist’s definitive list of the restaurants that shape what, and how, we eat out in 2013

P26

The Challenge

P31

Spoon Fed

P37

GOOD HEALTH

P39

Mixology 101

Roasted wiht bacon or pureed with yogurt, chickpeas never fail

Five satisfying soups that eat like meals

GOOGLE KNOWS WHERE YOU LIVE, WHAT YOU BUY, AND HOW YOU SHOULD EAT

You are just one sprig of slapped mint away form the perfect coctail at home perfect for outdoor parties

P43

P51

58

Ruin your lipstick WITH THE PERFECT PAIRING of your morning coffee and the quintesential pastry A breakdown of what’s in your coffee

HollyMarket Farmer’s Market FARMERS RISING UP TO CELEBRITIY STATUS, known for their specialty Q&A With CELEBRITY Farmer Brandii

Food Porn Restaurants turning down photography IN LOU OF THEIR BUSINESS pet peves & customer opinions

August 2013 * Fixation 5

lips

ruin your

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Fixation * august 2013

pstick Some of us can’t open our eyes without it; others dream of it and still more others grow cherished friendships around the myriad of aroma and flavors that can result from a bunch of little brown beans. Go ahead and sip it

August 2013 * Fixation 7

pairing ruin your lipstick with the perfect

You don’t have to be a sommelier to know that a glass of red wine goes well with a steak. But when it comes to pairing foods with coffees, most foodies don’t have a clue — except perhaps that a cup goes down awfully well with your morning pastry. Even then, said Frieda Hoffman of Berkeley’s Local 123 (2049 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley), most people are thinking about the coffee as a caffeine-delivery vehicle or a way to keep the food from being too dry. “It’s usually to soak up the coffee, that’s traditionally what people are thinking,” Hoffman explained.

“Not because the taste experience will be enhanced.”

Hoffman and her partner Katy Wafle are stretching that mindset by working with their cafe’s director of food to create a semi-regular series of food and coffee pairing events.The first of these tastings was held on Sunday, October 24. For $10, participants had the opportunity to sample a flight of three coffees currently featured at the cafe, each one paired with a house-made pastry or other food item.

Given the tendency of today’s micro-roasters to focus on the flavor profiles of individual coffees, and their penchant for roasting their beans lightly to showcase the nuances of each varietal, it makes sense that coffee connoisseurs would put more thought into how food might complement those coffees. And as perhaps the most serious of the Bay Area’s serious new coffeehouses, Local 123 is the logical place for this to happen.

Neither Hoffman nor Wafle had ever before attended any formal food and coffee pairings, though it’s something they’ve always been 8

Fixation * august 2013

interested in. If a really good wine pairing can bring out all the subtleties in a plate of food, why can’t coffee do the same? “Scientists will even argue that coffee’s a more complex product,” Hoffman said. “It has more volatiles, so aromatically you’re experiencing even more than wine, arguably.”

Wafle said there is no real equivalent, in the coffee world, to that classic pairing of red meat and red wine, (although the folks who coined the brand name Dunkin’ Donuts would no doubt argue about that). If you do a cursory search online, you’ll find just a handful of sites that make those kinds of blanket statements: Such and such coffee is good to drink with toast or pancakes or a bag of potato chips.

For Hoffman and Wafle, though, pairing coffee with food is subtler and more individualized. Some pairings are obvious: If you’re eating a chocolate dessert, then a straight espresso — or something equally intense — would match the intensity of the dessert and to serve as a foil to its sweetness.Then again, Hoffman said, coffee and chocolate taste so good together that she avoided using chocolatey items at the tasting event — it’s too obvious.

Hoffman follows some basic principles. If she’s eating something fatty, maybe she’ll pair it with an acidic coffee that could cut into the fat. Or, conversely, she might want a coffee that’s heavy on the tongue and has a sort of butteriness — something that would bring out the richness of the food even more.

Other times, it’s about bringing out and making use of certain flavor

notes in a coffee. If she had an Ethiopian coffee with blueberry under tones to it, she’d pair it with some kind of blueberr y pastry: “I would want for customers to have the experience of tasting real blueberr y and tasting the coffee, to understand ... when we say it tastes like blueberries up on the board, what does that really mean?”

Some of the most successful matches are unexpected — like pairing coffee with meat. At a preview for the fir st pairing event, Hoffman cupped a Guatemalan Xeucalvitz that she described as having the fruitiness and the “chewiness” of a really bold Zinfandel with a corn chorizo muffin slathered with spicy-sweet jalapeno jam from Berkeley-based INNA Jam. The Xeucalvitz, by itself, was

complex and bold, with intense berry notes. Taken in combination with the muffin, though, it was transcendent — the coffee soothing the heat from the chorizo and the jam, but somehow playing off the sweetness of the jam, too. It was impossibly smooth going down.

And, just like that, the coffee itself became the star of the show, the end rather than the means, so that it isn’t just about making the food taste better.

Well-matched food, as it turns out, actually makes the coffee taste better.

“People always want coffee in the morning, right?” Hoffman asks. “So what do you want to eat with your coffee? Because you know you’re going to have coffee.”

Some of us can’t open our

eyes without it; others dream of it and still more others grow cherished friendships around the myriad of aroma and flavors that can result from a bunch of little brown beans.

I want the same thing with coffee. Let’s think about this a moment: you already pair coffee with food, you just don’t realize it. What do you drink in the morning with your bowl of yogur t, granola, and bananas?

Croissant. Doughnut. Bagel with cream cheese. Coffee is an automatic accompaniment to all things carbs and sweets.

