Following a brief, two-and-a-half-year period in which it was illegal to produce or sell foie gras in California, following the implementation of a law that dated back to 2004 in the California banning the stuff on the basis of animal cruelty, Californian foodies and restaurants have been free to buy and serve the stuff since a 2015 federal court decision that struck down the ban. Now, following an appeal shortly thereafter by then state Attorney General Kamala Harris, a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the ban can take place again — but the plaintiffs in the case are already appealing to the Ninth Circuit once more, as the Chronicle reports. This means that you can still consume the ultra-rich liver luxury item for the time being, but its days on California menus may once again be numbered.

The issue, since the get-go, when then state senator John Burton introduced the law over a decade ago, is the allegation — borne out on many animal rights activists' videos — that ducks and geese used to produce the fatty delicacy are force-fed and therefore tortured in order to produce the product, which has been popular for centuries in French and prized by many star chefs.

Opponents of the law, which include many Bay Area chefs led in part by Napa chef Ken Frank of La Toque, have contended that not only do the birds over-eat on their own when in the wild and preparing to migrate (something that only one foie gras farmer has been able to replicate in Spain, because the birds are so easily domesticated), but that the birds esophaguses are much more pliable than those of humans, and the tube-feeding that occurs to produce foie gras on a farm is not cruel.

As Reuters reports, the appeals court judges ruled last week that, contrary to the earlier federal court decision, "Nothing in the federal law or its implementing regulations limits a state’s ability to regulate the types of poultry that may be sold for human consumption."

The original decision had been based on the federal Poultry Products Inspections Act, which prohibits states from imposing certain conditions on food, but writing for the majority last week, Ninth Circuit Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote that the California law "did not impose a preempted ingredient requirement," and "The difference between foie gras produced with force-fed birds and foie gras produced with non-force-fed birds is not one of ingredient. Rather, the difference is in the treatment of the birds while alive."

PETA has been celebrating the decision, of course, with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk issuing a statement saying that "no one but the most callous chefs could stomach and revealing that foie gras is torture on toast and unimaginably cruel."

After the law finally took effect in 2012, long after it had initially passed, it was met with some unhappiness among foodies, and a sort of foie "underground" among California chefs, many of whom continued to buy the stuff from New York State producer Hudson Valley Foie Gras — who is one of the plaintiffs in the current case, along with Southern California’s Hot’s Restaurant Group and Canadian nonprofit Association Des Éleveurs de Canards et D’Oies du Quebec. The law effectively shut down California's only foie producer, Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras, and it led to chefs hiding surprise foie gras courses in their tasting menus as "gifts," thereby skirting the law about selling it.

Interestingly, there's been a growing movement in France to institute a ban on foie gras — but there, just as here, it's not like everyone across the board really craves or requires this delicacy.

Frank tells the Chronicle not to worry: "I have no doubt it will eventually fail. This law was flawed when John Burton cooked it up, in a number of ways. It’ll take a lot of money and lawyering, but it will fail."

Previously: Foie Gras Alert: Attorney General Kamala Harris Is Appealing Federal Judge's Decision That Overturned The Ban

Two-starred Michelin chef Dominique Crenn has a few words on social media this week for the San Pellegrino 2018 Young Chef competition, which just announced its juries in 21 regions around the globe. Crenn, who last year was named "World's Best Female Chef" by this same organization — which also puts out the renowned and often maligned World's 50 Best Restaurants list — said at the time that she hoped "that award won’t exist in two years," but she nonetheless accepted the honor. Now as they set out to judge a couple hundred of the globe's top young chef talent, she wonders aloud how the male-dominated food world is ever going to achieve any equality when male jurors for a competition like this far outnumber the female ones. "I thought we all got the memo that women are 50 percent of the population," she writes on Instagram. "Oh wait. 54 percent."

Crenn seized on the fact, as seen in the post below, that as San Pellegrino was announcing its chef jurors one region at a time, there were nine regions in which zero jurors pictured are female. "Your leadership skills are disappointing, you are not inspiring and I hope you learn from this, and show up for all of us. Please evolve and do the right thing," she writes.

I thought we all got the memo that women are 50 percent of the population. Oh wait..54 percent..👊 I guess @sanpellegrino_official @sanpellegrino_us ...YOU DIDN'T.. your leadership skills are disappointing, You are not inspiring and I hope you learn from this, and show up for all of us. Please evolve and do the right thing. "we are In 9 countries not one female representative, truly shocking considering we are 50 percent of the population shame on you @SanPellegrino" If you agree please #regram this post !!!!!

