Nancy Silverton at Chino Farm

Among the Foodie Crowd, Nancy Silverton is well-known as the founder of LaBrea Bakery, which I will say revolutionized gourmet breads in Southern California.  She is a particular champion of Sourdough Bread, which the French call “bread, the old way,” versus the more modern yeast. 

Nancy is also the owner of two adjacent and wildly-popular restaurants in Los Angeles, Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza, which are co-owned by restaurateurs Mario Battali and Joe Bastianich.  She has produced a wonderful book, The Mozza Cookbook, based on the restaurant’s dishes.  

Today, Raquel and I went to Nancy’s cookbook signing in San Diego; I hope you are not hungry as your read this post~

The book was $35, and it is a beautiful collection of recipes that I look forward to trying, and sharing with you~

Nancy, at left, signed with co-author Matt Molina; she was very modest, “I did the first half, he did the second half!”

Moving past the signing table, I was greeted by the bread, grilling for crostini~

there was also some chunky & crusty bread which was salted, a little garlic-y, perfectly dripping in olive oil~

I should mention that this was a foodie’s convention; everyone who is a San Diego Foodie was there, it seemed, in addition to a few others; adored La Petite here, decked out in Rancho Santa Fe style~

We had a demonstration of burrata, which is fresh Mozzarella cheese with a filling of cream and more shredded Mozzarella. as I told Raquel, the Americans are worried about weight and non-fat and the like and this is what the Italians eat…and they are not fat….this was fantastic~

The burrata was accompanied by the bread as previously shown, plus three sauces, a tapenade of olives, pesto, and another bean-based sauce~

We had two brothers handling the mozzarella; and it was an amazing show; here the steam is from the hot water~

Raquel chatted away in Italian with the Brothers; it was a good connection that we will revisit for the market~

Meanwhile, we were served this~

I’m sorry, I meant this, butternut squash crostini topped with smoked apple bacon~

as well as a glass of Prosecco~

And pine nut “pignoli” cookies with Rosemary, which were delish and are meant to be in the book~

The venue was Chino Farm, Rancho Santa Fe.  Even the Ford got decked out for the event~

Chino is a farm stand, avec Cult Following.

Tom Chino is the Patriarch; the family is Japanese and has been here since the ‘40’s.

They sell direct from their farm stand and wholesale only to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.  When you see the produce you know why;

The herbs are abundant, until they sell out; here Bay~

here Savory~

And here sage, sooo great fresh in Thanksgiving stuffing~

Fresh flowers are great all year long in salads~

also today, fresh cherry tomatoes~

the tiniest brussell sprouts ever; by the time I came back these were gone~

various berries~

including two varieties of strawberries; “French or Californian?”, he said. You will see mon choix this week but you can already guess the answer~  

it’s all amazing!~

A few original remnants of the ‘40s from owner Tom Chino. Very charming~ 

This is a working farm so there are now greenhouse tomatoes~

and my dog Honey and I enjoyed exploring the farm~

We are going to another book signing here in two weeks; I will be buying a stack of this next book for Christmas gifts; can’t wait to go to that event.

Have a lovely week; tonight I will resume holiday gift posts.