There’s even a desser t that utilizes coffee to its best potential—he creamy, cold, and yet warm, strong, and sweet affogato. You can use coffee to its fullest potential by pairing up similar flavors in your beans with

the ingredients on your plate. It just takes a little bit of research and some effort. And how else to figure out your pairings, than cupping some coffees and investigating those flavors.

This weekend, Erin and I cupped four samples from our friends Barrington Coffee Roasting Company: Ethiopian Sidamo, Brazil Daterra Reserve, Sumatra, and Costa Rican, four drastically different coffees which conjured up varying images of my dream foods. When cupping, you smell first, both before and after water is added, and then you sip. The best flavor associations arise from sniffing those fresh grinds at the bottom of the cup. No doubt you also experience the exact same reaction when you enter a bean haven like Por to Rico Impor ting Company, or August 2013 * Fixation 9

Fruit Danish fruitiness and the “chewiness” of a really bold Zinfandel with a corn chorizo muffin slathered with spicy-sweet jalapeno jam from Berkeley-based INNA Jam. The Xeucalvitz, by itself, was complex and bold, with intense berry notes. Taken in combination with the muffin, though, it was transcendent — the coffee soothing the heat from the chorizo and the jam, but somehow playing off the sweetness of the jam, too. It was impossibly smooth going down.

And, just like that, the coffee itself became the star of the show, the end rather than the means, so that it isn’t just about making the food taste better. Well-matched food, as it turns out, actually makes the coffee taste better.

“People always want coffee in the morning, right?” Hoffman asks.

“So what do you want to eat with your coffee? Because you know Meringues melt in you’re going to have coffee.” your mouth, and Some of us can’t open our eyes the basic formula without it; others dream of it and is virtually fat free still more others grow cherished and a blank canvas friendships around the myriad of waiting to take on a aroma and flavors that can result variety of flavors. from a bunch of little brown beans.

I want the same thing with coffee. Let’s think about this a moment: you already pair coffee with food, you just don’t realize it. What do you drink in the morning with your bowl of yogurt, granola, and bananas? Croissant. Doughnut. Bagel with cream cheese. Coffee is an automatic accompaniment to all things carbs and sweets. There’s even a dessert that utilizes coffee to its best potential—he creamy, cold, and yet warm, strong, and sweet affogato.You can use coffee to its fullest potential by pairing up similar flavors in your beans with the ingredients on your plate. It just takes a little bit of research and some effort. And how else to figure out your pairings, than cupping some coffees and investigating those flavors.

This weekend, Erin and I cupped four samples from our friends Barrington Coffee Roasting Company: Ethiopian Sidamo, Brazil Daterra Reserve, Sumatra, and Costa Rican, four drastically different coffees which conjured up varying images of my dream foods. When cupping, you smell first, both before and after water is added, and then you

Meringues

10

Fixation * august 2013

One of the most unique aspects of Danish pastries is the fact that they feature laminated dough.

sip. The best flavor associations arise from sniffing those fresh grinds at the bottom of the cup. No doubt you also experience the exact same reaction when you enter a bean haven like Porto Rico Importing Company, or even if you just walk by.

Which beans pair with which foods, after the jump.

Ethiopian Sidamo: Blueberries. This coffee screams nothing but blueberries. Which would make it a great accompaniment to any quick bread, preferably banana.

Brazil Daterra Reserve: Nuts and chocolate. An overflowing plate of candied pecans or flourless chocolate cake. This coffee will fare well with rich flavorful foods because it will be balanced across every bite. Barrington recommends this pulled as an espresso, but I’ve never been able to get espresso at home that tastes like anything but burnt sludge. Maybe you would fare better.

Sumatra:You either love it or you hate it; I enjoy this coffee at the cupping table and stay away from its brewed form. However, I think can be successfully paired with savory food—try it with a pungent semi-soft goat cheese or maybe even a Thai dish with peanut sauce.

Costa Rican: The quintessential balanced breakfast coffee which should be on every brunch menu in the city. Or, perhaps, your local Greek diner. Cravings include granola or oatmeal with apples and bananas, or eggs with toast and potatoes. Coffee pairing is very different from wine pairing, since you have control over all the variables when you brew. With wine, you just pop it open and let it breathe a bit, then pour and simply drink from your glass. Not much preparation necessary.You have to be aware of your brew methods if you want any of the flavors to shine, so I recomIn the 19th Century, mend the French press or another fruit pies were a favorite method that provides for common breakfast somewhat longer extraction to food eaten before the develop the flavors.w start of a long day.

Of course, when you go out to a restaurant, you don’t have much of a choice. And most likely,

Rolls

the Breakdown

Cafe Mocha if you’re getting an espresso, it’s a blend of beans from all the aforementioned regions and roasted darker. In this case, I would steer towards a latte, especially at brunch. The nature of brunch begs for coffee no matter the food. You could try Fort Defiance for some Counter Culture ground to order with some spiced pecans on the side, L’asso for a Stumptown Americano with a prosciutto pizza, or even Locanda Verde for an Illy espresso with lemon ricotta pancakes.

Starting the repeat of article here. You don’t have to be a sommelier to know that a glass of red wine goes well with a steak. But when it comes to pairing foods with coffees, most foodies don’t have a clue — except perhaps that a cup goes down awfully well with your morning pastry.

Even then, said Frieda Hoffman of Berkeley’s Local 123 (2049 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley), most people are thinking about the coffee as a caffeine-delivery vehicle or a way to keep the food from being too dr y. “It’s usually to soak up the coffee, that’s traditionally what people are thinking,” Hoffman explained.

