THE MAGAZINE OF OAKLAND, BERKELEY AND THE WORLD THAT REVOLVES AROUND US
May & June 2022
Raising the Bar The Entrepreneurs and Restaurateurs Elevating East Bay Eats
Jennifer Maxwell, founder of JAMBAR
Food& Drink EDITION
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May & June 2022
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR:
Eat This 6
THE BEAT GOES ON
JAMBAR creator Jennifer Maxwell 8
GREEN SCENE
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder 14 JAMES BEARD SERVED
Art by Scott Laperruque
Revealing the man behind the award 20
PUBLISHER Rosemary Olson
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Karen Klaber
EDITOR Daedalus Howell
The Fine Art of Wealth Management
COPY EDITOR Suzanne Michel
CONTRIBUTORS Jeffrey Edalatpour Lou Fancher Christian Chensvold
THE MAGAZINE OF OAKLAND, BERKELEY AND THE WORLD THAT REVOLVES AROUND US
VEGANOMICS
Plant-based foods in the Bay 24 EASY BEING GREEN
Rachel Caygill’s Green House Bakery 32 WAR STORY
Juliet Blackwell’s latest Parisian tale 36
PRODUCTION OPERATIONS MANAGER
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Sean George
Danielle McCoy Ben Grambergu Mercedes Murolo Lynda Rael Catherine Sant
EDITORIAL PRODUCTION MANAGER Phaedra Strecher
SENIOR DESIGNER Jackie Mujica
CEO/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Dan Pulcrano
ADVERTISING DIRECTORS Lori Lieneke Lisa Santos
ON THE COVER Jennifer Maxwell, founder of JAMBAR. Photo by Paige Green
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6
Now
An eater’s guide to the East Bay
T
he East Bay has long been the epicenter of the gourmet universe. From Alice Waters introducing the Bay Area to the farm-totable concept nearly 50 years ago to Alfred Peet kicking off the American coffee revolution from a Berkeley storefront—it seems that everyone in the East Bay has always had a prescient palate. Make that everyone in the East Bay except me. When it comes to food, I have no idea what’s coming or going, what’s trending or ending, or even generally what I should be eating. You have to remember, as a card carrying member of Generation X, who had the misfortune of going to public schools, I was raised on ye olde Food Pyramid, which was devised by some
agribusiness lobbyist or other. If the preponderance of dairy wasn’t suspected enough, there was an overemphasis on meat, particularly red meat. If it actually was meat—anyone who ate a school lunch in the ’70s knows the forgotten mysteries of which I speak. Ironically, my father is a true gourmand and a great chef, but as a kid, naturally, I resisted eating anything that didn’t have “Happy Meal” printed on it. Fortunately, the wave of ’90s artisanal consciousness caught me up in its wake, and I developed a taste for cuisine beyond industrially-processed meat and potatoes. Then came various stints as a food writer. I did a year as a food critic in Los Angeles, reviewing cutting edge eateries that left me hungering for anything that didn’t boast
Jeffrey Edalatpour’s writing about arts, food and culture has appeared in KQED Arts, Metro Silicon Valley, Interview Magazine, The Rumpus, SF Weekly and Berkeleyside.com.
Lou Fancher has been published in the Diablo Magazine, the Oakland Tribune, InDance, San Francisco Classical Voice, SF Weekly, WIRED. com and elsewhere.
EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
EAT I’m done putting burgers in my beard.
“molecular gastronomy” as a guiding philosophy or was slathered in flavored “foam.” I once had a “deconstructed burger” that boasted a leathery red square of congealed ketchup. Fancy. I fared better with later assignments in Sonoma (the wine helped). By the time I ended up in Oakland, however, I no longer had to write about food, I could just enjoy it. But with such a dizzying array of choices in the East Bay, I’ve come to rely on the gustatory guides within these pages— scribes whose palates are as refined as their prose. Like you, I’m eager to dig in and see what’s on the menu. Bon appétit! —Daedalus Howell, Editor Christian Chensvold blogs about the wisdom tradition at trad-man.com and is available for astrological readings.
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Bar None Jennifer Maxwell’s next act with JAMBAR BY Daedalus Howell
I
PHOTOS BY PAIGE GREEN
8
t was writer F. Scot Fitzgerald who opined that “There are no second acts in American lives.” It was JAMBAR creator Jennifer Maxwell who proved him wrong. Maxwell’s first act—at least in terms of one of her professional pursuits— included co-creating the PowerBar in Berkeley, a product that launched the energy bar market in the mid-80s. After growing the company to wild success over 14 years, the venture was sold to consumer packaged goods juggernaut Nestlé. End of act one. Now, Maxwell is back in the limelight with her new organic, artisanal energy bar, JAMBAR, which she makes in a newly built, state-ofthe-art facility just over the Richmond Bridge in Marin County. “The building has history,” says Maxwell, as she leads this reporter on a tour of the facility. “It was a Hostess bakery. Then it was a printing press for many years. Part of the building was a recording studio for the Grateful Dead.”
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EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
THRIVE Jennifer Maxwell is an entrepreneur, athlete and drummer.
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WATCH FOR THESE UPCOMING EVENTS Spring Music Saturdays with BHS Jazz ACCI Gallery’s Spring Art Fair May 7th Gregoire’s 20th Anniversary Party in June Thirsty Thursdays at the Farmers Market in July Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival in August For the latest events info join our newsletter at northshattuck.org
MANGO MANIA Maxwell often joins the production line and cuts mango herself.
»
On cue, Maxwell points to a vast psychedelic mural on one of the plant’s walls that was created by a Deadassociated artist circa ’80s or ’90s. It’s an understatement to say that good musical vibes permeate JAMBAR. Perhaps they’re residual flashbacks from the Dead, but more likely they result from a harmonic alignment of mission, music and sometimes mango. “We built our own dedicated facility just for making JAMBARs, so we control the quality and ingredients from start to finish,” says Maxwell of the certified organic facility, which is tucked away in one of San Rafael’s light industrial areas.
