When I entered San Francisco’s Ferry Building, I thought I had died and gone to foodie heaven. In a vast, bright space were shops that sold everything from wonderful cuts of meat to a wide variety of breads, cheeses, vegetables, fruit and herbs. Other shops offered ice cream and spices. This is a famous farmers’ market which contains everything a foodie could possibly want. I was tempted to buy many items, but as my son Shakir’s fridge was already full from previous shopping expeditions, I just picked up a dozen quails for a party he and his wife Sheila were planning for the next day.
The Ferry Building also houses a couple of restaurants that overlook the bay, and we had been invited to one of them called the Slanted Door, a Vietnamese establishment that has acquired a reputation for its fresh ingredients and clean flavours. I had a Pho that was as good as anything I had tasted in Hanoi. Crab in angel hair pasta was delicately flavoured, and served as a counterpoint to the robust Pho.
San Francisco’s Bay Area has many farms and restaurants, and its climate and soil makes it possible to grow a wide range of fruit and vegetables. One of the earliest proponents of using locally sourced produce was Alice Waters, the moving spirit behind the iconic Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, that opened its doors in 1971. For many years, it has been included in the list of the world’s 50 best restaurants. Ms Waters has been honoured for her contribution to gastronomy by being named the Best Chef in America, as well as one of the top 10 chefs in the world. The author of many books on food and cooking, she has wielded profound influence on a generation of American chefs, while her philosophy about food has spread far wider.
Although I had been reading about Ms Waters and her restaurant for many years, I had never expected to eat there. But when we arrived in Walnut Creek, where my son’s family has moved to, about 20 minutes from Berkeley, Sheila called Chez Panisse for a reservation. Frankly, I never imagined we could score a table in the fortnight we were in California. But magically, there was an opening and off we went.
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As we had arrived 15 minutes early, we were seated at the casual upstairs café while our table was being prepared. A friendly, buzzy space, it was a good transition to the more formal restaurant. Far too often, establishments like Chez Panisse take themselves very seriously and tend to be stuffy and sombre. Waiting staff speaks in hushed tones. But Chez Panisse encourages a relaxed, laid back tone where friendly waiters explain the menu and the wine list without being condescending and aloof.
For dinner, there was a fixed four-course menu that began with a green bean and cucumber salad with spicy squid. This was a fresh, light salad that set the stage for a splendid meal. Next was a Harira, a traditional Moroccan soup with large, buttery beans, saffron and fresh coriander. The main course was a quail with fennel seed, salsa and squash blossoms stuffed with couscous. The dessert consisted of a slice of light flaky tart with a mixed berry topping, accompanied by an intensely flavoured cardamom ice cream.
Each dish displayed the farm or ranch the ingredients had come from. This is part of the Alice Waters ethos of giving credit to the farmers who supply Chez Panisse, and this practise is now being increasingly followed in good restaurants around the world. And mercifully, the helpings weren’t the gargantuan size typical of American restaurants, so we left feeling well-fed, but not stuffed.
By having a fixed menu, a restaurant can calculate exactly how much produce to buy as reservations have already made it clear how many diners will be coming for any given meal. This reduces wastage and makes it possible for the kitchen staff to focus on a limited number of dishes. Was the experience cheap? Probably not, but I’ll never know as my son insisted on paying the bill in true Pakistani fashion.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 7th, 2014