“Not because the taste experience will be enhanced.”

Hoffman and her par tner Katy Wafle are stretching that mindset by working with their

1 oz milk foam 5 oz steamed milk 1/2 oz chocolate syrup 1 oz espresso

Latte 1 oz milk foam 6 oz steamed milk 1 oz espresso

Americano 5 oz hot water *about 200°F 1 oz espresso

Cappuccino 2 oz milk foam 3 oz steamed milk 1 oz espresso

cafe’s director of food to create a semi-regular series of food and coffee pairing events. The first of these tastings was held on Sunday, October 24. For $10, par ticipants had the opportunity to sample a flight of three coffees currently featured at the cafe, each one paired with a house-made pastry or other food item.

Given the tendency of today’s micro-roasters to focus on the flavor profiles of individual coffees, and their penchant for roasting their beans lightly to showcase the nuances of each varietal, it makes sense that coffee connoisseurs would put more thought into how food might complement those coffees. And as perhaps the most serious of the Bay Area’s serious new coffeehouses, Local 123 is the logical place for this to happen.

Neither Hoffman nor Wafle had ever before attended any formal food and coffee pairings, though it’s something they’ve always been interested in. If a really good wine pairing can bring out all the subtleties in a plate of food, why can’t coffee do the same? “Scientists will even argue that coffee’s a more complex product,” Hoffman said. “It has more volatiles, so aromatically you’re experiencing even more than wine, arguably.”

Wafle said there is no real

equivalent, in the coffee world, to that classic pairing of red meat and red wine, (although the folks who coined the brand name Dunkin’ Donuts would no doubt argue about that). If you do a cursory search online, you’ll find just a handful of sites that make those kinds of blanket statements: Such and such coffee is good to drink with toast or pancakes or a bag of potato chips.

For Hoffman and Wafle, though, pairing coffee with food is subtler and more individualized. Some pairings are obvious: If you’re eating a chocolate desser t, then a straight espresso — or something equally intense — would match the intensity of the desser t and to serve as a foil to its sweetness. Then again, Hoffman said, coffee and chocolate taste so good together that

Cookies What makes Mexican Wedding Cookies special and truly delicious is that they contain ground nuts, such as walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans or almonds.

August 2013 * Fixation 11

Muffin even if you just walk by.

Which beans pair with which foods, after the jump.

Ethiopian Sidamo: Blueberries.This coffee screams nothing but blueberries. Which would make it a great accompaniment to any quick bread, preferably banana.

Brazil Daterra Reserve: Nuts and chocolate. An overflowing plate of candied pecans or flourless chocolate cake. This coffee will fare well with rich flavorful foods because it will be balanced across ever y bite. Barrington recommends this pulled as an espresso, but I’ve never been able to get espresso at home that tastes like anything but burnt sludge. Maybe you would fare better.

Sumatra:You either love it or you hate it; I enjoy this coffee at the cupping table and stay away from its brewed form. However, I think can be successfully paired with savory food—try it with a pungent semi-soft goat cheese or maybe even a Thai dish with peanut sauce.

This easy to eat on the go pastry has a name that stems from the words “muffe,” a kind of cake from Germany.

Costa Rican: The quintessential balanced breakfast coffee which should be on every brunch menu in the city. Or, perhaps, your local Greek diner.

Cravings include granola or oatmeal with apples and bananas, or eggs with toast and potatoes.

Coffee pairing is ver y different from wine pairing, since you have control over all the variables when you brew. With wine, you just pop it open and let it breathe a bit, then pour and simply drink from your glass. Not much preparation necessary.You have to be aware of your brew methods if you want any of the flavors to shine, so I recommend the French press or another favorite method that provides for somewhat longer extraction to

Biscotti Twice-baked biscuits originating in the Italian city of Prato.

Since they are very dry, biscotti traditionally are served with a drink, into which they may be dunked.

12

Fixation * august 2013

develop the flavors.w Of course, when you go out to a restaurant, you don’t have much of a choice. And most likely, if you’re getting an espresso, it’s a blend of beans from all the aforementioned regions and roasted darker. In this case, I would steer towards a latte, especially at brunch. The nature of brunch begs for coffee no matter the food. You could tr y For t Defiance for some Counter Culture ground to order with some spiced pecans on the side, L’asso for a Stumptown Americano with a prosciutto pizza, or even Locanda Verde for an Illy espresso with lemon ricotta pancakes.

Starting the repeat of article here. You don’t have to be a sommelier to know that a glass of red wine goes well with a steak. But when it comes to pairing foods with coffees, most foodies don’t have a clue — except perhaps that a cup goes down awfully well with your morning pastry.

Even then, said Frieda Hoffman of Berkeley’s Local 123 (2049 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley), most people are thinking about the coffee as a caffeine-delivery vehicle or a way to keep the food from being too dr y. “It’s usually to soak up the coffee, that’s traditionally what people are thinking,” Hoffman explained. “Not because the taste

experience will be enhanced.”

Hoffman and her par tner Katy Wafle are stretching that mindset by working with their cafe’s director of food to create a semi-regular series of food and coffee pairing events. The first of these tastings was held on Sunday, October 24. For $10, par ticipants had the opportunity to sample a flight of three coffees currently featured at the cafe, each one paired with a house-made pastry or other food item.

Given the tendency of today’s micro-roasters to focus on the flavor profiles of individual coffees, and their penchant for roasting their beans lightly to showcase the nuances of each varietal, it makes sense that coffee connoisseurs would put more thought into how food might complement those coffees. And as perhaps the most serious of the Bay Area’s serious new coffeehouses, Local 123 is the logical place for this to happen.