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EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
The rigor with which Maxwell approaches her new venture is impressive. Every JAMBAR is all organic, nonGMO and is made with premium, real food ingredients, including ancient grains, natural sweeteners and high quality proteins. There are gluten-free, vegan and plant protein options, and they come in four flavors: Chocolate Cha-Cha, Malt Nut Melody, Jammin’ Jazzleberry and—wait for it—Musical Mango. The product names and the brand itself reflect an obvious passion for music—a passion that intensified after the passing of Maxwell’s husband, Brian, in 2004 from a congenital heart problem.
“It took me a couple years to get to where I could function again, and in the healing process, music just came to me,” says Maxwell, who found herself raising six young children on her own, among them a seven-month-old baby. Her instrument of choice? Drums. “I've always been an athlete, but somehow drumming—the pulse and the beat and the physicality of it—was so, so captivating,” says Maxwell. “It was hard. I mean, it took me 10 years to get competent at all.” Ultimately, music proved not only restorative and therapeutic for Maxwell; it was an inspiration. “It aligned my life in a different
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In 2015, Maxwell was at the kitchen table with her daughter, Julia, a record-holding, high level athlete who ran at Stanford University. She shared her lament about the quality of energy bars on the market. Then Julia asked her a fateful question: ‘Well mom, why don’t you invent one?’
» way. All of a sudden, practice was
therapeutic. It was intellectual; learning how to read music is difficult. It was a challenge,” she says, pauses, then adds, “I like challenges.” When Maxwell and Brian first landed on the “energy bar” concept, the term didn’t even exist—they created it. Since then, the category has evolved into hundreds of bars of varying types. Despite this Cambrian-like explosion of bars, Maxwell still felt that there was an opportunity that wasn’t being met in the market. “I was intrigued to reenter this category because the organic segment of the category is not very well represented,” says Maxwell, whose background is in athletic-targeted food science. “I didn't feel there was a really high quality organic bar that I wanted to eat….It was like, there's no bars that I really feel good about putting into my body.”
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EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
In 2015, Maxwell was at the kitchen table with her daughter, Julia, a recordholding, high level athlete who ran at Stanford University. She shared her lament about the quality of energy bars on the market. Then Julia asked her a fateful question: “Well mom, why don't you invent one?” Challenge accepted. “This is something that I figured I could do,” Maxwell recalls. “I've done it before.” Maxwell began her new venture in fits and starts. “I worked on it a little bit, then I kind of tabled it for a bit, and then I worked on it some more,” says Maxwell, who was also busy raising her kids while experimenting with recipes. This process went on for a few years. As she brought more and more premium ingredients into the mix, it became evident that she would not be working with a co-packing company
that would produce the bars for her. In an unusual move for her industry, Maxwell decided to make a “huge capital investment” and build her own facility. For many entrepreneurs, this would be a daunting undertaking. Not for Maxwell. “I don't live in fear and I don't live with fear. I believe in my product,” she says. “I believe in my mission.” Central to that mission is the “JAMBAR Gives Back” program. JAMBAR donates 50% of after-tax profits to organizations that promote music and active living. Through a special partnership with Marin Community Foundation, beneficiaries span an array of music and athletic organizations, from Enriching Lives Through Music, California Jazz Conservancy, and Coaching Corps, to Tamalpa Runners, Marin County Bike Coalition, Bread and Roses, and Jazz in the Neighborhood. “The vibe of the company is positive and energetic. We encourage music, education and active living. Those are our philanthropic ventures.” JAMBARs can now be found in a multitude of Bay Area natural food and grocery stores and beyond (and even a few music stores and athletic stores). As for Maxwell, she can be found on the production line, cutting mango. “It’s one way to maintain sanity,” she says. “I guess it's to stay grounded. I'm not a particularly materialistic person. I'm not a pretentious person. I'm pretty down to earth. I love to work—I'm so excited and grateful I can come to work,” she says with a winning smile. For more information, visit jambar.com
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Fairy Tale ‘Green fairy’ charms Bay Area absinthe distilleries BY Christian Chensvold
W
REGAL Emperor Norton boasts a100-point score from Wine and Spirits Journal.
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EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
one not nearly as complex as the jigsaw puzzle of women’s undergarments. The traditional way of drinking the moss-colored spirit—nicknamed “the green fairy” for the supposed buzz it brings—is to start by pouring an ounce of the potent potable in a glass. Next, perch on the rim, like a vulture hovering over your soon-to-be comatose self—a slotted spoon holding a sugar cube. Now, slowly pour ice water over the cube, which takes the sugar down into the glass, releases the oils of anise, fennel and wormwood, and turns the verdant elixir a cloudy white known as the louche. The next part is easy: down the hatch. But be forewarned, overindulge and the green fairy may suddenly appear as a hologram-hallucination of Edgar Degas, who’s sketching your stone-
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PHOTO COURTESY OF EMPEROR NORTON
ell into the 20th Century, an aging Frenchman recalled his youth and said that you hadn’t really lived unless you’d experienced the pleasure of undressing a woman in turn-of-the-century clothing, when one lacy layer gave way to another and the erotic tension mounted to a frenzy. Alas one can’t help but think of Marcel Proust’s bittersweet discovery, made during the same era of corsets and petticoats, that anticipation is often more pleasurable than pleasure itself. Absinthe, the signature drink of Belle Epoque France, also had a ritual based on delayed gratification, though
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« faced expression for his famous 1876
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SIP The Young & Yonder distillery was founded in 2013 by husband and wife team Josh and Sarah Opatz.
