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Foodies

by Lisa Barlow

Chez P With the luster of Chez Panisse still casting its warm glow, San Franscisco has been a culinary beacon for the farm-to-table movement ever since Alice Waters opened the doors to her iconic restaurant exactly 40 years ago.

There is seriously delicious food to be eaten in this city. Much of it is influenced by Waters’ early recognition that good meals can only come from good ingredients. It is now more common to see the provenance of the string beans on your plate than it is to know the name of the chef cooking your food. But there is also another ingredient in ample supply here that is paramount to a good meal: technique.

23 August, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Paul Stamets]

 

Editor's note: Don't miss mushroom cook-off at the Wilkinson Public Library. Starts noon today and feaures Blakely Stein, executive chef, J.B.& Me; Jesse Mirman, executive chef, Honga's; Lewis Williams & Lucas Price, chef/owner La Cocina De Luz; and Benjamin Steendlik, reigning Champion Mushroom Chef. Which of them will be Grand Master of the Mushroom Parade on Saturday?

Paul 10 Looking for a glimmer of hope in the world? Look down. We are talking about mycelium and their fruit, mushrooms. Fungi are the stars of the Telluride Shroomfest, Thursday, August 18 – Sunday, August 21– and maybe the planet. Just ask guest speaker Paul Stamets.

17 August, 2011 /

 

Editor's note: The 31st annual Telluride Shroomfest takes place next weekend. For an overview by Grand Poobah Art Goodtimes, follow this link.

Into the woods. It's a ritual this time of year in the Telluride region, where knives are drawn and the normally warm and chatty locals turn stone cold and stare blankly when asked one simple question: "Where do you hunt?" In Telluride, shrooming is a competitive sport.

And Josh Klein is no exception to the rule. When the subject is mushrooms, his bottom line is "Don't ask. Won't tell." Which gets really tricky when part of Josh's job is arranging special events such as fungi forages for guests and friends of his employer, the top drawer Hotel Madeline in Mountain Village.

14 August, 2011 /

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Art Goodtimes]

 

 

Mushroomposter "The mushrooms have two strange properties: the one that they yield so delicious a meat; the other that they come up so hastily, as in a night, and yet they are unsown," Francis Bacon, "Naturall Histories, 1624.

In Telluridespeak, the event is known as "Shroomfest." The 31st annual Shroomfest, aka Telluride Mushroom Festival  – billed as  "nation's oldest mycological conference exploring all things fungal & enthogenic" – happens next weekend, Thursday, August 18– Sunday, August 21.

Gary Lincoff of the New York Botanical Garden is the keynote speaker for the 2011 Telluride Shroomfest and one of the leading mycologists in the world. Specifically he plans to explore subjects such as Mushroom Identification: How to Do It and Live to Tell About It and The Philosopher’s Stone, or How Mushrooms Can Save You Thousands of Dollars in Therapy and Free You from the Prison of Time and Space  as well as lead forays, identification slide shows and ID workshops.

12 August, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Terry Adams]

 

TFA2011_eBlast It is the ultimate pairing. The Telluride Festival of the Arts is an annual weekend-long celebration of both the visual and culinary arts. The unique event, produced by the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and sponsored by The Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association, welcomes over 5,000 locals visitors to Mountain Village Friday, August 12 (starts a noon) –  Sunday, August 14, 2011 (ends at 3 p.m)

The signature event of The Telluride Festival of the Arts is the Grand Tasting, a wine and food event offering a unique opportunity to taste regional and national culinary delights from 15 different culinary partners and wineries and several breweries. The events, which takes place Saturday, August 13, 5:30 – 8 p.m., fills the plazas of Telluride's Mountain Village.

10 August, 2011 /

 

Wine Tasting and Top Chef 2010 204

By J James McTigue

“Last year was the inaugural year of the One to One Top Chef event and the community rallied behind the cause." Rick Fusting, One to One board President, said of the non-profit organization’s annual event and fundraiser.  “And it turned out everyone had a great time, but this year we want to make it that much better.”

This year’s Top Chef event is happening on Friday August 12th from 5 pm to 9 pm at the Peaks Resort and Spa.  The event pits four chefs against each other in a friendly cooking competition loosely modeled after reality TV competitions like Iron Chef and Hell’s Kitchen.

08 August, 2011 /

[click "Play" for Susanna's conversation with Susan]

 

Celebrity chef Susanna Hoffman, "Adventures in Greek Cooking"
 
Books&cooks_AUGUST Disasters in the kitchen? A regular happening in homes from coast to coast. But "disasters" and "kitchen" combine perfectly, with no muss or fuss, in the life of Telluride local anthropologist and cookbook author, Dr. Susanna Hoffman.
 
Susanna, a University of California (Berkeley) PhD, regularly consults worldwide on disaster issues. Her latest book on that subject is Catastrophe & Culture.
 
But on Tuesday, August 2, noon, Susanna trades her hard hat for her tocque for a special segment of Chefbud's Books & Cooks at Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library. The menu: Grape leaf, Feta and Cream Cheese dip with Pita Chips, Mushroom and Retsina Wine Filo Pie and Yogurt Cake with Lemon Ouzo Syrup.
 

31 July, 2011 /

Learn How to Make Blueberry Brandy Crepes With Peaks’ Chef Lynn Tilyou

by Emily Brendler Shoff

 

The new brunch at the Peaks Resort is one of the best-kept secrets in town. Andy and I went up there last Sunday and were blown away. Once glance at the menu made us wish that we had gone mountain biking before brunch. How do you honestly decide between a poached egg with a root beer barbeque beef hash or a bacon waffle topped with duck confit and apple cider syrup? We couldn’t and so ordered both.   Squash Blossoms With Goat Cheese

We also ordered squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese and an heirloom tomato and watermelon salad to start. Everything was as visually appealing as the backdrop view of Palmyra Peak from the deck. But as we know, the views of our mountain scenery are just the start; it’s what inside that matters. Everything Chef Lynn Tilyou concocted in her kitchen that morning was equally outstanding, a perfect balance of salty and sweet.

26 July, 2011 /

By J James McTigue

I love geeks; therefore I love Telluride Wine Fest. This year’s 30th festival was full of wine geeks and Pouring foodies, all intent on enthusiastically sharing the intricate technicalities and personal stories behind their artfully crafted creations.

It’s hard not to listen to a geek, because their passion carries their stories. Before you know it, you’re fully engaged, tasting their, let’s say… mezcals…noting hints of smoke in one and earthy minerals in the other.

This past weekend’s Wine Festival was nothing short of a geek-fest, celebrating some of the best food and wine in the country, and possibly the world. Keeping true to the spirit of Telluride, it was an anything goes affair, colored by educational seminars, blowout tastings and intimate meals carefully paired with specialty wines in chosen venues.

28 June, 2011 /

By Lisa Barlow

Beet salad It was beastly hot in NYC yesterday. By the time the mercury hit 100 degrees, the cat had tried to climb into the open refrigerator and we were all collapsed in the back yard like Dali’s dripping clocks. With company coming in a few hours, I wasthisclose to offering popsicles to our guests instead of dinner.

But the glorious new cookbook Plenty had just arrived in my mailbox and it was as if a fresh cool breeze had found me limp in the backyard and blew me back into the kitchen.

Plenty is a summer blockbuster of a cookbook. Gorgeously illustrated with pictures of sumptuously photogenic food, I sat down and thumbed through every page before deciding that anything I cooked was going to hit the spot.

25 June, 2011 /