Neither Hoffman nor Wafle had ever before attended any formal food and coffee pairings, though it’s something they’ve always been interested in. If a really good wine pairing can bring out all the subtleties in a plate of food, why can’t coffee do the same? “Scientists will even argue that coffee’s a more complex product,” Hoffman said. “It has

Croissant more volatiles, so aromatically you’re experiencing even more than wine, arguably.”

Wafle said there is no real equivalent, in the coffee world, to that classic pairing of red meat and red wine, (although the folks who coined the brand name Dunkin’ Donuts would no doubt argue about that). If you do a cursory search online, you’ll find just a handful of sites that make those kinds of blanket statements: Such and such coffee is good to drink with toast or pancakes or a bag of potato chips.

For Hoffman and Wafle, though, pairing coffee with food is subtler and more individualized. Some pairings are obvious: If you’re eating a chocolate desser t, then a straight espresso — or something equally intense — would match the intensity of the desser t and to serve as a foil to its sweetness. Then again, Hoffman said, coffee and chocolate taste so good together that she avoided using chocolatey items at the tasting event — it’s too obvious.

Hoffman follows some basic principles. If she’s eating something fatty, maybe she’ll pair it with an acidic coffee that could cut into the fat. Or, conversely, she might want a coffee that’s heavy on the tongue and has a sort of butteriness — something that would bring out the

In Argentina, these buttery flaky viennoiserie bread rolls named for its well known crescent shape are commonly served alongside coffee as breakfast

richness of the food even more.

Other times, it’s about bringing out and making use of certain flavor notes in a coffee. If she had an Ethiopian coffee with blueberry undertones to it, she’d pair it with some kind of blueberr y pastr y: “I would want for customers to have the experience of tasting real blueberry and tasting the coffee, to understand ... when we say it tastes like blueberries up on the board, what does that really mean?”

Bund.t The Bundt cake derives in part from a European briochelike fruit cake called Gugelhupf which was popular among Jewish communities in parts of Germany, Austria and Poland.

Some of the most successful matches are unexpected — like pairing coffee with meat. At a preview for the fir st pairing event, Hoffman cupped a Guatemalan Xeucalvitz that she described as having the fruitiness and the “chewiness” of a really bold Zinfandel with a corn chorizo muffin slathered with spicy-sweet jalapeno jam from Berkeley-based INNA Jam. The Xeucalvitz, by itself, was complex and bold, with intense berry notes. Taken in combination with the muffin, though, it was transcendent — the coffee soothing the heat from the chorizo and the jam, but somehow playing off the sweetness of the jam, too. It was impossibly smooth going down.

And, just like that, the coffee itself became the star of the show, the end rather than the means, so that it isn’t just about making the food taste better.

Well-matched food, as it turns out, actually makes the coffee taste better.

“People always want coffee in the morning, right?” Hoffman asks. “So what do you want to eat with your coffee? Because you know you’re going to have coffee.”

Some of us can’t open our eyes without it; others dream of it and still more others grow cherished friendships around the myriad of aroma and flavors that can result from a bunch of little brown beans.

I want the same thing with coffee. Let’s think about this a moment: you already pair coffee with food, you just don’t realize it. What do you drink in the morning with your bowl of yogur t, granola, and bananas?

Croissant. Doughnut. Bagel with cream cheese. Coffee is an automatic accompaniment to all things carbs and sweets.

There’s even a desser t that utilizes coffee to its best potential—he creamy, cold, and yet warm, strong, and sweet affogato. You can use coffee to its fullest potential by pairing up similar flavors in your beans with the ingredients on your plate. It just takes a little bit of research and some effort. And how else to figure out your pairings, than cupping some coffees and investigating those flavors.

This weekend, Erin and I cupped four samples from our friends Barrington Coffee Roasting Company: Ethiopian Sidamo, Brazil Daterra Reserve, Sumatra, and Costa Rican, four drastically different coffees which conjured up varying images of my dream foods. When cupping, you smell first, both before and after water August 2013 * Fixation 13

FooD 14

Fixation * august 2013

August 2013 * Fixation 15

16

Fixation * august 2013

PORN

#instagramrevolution

When it comes to people taking photographs of their meals, the chef David Bouley has seen it all. There are the foreign tourists who, despite their big cameras, tend to be very discreet. There are those who use a flash and annoy everyone around them. There are those who come equipped with gorillapods — those small, flexible tripods to use on their tables.

August 2013 * Fixation 17

Food Porn an Instagram revolution

By Helene Stapinski

When it comes to people taking photographs of their meals, the chef David Bouley has seen it all. There are the foreign tourists who, despite their big cameras, tend to be very discreet. There are those who use a flash and annoy everyone around them. There are those who come equipped with gorillapods — those small, flexible tripods to use on their tables.

18

Fixation * august 2013

There are even those who stand on their chairs to shoot their plates from above.

“We get on top of those folks right away or else it’s like a circus,” Mr. Bouley said. But rather than tell people they can’t shoot their food — the food they are so proud to eat that they need to share it immediately with everyone they know — he simply takes them back into his kitchen to shoot as the plates come out.

“We’ll say, ‘That shot will look so much better on the marble table in our kitchen,’ ” Mr. Bouley said. “It’s like, here’s the sauce, here’s the plate. Snap it.

We make it like an adventure for them instead of telling them no.”