like to shatter misconceptions and show people that absinthe, when well crafted, can be delicious,” Vermut says. “I felt like this is an amazing spirit that people need to understand is not dangerous or disgusting, and that’s what’s motivated me all these years to keep making it. ” Vermut also offers a cocktail syrup called Fairy Dust, which she created after numerous acquaintances said they wanted a non-alcoholic absinthe alternative. It contains simple syrup flavored with the traditional ingredients anise, wormwood and fennel, and Vermut says it makes for an amazingly
refreshing beverage when mixed with soda water and lemon juice. Lance Winters “wanted to know what all the fuss was about” when it came to absinthe, and began tinkering with recipes after joining Alameda’s St. George Spirits in 1996. By the time the ban was lifted in 2007, says the master distiller and company president, “We had an absinthe that we really enjoyed, that was all about striking a balance between a group of really forward botanicals. It’s inspired by a traditional recipe, but rebalanced to something I really love to drink. Modern
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PHOTO COURTESY OF YOUNG & YONDER
painting, entitled simply Absinthe. When an outbreak of phylloxera claimed nearly half the vineyards in France in the middle of the 19th Century, absinthe stepped in to fill the drinking void. When the wine industry recovered from the blight, it found it could not compete with the craze for absinthe, which appealed to bohemians and beau monde alike. And so it launched a propaganda campaign smearing absinthe as poison that will drive you mad. The United States banned the drink in 1912, and the ban stayed in effect until 2007. Fifteen years later, the Bay Area is home to no less than four absinthe makers (not to mention the Absinthe Brasserie And Bar in San Francisco), each with its own special approach. Oakland-based Absinthia Vermut was destined to become a follower of the green fairy. First off, that’s not her brand, but rather her actual name. Her family name was originally spelled Wermuth, she says, and the spirit known as vermouth originally contained wormwood, one of the defining botanicals in absinthe. She discovered the emerald elixir at the Burning Man festival in 1996, and immediately became obsessed with making it bootleg. Friends soon nicknamed her Absinthia, which is now her legal name, as well as the name of her eponymous brand. “I call it traditional absinthe for Americans who didn’t grow up with a lot of anise on our palates,” she says. Her recipe is extra-smooth so that it doesn’t require any added sweetener, and is distilled in San Carlos by Coastal Spirits, an award-winning gin maker. “I
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With its heavily literary and historical associations, absinthe certainly fuels the imagination, and the tipsiness it brings is certainly different than with other spirits. But the supposed hallucinogenic properties of the once-outlawed drink is really the result of what today we call misinformation.
« American drinkers aren't huge fans
of that black licorice profile, but the balance of mint and citrus that comes from the brandy base and the additional botanicals round that out. Our use of the non-traditional star anise gives more mouthfeel, and the opal basil draws the anise flavor to a different place.” That different place isn’t Healdsburg. But up in the Wine Country you’ll find another one of the Bay Area’s devotees of the green fairy. The Young & Yonder distillery was founded in 2013 by husband and wife team Josh and Sarah Opatz, two former San Franciscans. After debuting with vodka and gin, the duo introduced an absinthe boasting a contemporary flavor profile. “We wanted to stay true to the spirit with anise, fennel and wormwood,” says Sarah Opatz, “but added lemongrass, ginger, peppermint and eucalyptus to make drinking it more interesting than just a black lirocrice bomb. We joke that ours is a gateway to absinthe.” Caffeine and absinthe make for an interesting combination for adventurous drinkers. According to a toxicologist friend of Opatz, the spirit’s
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EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
mysterious effect is not specifically from wormwood but rather the entire mix of ingredients—including the 120-proof alcohol—that “affects your nerves.” This is in perfect keeping with the fashion for nervous disorders that reigned during the French fin-de-siecle. But did absinthe soothe the nerves of jaded sophisticates facing the dawn of modernism, or cause their decadent neurasthenia? Most likely it was the green fairy flying a feedback loop, with absinthe alternately soothing nerves and revving them up. As with anything, there are innovators and there are purists. Carter Raff, maker of San Francisco-based Emperor Norton absinthe, is the latter, and claims to be one of the few distilleries of the real deal. Given Emperor Norton’s 100point score from Bonfort’s Wine and Spirits Journal, he may have a point. “Ninety percent of the absinthe out there isn’t made correctly,” says Raff. “I’ve been studying it since 1985. For one thing, most distilleries use star anise, which gives a heavy black licorice taste that numbs the tongue so you can’t taste the other herbs. I don’t know why
some other makers even call it absinthe.” Emperor Norton uses California grapes for its brandy base, and a Roman wormwood is added after the distilling to provide the natural green color that looks yellowish under light. “A lot of contemporary absinthes are neon green, which means they’ve been artificially colored, or they’re brown.” As for Roman wormwood, it’s only grown in the world for one reason and that’s coloring absinthe. Raff gets his from a small supplier in France that has been growing it for 150 years, but back in the bootleg days it was so expensive, he decided to grow his own. “I got interested in absinthe because it was obscure and everything said about it was BS,” says Raff. “It never made you hallucinate or go crazy—that was all just propaganda by the French wine industry. I also like the ritual involved. You have to prepare it, like making espresso, devote time and attention to it and not just pour three fingers of whiskey and drink. Absinthe is something to cherish.” Cherishing the green fairy—instead of provoking her—and absinthe can provide a night of elegant gaiety or quiet artistic creation, depending on what you ask of it. “The green fairy was a very poetic description of what one might experience after having some absinthe,” says St. George’s Lance Winters, “inspired by the beautiful, diaphanous swirls of opalescence in a glass, conjuring up the image of a fairy's gown. But the toughest job of any honest absinthe producer is dispelling all of the myths around absinthe. What you should really expect is a complex spirit, with layers of complexity that slowly peel back after each sip to reveal a drink like no other.” ❤
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The Man Who Ate Too Much John Birdsall excavates the queer life of James Beard BY Jeffrey Edalatpour
I ILLUSTRATION BY ADE HOIDAR
20
n last year’s fact-packed documentary, Julia, viewers learn every last darn thing about the celebrated television chef, Julia Child. Her life turns out to be an open book. The new HBO series, also called Julia, imagines her private persona and provides the same sense of intimacy that Meryl Streep performed in Nora Ephron’s film, Julie and Julia (2009). In this new iteration, the British actress Sarah Lancashire (Last Tango in Halifax) asserts Child’s identity without overdoing that
EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
familiar, trilling accent. In equally rationed out portions, she expresses Child’s hesitancy and self-doubt, as well as her verve and ambition. The series revisits the arc of Child’s stardom, beginning with the origin story of her television career. Julia slows her biography down to the culinary equivalent of a long-simmering stew. Each moment is rich and perspiring with earthiness and good taste. With decades of her fabled cooking shows still accessible via streaming, alongside this show, you’d think that Julia
Child’s mythology would have reached a saturation point in this country’s popular imagination. But when Lancashire shows up at the WGBH station with a chocolate almond cake, we understand that Julia will serve up scene after scene of comfort food and comfort viewing. Part of Child’s mythology asserts that she was the original, the primogenitor, the Eve of television chefdom. But in the pilot episode of Julia, set in 1961, while she and her husband, Paul, are dining out, he mentions the name James Beard.
