“Curated.” “Artisan.” “Local.” These are all terms frequently applied to top restaurants these days, but today, we’re talking not about the recipes or the ingredients, but the vessels that contain them. For many chefs, plates, bowls and cups — not to mention the perfectly design salt well — exist in symbiosis with the edible contents they’re meant to hold. It’s a newer trend, for sure. Seattle-based potter Akiko Graham recalls that when she first began sharing her handmade dishes with San Francisco restaurateurs in 2003, she was met with no small amount of skepticism.  “Many che ..read more

In June 2021, Cally Dym, a fifth-generation owner of the Little River Inn on the Mendocino Coast, spotted something unusual during her regular beach walks near Van Damme State Park: a sea star.  It was tiny, “maybe an inch big, not even,” Dym says. Even so, for someone who has spent her entire life attuned to the ebb and flow of the coastal waters along this rugged stretch of Northern California, seeing the sea creature, her “first one in a very long time,” was “super encouraging.”  That’s because the local sea star population has collapsed in recent years, thanks to a disease known ..read more

If you’re planning on throwing the same-old selection of hot dogs and burgers on the grill this summer, please stop what you’re doing and listen to Charlie Thieriot. The sixth-generation owner of Chico’s Rancho Llano Seco is spending his grilling season dreaming, instead, about sustainably raised pork shoulder steaks, a chorizo you’ve never heard of and more. Founded in 1861, Rancho Llano Seco has long been a bastion of ethical and sustainable livestock husbandry and conservation. Today, the Rancho produces fields of heirloom beans and grains, 750 acres of black walnuts, pastured cattle and GA ..read more

Chef Kevin O’Connor has a signature item on his ingredient list that’s a bit unexpected: wood. Though O’Connor was trained in some of the most prestigious kitchens in the Bay Area, he’s since fled to the wilderness to use his culinary talents in the practice of live fire cooking, and that requires learning how to manage a fire and building a good coal bed. And just in case you’re unfamiliar with live fire cooking? It’s exactly what it sounds like. “Quality ingredients, decent wood and salt is all you need for an amazing meal,” O’Connor tells Inside Hook. “Keep it simple and don’t be paralyzed ..read more

David Choi is a TikTok star with more than 250,000 followers, not thanks to his choreography stylings or musical prowess or contouring skills, but rather his wine expertise. After discovering his passion as the owner of one of the nation’s largest and oldest wine stores, D.C.’s Pearson’s Wine & Spirits, Choi later became the proprietor of the two Napa Valley wine companies, Angel Falls Wines and Magna Carta Cellars. He’s also one of only 60 living recipients of the Order of Agricultural Merit (l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole) in the United States, and in 2012, he was in ..read more

If you’re looking to impress your guests with your grill skills, it’s time to think beyond steak. Pork isn’t just more sustainable, with less than half the carbon emissions of beef, according to the Environmental Working Group, it’s also just as delicious — and Sorella’s bone-in, center-cut pork chop for two is just the ticket to convince your friends of swine superiority. Pork’s PR problem can be traced to the very ads that once touted its health benefits. Long pegged as “the other white meat,” pale pork, on the contrary, is usually a sign of it being overcooked. And according to Sorella culi ..read more

What tequila should you drink this year? Maybe you should consult with the Oscars of booze.  Started in 2000, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC) is the longest-running spirits competition in North America and the largest of its kind anywhere. Judges award Bronze, Silver and Gold medals through a multi-day blind tasting process — with the coveted Double Gold referring to entries that receive a Gold medal rating by all members of the judging panel.   On the final day of the competition, select Double Gold spirits advance to the Sweepstakes round. Here, the judges ..read more

Was there anything better, as a kid, than coming in from the cold to a freshly-made pot of blue box mac and cheese? Homey and comforting, it was a childhood staple for many. “Mac and cheese in general is that one dish that gives you a sense of nostalgia,” asserts chef Ryan Cerizo of San Francisco’s The Vault Steakhouse. “Once you take that first bite, it transports you to a simpler time in life, where in that moment, all your problems and worries seem to melt away.” But in recent years, mac and cheese has undergone a serious makeover. As chefs lean headfirst into the elevated comfort food tren ..read more

Kim Alter stunned San Francisco on April 1 when she debuted a new menu inspired by the apocalypse.  This was no April’s Fool’s Day joke. Rather, it was a riff on a theme. At her Nightbird, after all, Alter’s menu always follows the same structure: five larger courses and five interstitial small bites, all governed by the principle of sustainability but also built around an ever-changing theme. “In March it was a woman-led menu,” she explains, “so everything came from women-led farms. When we first opened up after COVID, it was a reverse menu, and it was all things about reversal.” The apo ..read more

Veso founder ​​Chris Beyer cites shopping at his local co-op, Rainbow Grocery in the Mission, as part of the impetus for starting his own aperitif company. “I actually went to Rainbow Grocery to pick up spices years ago when I first started testing my own aperitif recipes,” Beyer told InsideHook. “They have huge jars of every type of spice and botanical you could need. Rainbow has a crazy selection of fruits, vegetables, herbs, teas and every other type of food you can imagine.”  Historically more popular in European culture than America, aperitifs are experiencing a boom in a post-pandem ..read more