Culinary Muse

In memory

This is an excerpt from a piece I wrote two years ago.  I am republishing it now in memory of my mother who passed away just a few weeks ago.  She is missed.

I see the cheesecake that my mother could talk the baker in Pelton Shopping Center into selling to her for half price when it was a day old. It was so delicious. Apricot and peach halves were baked into the top. She would buy an entire jelly roll pan full. And we would go home and feast on cheesecake. As a child of the Depression it was always about quantity for her. Quality mattered but quantity was the key. She would never have gone into the bakery and purchased just two pieces of cheesecake for the regular price. Just as she would rather have a closet full of clothes that she had purchased on sale than just a few pieces of better quality. No, she did not wear most of the clothes she bought on sale. They just hang with their tags marked up to show the drastic reductions. Having it was the most important thing. A talisman against poverty, lack, hunger??? I come now to appreciate her thrift. But I have learned that there is such a thing as too much cheesecake...

ART DECO SOCIETY AND GARBO’S CUBAN LOVER

And what, exactly, do they have in common? The fabulous 1930's, dear readers. Do you swoon when you watch a black and white movie made in Hollywood during its Golden Age? Does your heart skip a beat when you walk into the Paramount theater in Oakland or watch episodes of Hercule Poirot on A&E? Do you wish men still wore hats and knew how to tip them when passing a lady? Is there a black cocktail dress with matching hat, seamed stockings and black faille pumps stuffed into the back of your closet just screaming to be let out? Do you yearn to wear a gardenia corsage? Well tomorrow night, July 20, 2006, is the night. Even if you are not (yet) a member of the ART DECO SOCIETY of San Francisco you are invited to an evening at THE CITY CLUB OF SAN FRANCISCO to sip a cocktail or two and enjoy the evening’s performance of ‘Garbo’s Cuban Lover’ described as "a suspenseful drama which explores the glamorous and secretive lives of Hollywood’s Golden Age’s most celebrated divas: Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, and their love affairs with enigmatic Mercedes de Acosta".

Mr. Weil, Fantasia, Blums and me

It was one of those marvelous life moments when you realize that all the stars, moons and planets have somehow aligned themselves in your favor.  There I was, sitting with Ernest Weil and his charming daughters, sipping tea and eating his famous Florentines and Almond Macaroons which he had baked just for us.  A little background: Mr. Weil is the man who created the Coffee Crunch Cake and he is the man who founded FANTASIA BAKERY in San Francisco.  When I wrote an article a few months ago entitled "Blums, Where are you?" I was contacted by one of his daughters, Sandy.  She was pleased to tell me that he was writing a cookbook which would be out in the Spring, 2006.  I had to meet this legend.  And I did.  An appointment that was only scheduled to last one hour was still going strong three hours later.  Only a previous engagement tore us away.  I am so honored to have been in his company for this time and to hear him share the stories of his emigration from Germany, his time in a French orphanage, his education at the Cordon Bleu and his arrival in America.  His is the story of so many of our own grandparents fleeing for their lives from Europe with only the clothes on their back. With luck a guardian angel lends a helping hand once they arrive in this country and then their own hard work that resulted in great success. 

The cookbook is now available through the website LOVE TO BAKE COOKBOOK.  It is a must for anyone who wants the original recipe for Coffee Crunch Cake, Florentines and great stories about San Francisco's beloved Fantasia Bakery.

BIG DAY UPDATE

It is 9 a.m..  Yes, I did drag myself out of bed, even put on lipstick, and rolled down the hill to Market Street.  Lots of people but it hardly looked like the 25,000 - 50,000 they were expecting.  All seemed to be going well, especially the moment when one of the Earthquake survivors revealed to Mayor Newsom that she had been raised by prostitutes. Then the singing began, sort of.  Note to future organizers: spend some money and get yourself a professional singer and a few musicians to help the crowd sing-along. This is not the moment to reveal that our political leaders in SF are tone deaf. But soon this moment of embarassment passed and the Muse was sipping a Mimosa at the Palace Hotel with other revelers.  The breakfast was a fundraiser for the Chinese Historical Society of America and the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society.  The food was your usual big hotel breakfast buffet fare.  But the coffee was very good.  Simon Winchester, writer, historian, geologist and author of A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 spoke.  Gotta go...the parade starts soon...

Our BIG Day

A tourist from Australia asked the flower seller on Market Street today why our city was having a parade to celebrate a disaster.  The flower seller replied "Lady, this is San Francisco.  Any excuse to party is a good excuse..."

So, tomorrow will be our big party day.  The Muse will be at the 5:12 a.m. festivities downtown and then on to the Palace Hotel for the "Gala Brunch" complete with entertainment, buffet breakfast and, we hope, lots of champagne.  Join us? Any excuse to drink champagne at 6 a.m. is a good excuse, lady.

SF FOOD LEGEND'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE

Before there was a ZAGAT GUIDE, before there was THE SAN FRANCISCO FOOD LOVER'S GUIDE and before there was a Michael Bauer there was Doris Muscatine.  Mrs. Muscatine is the author of A COOK'S TOUR OF SAN FRANCISCO.  Anyone who considered himself a gourmet and who had traveled to San Francisco owned a copy of this book.  Published in 1963 by Scribner's, it is a guidebook listing San Francisco's "best restaurants and their recipes".  (It is worth the price just to see the black and white interior photo of the now long gone Ernie's as featured in Hitchcock's movie VERTIGO).  The introduction is an interesting recap of San Francisco's food history as of the early 1960's.  The rest of the book is divided into chapters with headings such as "Elegant", "Family-Style" and "Old-Style San Francisco".  Dinner at the elegant Ernie's would have set you back at least $5.00 per person, not including tax and tip.

The Muse is pleased to announce that Mrs. Muscatine will be making a personal appearance presented by CUESA at the Ferry Plaza's Farmer's Market on Saturday, November 12 at 11:45. Her most recent book is THE VINEGAR OF SPILAMBERTO: AND OTHER ITALIAN ADVENTURES WITH FOOD, PLACES AND PEOPLE.  Don't miss this chance to meet this charming San Francisco food legend.

Blum's Where Are You????

Every year the Muse is asked, in her other life, to predict restaurant trends 3 to 5 years from now. This always gets the Muse a little worked up because there is a wide gap between what she sees coming down the road and what she would like to see coming down the road.  The first trend I would like to see return, to San Francisco at least, is the return of the fountain, a la Blum's.  New York has Serendipity and we San Franciscans have, well, nothing.  Yes, bits and pieces exist here and there.  Fenton's in Oakland is the closest to what Blum's was - a good combination of savory sandwiches and over the top ice cream creations.  But Blum's had more to offer.  Blum's was a pink spun sugar fantasy come to life.  It had a gift shop.  It had shocking pink banquettes.  It had surly waitresses.  And it had cake.  Not those plastic looking, multi colored and tasteless layered cakes offered in cafes around Union Square.  No.  They had Blum's Famous Coffee Crunch cake. (This legendary cake is so memorable that Nancy Silverton has included a recipe for it in her latest cookbook.)

Blum's was partly a restaurant for the ladies who didn't work and spent their days going downtown to shop, meet friends and get home before the children came home from school.  It was also the highlight of a day spent in THE CITY for those who came from across the bay. 

So here is what the Muse would like to see in Union Square: a pink soda fountain with freshly baked layer cakes (NO CUPCAKES, PLEASE), a decent club sandwich made with thick bacon that does not declare its pedigree, and a tall, hot fudge sundae served with a pitcher of hot fudge on the side.  How hard could this be to realize?