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One of Birdsall’s projects as a food writer is to make queer lives visible and to give credit where credit has been purposefully or lazily erased… He writes from a first person omniscient point of view—as if, after years of research, he’d traveled back in time to inhabit Beard’s closeted consciousness. »At the time, Beard was a nationally
known, well-regarded cookbook author. His television show, I Love to Eat, started airing in 1946 on NBC. But who remembers it? Now he’s known to the general public, if at all, as the face of a coveted food award. Why hasn’t Paul Giamatti or some other beloved Hollywood actor brought Beard’s name to prominence in the way that Julia Child’s is now? In John Birdsall’s recent biography of James Beard, The Man Who Ate Too Much, he doesn’t set out to rehabilitate or malign Beard’s reputation. One of Birdsall’s projects as a food writer is to make queer lives visible and to give credit where credit has been purposefully or lazily erased. Birdsall takes a subatomic approach in charting the details of Beard’s youth, personal and professional lives. He writes from a first person omniscient point of view—as if, after years of research, he’d traveled back in time to inhabit Beard’s closeted consciousness. But Birdsall has an advantage over his subject. With the benefit of hindsight, the author provides the historical,
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homophobic, 20th Century American context that contributed to the more troubling aspects of Beard’s character. Unlike Julia Child, Beard, the man, was a complicated figure rather than a beloved one. The Man Who Ate Too Much is, in parts, a product of discovery, an account of Beard’s enduring influence, and the excavation of a gay man’s troubled life. Published in the January 2014 issue of the magazine, Lucky Peach, Birdsall’s essay, “America, Your Food Is So Gay,” was the genesis of the biography. In it, he cites “three gay guys” who would become the “architects of modern food in America.” Between Richard Olney, Craig Claiborne and James Beard, it was Beard that Birdsall couldn’t stop thinking about. Of the three men, he said, “Beard had the most creative influence on American food.” Birdsall found his particular message to be brilliant in many ways. American food writers in the mid-part of the last century were enamored with French cuisine. Beard found a way to present French country dishes as if they were American inventions. Birdsall explained
that he could take a cassoulet, tweak it and then write a book about casseroles. “He was taking the principles and some of the techniques, changing the ingredients, to take French bourgeois cuisine and turn it into American home cooking.” For Birdsall, Beard’s creative influence was just as compelling as the distressing aspects of his personal life. “He was a thrilling, tragic figure, and I couldn’t stop thinking about James.” In an anecdote, he recounts in “America, Your Food Is So Gay,” Birdsall tells the story of someone who happened to be a former co-worker of his, an aspiring baker, who turned to Beard for advice. When the young man arrived at Beard’s hotel suite, the older man appeared in a robe but naked underneath. The Harvey Weinstein parallels are unavoidable. Birdsall comes to a startling conclusion, “That was the essence of Beard’s food: draped in a respectable Sulka robe that was always threatening to drop to expose unashamed hedonism.” The Man Who Ate Too Much expands on this idea but doesn’t devolve into a shaming exposé. Remember when being gay was a punishable offense in America? Remember when it wasn’t legal for gay couples to marry? Birdsall isn’t an apologist for Beard’s destructive behavior, but he skillfully reminds the reader that Beard’s public persona was a construct, in a not-so-distant era, upon which his reputation and career were reliant. Living a closeted life does psychological damage to the famous and unfamous alike. “As I was writing one of the drafts of the manuscript, the Harvey Weinstein news broke,” Birdsall recalled. He was
NAME GAME You probably know more about the James Beard Awards than the man for whom they’re named
The food media ecosystem has changed since 2016 when he was first circulating the Beard book proposal. “Since then, conversations around queer food culture and trans identity have really become more public and more urgent,” Birdsall said. When he was researching and writing the manuscript, the strain of Beard’s queerness became an unanticipated but central part of the book. He felt briefly apologetic about it. “I feared that a book about queerness and food would only appeal to a niche audience.” A few publishers echoed that fear. Notably not Norton, who published the book. This shift in the food media culture even impacted the James Beard Foundation. Birdsall notes that the awards were suspended two years ago. “They looked at the systemic race and gender bias that had been built into their awards process.” These upheavals are still underway, but the former East Bay Express food writer believes that, “It’s opened the possibility for a broader readership for a book that does center queerness,” even if that queerness can be ugly and problematic. While Julia Child has her many days in the sun, The Man Who Ate Too Much has been optioned for a film adaptation. Food TV may have forgotten about James Beard, but he may be right-sized, and polarizing enough, to hold our gaze on a movie screen. The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard by John Birdsall, john-birdsall.com, is now out in paperback.
PHOTO COURTESY OF W.W. NORTON AND COMPANY
in the midst of telling a similar story, of “a famous, powerful figure who used his power and influence, in part, to sexually abuse or assault younger people around him.” That toxicity is a tougher sell than Julia Child’s chocolate cakes and roast chicken dinners. “When the hardcover came out, some of the pushback I received was against revealing too much and tarnishing this great figure,” he said.
