Stark Wine at Divine Affair — Saturday, 25 Oct 2008

[Submitted by Jennifer Stark of Stark Wine]

Stark Wine is the kind of thing that can happen when two artists follow a shared dream of creating, bringing people together and building something larger than themselves.

In 2003, we made one small lot of Dry Creek Valley Syrah. Since then, Stark Wine has grown to reflect our passion for family, community, art and sustainability.

We produce and sell ultra-premium wine made with grapes grown by reputable farmers with proven track records for growing exceptional quality fruit. The wines are handcrafted with tremendous care using traditional methods and modern equipment. They are full-bodied, elegant wines created to be enjoyed with food and friends.

This Saturday, October 25th at 6:30 pm we will share the table with friends and family for a delicious meal created by our friends at A Divine Affair in downtown Healdsburg.

Here is the menu - we hope you will join us…

Passed appetizers
2007 Stark Viognier, Damiano Vineyard
Seared scallop, white corn griddle cake with carrot & cardamom
Spiced roasted baby beets with persimmon carpaccio & greens

2005 Stark Syrah, Teldeschi & Unti Vineyards, Dry Creek Valley
Chestnut soup with duck prosciutto

2005 Stark Syrah, Sonoma County
Braised beef cheeks with baby turnips, creamy polenta & Dry Vella jack

2004 Stark Syrah, Teldeschi & Unti Vineyards, Dry Creek Valley
Gorgonzola Dulce cheesecake with black mission figs & Syrah

Please reserve your place at the table by calling (707) 433-1035 by Friday, October 24th.

Mateo Granados: Fresh, Local, Fabulous

I hear about Mateo Granados from a few people before I actually get to talk to him myself. David and Ondine mention him when they find out I’m looking for interesting perspectives. And I crosscheck the reference with Julie, my winemaker-foodie friend. She nods her head. Yes. Definitely.

And when I’m talking to Evie at the Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand, she says: “Oh. You HAVE to talk to Mateo.” And she calls him right there and leaves a message with my phone number.

Mateo calls me the next day. I’m driving home and don’t really get a chance to explain myself, but we agree to meet the following Wednesday, at 9:00 am at the Palette Art Café.

I arrive early to sort myself out before he arrives. He rushes in a few minutes late, dripping and sheepish. He’s been at his kitchen making tamales since 6:00 am. He wanted to shower and clean up before he met me. We order coffee and sit down to chat.

He’s animated. He’s not only explaining himself with words. He uses his face, his hands. He gestures. He just starts explaining.

“What I’m doing,” he says, “Is reproducing the food I grew up eating—but with the bounty of Sonoma County growers.” He smiles and nods his head, “Modern Yucatan Cuisine.”

He explains a bit about the Nuevo Latino cuisine movement and states: “But we’re taking it further. We’re making it regional: Flavors of the Yucatan—with Sonoma County flair.”

“I grew up in the breadbasket of Mexico. My father was a butcher and my mother—an artist. This is what I know. This is what I love. This”—he motions to the table in front of us as if there were a grandiose spread right there, “This is just what I do.”

I ask him to explain more of his past. How did he come to Sonoma County? Believe it or not, he came to the US as a professional soccer player. It wasn’t long though, before he injured himself too much to continue to play. “My housemate at the time was Michael Bonaccorsi. We would spend all of our time together tasting. Tasting food. Tasting wine. And expressing ourselves. That is how I learned English: talking about food and wine with Michael Bonaccorsi.”

Michael went on to become one of the first twenty master sommeliers in the United States. Mateo went on to work his way up through some of the Bay Area’s top restaurants and is now a pedigree chef. He’s held positions such as Executive Sous Chef at Masa’s in San Francisco and Executive chef at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen here in Healdsburg.

LOCAL FINE DINING

Now, Mateo’s goal is to start his own fine dining experience. He aims to bring his refined Mayan recipes to the same level as respected French, Italian, and Spanish cuisine.

He started small. In fact, he went back to square one. In 2004 he started selling his handmade tamales in the Farmer’s Markets all over Sonoma County. His philosophy: “Grow local. Know local. Buy local.”

His commitment to his customers is 100% locally grown and produced. He buys his ingredients from over 30 growers in Sonoma County. “If you love what you do, you have to do it right.” He’s a passionate proponent of not only knowing where his food comes from, but knowing the grower and how it was grown. The Local Harvest website defines community supported agriculture as “putting the farmers’ face on food.”

Mateo certainly puts a face on every ingredient he uses. He describes every dish with a list of identities. It wasn’t just queso fresco. It was Bodega Bay Queso Fresco. Black Sheep bacon. Pug’s Leap Goat Cheese. Black Beans from Tierra Vegetables. And so many more. I couldn’t keep track.