A post shared by Dominique Crenn (@dominiquecrenn) on Sep 5, 2017 at 3:44pm PDT

As Eater notes, looking at the full list of jurors on the San Pellegrino site, there are indeed women on a number of the regional juries, including Ana Ros representing Eastern Europe, and Daniela Soto-Innes and April Bloomfield representing the US. But Crenn makes a good point that out of 21 regions, it seems strange that no qualified female jurors could be found in nine of them — and where there are women included, they are outnumbered by men by three-to-one, four-to-one, or five-to-one ratios.

This of course isn't the first time that Crenn has had to publicly question the unequal treatment of women in the food world. At a San Pellegrino-sponsored panel in Sydney in April — on which she was the only woman — Crenn spoke out angrily after an audience member asked her if she felt like she had missed out on "the very important role of being a mother to children" by becoming a star chef — not realizing that in fact Crenn is a mother to twin girls. She said "we need to change the conversation around this," and went on to tell the male questioner, "If you have kids, I hope you stay home with them, so that your wife can go out and be a bad ass woman."

It remains the case that many women do choose family over career in the food world, as they do in many professions, and that male-dominated, militaristic high-end kitchens tend to be hostile places for women in which to rise up the ranks, though some do.

But how does that ever change when the award-making apparatuses, like San Pellegrino's chef competitions, stack the decks against women in their own jury selection?

"Please evovle," indeed.

Related: New York Times Profile Of Dominique Crenn Is Inherently Sexist, But Glowing

The prestigious annual honor of being named to Food & Wine's Best New Chefs issue will be going to not one but two local chefs this year, once again proving San Francisco is where it's at food-wise more than ever before. This year's SF honorees are Ravi Kapur of Liholiho Yacht Club and David Barzelay of Lazy Bear, both incredibly popular and well received restaurants that opened in the last eighteen months, and both now likely to be even harder to get into — at least after the magazine issue hits the stands, which it will in July.

This year's class of 11 chefs can all be seen below, and they've all been flown to New York today for the annual gala party to induct them into this elite national group.

A main criterion for being named to this annual list is that a chef has to been running his or her own kitchen as an executive chef for less than five years. And the honor tends to bring with it some long-term prestige. Other Bay Area chefs to have been named to the list include SPQR's Matt Accarrino in 2014, Saison's Joshua Skenes, Commis' James Syhabout, Benu's Corey Lee, Meadowood's Christopher Kostow, Mission Chinese Food's Danny Bowien, as well as Thomas Keller, Nancy Oakes, and Stuart Brioza.

The honoring of two chefs in one city is rare given efforts by the magazine's editors to spread the wealth and keep things geographically diverse — and no Bay Area chef even made the 2015 list. But this echoes the 2015 Best New Restaurants list by competitor mag Bon Appétit, in which editor Andrew Knowlton picked two other SF restaurants for the honor (AL's Place and Rintaro), but mentioned both Liholiho and Lazy Bear in his Top 50, and declared San Francisco the most exciting food city in the country right now.

Liholiho Yacht Club is also a finalist for the James Beard Award this year for Best New Restaurant, and that prize will get announced next month.

Below, the full list of honorees for Food & Wine's Best New Chefs — and I'm pretty sure this is the first time ever that two SF chefs have been honored in the same year, but correct me if I'm wrong.

David Barzelay, Lazy Bear, San Francisco

Kevin Fink, Emmer & Rye, Austin

Michael Gulotta, MoPho and Tana, New Orleans

Edouardo Jordan, Salare, Seattle

Ravi Kapur, Liholiho Yacht Club, San Francisco

Brad Kilgore, Alter, Miami

Iliana Regan, Elizabeth and Bunny, the micro bakery, Chicago

Aaron Silverman, Rose's Luxury and Pineapple and Pearls, Washington, D.C.

Jeremiah Stone & Fabián von Hauske, Contra and Wildair, New York City

Kris Yenbamroong, Night + Market and Night + Market Song, Los Angeles

See how The Chronicle’s 2016 Rising Star Chefs shape the Bay Area’s dining scene.https://t.co/SqGOBx13G2 pic.twitter.com/VyMPaojLdG

— SFChronicle (@sfchronicle) March 31, 2016

It's time again for the Chronicle's own list of Rising Stars in the Bay Area culinary scene, a list which often presages bigger national honors like James Beard Awards, and Food & Wine's annual Best New Chef list. This year's list, published today in the Chronicle, includes six chefs, and knowing that he's faced criticism in the past when the list has been all-male and heavily white, Michael Bauer looks to have turned over the task to others in the food department, including Paolo Lucchesi and Jonathan Kauffman. This year's list is successfully diverse, including two female chefs — even though one is technically not working in a currently open restaurant.