The post-World War II generation found Beard to be a comforting, charming presence from their mother’s kitchen. By revealing that Beard’s sexuality was, at times, predatory, some readers complained that Birdsall had gone too far. “I would have loved to have met him,” Birdsall said. “By all accounts, he was very charming, except for the last decade of his life.” Birdsall explained that while he was writing the book, he felt exhilarated by certain details of Beard’s life, but he also felt anger and sorrow. “I had gotten very close to the mind of someone who had a lot of self-hatred and self-doubt.” Birdsall finished the biography feeling conflicted about Beard. “I felt the responsibility of telling his story in a way that hadn’t been told before, revealing things about him that were very difficult to face.” Ultimately though, he loves what’s good about Beard and sad that he’s a “forgotten figure who’s not really acknowledged for his influence on a whole generation of chefs.”
MAY/JUNE 2022 | EASTBAYMAG.COM | EAST BAY MAGAZINE
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Vegan W is the Spice of Life
DINE Some of the vegan offerings at Black Sheep Foods.
BY Lou Fancher
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»
PHOTO BY NICOLA PARISI
food revolution
elcome to the wonder of plant-based foods and beverages in 2022: New Zealand heritage style lamb made of pea protein and highly refined vegan oils available grilled, roasted or baked at select Bay Area locations and (soon) to prepare and savor at home in delectable, simple recipes. Pair this with exquisite, nuanced wines made not from grapes aged with animal products but from local, organic, fermented flowers such as roses, lavender, marigolds, chrysanthemums and others. There’s more: Louisiana
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» Creole style soul cuisine is offered up
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co-founded Black Sheep Foods in 2019. The seeds of their ambition to pursue the production of plantbased, non-GMO, heritage breed meats and wild game can be found in their academic focus, work history and life stories. Kumar worked in the digital sphere while developing a groundbreaking magazine iPhone app at the Economist, then shifted to video advertising at Amazon, and finally, pivoted to Finless Foods and linked up with Montanez at the cell-based fish company that uses cellular agriculture to produce fish. While the two scienceminds were tracing original “fish flavor” all the way back to algae, they unexpectedly discovered independent entrepreneurial purpose. On the Black Sheep website, they say, “The offerings are created with the goal of capturing essential, authentic flavors (of heritage meat) while also being environmentally responsible. Taking the torch from pioneers in plant-based meat alternatives, Black Sheep Foods looks to catapult flavor to the next level.” Kumar says his interest in operating at the crosshairs of innovation, science and environmentally conscious foods and food practices can be traced back to his childhood. “It stems from being brought up in a Hindu and Sikh household. The word sewa, which means selfless service in Sikh culture, is important. In our temples, for example, you cannot take anything for yourself. Someone has to give even a glass of water to you. And when something disastrous comes in, like a flood, the Sikhs come into a community to serve. When my father came to the United States, immigration law made it take
FOUNDER Tech entrepreneur Sunny Kumar is a co-founder of Black Sheep Foods.
longer for a spouse to come if they brought a child. (My mother) insisted I come with her, so for the first six years of my life, we stayed in India while my dad was here. For my mom, that was a huge sacrifice for service to me. That concept of service was instilled in me very early on.” The primary ingredients in Black Sheep plant-based lamb are textured pea protein, high oleic sunflower oil, refined coconut oil and cocoa butter. Additional flavors, coloring and mouthfeel textures come from natural flavors and 2% or less of chickpea protein, potato starch, salt, beet powder, apple juice and pomegranate skin extract, among others. The company lists Delta as a client and partners with roughly 13 Bay Area restaurants primarily in San Francisco, but also including Jack’s Restaurant and Bar in Pleasant Hill. “You have to release a new product like ours first through the restaurants because chefs love it and they’re
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PHOTO BY BRENDAN MAININ
at numerous East Bay restaurants, including one with tempting dishes such as Seitan Steaks with Gravy and Mash, Ain’t Gator Po’Boy sandwich, and house-made, double-deck and “cheesed” Pray 4 Me burgers with all the trimmings. People curious about innovative plant-based foods arrive at the doorstep of vegan food crafters for a variety of reasons and find themselves richly rewarded right here in the Bay Area. These examples, drawn, respectively, from San Francisco-based Black Sheep Foods, Oakland-based Free Range Flower Winery (with a tasting room soon to open in Livermore), and Souley Vegan, with locations in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, open a small window into the marvelous tastes, textures and temptations of vegan food and beverages in contemporary times. In some ways interrupted—after a surge of interest in the late 1980s and ’90s experts attribute to rising meat costs and beef embargoes, increased awareness about negative health conditions related to over-consumption of red meat, concerns about unsafe or unethical practices in the meat industry, or all these factors—veganism nevertheless fell off many consumers’ radar in the early 2000s. Stagnation in the sector might have continued, had not a generation of farm-to-table food innovators, environmental food scientists and people reaching back into the cuisine and culinary traditions of their ancestors been revitalized. Sunny Kumar, a tech entrepreneur, and Ismael Montanez, a biochemist,
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creative,” says Kumar. “They know the flavors and how to work with them. For them, having our plant-based lamb means they can do something different than their competitors and provide a unique experience for customers. They get to work in their craft with a different kind of paint. Once the high water mark is established by chefs, we can reverse into selling straight to the American household.” Ever aware of the metrics and customer satisfaction involved in running a successful company, Kumar says the Black Sheep labs, chemists, biologists and food safety experts “work backwards from the customer.” Improvements are sought and take precedence when they solve problems, such as addressing color change during the cooking process. “We’re now thinking about retail customers and putting ourselves in their shoes. Let’s say you bring Black Sheep kabobs home
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and cook them on medium high or don’t, and use some other level. The palatability at different temperatures has to be good, the texture has to congeal to the right level, the colors have to change according to customers’ expectations.” Among the primary factors that build and keep dedicated customers for plant-based foods he suggests are taste, health, environment and animal welfare. Kumar rates the taste as number one, with the other three elements playing lesser, but vital roles in the narrative. “People do this for two reasons: either it makes you feel good mentally and physically, or it tastes really good. We're just trying to get people to increase their cadence and metrics for plant-based food.” Selecting lamb as their first plantbased product, Kumar and his team researched animals like cows, the meat from which is priced according
to marbling. The least fatty cut is the cheapest; the rib eye with the most marbling is most expensive. “For lamb, duck and other heritage meats,” he says, “the marbling is less of a defining factor. It’s actually what’s inside of the fat, the compounds and their delivery that are super important. The flavors are detected in the nose, so with the coconut oil and the cocoa butter, we do some magic. They mimic lamb tallow. When you try our product, it has to coat the throat so you get nasal reception. You’re melting it in your throat, and if you can’t control that precisely, you’d be overwhelmed. We have to learn the delivery levels and make sure the fats are released properly.” If it sounds laboriously scientific, it is. It took three years of R&D to fine-tune the lamb. Kumar says the company’s next product will likely be duck. After that, he predicts they will be “untethered to domestic all variety wild and heritage meats,” including boar, ostrich, bison or moose. Across the Bay in Oakland, winemaker Aaliyah Nitoto has immersed herself and her practices in flower wine global history found in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States. Free Range winery’s small batch wines carry unique profiles and gain sophistication—and earn awards—due to her healthy appetite for history, and an extensive background in biology, herbalism, nutrition and health education. Nitoto co-founded the company in 2018 with Sam Prestianni while
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‘You have to release a new product like ours first through the restaurants because chefs love it and they’re creative.’ — Sunny Kuma.