“You can’t beat it. The flavors. The smells. The textures. I get vegetables from Tierra—there’s still earth on them. And roots!” He cups his hands as if he’s holding a bulb of garlic or something and brings them towards his face. I can tell he can smell the earth.

The idea of fresh, local produce is to keep it alive until you use it to cook. He tells me: “Enjoy it while you can. Because the fresher it is, the more alive it is on your plate. The more flavor explodes in your mouth.”

Another part of Mateo’s philosophy is: Respect. Respect the land. Respect the food. Respect the growers. Respect the producers. He knows how much energy, time, and labor it takes to grow a tomato, an onion, a carrot, a pig. Because he knows his suppliers, he doesn’t waste. He creates his signature dishes around what’s available in the season and finds a use for everything. Everything. He doesn’t waste anything because he doesn’t want anything to go to waste. He’s very aware of what he’s throwing away.

He tells me all of this and I take notes. Finally, he takes a moment to sip his coffee and looks at me expectantly: “Do you have any questions?”

“Well,” I say thoughtfully, “Is it possible to have an experience?” He looks at me and thinks for a second and says: “Ok. You want an experience? Let’s go to my kitchen.”

FRESH FAST FABULOUS

We drive to the kitchen where he prepares his tamales. As we get out of his car, he points to two big trucks and adds with a grin: “Those. Those are complete mobile kitchens. I am so committed to local ingredients and the idea of fresh. I bring everything to your site and prepare it right there.”

He shows me around the kitchen and introduces me to his workers who are preparing tamales for his Farmer’s Markets. He makes me taste some of his garnishes: olives from Lou Preston, beets and cabbage cured with bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and cloves.

I realize what he means by keeping the produce alive until it’s on your plate (or in this case—in my mouth). (A few weeks later as I’m writing this article and thinking about his cured beets and cabbage, I’m still salivating from the memory).

“OK,” he pulls a cast iron fry pan from the cupboard, “Let’s make a quesadilla.” He asks his helper to clean some cactus.

“Come over here,” he motions and makes me smell the olive oil. “Can you beat that?” He pours a dollop to the fry pan and turns up the heat. He adds the cactus pads for a few seconds on each side then removes them to a cutting board. Then, he goes into the other room to get out his knives and comes back sharpening one: “To make good food, you have to have good knives.” He’s cheeky.

He slices some onion and crystallizes it in the pan. Then dices the cactus pads, slices a bit of Pug’s Leap Cambremer goat cheese, and layers it all together on a soft tortilla. All of which, he now puts it back in the fry pan, fast. Both sides. Just enough to grill the tortilla and soften the cheese.

He whisks it out onto a cutting board, quarters the quesadilla and decorates the top with tomatilla salsa and his cured cabbage condiments. He tops it all off with a handful of sliced green onion. All the while, he’s lecturing about not wasting anything in his kitchen.

How can you beat that? 10 minutes or less. Fresh. Fast. Fabulous.

He smiles:“Pair it with a crisp Rose and you have yourself a succulent, fine-dining, regional experience.”

MORE ON MATEO
Flickr photo stream for this article
MateoGranadosCatering.com
Interested in attending a Missing Link diner?

PS: You can taste more than his tamales at the Healdsburg Farmer’s Markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays. You can also find a Mateo Granados menu at the Santa Rosa Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and in Sebastopol on Sundays.

Francis Ford Coppola Interns and Fois Gras

My friend Mitch wrote me last year and told me he and an his familial entourage are taking a tour of Napa Valley. He forwarded me their itinerary and asked if I knew anything about the wineries on the list:

• Domaine Carneros
• Tour of Napa, boutique wineries
• Rubicon Estate
• Clos Pegase

So, even though I know nothing about these wineries nor the wines, I wrote him a long and convoluted email back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hhmmm….

Carneros is an appellation that is known for their Chardonays and Pinots. I’m guessing they capitalize on the hot days and cool breezes…but I don’t know if they get the cool breezes from the Bay or from the Petaluma Gap.

…quick google search says from San Pablo Bay.

I know about the Carneros Inn because the lady at PlumpJack Cafe wanted me to send Bush-Field Pinot there. …now a google search indicates that the Carneros Inn is part of the PlumpJack family and probably resides in the Carneros appellation…and has nothing what-so-ever to do with Domaine Carneros except the proximity. So–you’re going to have to let me know what you think. Judging by their website, you’ll be suitably impressed.

Rubicon…that’s the sister winery (or parent winery?) to Rosso & Bianco Winery. Rubicon is the original FFC (Francis Ford Coppola). Cindy (my housemate for a few months last year) was the winery intern at Rosso & Bianco for the harvest season 2007. She toured Rubicon in late August for a day. She says it’s much nicer than Rosso & Bianco .. except Rosso & Bianco is pretty damn nice (see: An Afternoon at Rosso & Bianco Winery).

Oh. Side note—Francis Ford Coppola apparently started a community concert band in St. Helena. He plays the tuba.

