With all the 99% vs. 1% talk flying around these days, it is important to keep a local perspective on these kinds of things. For today's perspective, the Bay Citizen offers: "In the home of Chez Panisse, ten percent of households live on less than $10,000." Which: ouch, Chez Panisse, how could you be so cruel? Alice Waters-shaming aside, it turns out Berkeley's progressive wealthy class (Chez Panisse patrons, presumably) are responsible for the chasm between the lowest earners and the highest. more ›

A handy roundup of notable food news, including: fashion inspired by Alice Waters' vegetables, first looks at a Union Square crudo bar/gift shop, John's Ocean Beach in danger of closing and the always important hamburger news. more ›

In addition to fare and fanfare, another noted Chez Panisse signifier would have to be the illustrations and printing found on their menus and cookbooks. Simple, elegant, and concise--just like the food it denotes--the prints have been around for decades, but little is known about the artist. Until now. Artist, designer, and printmaker Patricia Curtan began hand printing menus while working as a cook in the Chez Panisse kitchen. In her new book Menus for Chez Panisse--a shockingly impressive and addictive tome, especially when you consider that, more or less, it's a book about menus--Curtan shows off four decades of her work, which feature special menus for such media and gastronomic darlings as Julia Child, Hillary Clinton, Mikhail Baryshnikov, James Beard, and more. more ›

Berkeley police were called to the scene on Saturday when a motley assortment of Berkeley residents gathered for a 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse at the Cheese Board Collective next door. more ›

Edible Schoolteacher Alice Waters is a charitable person, we know this because she selflessly runs her high-end locavore restaurant as a cover for her secret agenda of sneaking vegetables in to every elementary school playground in the country. She's practically the Mother Teresa of organic vegetables. Now, in some sort of play to become even more Jesus-like, she's going to clothe us as well. In a t-shirt. more ›

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor paid a visit to the Bay Area yesterday and today, and apparently never left Berkeley. She seems to have been here to judge a mock court competition at Cal, but she also toured some elementary school classrooms, visited Boalt Law School, and lunched at Chez Panisse. Berkeleyside details the Twitter tracking required to figure out all her stops. more ›

In today's Garchick, we learn that Chez Panisse, Berkeley's iconic joint for organic grub, plans on celebrating the big 4-0 in an even bigger way. Behold: "This year's holiday card from 'The Family of Chez Panisse' included a save-the-date note for Aug. 28, for a celebration of the restaurant's 40th anniversary. 'Join us for a procession, a concert, a film, a meal for 5,000 people at the Greek Theatre" (a benefit for the Chez Panisse Foundation).' " more ›

Many of us expected Alice Waters to call upon the powers of Hell to deal with the 2011 MIchelin Guide's shocking exfoliation of Chez Panisse's one-star rating. Au contraire, sprigs of thyme. Waters is too nice to react with anything other than tact, anything other than carefully plucked words. Inside Scoop has the official response to the Church of Fresh Food Philosophy's dramatic supernova. Behold: more ›

Early this morning, Berkeley police shot and killed a mountain lion on Shattuck Avenue, "not far from popular restaurants and shops in the north side of the city, reports KTVU. The early morning murder happened "just around the corner from Chez Panisse, Peet’s Coffee and other popular businesses on Shattuck Avenue." (Berkeley Daily Planet's Daniel Turman jests, "he or she was apparently drawn to the area by the promise of an exalted hunt: tender, young returning students and slow-moving, California Cuisine-fed, neo-hippies.") RIP, big fella. more ›

Food fight! more ›

Alice Waters appeared on LA radio station KCRW today as part of their Guest DJ Project. Her play list? Only the finest, most artisan songs, of course. Nina Simone's "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl" Radiohead's "Reckoner" ("so rich and so magical," Waters exclaims), David Byrne's "Independence Day," Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers," and Youssou N'Dour's "Tan Bi" rock Waters' world in a way Taylor Swift simply can't. She explains why at KCRW.com. (via Eater) more ›

Maybe New York chef David "Fist Bump" Chang was right? Scroll down, folks. more ›