» continuing her career as a health
and nutrition educator for nonprofit Healthy Black Families. She earned a B.A. in biology with an emphasis on human biochemistry from Mills College and certification in naturopathy and holistic nutrition from the Global College of Natural Health. An interest held since childhood in creatively using herbs, flowers and natural flavorings to make tinctures, poultices and beverages—she often tells the story of using Tabasco sauce in her first, undrinkable concoction made at age 10—compelled her to find an empty shipping container in Oakland and start up the winery. She discovered an instant sense of connection to the past and Black women worldwide who long ago made alcohol at home in their backyards, closets, kitchens and basements. “Did you know that women were making wine in Mesopotamia, and women were the first beer makers? That’s crazy wonderful. Beer actually came from women in their big pointy hats with big spoons stirring a boiling brew—and they were seen as witches,” she says. “That’s why women making wine and beer is so (expletive) awesome. It’s bad ass. It’s what fuels me. There are hardships, but ultimately, I’m just blessed to be a person who’s able to do this. I hope there’ll be other women
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and people of color who want to make wine from flowers.” The awareness of blessedness comes at the same time Nitoto is scaling up the business. Although recent awards and becoming part of the community of women winemakers and connecting with more women of color in the industry have built her confidence, she admits, growing the company is exhausting. “How do I expand so it helps us to get where we want to go? How can I move forward so I can leave my other jobs, pay myself, hire Sam, expand the part-time employees to full-time? It’s not as sexy as the creative part, but the important issues are how to streamline production. It’s been punk rock up until now. The only way to grow is to have more sophisticated, better software programs that streamline product inventory and track customers.” Addressing the variable reasons customers seek out Free Range’s Rose Petal, RoseHybiscus, Marigold, "L" Lavender and other varietals that come, depending on the wine, with notes of sage, honeycomb, white chocolate, sandalwood, rhubarb, sour cherry and other natural flavors, Nitoto says, “Some people have allergies to grapes or other things put into wine made from grapes. Also, grapes are a crop that need pesticides to have the
fruit go to fruition. People are looking for something else. They ask if it’s completely vegan, and we can reassure them. We don’t use animal products in our process. When I first got started, I said, ‘I’m gonna teach myself to make wine.’ Then I learned about the process and I said, ‘What? You take eggs and gelatin made from animals and use them?’ I didn’t know that, and a lot of people don’t even think of that. The reason I picked the process and the flower and other mostly droughtresistant materials we use is that they’re the best, that’s why I do it.” Like Kumar, Nitoto says most people don’t know they’re missing taste qualities on their palette. “Wines made with flowers have beautiful and traditional wine flavors, and yet others are really freaky. You’re supposed to have a balance in your diet. Some people don’t like tartness or bitterness in food, but those flavors stimulate your brain and body in ways that are healthy.” Moving forward, Nitoto says her background in science supports unlimited possibilities for creative expression and enables her to do something for the benefit of the world. “I can look at the equation for fermentation and easily understand it. It’s the foundation for doing anything we want. It makes me tongue-tied to try to describe the pride I feel to bring back the history of hundreds of women who did something in the world, this flower winemaking, something that has been pushed to the side. It’s important, and this is just one facet of women’s history.” For more information, visit blacksheepfoods.com, freerangeflowerwinery.com and souleyvegan.com.
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Over 40 Years Experience
Green House Bakery Rachel Caygill’s East Oakland cottage bakery BY Jeffrey Edalatpour
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way through every pastry, it seems like Caygill can make it all—from a fruity frosted doughnut to a multilayered blackberry Danish with a perfect crunch. Should Caygill one day relocate to England, she’d be a shoo-in to make the finals of The Great British Bake Off. On weekend days, two or more times a month, hungry people can line up at the Caygill home, hoping to secure some of her baked goods. She posts the items online once the ever-changing menu is finalized. Folks who plan ahead can preorder a $35 box that they can retrieve on the front porch. The hitch is that the pre-orders sell out within minutes. This is, after all, a bakery with over 10,000 Instagram followers. Social media has been a good friend to Green House Bakery.