From left to right in the above photo: Geoffrey Lee of Ju-Ni, Val Cantu of Californios, Laura Meyer of Tony's Pizza Napoletana, Pierre Tumlin of Hog & Rocks, Ryan Pollnow of Aatxe, and Sara Hauman of the upcoming Mister Jiu's, formerly of Huxley.

Says second-generation SF native Lee about opening Ju-Ni, his first solo sushi restaurant — which just opened in February and, notably, hasn't gotten a full Chronicle review yet from Bauer — "I believe thoroughly that I know what I’m doing. And I’m really, really excited to open in my hometown." Lee trained at Tsurugis in San Luis Obispo and at Sushi Ran in Sausalito.

The paper notes that Meyer has been serving as head chef at Tony's in recent years, after working for Tony Gemignani for the last 11 years, starting when she was 16 at his Castro Valley pizzeria, and now running the show as Gemiganani spends more time traveling the world participating in competitions, etc.

Tumlin, meanwhile, has only been running the kitchen at Hog & Rocks since December, but is introducing some haute elements to the menu, like a Bolognese made with sweetbreads and served with horseradish breadcrumbs; and an asparagus salad with avocado-tofu purée.

Cantu, who got his first cooking job in Texas and who's family owns a Mexican restaurant there, has been widely praised for his subtly Mexican-influenced take on a tasting menu experience. Pollnow has also won plenty of praise since the opening of tapas-focused Aatxe last year, including mentions in Bon Appetit and elsewhere. And Hauman, while she's left the post that got her first noticed at the tiny Tenderloin spot Huxley, nonetheless made it on the James Beard Award semifinalist list this year for Rising Star — likely due to Michael Bauer's own cheerleading.

Now, Mr. Bauer is in the home stretch of revising his annual Top 100, which we can expect to appear in the paper in about a month.

The James Beard Award finalists were just announced yesterday — following last month's announcements of the semi-finalists or "long list" — and low and behold, Liholiho Yacht Club will be competing with four other restaurant for the title of Best New Restaurant in the country. Also among the nominees are SPQR's Matthew Accarrino, Benu's Corey Lee, and Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn) who will all by vying for Best Chef in the West; Craftsman & Wolves pastry chef William Werner who's nominated again for Outstanding Baker along with B. Patisserie's Belinda Leong and Michel Suas; local chef-restaurateurs Michael Mina and Cindy Pawlcyn who are both up for the Outstanding Restaurateur honor; Quince's Michael Tusk who's nominated for Oustanding Chef in the country; and Bar Agricole which is an annual contender for Oustanding Bar Program, though it has yet to take home the honor.

As is typical with these awards, dubbed "Oscars of the food world," chefs are often nominated multiple years in a row until they win, and the same is true of restaurants. San Francisco has won in the national category of Outstanding Restaurant in two of the last four years, with Slanted Door winning in 2015, and Boulevard winning in 2012. SF has also beat out LA in the Best Chef: West category the past two years with Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski of State Bird Provisions and The Progress taking it in 2015, and Coi chef-owner Daniel Patterson taking it in 2014 — indicating, from a political standpoint, that an LA chef like Jeremy Fox (formerly of Napa's Ubuntu) or multi-year nominee Michael Cimarusti is most likely next in line.

Similarly, SF's A16 took home the prize for Outstanding Wine Program in 2015, so even though we boast some some pretty incredible wine programs across the Bay Area, we were shut out of the short-list this year. (See all of last year's winners here.)

The awards will take place in Chicago for the second year in a row, on May 2, and likely all of the nominated chefs you see below along with nominating committee member and SF Chronicle critic Michael Bauer will all be there.

Below, for reference in your foodinista travels, the full list of this year's nominees, with SF ones in bold. You can find the book, TV, and media finalists here.