• Chez Panisse mafia don Alice Waters speaks to Charlie Rose. [Eater]
• Your alt weekly lawsuit word count. [Guardian 796, SF Weekly 1,559]
• SFPD deputy chief demoted. [SFGate]

Since the advent of the digital camera, we haven't stepped foot inside a Costco. Now we have a reason to return. Today's Hot Stuff ("Catering by Costco") in the Merc rates the appetizers found in the frozen food section of everyone's favorite warehouse store. Some of their top picks are the Full Circle Torta Stella, Cuisine Adventures' spanakopita, Clear Springs' smoked rainbow trout (smoked trout is phenomenal, folks -- miles above smoked salmon), and Jeremiah's Fine Foods shrimp and scallop cakes. To the best of our knowledge, we haven't tasted any one of these fine food products, but anything branded "Cuisine Adventures" can't be half bad, can it? more ›

Three square meals a day is finished. Heartiness plunged to its death from the Golden Gate Bridge. The entree, sadly, is dead. At least according Kim Severson of the New York Times it is, and we couldn't be more delighted. The article interviews chef Tom Colicchio who says, "I think the entree has been in trouble for a long time...[e]ating an entree is too many bites of one thing, and it’s boring." more ›

Eater SF uncovered something new and morally-questionable -- two of our favorite topics -- TablePronto, an online service that scalps restaurant reservations. Basically, it's a site that allows you to buy and sell reservations for a price. As of now they have a scant few available for SF: - Perbacco, 11/16, 9pm, $18; Foreign Cinema, 11/16, 8:30pm, $15; Town Hall, 11/16, 9:15pm, $10; Aqua, 11/16, 8:45pm, $10 Oh, all prime dining hours, too! But... more ›

Tonight, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has asked you, the Bay Area, to drive less as well as holding off on burning wood in fireplaces and woodstoves, which are a large contributor to airtime pollution level. (You hear that, Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse, you depraved, Hummer-loving, slow-food bastards.) Read more about it here. Also, there's no free transit during winter/fall Spare the Air days. Bummer.... more ›

The bay area Michelin Guide 2008 is out, and there’s not much changed from last year: the French Laundry is the only place with 3 stars (the most) in the wider bay area. Aqua and Michael Mina are the only 2 stars in the city. Those Michelin guys are so stingy with stars, Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters still clutches her lonely one. Jean-Luc Naret, the director of the Michelin guide, was handing out press copie this morning at a brunch at Bloomingdale’s. He was ebullient. We asked him about last year belly dancers controversy, and he was like, but they were there, the inspector saw them! It was “a writing error,” he added, “not a rating error.” We do writing errors all the time too! We can totally relate. more ›

Ever misplaced a grocery or to-do list? Your lost note could appear in Lost and Found in the Mission, a play based on true stories salvaged from scraps of papers found around the Mission District. The production, by Boathouse & Co., includes songs, dancing, beat-boxing and mass hallucinations. Tickets are available on a sliding scale ($15-$25), here, show starts at 8pm. Mama Calizo's Voice Factory in the Jon Sims Center for Performing Arts, 1519 Mission St.,SF. more ›

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The new Michelin was stingy with stars for San Francisco: no 3 stars restaurants (the only one in the wider bay area being the French Laundry in Napa), two 2 stars (Aqua and Michael Mina), and a 12 one stars (Fleur de Lys, La Folie, the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Rubicon, Bushi-Tei, Quince, Range, Acquerello, Masa's, Gary Danko, Boulevard, Fifth Floor). Alice Waters got only one tiny puny star for her Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Spanked! more ›

The Michelin Guide will release its first San Francisco edition next fall. This follows in the footsteps of the New-York guide, whose first edition they released late last year. We can't hardly wait to put our hands on this. Which places will have the 3 stars rating, the one which means a restaurant is a trip destination on its own? The French reviewers are fussy, so the down-to-earth Chez Panisse might be out of favor. The French Laundry definitely checks in, especially since its little sibling, Thomas Keller's New-York restaurant, Per Se, got its *** already. more ›