Not every chef or restaurant owner is as accommodating, especially these days, as cameras have become as common as utensils. People are posting a shot of their

quinoa salad online, or their ramen noodles on their blog. A growing backlash has prompted not only dirty looks from nearby diners, but also creative measures like Mr. Bouley’s and even some outright photo bans.

On a visit to Momofuku Ko, one diner thought nothing of subtly raising her iPhone and snapping a picture of her shaved foie. Like tens of thousands of others, she takes photos of her plates constantly, sometimes to the annoyance of her spouse, a chef.

“It just seemed very casual at Ko,” she recalled. The host was wearing jeans, hip-hop was on the playlist and a 12-year-old was sitting next to them. And this — this dish was the famous, fabulous shaved foie from the star chef David Chang. It only seemed natural to record it for posterity.

Then came the slapdown.

A man in the open kitchen asked her to please put her phone away. No photos allowed.

“I was definitely embarrassed,” said the woman, who was so mortified that she spoke on condition of anonymity. Because the Michelinstarred restaurant is small — it seats only 12 — everyone at Ko witnessed the exchange.

“I don’t want to be that person,” she added, stressing that she never, ever takes flash photography, never stands up for a shot and is always

7%

Have tried a new restaurant as a result of viewing diners photos.

respectful of those around her.

Since she is a part-owner of several restaurants, she knew why she was being chastised. “But I was caught off guard,” she acknowledged.

Mr. Chang is one of several chefs who either prohibit food photography (at Ko in New York) or have a policy against flashes (at Seiobo in Sydney, Australia, and Shoto in Toronto). High-end places like Per Se, Le Bernardin and Fat Duck discourage flash photography as well, though on a recent trip to the Thomas Keller restaurant Per Se, flashes were

3%

Find the obsession ridiculously annoying

4%

Have not even noticed diners aorund them photographing their food.

15%

Use a regular camera to document their food at least once a year.

24%

ritually instagram their dining experience

49%

2%

Have been scolded at by restuarant works to put the photography away.

admit that they are bothered by food photography while dining

August 2013 * Fixation 19

There are even those who stand on their chairs to shoot their plates from above.

“We get on top of those folks right away or else it’s like a circus,” Mr. Bouley said. But rather than tell people they can’t shoot their food — the food they are so proud to eat that they need to share it immediately with everyone they know — he simply takes them back into his kitchen to shoot as the plates come out.

“We’ll say, ‘That shot will look so much better on the marble table in our kitchen,’ ” Mr. Bouley said. “It’s like, here’s the sauce, here’s the plate. Snap it. We make it like an adventure for them instead of telling them no.”

Not every chef or restaurant owner is as accommodating, especially these days, as cameras have become as common as utensils.

People are posting a shot of their quinoa salad online, or their ramen noodles on their blog. A growing backlash has prompted not only dirty looks from nearby diners, but also creative measures

“ I t ’s l i k e , h e r e i s t h e sauce, here is the plate.

Snap it. We make it like an adventure for them instead of telling them no.” like Mr. Bouley’s and even some outright photo bans.

On a visit to Momofuku Ko, one diner thought nothing of subtly raising her iPhone and snapping a picture of her shaved foie.

Like tens of thousands of others, she takes photos of her plates constantly, sometimes to the annoyance of her spouse, a chef.

“It just seemed very casual at Ko,” she recalled. The host was wearing jeans, hip-hop was on the playlist and a 12-year-old was sitting next to them. And this — this dish was the famous, fabulous shaved foie from the star chef David Chang. It only seemed natural to record it for posterity.

Then came the slapdown.

A man in the open kitchen asked her to please put her phone away. No photos allowed.

“I was definitely embarrassed,” said the woman, who was so mortified that she spoke on condition of anonymity. Because the Michelin-starred restaurant is small — it seats only 12 — everyone at Ko witnessed the exchange.

“I don’t want to be that person,” she added, stressing that she never, ever takes flash photography, never stands up for a shot and is always respectful of those around her. Since she is a part-owner of several restaurants, she knew why she was being chastised. “But I was caught off guard,” she acknowledged.

Mr. Chang is one of several chefs who either prohibit food photography (at Ko in New York) or have a policy against flashes (at Seiobo in Sydney, Australia, and Shoto in Toronto). High-end places like Per Se, Le Bernardin and Fat Duck discourage flash photography as well, though on a recent trip to the Thomas Keller

20

Fixation * august 2013

restaurant Per Se, flashes were going off left and right, bouncing off the expansive windows overlooking Columbus Circle.

“It’s reached epic proportions,” says Steven Hall, the spokesman for Bouley and many other restaurants, who has worked in the business for 16 years. “Everybody wants to get their shot. They don’t care how it affects people around them.”

Moe Issa, the owner of Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, said he banned photography several months after opening when it became too much of a distraction to the other diners at his 18-seat restaurant. “Some people are arrogant about it,” he said. “They don’t understand why. But we explain that it’s one big table and we want the people around you to enjoy their meal. They pay a lot of money for this meal. It became even a distraction for the chef.”

Mr. Bouley said table photography “totally disrupts the ambience. It’s a disaster in terms of momentum, settling into the meal, the great conversation that develops,” he said. “It’s hard to build a memorable evening when flashes are flying every six minutes.”

Mr. Issa is happy to supply diners with professional photos the next day, though Mr. Hall said “people want to e-mail their photos to their friends right then and there; instant gratification.” Mr. Bouley is setting up a computer system so that diners can get digital images of what they’ve eaten before they even get the check.