Best New Restaurant
Death & Taxes, Raleigh, N.C.
Launderette, Austin
Liholiho Yacht Club, San Francisco
Shaya, New Orleans
Staplehouse, Atlanta
Wildair, NYC

Outstanding Baker
Joanne Chang, Flour Bakery + Café, Boston
Mark Furstenberg, Bread Furst, Washington, D.C.
Zachary Golper, Bien Cuit, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Belinda Leong and Michel Suas, B. Patisserie, San Francisco
William Werner, Craftsman and Wolves, San Francisco

Outstanding Bar Program
Arnaud’s French 75 Bar, New Orleans
Bar Agricole, San Francisco
Clyde Common, Portland, O.R.
Cure, New Orleans
Maison Premiere, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Outstanding Chef
Sean Brock, Husk, Nashville
Suzanne Goin, Lucques, Los Angeles
Donald Link, Herbsaint, New Orleans
Michael Solomonov, Zahav, Philadelphia
Michael Tusk, Quince, San Francisco

Outstanding Pastry Chef
Meg Galus, Boka, Chicago
Maura Kilpatrick, Oleana, Cambridge, MA
Dolester Miles, Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL
Dahlia Narvaez, Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles
Ghaya Oliveira, Daniel, NYC
Jennifer Yee, Lafayette, NYC

Outstanding Restaurant
Alinea, Chicago
Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder, C.O.
Highlands Bar and Grill, Birmingham, A.L.
Momofuku Noodle Bar, NYC
The Spotted Pig, NYC

Outstanding Restaurateur
Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, Boka Restaurant Group, Chicago (Boka, Girl & the Goat, Momotaro, Swift & Sons, and others)
Ken Friedman, NYC (The Spotted Pig, The Breslin, Tosca Café)
Michael Mina, Mina Restaurants, San Francisco (Michael Mina, Bourbon Steak, RN74, and others)
Cindy Pawlcyn, Napa, C.A. (Mustards Grill, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Cindy's Waterfront at the Monterey Bay Aquarium)
Stephen Starr, Starr Restaurants, Philadelphia (Serpico, the Dandelion, Talula's Garden, and others)

Outstanding Service
Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, N.Y.
Eleven Madison Park, NYC
North Pond, Chicago
Quince, San Francisco
Topolobampo, Chicago

Outstanding Wine Program
Bern’s Steakhouse, Tampa, F.L.
Canlis, Seattle
Commander’s Palace, New Orleans
FIG, Charleston, S.C.
Sepia, Chicago

Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional
Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, D.E.
Ron Cooper, Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Ranchos de Taos, N.M.
Miljenko Grgich, Grgich Hills Estate, Rutherford, C.A.
Rob Tod, Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, M.E.
Harlen Wheatley Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, K.Y.

Rising Star Chef of the Year
Alex Bois, High Street on Market, Philadelphia
Angela Dimayuga, Mission Chinese Food, NYC
Grae Nonas, Olamaie, Austin
Matt Rudofker, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, NYC
Daniela Soto-Innes, Cosme, NYC
Jenner Tomaska, Next, Chicago

Best Chef: West (CA, HI, NV)
Matthew Accarrino, SPQR, San Francisco
Michael Cimarusti, Providence, Los Angeles
Dominique Crenn, Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Jeremy Fox, Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica, C.A.
Corey Lee, Benu, San Francisco
Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, Animal, Los Angeles

Best Chef: Great Lakes (I.L., I.N., M.I., O.H.)
Abraham Conlon, Fat Rice, Chicago
Curtis Duffy, Grace, Chicago
Lee Wolen, Boka, Chicago
Erling Wu-Bower, Nico Osteria, Chicago
Andrew Zimmerman, Sepia, Chicago

Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (D.C., D.E., M.D., N.J., P.A., V.A.)
Peter Chang, Peter Chang, Arlington, V.A.
Eli Kulp, Fork, Philadelphia
Rich Landau, Vedge, Philadelphia
Aaron Silverman, Rose’s Luxury, Washington, D.C.
Greg Vernick, Vernick Food & Drink, Philadelphia
Cindy Wolf, Charleston, Baltimore

Best Chef: Midwest (I.A., K.S., M.N., M.O., N.E., N.D., S.D., W.I.)
Paul Berglund, The Bachelor Farmer, Minneapolis
Justin Carlisle, Ardent, Milwaukee
Kevin Nashan, Sidney Street Café, St. Louis
Lenny Russo, Heartland Restaurant & Farm Direct Market, St. Paul, M.N.
Kevin Willmann, Farmhaus, St. Louis

Best Chef: New York City (Five Boroughs)
Marco Canora, Hearth
Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, Carbone
Anita Lo, Annisa
Jonathan Waxman, Barbuto
Jody Williams, Buvette

Best Chef: Northeast (C.T., M.A., M.E., M.H., N.Y. STATE, R.I., V.T.)
Karen Akunowicz, Myers + Chang, Boston
Brian Hill, Francine, Camden, M.E.
Zak Pelaccio, Fish & Game, Hudson, N.Y.
Susan Regis, Shepard, Cambridge, M.A.
Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor Eventide Oyster Co., Portland, M.E.