The poor lemon. It's so common that you ignore it even in the midst of its high season. But we tend to agree with , which lists this tart fruit as a cooking staple. No one will be surprised to learn that the book's authors dote on the low-acid Meyer lemons, which have become a defining ingredient in California cuisine. But nothing beats the mouthpuckering juice of a Eureka or Lisbon lemon, the two almost identical varieties you'll find at the market. more ›

To get us out of the house, we need more than the promise of comfort food. We have all the comfort we want at home, what with running water and in-house sanitation. We can cook up a comfort storm in our kitchen, should we want boeuf bourguignon or coq au vin or mac&fromage. We'll make exception to any rule, of course, but to get our little tushes in a seat in a restaurant, we require something a bit more appealing. It could be something exotic, our pantry is bare of ethnic spices and rubs, or it could be something exciting: Winterland. more ›

California cuisine means something different to everyone. Some equate it with local, artisanal producers. Some cast it as a Mediterranean cuisine realized with California ingredients and American techniques. But for us, it all comes down to the fennel. Every chef who's come through Chez Panisse's kitchens uses this anisey, wintergreen-colored vegetable. We're pretty sure that if you made a pizza with grilled fennel, meyer lemon-infused artisanal olive oil, and rocket, the space-time continuum would collapse and Alice Waters would magically appear in your kitchen. more ›

Boulevard has been a SF favorite for many years. It has long reigned over the Zagat list of best restaurants in San Francisco, and its popularity never seems to diminish. Our last meal there left us with the impression of bee's nest bustling with a seemingly chaotic activity, which somehow delivered highly structured and tasty dishes. more ›

Certain summer fruits—tomatoes and peaches come to mind—are poster children for farmer's markets. When these ingredients are bound for the supermarket, they're picked way too early and stored in taste-damaging conditions. more ›

Whenever we see persimmons, we remember one of our first encounters with the matte orange fruit. Some joker had set out a bowl filled with pretty persimmon wedges and so of course we tried one. This, it turns out, is a Bad Idea. If you make the same mistake we did, the tannins in the fruit will wither your tongue and completely dry out your mouth. It's a distinctive, odd, and not very pleasant experience. Then you'll no doubt encourage everyone around you to try it. The same way you urge them to put 9-volt batteries to their tongues. No? Maybe that's just us. We later learned that not all persimmons do this: Acorn-shaped Hachiya persimmons are highly astringent for most of their lives, tomato-shaped Fuyus aren't. So why do farmers sell Hachiyas this time of year? Because when they ripen, all the tannins in the flesh bind to other chemicals, and the mouth-shriveling meat gives way to a delicious, jelly-like interior. The fruit will be squishy-soft and fragile and the fruit's color changes from pale orange to angry red. Eat this liquid interior with a spoon, or put it in the freezer for forty-five minutes or so until the interior solidifies into persimmon granita. If you want a fancier treatment, we're tempted by the persimmon pudding in . To tenderize still-firm Hachiyas, wrap them snugly in plastic wrap to deprive the fruit of oxygen and kick start the necessary chemical reactions. more ›

, "the color combinations can be striking." All the pretty peppers at the market are in the species , but there are two main subdivisions: sweet peppers and chili peppers. We'll give you some ideas for sweet peppers this week, but next week we'll gird our tongues for chili pepper recipes. If you've got any suggestions (for cooking or girding), let us know. more ›

species, which are culinary equivalents. Sure they all look pretty, with their yellow skin, their green skin, and their yellow-and-green skin, but they don't suggest an abundance of recipes. The simplest treatment features sautéed slices with minced garlic—we suggest the flavorful, hard-necked Rocambole variety you can find at various market stalls. Before turning on the heat, slice the squash into thin rounds, toss with a little salt, and let sit for half an hour or more to extract a portion of the moisture trapped in the flesh. The cooked slices make a nice side for lighter summer fare. We were a little too liberal in our adaptation of the zucchini fritters in . Instead of pancake-like dollops of batter, we tried making deep-fried croquettes. The confetti we scooped out of the hot oil tasted great, but lacked a certain cohesion. Ah, well. It still went just swimmingly with steamed mussels washed down with the Basque wine Txacoli. more ›