Other than that…I know nothing about their wine. I do know, however, that I don’t like the new Rosso & Bianco label….it doesn’t pop. The label is red and sits on a red bottle. It disappears on the shelf.

Here is a picture of the winemakers from Rosso & Bianco Winery in my back yard. We had them over for dinner! One night last summer, Cindy made an evening of French cuisine local to her region in France. She invited her colleagues. That was a funny story.

She’d brought over some homemade preserves. Her family are farmers–so everything is grown and preserved right there on the farm. One thing she’d brought over was her Mum’s foie gras.

Everybody was tasting a bit of this and a bit of that and somebody asked her how she made the foie gras. (Keep in mind, that when she arrived, she spoke in broken English–she now speaks in less broken English–but she has greatly improved).

She said:

“At my parents, we have ducks.”
“In the spring, we start to feed them a lot of mais…What is mais?”
“Corn,” we piped up.
“Ok. So. We feed them corn. A LOT of corn. Maybe three of those bowls a day.” She pointed to a dish on the table.
“Ok,” We said. “So you feed them a lot of corn.”
“Yes,” She continued: “They eat a lot of corn for two or three months then…bup!” She motioned with her hands like she was cutting off their heads. “Bup! We harvest them.”
“What?” We exclaimed. “That’s it? You harvest them?”
“Yes.” She nodded her head. “We harvest them. We kill them and take their liver…and…Voila! Foie gras.”
“Don’t you do something to their livers? You know, before we eat it?” We asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “Harvest the liver. Put it in the jar. Cover it with oil and Voila! Foie Gras.”

Nobody ate the rest of the foie gras. We just let it sit on the table while we ate the gratin and salads and prunes—even though they were harvested in much the same fashion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So. That’s it. That’s the story about how I know nothing about Domaine Carneros and Rubicon Wineries. But, I do know a little bit more about Foie Gras.

Dan the Tomato Man: Soda Rock Farm

After I interviewed Mateo Granados last June, I always stop by his tamale stand at the Farmer’s Market to say hello. He’s always happy and chatty and talking to someone or another. One day, I was just hanging out and Dan Magnuson of Soda Rock Farm comes over to drop off a few boxes of his tomatoes. Mateo immediately says to me: “Here’s one guy you have to talk to. His tomatoes, mmmmuah… ” He kisses his fingers and releases them into the air, in a typical chef-sort-of-way. And he introduces us.

I talk to Dan a bit, and talk to him a few times before we actually make a time to meet. But we meet one morning at the Costeaux Bakery Cafe. He sits down and says: “So. What do you want to talk about?”

I’m prepared: “Tomatoes”, I say.

He smiles: “Well. That’s a pretty big subject.”

I narrow it down: “Your tomatoes? Tell me about your tomatoes.”

That doesn’t do much good. I guess it’s just too big of topic. I ask him some more rhetorical questions.

“When did you start growing tomaotes?” and “Why tomaotes?”

He says he started growing tomatoes about 10 years ago out on his property in Alexander Valley. He’d taken a class at the Santa Rosa Junior college in agriculture. He just liked tomatoes. And I also find out he’s a tennis pro. During the winter months, he teaches tennis athletes at the Charlie Schultz indoor tennis courts.

Tennis and tomatoes. That’s our man. He’s an expert at both.

He started out with an acre out on Alexander Valley and about 3000 plants. He now farms both his property and four to five acres in Dry Creek Valley. Today’s stats are approximately 20,000 tomato plants, 15,000 basil plants, and 1000 lemon cucumber plants.

I ask him how many tomatoes does 20,000 tomato plants produce (I was looking for tonnage or something–I don’t know how you measure tomatoes). He blinked and looked back at me: “A lot.”

He grows between 35 and 40 different varietals, but his mainstay is red beefsteak.

“Do you have any secrets to growing tomatoes.? His eyes are smiling as he tells me — “Trial and error.” He’s been doing it for 10 years, he just figured out what worked and what didn’t. He knows that’s not what I asked and follows up by saying: “Would you give your secrets away?” But he does explain a bit further.

“I grow in Dry Creek Valley. What’s good for the grapes is good for my tomatoes.” Which turns out to be sandy loam soil and sunlight. He also tells me it’s important to plant at the right time, and pick at the right time (which I guess isn’t really anything new.) He plants in April and May (depending on the weather) and the harvest is ready by mid-July through October.

He tells me about staking the plants so they grow up-not out. He tells me about watering them until they’re ripe, then stopping the water before the skins split. He tells me about figuring out how to do things right and making those things repeatable year after year.

He also says that he only grows the tomato varietals he likes. He tried others once, but the fruit could tell he didn’t really like that variety. His customers could tell he didn’t really like that variety–so he just decided he’d never do that again.