Best Chef: Northwest (A.K., I.D., M.T., O.R., W.A., W.Y.)
Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, Ox, Portland, O.R.
Mike Easton, Il Corvo Pasta, Seattle
Renee Erickson, The Whale Wins, Seattle
Justin Woodward, Castagna, Portland, O.R.
Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi, Joule, Seattle

Best Chef: South (A.L., A.R., F.L., L.A., M.S., P.R.)
Vishwesh Bhatt, Snackbar, Oxford, M.S.
Justin Devillier, La Petite Grocery, New Orleans
Jose Enrique, Jose Enrique, San Juan, P.R.
Slade Rushing, Brennan’s, New Orleans
Isaac Toups, Toups’ Meatery, New Orleans

Best Chef: Southeast (G.A., K.Y., N.C., S.C., T.N., W.V.)
Kevin Gillespie, Gunshow, Atlanta
Edward Lee, 610 Magnolia, Louisville, K.Y.
Steven Satterfield, Miller Union, Atlanta
Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman, Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Memphis
Tandy Wilson, City House, Nashville

Best Chef: Southwest (A.Z., C.O., N.M., O.K., T.X., U.T.)
Bryce Gilmore, Barley Swine, Austin
Steve McHugh, Cured, San Antonio
Hugo Ortega, Caracol, Houston
Alex Seidel, Fruition, Denver
Justin Yu, Oxheart, Houston

In the meantime, go get yourself a beef tongue steam bun before Liholiho gets any more popular with tourists.

Beautiful #GetJag regram from the wonderful @hillarydixler Mahalo for coming in 💙

A photo posted by LYC #GetJag (@liholihoyachtclub) on Mar 12, 2016 at 8:23pm PST

It's been well over two years that we've known about the approach of chef Brandon Jew's ambitious Chinatown project, named for the more proper spelling of his ancestral name, Mister Jiu's. As Eater reports, the renovation of the former Four Seas space at 731 Grant Street has taken longer than planned, and Jew is now aiming for an early 2016 opening after crowdsourcing some final opening expenses via Kickstarter.

Jew, who grew up in SF and used to go to Chinatown often with his grandmother to shop, is looking to redefine people's idea of modern Chinese cuisine and highlight Chinese dishes and ingredients for their subtleties, using fresh local produce and high quality meat. He later went on to become the opening chef at Bar Agricole, earning many accolades in the process, and this solo project has been in the works ever since he left the kitchen there — marking a shift away from the Cal-Mediterranean cuisine he was known for and turning back to his roots.

At Mister Jiu's he will be keeping with the tradition of Chinese banquet-style menus, offering eight banquet courses based on different styles of dishes — rather than traditional groupings that went by fish, poultry, etc.

He tells Eater that he's made some hires already and is fine-tuning the menu — which had a bit of a preview of sorts last February via a pop-up at Central Kitchen. And, ideally, he still needs to raise another $200,000 from investors to complete the project.

We'll update you as soon as an opening date is announced.

Previously: The 13 Most Exciting Restaurants Arriving In 2015 (spoiler: It's not making it before the end of 2015)

In the realm of laziness that brought us on-demand dinner businesses like Munchery and Sprig, SF-based Kitchit has occupied a more expensive realm that allowed people to bring private chefs to their homes to prep, cook, and clean up after full dinner parties. They've been like the Munchery or Blue Apron for rich show-offs who don't want to cook themselves, but providing a needed service for those who like the idea of dinner parties more than they do the execution of one. The price point, though, kept the chef and custom meal service out of reach of many who can barely afford the rent they're paying as it is, but then Kitchit launched a less expensive service dubbed Kitchit Tonight, which brings you a similar, less custom, pre-prepared dinner service by a chef for $39 per person — and a minimum of two people. How could they make money on this, you ask? Well, the hope is that mostly people are catering larger parties, because the company must lose money on two-person dinners.

Now, Kitchit announced today that they're eliminating the high-end custom Chef Marketplace altogether to focus on Kitchit Tonight, describing it as a runaway hit in its first nine months. And it's no wonder, since $39 a person for a three-course meal that's heated and plated for you, and cleaned up for you, is pretty nice.

From the company's statement:

We launched Kitchit Tonight with the expectation that it would complement the higher-end service of the Chef Marketplace. This has indeed proven to be true, and we continue to believe in the merits of both businesses.