It’s hard to know who is most irritated by amateur photography — the owners and chefs, the nearby diners or even the photographer’s dining companions. Emma Kate Tsai, a Houston-based editor, said her 64-year-old father drives her family crazy with the food photos he shoots with his large, cumbersome camera strapped

across his chest. “It’s really irritating,” she said, “because we can’t take a bite unless he takes his photo.”

When the family goes out for Chinese, things get ugly. “The food just keeps coming, and we just have to wait for him,” she said.

“Of course, he’s not taking pictures of us or his grandkids, which compounds the issue for me.”

Her father, a NASA engineer, used to put his photos into PowerPoint presentations and send the huge files to them through e-mail.

“They were, like, 11 megabytes,” she said with a laugh. “Now he’s got Facebook, thank God.” Still, she worries about what will happen when her father stops working. “I think when he retires it’s just going to get worse,” she said.

Even Valery Rizzo, who teaches a class in iPhone food photography, thinks the trend has crossed a line. Tired of seeing uncentered, flash-marred photos of indistinguishable glop, Ms. Rizzo taught a course last fall at 3rd Ward in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to try to raise the bar. Ms. Rizzo briefs her students not only on the apps available, like Instagram, Foodie SnapPak and Camera+, but also tries to teach them lessons on composition and lighting.

“No. 1 rule is no flash,” she said. “A lot of food photos are hideous because of the flash.”

But for every annoyed patron and disgruntled chef, there will continue to be legions of amateur iPhone-wielding food lovers, who say what they do is a tribute — not to mention free advertising for the restaurants.

Jordy Trachtenberg, because of what he described as his obsessive-compulsive disorder and his love of food, has documented

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farmer’s market

celebrities Randii MacNear has managed the Davis Farmers’ Market into one of America’s Favorite Farmers’ Markets. We interviewed Randii October 2010 and her comments are included in the recently completed documentary Farmers’ Markets: Love at First Bite. Randii MacNear was interviewed by Mike Lee at the Davis Farmers’ Market. The entire transcript of the interview follows.

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Randii MacNear has managed the Davis Farmers’ Market into one of America’s Favorite Farmers’ Markets. We interviewed Randii October 2010 and her comments are included in the recently completed documentary Farmers’ Markets: Love at First Bite.

Randii MacNear was interviewed by Mike Lee at the Davis Farmers’ Market.

The entire transcript of the interview follows.

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hollymarket

Q Tell us a little about the market — the structure behind and all that.

Sure. We were one of the first farmers’ markets to start in the state of California.

There are now 640 certified farmers markets in California alone and probably over 4000 farmers markets in the United States. Out of the 640 farmers markets in California, Davis is the only one that has a covered structure over it, that has electricity, water. That has its own shed where we sell our tee-shirts and bar supplies. Our community, our city council really invested in the market early on. We had some visionary people on the city council and we were at a time when they could spend that type of money on park improvements. We feel really fortunate because we know now today if we brought this type of concept to them, there would be no way that they could approve those kinds of budgetary funds to do this. So they took a risk and interestingly enough there were some citizens that complained

about spending that kind of money. We kind of have made Davis famous. And we do it on purpose.

Q And how many today?

Today there are – we rotate through about a hundred and fifty farmers throughout the year. Some are here year around. Some are only here

things like that — you can’t buy that type of publicity for a community. That’s priceless you know. You can’t buy that.We work hand in hand. It’s a wonderful symbiotic relationship. We were America’s Favorite Farmers’ Market in 2009. It was a national contest that American Farmland Trust.

“

When I started managing the market there were three farmers on the street with their boxes on the ground in their pick-up trucks. That’s all there was. for a three-week blueberry crop and we have other sellers at the market as well. We have some processed food, some craft and a community group area. We work hand in hand. It’s a wonderful symbiotic relationship. We were America’s Favorite Farmers’ Market in 2009.

It was a national contest that American Farmland Trust launched and we got 30% — oh excuse me 10% of the vote nationwide. So the community really got behind this contest. So

”

Q How do you account for such success? There are actually over 6100 farmers’ markets in the country and you’re number 1.

Well, it isn’t by accident.

One of the things that is the main job that I do is that I try to create a marketplace every day that we’re open.

The market has been open for 34 years. I’ve been the manager here for 30 years but the market is 34 years old. I try to match the values of the community — the different constituencies in

August 2013 * Fixation 25

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“

I’m the fun guy that everyone comes to see at the farmers’ market. I can tell you what is the freshest as well as what to make with each produce we carry.

”

the community — to be reflective of what we offer the public in a marketplace. We have an area where groups come and fund raise and disperse information. Millions – literally millions of dollars are raised here and given back to the community through the community booth area. The marketplace is really clean and colorful. We maintain really high standards of the imagery and branding that we put out. I mean you’re going to be shocked. We sell $50,000 worth of Davis farmers’ market logo wear a year!

People come and they buy them. People have told me they have been in Egypt at the pyramids and they’ve seen Davis Farmers’ Market tee-shirts. So people just – you know its fun. Everything is right here. How could you go wrong? We’re very fortunate. We’re in a park. We’re in a community where families love to do things with their children. So the values of farmers’ markets which is real human contact, eating really good food, spending time with people — relationships. You know this community really mirrors those values and so we make the market mirror those. People are very friendly here. We have the same group of sellers really pretty consistently. So people form really tight relationships with them. You know we work really hard at it. (laugh)

Q Tell us a little about some of the vendors – especially those we will be seeing throughout this film.

There are definitely vendors that are stars here at this market.