I ask him if there is such a thing as a tomato competition. He laughs and said certainly. One year he won awards in five categories from the Kendall Jackson Tomato Festival: aroma, all other colors, orange & yellow, red, and cherry.

He started by selling his tomatoes to high-end restaurants. Bistro Ralph here in Healdsburg was his first. Over the years, Underwood Bar and Bistro and Willow Wood Market Cafe in Gratton sell his tomaotes, Syrah and Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. His latest account is Cyrus Restaurant here in Healdsburg. He also does most Farmer’s Markets in the area. I’ll have to check specifically. His tomatoes are also in some produce markets. I noticed them in Big John’s the other day and out at the JimTown Store. And, he tells me later–the Pacific Market in Santa Rosa.

If you’d like to try his tomatoes in more of a social setting, Bovolo Restaurant featuring his tomatoes in one of their BIG NIGHT dinners on Sunday, 14 September 2008. Here’s the menu:

hand thrown MARGHERITA PIZZAS
black pig bacon BLT PANZANELLA
rosemary rubbed PRIME RIB / tomatoes / white corn / fingerling potatoes / salsa verde,
TOMATO + WATERMELON SORBETTO / candied mint + basil / cornmeal shortbread

Let me know if you go. And let me know what you think about it. Minimally, let Dan know what you think of his tomatoes–leave a comment.

This Week at the Farm

[A new life column from Evie Truxsaw at Tierra Vegetables]

Hello everyone,

Has summer weather finally arrived? Early morning fog followed by afternoon sun. Hope so. Yesterday was surely a beautiful day and today looks like the same.

Have I told you we have four more baby chicks? They are a few weeks old now. Running around with their mom, learning the ins and outs of chicken-ness: scratching around, eating bugs, running away from the big hens who chase them off of the food.

We love watching them. The mother chicken always teaches them to be afraid of us which is a bummer but the way of nature, I guess. That seems to be lesson number one from the first day: “Watch out for those big two legged things.” Oh, well. Someday I’ll have chickens that follow me to (but not into) the house. For now, I’ll watch them grow, thank them for their eggs and their silly antics, scold them for being mean to each other (even though they don’t listen).

Okay, enough about the cluck clucks. What’s available at our Farm Stand?

Speaking of chickens, we have a few eggs.

The eggplant has started. I had my first one last week and it was SWEET as our eggplant usually is. We’ve got plenty of tomatoes as well: nice red, vine ripe tomatoes. Carrots, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, chard, strawberries, rhubarb, maybe a few chiles and sweet peppers, especially Gypsy!!! (which I don’t think we had last year but looks like there are plenty this year!). Onions, freshly dug garlic and POTATOES, summer squash of many varieties and colors, including zucchini, GREEN BEANS, and maybe a few cucumbers. Definitely sweet basil (enough to make a pesto) and other herbs such as parsley.

Chipotes, dried chiles, jam and dried beans. Grown by us? YES! All from good old Sonoma County.

Hope to see you. Good weather for walking in the fields and visiting your vegetables. Bring the kids, bring a picnic (I’m serious).

Thanks,
Evie Truxaw

TierraVegetables.com
Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand (directions)

Best Saturday Morning Breakfast in Healdsburg

I’m researching an article on Mateo Granados for this magazine. Last Saturday, I walk around the Healdburg Farmer’s Market to find his stand and to see if he’s there. He is. He’s sweet. He greets me with bisoux. He says, “Come in…stay awhile. Meet my customers.”

I wander back meet the people who are eating at his stand. There’s two women already sitting down. I introduce myself and ask them what they’ve ordered: Huevos Rancheros and a Squash Blossom Omelette.

I ask them if they are local residents or if they are just visiting. One lady is visiting–the other has just relocated here from Florida.

I ask why they’ve decided to eat at Mateo’s Farmer’s Market stand. And the lady who’s relocated says, “Oh. I tasted his tamales at the Farmer’s Market on Tuesday. They’re just wonderful. I was just hoping he’d be here today.”

I tell them that Mateo is actually a pedigree chef with credentials from high-end restaurants such as Masa’s in San Francisco and Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Kitchen. And she nods her head and says: “I can tell.”

Later, after they leave, three more people sit down. I introduce myself again and I ask them if they are residents or visitors. The fellow tells me they’re from Hopland. His wife shops the farmer’s market’s for her catering business but this is the first time he’s come round. His wife arrives and tells me that Mateo’s stand is THE BEST PLACE for breakfast in Healdsburg on Saturdays.

I ask her to explain why. She says, “He doesn’t have a restaurant (yet) and he’s only at the Farmer’s Markets. He’s only HERE on Saturdays.” She also tells me that Mateo arrives at the markets, sets up his stand and shops the market for his menu.

Then he makes his menu from what’s available.

How can you get any fresher than that? Directly from the farmer to your plate. His food is alive in your mouth.