However, the market response to Kitchit Tonight has so outpaced our expectations that we find our team wholly consumed by that half of the business. After just 9 months, the volume of Kitchit Tonight bookings is nearly double that of the Marketplace in San Francisco, and Kitchit Tonight customers repeat at nearly 4 [times] the rate we’ve seen in the Marketplace over the past 3.5 years. Reviews from diners have been as outstanding as we’ve always seen in the Marketplace, and chefs report high levels of satisfaction with the flexible schedule and predictable hourly pay that Kitchit Tonight provides.

Against this backdrop, there is only one sound decision for Kitchit as a growing technology business. Rather than give short shrift to the Marketplace, we must move forward without it.

This is bad news from the chefs on their roster who've been depending on these gigs the last few years. But it's good news for everybody who's learned to love Kitchit Tonight, since it looks like it won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Local celebrity chef and restaurateur Traci Des Jardins, who stepped onto the national TV stage a couple years back making it into the final three on Top Chef Masters, sat down with friend and Mythbuster Adam Savage for an hour-long talk this past week in Savage's "Talking Room." They cover a bunch of topics, from all the hunters in her family (she tells the story of how her brother learned his lesson about recklessly shooting at blackbirds with a shotgun when he had to obey the family rule of eating everything you shoot), to her son and the growth of restaurant empire — she now owns and operates five local restaurants: Jardiniere, Public House, Mijita, The Commissary, and Arguello (the latter two both in the Presidio and opened last year).

Des Jardins first made a name for herself in the kitchen at Rubicon, one of the splashier and trendier SF spots of the 1990s, and she later went on to open the much beloved, opera- and symphony-adjacent Jardiniere in 1997.

It looks like this interview was shot nearly a year ago, when The Commissary was only two months old (it opened last May), and before the October opening of Arguello, and Des Jardins talks about the experience of having to work full time in a restaurant again to get The Commissary open after years of stepping back and delegating to her team. "Recently, opening a new restaurant, and I really dove into it working every night again, and I realized sort of how simple my life was when that was what I did. I didn't have a lot of friends, I didn't have social life. If people want to see me they had to come to the restaurant. Life was kind of simple and I kind of liked that. Now it's much more complex where I have social obligations and other obligations [that I have to deal with every day]."

She also talks about the grueling schedule of shooting Top Chef Masters, in which a whole season was shot in 23 straight days, and she was competing alongside best friend and L.A. chef Mary Sue Milliken.

Over at the Chronicle, Jonathan Kauffman did video interviews with a panel of tech-company chefs — Lance Holton of Twitter, Brian Mattingly of Dropbox, Shane Dykhuis of BandPage, and Matthew DuTrumble of Zynga — asking them what they liked about their jobs, the kinds of things they cook in these cafeterias, and what the companies get out of having chefs on staff. Dykhuis points out that it often means that people take shorter lunches and therefore are more productive, because it's "one less decision they have to make" in their day. Also, it probably encourages people to stay for dinner too.

DuTrumble also reveals that Zynga has its own in-house ketchup. DropBox has its own cookie cart that comes around the office. And, as this accompanying piece from the Chron reveals, DuTrumble is working on "a cookbook based on user-created dishes in Zynga’s signature game, 'FarmVille.'"

[Chron]
[Inside Scoop]

Recent Luce sous chef Melissa King, who has ten years experience in the Bay Area fine dining scene, has landed a place in the cast of Top Chef's 12th season, which premieres October 15.

Per a press release that went out this morning, this season all happens in Boston, and returning judges Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Hugh Acheson will be joined by Top Chef All Stars winner Richard Blais, who'll make his first appearances this season as a recurring judge. (Blais, some may recall, was rumored last year to be contemplating a move to the Bay Area, but that hasn't materialized yet.)

King's full resume is over at chef-for-hire site Kitchit, where she also gives a brief Q&A and says she could happily eat a burger every day, and loves "bringing people together through delicious food!" She's also been a line cook at Delfina and Campton Place, and was sous chef at the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton before it closed. Read more of her bio here.

The latest season in Bravo's longest-running reality-competition franchise will be sticking to the tried-and-true formulas of its past, but with the added addition of "sudden death Quickfire challenges" that will apparently occur whenever and wherever. Among the celebrity guest judges will be George Wendt a.k.a. Norm from Cheers (!), as well as Boston-based chefs Barbara Lynch, Ming Tsai, Todd English, Jasper White, and Jacques Pepin.