While she was on a walk around the neighborhood, Caygill told me that the business would have been very different without social media. “My husband and I always say, you gotta start something, and then it’s going to tell you what it is.” That’s what happened with Green House. “I started it with a general direction, and it has definitely taken on a life of its own,” she said. When she started, Caygill and her husband had just had their third child on the heels of buying their green house in East Oakland. “We didn’t have enough money to pay the bills,” she said. Out of necessity, Caygill started some freelance copywriting work, but that made her want to “squeeze my brain out of my head.” And, as many other trained chefs did during
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PHOTO BY GREEN HOUSE BAKERY
n a hilly street in Oakland, Rachel Caygill’s bakery is in the middle of a suburban block. She runs Green House Bakery out of her, you guessed it, green house. Under California’s cottage food law, her licensed pop-up kitchen operates out of a built-out basement. Having tasted one bite of her strawberry buttermilk layer cake, any doubts about trying a home cook’s baking skills are immediately quashed. After a particularly bad day, Caygill’s layer cake turned my blue mood into a cheerful strawberry pink one. Two things surprised me most about the pastry box I picked up—her mastery of several types of dough and the quality of her finishing techniques. Some bakers excel at pies or cakes, but as I made my
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« the pandemic, she decided to start a
home-based business. She could bake at night or during naps while her kids were asleep. “I dropped off a menu to all our neighbors, to everyone on the block,” she said. Initially, she thought Green House would take special orders for individuals and for offices. In that first year, the Instagram account grew quickly. “The amount that I could do has grown at the same rate as my business, until last year,” Caygill explained. “Now I can’t meet the demand, but I’m okay with it. I don’t ever want to be big.” She also finds beauty in the monotony of doing the same thing over and over again. “That’s how you get good at something,” she said, adding, “You do it until you start to wonder, ‘What would happen if I did this?’” Some of Caygill’s pastries are as refined as anything you’d find in a
French patisserie. That’s why she hesitates to describe her approach as nostalgic or as Americana. But her father and her grandmother are the two primary influences who are fixed in her culinary memories. “When I'm baking things, it's stuff that either I grew up eating, or that I grew up wishing I could eat,” she said. Her father’s primary hobby was experimenting as a home baker and cook. “He was always making fruit-forward desserts, like pies and cobblers,” she recalled. He also entered cooking contests. “He entered an avocado contest and made a whipped avocado pie,” Caygill said. “It sounds gross, but in my memory it was one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten, almost like a key lime pie.” At the time, she thought, “How do you make a pie out of an avocado?” His approach to experimentation has stuck with her. But she also remembers
With spring and summer fruits at hand, Caygill shared her go-to crumble recipe.
STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CRUMBLE By Rachel Caygill
This is a very loose recipe that can be easily adapted to any fruit that you have on hand. I like to make a large batch of the streusel topping and store it in the freezer for an “in case of emergency” dessert. The streusel topping can be made with whatever flour you want. For a softer crumb, use the recipe provided with all cake flour. If you don’t have any, all-purpose flour works well too. For a heartier, more graham-like flavor, use half whole wheat flour. My favorite is Sonora flour from Capay Mills. You can bake this in an 8”x8” pan, or double it and bake it in a 9”x13”. I often bake it in a cast iron skillet. For the streusel 150 grams (3/4 C.) granulated sugar 128 grams (3/4 C. packed) dark brown sugar 450 grams (about 3 1/2 C.) cake flour 1 tsp. salt 225 grams (2 sticks) melted butter 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or extract For the filling 12 oz. strawberries, tops removed and quartered 12 oz. rhubarb, cut into 1” pieces 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
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150 grams (3/4 C.) granulated sugar 15 grams (2 Tbsp.) cornstarch 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom Zest of 1 orange 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped or 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract 30 grams (2 Tbsp.) cold butter Preheat the oven to 350° if you have a convection oven, or 375° if not. To mix the streusel In a large bowl, add both sugars, flour and salt. Whisk together and use your fingers to
baking alongside her grandma using church cookbook recipes. “We’d use a box of cake mix and a can of peaches— these 1950s housewife recipes.” Caygill says she’s always trying to recreate those desserts, but in a more organic way. Having worked in New York and Los Angeles, Caygill doesn’t rule out the possibility that Green House would have succeeded in either place. But she has found that, especially in Oakland, there’s a strong sense of people wanting to support their own communities. “They know if I’m having a bake sale or pre-order that they can message me and tell me what they want,” she said. They get first dibs, and they’re not going to wait in line for it. “And if I have leftovers, they always go to my neighbors’ porches.” Green House Bakery, greenhousebakeryoakland.com. instagram.com/green_housebakery break up any clumps of brown sugar. Add vanilla to melted butter and pour over the flour mixture. Use a fork or your hands to mix together until evenly moistened. You should have a crumbly mixture with unevenly sized clumps. Set aside. For the filling I mix this part right in the baking vessel. Combine sugar, vanilla bean and orange zest. Use your fingers to massage the zest and vanilla bean into the sugar. Add cornstarch, cardamom and salt and whisk to combine. Pour this mixture over your prepared fruit, add lemon juice and cold butter, then mix again. Pat fruit mixture into an even surface and sprinkle with a thick layer of the streusel. You’ll use about half of what you’ve prepared, and you can freeze the rest for another use. Bake in a preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, until the streusel has browned and the fruit mixture is thick and bubbly. The filling will be translucent. Allow to cool 10-15 minutes before eating. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or my favorite, just cold heavy cream poured right on top.
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Oakland-based novelist Juliet Blackwell’s latest Parisian tale BY Lou Fancher
EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
THE WRITE STUFF Author Juliet Blackwell never thought she would write about World War II.