People that really love coming here. I mean sometimes farmers and selling to the public are not the best match – the highest and best use of a person. But sometimes it is. And the farmers’ that

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you’re going to be seeing definitely feel — enjoy talking to the public and enjoy educating people, enjoy meeting people. And that’s really – you know Steve Smit is the perfect example from Mt Moriah. You know he has 4 small children so he really understands the value of eating well. He comes from a large farming family. So he’s just the perfect icon for the market. And no surprise, he’s one of our consistently highest volume sellers. Kristy, the chicken lady, is fairly new to our market. And actually her product of organic chicken is a new product in the market. You know we’ve really worked hard over the last couple of years to get meats. We have pork. We have beef. We have chicken. We have fish in the market now. Cheese. So she’s one of the new people who people are responding to very well. You know the news media is helping quite a bit because of all the scares of processed agriculture and that would include poultry and all the documentaries that are being made and so people feel very safe buying their meat here. You know not everybody is willing to pay the price for that assurance but there are enough people that are.

Q What are we seeing in the Fall Festival?

Well Fall Festival — we’ve been having that for 30 years. We used to call it the Harvest Festival and we’ve changed it to the Fall Festival. It’s really a celebration of — well it’s our biggest customer appreciation day. We try to get people really excited about fall food because now is the time that people start thinking about what they’re going to eat for Thanksgiving – what they’re going to have for Christmas dinner and of course we want people to

completely make all their food from the farmers’ market. We spend a lot of time telling people that. Not only are we going to have the fall festival next week where we roll out the holiday pies.

So we have like a 40-foot pie booth where people can buy pie by the slice from the different bakers that they can also purchase for their holiday meals, but on November 13th will be our Thanksgiving feast display. And every year we create a completely a full menu except for the turkey of cooking your Thanksgiving dinner using products from the market. And everybody goes home with all these little recipes and so this year’s theme is a farmers Thanksgiving. Trying to just create that feeling that people have about farmers and agriculture and sort of the farm dinner. And having that feeling at Thanksgiving because people really should give thanks for agriculture, especially if they live in California.

Q Recently we read some disturbing news about organic farmers who are falsely advertising. How do you protect yourself from having that happen in your market?

Well it’s interesting. I have not had one customer come up to me and talk to me about that. And I was actually expecting that because when these customers have something on their minds, they come up to me and find me and talk about it. So what that leads me to believe is that they actually feel that we are running a market of integrity and that they don’t really feel like there’s those same questions that they have down in Los Angeles are questions or uncertainties that our consumers are feeling about the sellers at our market. I think part of that is because we have the same sellers for years and years and years. And there’s continuity. And those sellers have relationships and there’s this huge amount of trust between the farmers and the consumers here in Davis.

You know farmers markets are a big business. We’re kind of an industry that’s growing too fast for its own good. So there’s going to be some wild cards. There’s good money in farmers’ markets for the sellers and I’m actually really not upset at all about that publicity that’s come out because what I hope that does is show the people that think that they can come into the system and abuse it, are gonna get caught and that we’re watching them. So to me the message is not that consumers need to be afraid. To me the message is the perpetrators need to be aware because we’re watching them! This is not just a free for all where we don’t have any idea what is going on in the market.

Q Talk about the impact of the market on the economy of Davis?

You know it’s interesting that you ask that question because it’s a question the newspapers ask me a lot. How do supermarkets feel about farmers’ markets? And my answer to that is that we have a mantra in life is that any way that we can get people to eat real food – food that has one word like Michael Pollan says – fruit, apple, pig, egg – that it’s a good thing and it’s actually going to help anybody else who is in that business anywhere in Yolo country. So I believe the farmers market is actually probably the biggest free advertising

“

tool that any of the supermarkets have anywhere in Yolo County because we are getting people in the habit of eating more fruits and vegetables, of having fresh flowers on their table, of giving gifts of agricultural products for Christmas. You know there’s so much to say about how much we teach people here at the market which you know we’re only open 8 hours out of the week. And they go to the grocery store a lot and I’m confident — I’ve had conversations with grocery stores that they feel that the farmers market is encouraging people to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables in the supermarkets and they’re doing a better job of having local products in their markets. And you know I am happy about that.

Anybody that gets people to eat better I’m happy about that. I’m not feeling that people need to shop at the farmers market. You know not everybody can park at the farmers market. So go to the Coop, go to the Nugget. But buy real food when you go into those stores. So we kind of — I work really hard on collaborating with everybody and being friends with everybody. You participate in the community. I was President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1996. I serve on a lot of DDBA committees, the Yolo county visitors bureau. You know we want to help everybody do the best job that they can do.

Q How many people come to the market on a given Saturday and then do they go into town after they leave?

So we estimate 5 to 7000 people come out to the Saturday market year around. Wednesday’s it’s a little less — maybe 3000 people. And these crowds are consistent year around. That is one of the very very unique and spectacular things about the Davis market is that we — our crowds are here year around. In fact our busiest month is December. Most markets would tell you that August or July is their busiest month. But for us December is you know really busy. And that’s pretty remarkable. But the DDBA – the Downtown Business Association actually did an economic study about the evidence of how much the market contributes to people going into the downtown and spending money. The store owners tell me “I can tell when people have been to the market”. They carry their little vegetables and they come into my store. They did come up with an exact amount of money. They figured that people spend $21 in the downtown that they would not have spent the farmers market not been going on on Saturday morning. Davis is a big landscape, home, garden type of place. And I think that if the market weren’t here on Saturday mornings, most people would be home gardening. So you know.

But for us December is you know really busy.