Also, there'll be plenty of Boston-y stuff involved, including trips to Cheers (a.k.a. the Bull and Finch Pub), a meal served underneath the famed Green Monster at Fenway Park, and a meal cooked and served at Plimoth Plantation. That will be on the Thanksgiving episode, and cheftestants will be challenged to use "only ingredients that would have been on hand at the first Thanksgiving meal." Sounds appropriately ridiculous.

Below, the season teaser.

[BravoTV]

Remember that awful billboard? Well, Zagat went around asking San Francisco chefs and restaurant owners how they're planning to deal with the all-but-inevitable minimum wage hike that's going on the November ballot, and while none of them object in theory to paying their lowest-paid workers more, it's a little more complicated than that — especially when it comes to tipped employees.

The local restaurant industry, and the restaurant industry nationwide, has historically been among the most vocal opponents to hikes in minimum wage. It stands to reason that in one of the most expensive cities in the country (arguably, now, the most expensive), the minimum wage here should be significantly higher than the federal minimum, to reflect the cost of living. But deciding what that number should be and when it should be implemented is a dicey business when it comes to small businesses, and I think everyone knows that restaurants, particularly ones with just one or two locations, operate with very slim profit margins, and thus they make the most noise when they're told they need to pay their kitchen and service staffs more.

The November ballot measure, recently approved by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors, will raise SF's minimum wage from $10.24 and hour to $15 an hour by 2018, with incremental hikes each year. But unlike Seattle where a $15/hour minimum wage was recently passed, SF's measure does not create the traditional tip credit for service staff who make the majority of their income on tips. This is great news for everyone who waits tables across the city, because it means a 50% raise in base salary over the next four years.

But as chef and restaurateur Traci Des Jardins tells Zagat:

Without a tip credit — some sort of recognition of income from gratuities calculated into an employee’s total compensation — des Jardins and others points out, the law simply “widens the gap between front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house income” without providing business owners a way to get more money to the people in the restaurant industry who really need it — the dishwashers, line cooks, prep cooks.

Another chef who preferred to remain anonymous quipped, "Get ready for the $25 burger."

Also, a former manager of Bruno's tells them that in response to the previous minimum wage hike that took effect in 2004, the bar had to cut back on staff shifts, and this led to a negative experience for customers.

Will most of these pains surrounding the minimum-wage hike be temporary, if painful? Probably. Will things get a little more expensive? Probably, but it's not like we're not already used to paying stupid prices for things and getting made fun of by the rest of the country.

But should the Mayor and Board of Supes have thought about mirroring Seattle with regard to the tip credits? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments, especially if you're in the restaurant industry.

[Zagat]

Previously: San Francisco's Proposed $15 Minimum Wage, By The Numbers

The local chef community lost one of its own at far too young an age this week. Chris L'Hommedieu, a chef's chef and often-cited mentor, died at the age of 44 of a rare cancer of the appendix — incidentally the same rare cancer that took the life of Zuni chef-owner Judy Rodgers last December.

L'Hommedieu's name was not well known outside the local food world, having been a respected but decidedly behind-the-scenes second-in-command at several high-profile restaurants. The bulk of his career was spent working for chef and restaurateur Michael Mina, first at Aqua, and later as executive chef of Restaurant Michael Mina back in its Union Square days. He also did a stint working for Thomas Keller as the opening executive sous chef at Per Se in New York.

As the Chron notes, "He was lovingly described by friends as the Kevin Bacon of the Bay Area food world because he seemingly was connected to everyone in the chef community, and also because he mentored countless younger chefs."

In this interview with Grub Street, prior to the opening of Rich Table, co-chef Sarah Rich cited L'Hommedieu as one of her most important mentors. "He’s an incredible chef," she said. "I don’t even know how to describe him. He’s a great person, a great teacher, and a fantastic mentor. You had to work very hard for him, but he made you want to want to work."

For the last two years, L'Hommedieu had worked at Prospect, for Nancy Oakes and Pamela Mazzola, and after hiring him in 2012 Oakes told the Chronicle, "I'm excited to have someone of his caliber," saying she looked forward to learning from him.

The most tragic part of L'Hommedieu's untimely passing may be that he could have one day opened his own solo project and gotten more credit and attention for his work after years of remaining a chef's chef. "Odds are that L'Hommedieu will have his own place eventually," the Chron noted in 2012 when he accepted the Prospect job, "but he's in no rush."

L'Hommedieu leaves behind a wife, Kendra Stanley. A fundraising event in his memory is scheduled for September 21, details to follow.