W
hen in 2019 a creative seed was planted in the mind of New York Times best-selling writer Juliet Blackwell, eventually propelling her to sit down and pen her newest book, The Paris Showroom, there was no global coronavirus pandemic. Nor were there Black Lives Matter protests and worldwide calls for racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd. Certainly, there was no Russian invasion and war in Ukraine. Oakland-based Blackwell’s first historical fiction novel originated in 2019, when during a trip to France someone mentioned to her that Nazi prison camps had existed and were operated by Germans within Paris city limits during World War II. French men and women were frequently recruited to be prison guards. “I looked it up, and sure enough, it was in the 10th arrondissement,” Blackwell says in a phone interview from her home in the East Bay. “I never thought I’d write about World War II. Now, the book seems so relevant in ways I could never have anticipated. The bravery of the French resistance fighters then, and the bravery of people going out in the streets in Ukraine now, is astonishing. Making that decision to stand up and be brave—or not—we’re seeing that every day today, for sure.” Blackwell is the author of a number of novels based in France, among them, The Vineyards of Champagne, The Lost Carousel of Provence, Letters from Paris and The Paris Key. She also writes the Witchcraft Mystery series and the Haunted Home Renovation series. Having lived in either New York or the Bay Area most of her life, Blackwell’s
former careers before turning to writing full time include work as an anthropologist, elementary school social worker, and as a professional artist and business owner with her own design firm specializing in decorative painting and historic renovation. From her over 100-year-old house in Oakland, Blackwell makes annual trips to France with her boyfriend, a wine importer and native of Besançon in eastern France. In an interview in early 2019, she told me she doesn’t see apparitions or believe there are actual ghosts in her centurion house, but she definitely feels the home’s “haunted, paranormal energy.” It’s the perfect atmosphere for writing her mystery and haunted home series. The annual visits to France and other locations in Europe provide similar fuel for the deeply researched novels she writes. The Paris Showroom is set In Nazi-occupied Paris and begins in 1944, a little more than four years after the Germans invaded the city. Protagonist Capucine Benoit is an artisan who before the invasion worked alongside Bruno, her father, to produce highend intricately pleated fans. These are composed with rare feathers and brilliantly decorated with beads, or made with silks and fine cloths, upon which are rendered unique, handrendered paintings. Sold to wealthy individuals or haute couture fashion houses, their successful business was abruptly shut down when Capucine’s father is mysteriously betrayed to the secret police. Accused of being a communist sympathizer, Bruno, along with his daughter, is arrested. Father and daughter are held by the Nazis and for a time unsure where
they might be sent. Bruno inexplicably is deported. Finding herself alone, Capucine positions herself as useful to the Germans and saves herself from deportation to Auschwitz or another Nazi camp by exaggerating her connections to Parisian design houses. With her father’s whereabouts uncertain, Capucine is sent to a littleknown Nazi camp located within the Lévitan department store in the center of Paris. In the store-turned-prison, hundreds of incarcerated French and Jewish prisoners of war sort through, repair and arrange to display for sale the valuable art, furniture and even common household goods the Nazis have looted from ransacked Jewish homes and businesses in Paris. Meanwhile, Capucine’s estranged, soon to be 18-year-old daughter, Mathilde, leads a well-cushioned life in the home of her conservative paternal grandparents, where she has lived since girlhood. Capucine left Mathilde in their care for reasons that unfold gradually throughout the novel. What also comes to light are the stories of Capucine’s unconventional life and romantic relationships, the Paris jazz and nightclub scene in the 1940s, the role of Paris’ Résistance fighters and the American Harlem Hellfighters in the war, and other historical events and cultural movements. When Abrielle, an old acquaintance of Capucine, arrives with her Nazi boyfriend to go “shopping” at the Lévitan department store, she discovers her. She proceeds to offer her former friend an occasional escape from the prison: to visit the penthouse apartment in which she is “kept” by her Nazi lover on the premise of
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The annual visits to France and other locations in Europe provide similar fuel for the deeply researched novels she writes. ‘The Paris Showroom’ is set in Nazi-occupied Paris and begins in 1944, a little more than four years after the Germans invaded the city.
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redecorating and upgrading the furniture and art. Capucine accepts the offer—and guiltily, the rich food and warm baths that are nonexistent as a Lévitan prisoner—but is wary. Unsure if her friend is a betrayer and operating on a new level of deceit, her distrust is much like that of the prisoners whose guards—some of them former neighbors—sometimes appear to sympathize with their plight. When Abrielle offers to help Capucine reconnect with Mathilde, she decides the act of kindness is enough to abandon all caution. To tell more would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say, there is liberation for Capucine and all of Paris, but it is freedom gained at a cost. Blackwell says the violence of certain scenes and the flawed decisions made by some of the characters are necessary, plausible and serve the novel’s larger themes related to accountability and courage. “The compromises during war time are something we all think about when thinking about World War II. Would we have been part of the resistance if we were living in Paris? Frankly, if I had had a small child, would
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EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
I have risked that child’s life to stand up for a neighbor? I like to point out that many people in France didn’t know the Jewish people were being taken to be killed. The way it happened was incremental, with the Nazis spreading disinformation. It was easy to not know the real situation.” Capucine’s choice to send her daughter to live with her grandparents was one she comes in the novel to regret eternally. “That flawed decision led her to reject the man she loved and who loved her. She couldn’t stand up to her grandparents and say this man, this Black man, is who I love. Because we’re human, our emotions get muddled. We can look back and see things we did with more clarity as we age. At the time, there’s willingness to make a devil’s bargain when we don’t know exactly what we want, what we deserve and will stand up for.” Although she was familiar with the primary facts about World War II and knew well the French culture of that time, Blackwell was embarrassed to realize she had little idea about the war’s timelines. “I was unclear of the
Third Reich’s where and when. Also, the details about the stars on their clothing people had to wear in Paris and that when people were carted away, it happened slower than in other parts of Europe. Another thing was that after the liberation of Paris, the war kept going for longer than I had thought. Paris was liberated in August of 1944, and Hitler didn’t kill himself until nearly a full year afterward. I wasn’t aware of how long the war went on and that they were still suffering into 1945.” Blackwell’s characters, all of whom have lives, occupations, preoccupations and personalities based on people likely to have lived at the time, are entirely fictional. Even so, they came to “real life” in Blackwell’s imagination during the writing process. “The main characters always grow deeper and intensify as I write. I don’t know fully who they are until I write about them. The beginnings of my book are never set, because I know they will need to change once I finish the book. I leave those first chapters alone without editing each one and then go back and rewrite them. Capucine, what I realized by the end of the book was that she had strong regrets in her life. She almost felt she deserved to be imprisoned. I was fascinated by how personal a war becomes. Just like the pandemic, battles have impact on people’s lives. Capucine’s not only in prison, she’s imprisoned by her life and loss and all sorts of things. She had to forgive herself enough to be able to stand up for what she needed and to help other people. Maybe it’s what each of us must do to find our true courage.” ❤
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