And that’s pretty remarkable. But the DDBA – the Downtown Business Association actually did an economic study about the evidence of how much the market contributes to people going into the downtown and spending money. The store owners tell me “I can tell when people have been to the market”. They carry their little vegetables and they come into my store. They did come up with an exact amount of money. Davis is a big landscape, home, garden type of place. And I think that if the market weren’t here on Saturday.

When I started managing the market, there were three Tall farmers on the street with their boxes on the ground in their Red pick-ups. That is all there was then.

”

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hollymarket

Q Talk a little bit about Trudy

PRU Mendez

and then I have a question for you.

Ok. Trudy is ah so wonderful. She’s a local Davis person. They have their bakery here in Davis. She is I would say the biggest fan of this farmers’ market. She sells in a lot of markets and she just loves being here in Davis. She actually created Pig Day for us – thought up the idea for one of our major events that we have.

She’s just

Q So what’s the one thing you’d

Kristy Levings

Q So you feel as though there is an impact?

Oh, absolutely! Absolutely what? Absolutely it helps contribute to the economic development in the downtown. I think that you could ask anybody that question and they would agree. It’s not just me saying that.

Q And that is?

Go shop at a farmers’ market or buy local agricultural products. And (leaning forward) feed them to your children. (smile) and to yourself. (nodding knowingly).Absolutely it helps contribute to the economic development in the downtown. I think that you could

Randi MacNear

DON SAYLOR

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ask anybody that question and they would agree. It’s not just me saying that.

Absolutely it helps contribute to the economic development in the downtown. I think that you could ask anybody that question and they would agree. It’s not just me saying that.

want to tell Americans about farmers markets?

Well I have a very important answer to that question.

What I would like to tell people is they need to – this world is pretty crazy right now. And most people feel as though they don’t have any control of what’s going on. Even in their own jobs and state government. And in foreign wars. And they kind of feel they don’t have any ability to impact anything. But there is one very simple thing that people can do that will change the world and make it a better place. And that’s to go shop at a farmers market. It’s so nice to have something so simple that you can do that will actually have a huge impact. It will have a huge impact. It will have a huge impact on the health of our

hollymarket

nation. On agriculture being sustainable. On children learning where their food comes from. On a sense of community well being — what do they call that – quality of life in a community.

And also people talking to each other once again and renewing their relationships. Farmers markets can be very spiritual and I don’t want to get all spiritual but people can get very renewed when they come to a market. So it’s good for the psyche of a community. It’s good for all those reasons that I said. You know its something that you can do. And if you can’t go to a farmers market, then buy your local products that are around you. Support your local agriculture. There isn’t too much that you can do about Afghanistan or Iraq. But there’s something you can do right here, right now, today in the next 10 minutes of your life.

Q You said you wanted to say a little more about next week.

Well you’ll get enough next week. Until you get here it really doesn’t do justice. There is one thing as a market that’s pretty unique about us that I could talk about. So ah one of the things we’ve been doing for the last 10 years was – is our involvement with farm to school. Farm to school is a program actually nationwide now where kids have gardens in the schools. They learn how to compost and reduce waste. They go out to farms. They learn how to cook. They have nutrition exercises. And I think it’s really an amazing program. And I think the Davis Farmers’ Market is a really unique model where we sort of became the branding in the community for the farm to school that enabled it to catch on really quick. And so the school district that sources all of their food that goes into the lunch from the Farmers’ Market. So I wanted to bring up the Farm to School. It’s a really important concept that people need to learn about and support and get involved with. Because again it satisfies — it answers all of those important questions that are before us, I believe.

Q Recently we read some disturbing news about organic farmers who are falsely advertising. How do you protect yourself from having that happen in your market?

Well it’s interesting. I have not had one customer come up to me and talk to me about that. And I was actually expecting that because when these customers have something on their minds,

they come up to me and find me and talk about it. So what that leads me to believe is that they actually feel that we are running a market of integrity and that they don’t really feel like there’s those same questions that they have down in Los Angeles are questions or uncertainties that our consumers are feeling about the sellers at our market. I think part of that is because we have the same sellers for years and years and years. And there’s continuity. And those sellers have relationships and there’s this huge amount of trust between the farmers and the consumers here in Davis.

You know farmers markets are a big business. We’re kind of an industry that’s growing too fast for its own good. So there’s going to be some wild cards. There’s good money in farmers’ markets for the sellers and I’m actually really not upset at all about that publicity that’s come out because what I hope that does is show the people that think that they can come into the system and abuse it, are gonna get caught and that we’re watching them. So to me the message is not that consumers need to be afraid. To me the message is the perpetrators need to be aware because we’re watching them! This is not just a free for all where we don’t have any idea what is going on in the market.

Q Talk about the impact of the market on the economy of Davis?

You know it’s interesting that you ask that question because it’s a question the newspapers ask me a lot. How do supermarkets feel about farmers’ markets? And my answer to that is that we have a mantra in life is that any way that we can get people to eat real food – food that has one word like Michael Pollan says – fruit, apple, pig, egg – that it’s a good thing and it’s actually going to help anybody else who is in that business anywhere in Yolo country. So I believe the farmers market is actually probably the biggest free advertising tool that any of the supermarkets have anywhere in Yolo County because we are getting people in the habit of eating more fruits and vegetables, of having fresh flowers on their table, of giving gifts of agricultural products for Christmas. You know there’s so much to say about how much we teach people here at the market which you know we’re only open 8 hours out of the week. And they go to the grocery store a lot and I’m confident — I’ve had conversations with grocery stores that they feel that the farmers market is encouraging people and vegetables.

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August 2013 * Fixation 31

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