[Chron]

"Have you guys seen some of these episodes?" asks Benu chef Corey Lee when chef Daniel Patterson and his wife Alexandra make their first stop on a Vice tour at his restaurant. "You guys should be totally f**ked up by now!" But, Patterson's tour of the city is a little less debaucherous than some of the other Vice Munchies segments.

Watch as he and Alexandra, along with two of his business partners Ryan Ma and Jeff Sarver, have drinks at Patterson's other S.F. restaurant Alta CA, where they meet up with Scribe vintner Andrew Mariani and they all head together to Kin Khao for some Thai food. And more cocktails. Then they head back to Oakland to Patterson's former restaurant Plum, which recently underwent a makeover as a Japanese restaurant that's now called Ume.

Also, there's some pretty food porn at the beginning of the video showing dishes being plated at Patterson's flagship Coi, which we were just talking about yesterday in relation to their new ticketing system.

[Munchies/Vice]
[Eater]

Previously: Go Eat This: Yum Yai Salad At Kin Khao
Watch The State Bird Provisions Chefs Go On A Food And Booze Crawl With Vice

French Laundry and Per Se chef Thomas Keller, who has earned three Michelin stars for both of those restaurants, appeared in a quiz segment on the syndicated NPR show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" over the weekend. The appearance was in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of Keller taking over the Laundry, which happened in 1994, and Keller brought along one of his signatures that is still served at both restaurants — the salmon "ice cream cone," which the hosts joke about being too tiny.

Keller insists that an amuse-bouche like this is "one of the most important parts of the meal," serving as an ice-breaker in what could be an intimidating place for some. "Not only does it make them smile...but because it tastes like something familiar that they've had in the past, basically a cracker with sour cream and salmon on top, and because it's familiar they like it."

Also, Keller jokes, that you'd better "come to French Laundry or Per Se with somebody you like," given that meals take a minimum of three and a half hours.

In response to a question, "Why did you call it The French Laundry?", Keller explains that the name was not his doing, recounting that the Yountville restaurant initially opened with that name in 1978 (under the ownership of Don and Sally Schmitt, now of Philo Apple Farm). And the name had been inspired by one of the original uses of the stone building, as a French steam laundry in the 1920s.

Then the show's hosts set about quizzing Keller on the topic of actual laundry, and clothes-cleaning, because these are the sorts of things that amuse the dorks and elderlies who regularly listen to this show.

In related news, as Eater reports, the website for the The French Laundry and the one for his Thomas Keller Restaurant Group were hacked by apparent Syrian hackers over the weekend, from the Syrian Electronic Army.

And thus the wars of the Middle East have finally made it to Napa.

[NPR]
[Inside Scoop]
[Eater]

Ever since Outerlands decided to part ways with the chef who put them on the map, Brett Cooper, everyone's been curious where he might pop up. In May, Cooper signed on to work for the Daniel Patterson Group (Coi, Alta CA, Plum Bar, Haven), first helping re-jigger Plum as a Japanese spot called Ume, with the promise that he'd be opening his own spot in San Francisco. Now Inside Scoop brings word that Cooper's new spot will be in the space currently home to three-and-a-half-year-old Beast and the Hare (1001 Guerrero Street at 22nd Street).

The restaurant has a November ETA ,but does not yet have a name. Cooper promises it will be along the lines of Outerlands, "a neighborhood restaurant that’s got that homey and comfortable feel, but still doing a little more refined food than a typical neighborhood restaurant."

He and partner Patterson are bringing in an acclaimed pastry chef from across the country, Sean Ehland of McCrady's in Charleston, and one can expect the menu to be a bit more vegetable driven than the largely meat-centric Beast and the Hare, given Cooper's past work.

Since opening in early 2011, Beast and the Hare has been a well received spot in this cusp neighborhood between the Mission, Liberty Hill, and Noe Valley, with a focus on meat and charcuterie from Fatted Calf alum Ian Marks. Along with partner Dylan Denicke, they've even built a small cottage industry around the charcuterie, selling their meats and pates to nearby places like Locanda, Wise Sons Deli, and Mission Cheese. Marks has also been well known for some excellent fried chicken, something that only makes occasional appearances on the menu but which is now part of a Saturday chicken-and-waffle brunch at the restaurant from 8 a.m. to noon only. And I'd recommend you check that out while you still can — Beast and the Hare has not yet announced a closing date, but it may be soon.

In other news, former Haven and Plum chef Kim Alter should be next on the docket for opening her own spot in S.F. with the backing of Patterson. More on that later.

[Inside Scoop]
[Eater]