Kathleen Hill: Sonoma – America’s 11th favorite town!

Food news from around the Valley|

Sonoma ‘refreshingly friendly’

Sonoma was rated No. 11 on a list of “America’s Favorite Towns” in Travel + Leisure magazine’s readers poll for 2016.

The write up for Sonoma says, “the nerve center for this wine country region beguiles readers not just with its wine – though they do love the wine – but also for its folksy charm, like the picnic tables and rope swings at laidback Scribe Winery.”

Readers mentioned “the high likelihood of encountering a wine snob while you are here,” and that they found the locals to be “refreshingly friendly,” singling out “the New Haven-style (pizza) pies at the Red Grape,” Sonoma Wine Country Weekend, “twinkling Christmas lights and the illuminated century-old sycamore at the Fairmont Mission Inn.”

Sonoma was beaten in the ratings from No. 10 to No. 1 by Asheville, NC; Traverse City, MI; Staunton, VA; Portland, ME; Harrisonburg, VA; Atlantic City, NJ; St. Augustine, FL; Santa Fe, NM; Provincetown, MA; and Park City, UT.

Tanya Holland at ‘Sunset’ Cornerstone Celebration

Several accomplished and well known chefs performed their art and craft at Sunset magazine’s Celebration at Cornerstone Sonoma last weekend. According to Sunset’s posting, 10,000 people attended the first-in-Sonoma event.

Early Saturday morning Sunset food editor Margo True showed us how to make and taste the best fadalicious avocado toast anywhere. Slightly crisp pumpernickel bread with sliced avocado, lox, capers, and a tiny bit of onions. Fabulous.

Event emcee True agreed with me that we should wash our avocado skins before slicing into the nut, and they are nuts. Too many people feel and squeeze avocados before selecting the perfect one, so wash them before you slice or peel them.

Tanya Holland, whose father wanted her to become an engineer, now owns Brown Sugar Kitchen in renovated Oakland and recently returned from serving as a Chef Ambassador in Kazakhstan through the U.S. State Department. True had just plied a few of us with divine avocado toast with salmon, capers, and onions.

Fluent in Russian, Holland has a Grand Diplôme from La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris and is immediate past co-president of Les Dames d’Escoffier International.

She actually showed her sold-out audience how to prepare her bourbon and chili-glazed salmon (without drinking any at 11 a.m.) and her special okra peperonata. Both entertaining and highly skilled, Holland is the author of two popular cookbooks, “The Brown Sugar Kitchen Cookbook” and “New Soul Cooking.”

Molly Farrell reported from Portland powerhouse chef Ludo Lefebvre’s demo that, “Ludo gave a very entertaining and detailed description of the preparation of steak frites. He spent a lot of time discussing butter, clarified butter and the uses of same. I was a little blown away when he suggested it takes three days to make the perfect frites, which he recommended hand cutting, blanching in butter and frying in butter. His discussion of French beef cuts versus American ones was really educational.”

Other chefs who showed their talents included Perry Hoffman, Christopher Wang, Ellie Krieger, Nyesha Arrington, Cindy Pawlcyn, Adam Sappington, Greg and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, Andy Ricker, John Fink, Russell Moore and Elaine Johnson.

Walk-ins welcome

Café La Haye owner Saul Gropman has listened to locals and is now blocking 30 percent of his restaurant seats for walk-in customers, “to make sure our neighbors have more access to Café La Haye.” The restaurant will also be open for dinner Sunday evening, May 29 over Memorial Day weekend.

Travel writers

Join the Last Wednesday Food Group on Wednesday, May 25 at Readers’ Books to meet and listen to Russell Sunshine and Nancy Swing, longtime smart and hilarious friends of mine who bring their food-centered novels to Sonoma that evening.

Russell’s book is a memoir of his travels, work and long-term residences in India, Tanzania, China, Laos, Kazakhstan, Japan, Sri Lanka and Italy. Nancy’s is a mystery set in Vientiane, Laos, where they lived in the early 1990, where most of the conversations revolve around food. The expats who are at the center of the narrative meet over brunch, lunch, coffee, tea and dinner. And her heroine is a chocoholic. Bring a goodie to share if you wish. Free. 7 p.m. 130 E. Napa St. 939-1779.

A judgement to remember

Remember talk of the Judgement of Paris when Mike Grgich, then winemaker at Chateau Montelena, won the blind taste-off, beating French wines in Paris 40 years ago?

The Chambolle-Musigny Sister City Committee (Chamson) invites everyone to a blind wine tasting event to mark the May 24, 1976 triumph of California (Napa Valley) wine over that of France.

A blind tasting is when you can’t see the label on the wine bottle, so you can’t get any preconception of how good one wine is over another.

Sonoma’s will be Tuesday, May 24 at the Sonoma Community Center, where guests will compare wines from Sonoma with those of Chambolle-Musigny or the Burgundy region of France and can see how their opinions relate to those of professional judges. Appetizers will be served following the tastings. $55. Doors open 5 p.m., tasting starts promptly at 5:30 p.m. Tickets at sonomasistercitiesassociation.org.

The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. just hosted a fundraising Judgment of Paris Winemakers Dinner for the museum’s American Food & Wine History Project.

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