A little Video after the Astor Center Event

Here is a little video of Jeff (Mall) and Josh (Silvers) after the event at the Astor Center, NYC.



More to come!

Day 2 in the Big Apple

Tuesday, October 20

This is the first day the chefs have to prepare a meal for guests and these aren't just any guests...they are "the press". There are folks from magazines, print media and bloggers. Cooking in the kitchen are Jeff (Mall), Josh (Silvers), me, Josh's wife, Regina Silvers and our God-send, Noah Senitz. Noah has worked with us on the farm, has worked catering jobs with us, now lives in San Diego (my home town) and paid his way to fly to NYC to cook with us. He kept laughing as we thanked him, and as he laughed he shook his head and told us he couldn't believe we were thanking him for crashing our gig! Guess it is all the way you look at it!

The site of the event is the Astor Center. It is the most amazing event space with state of the art equipment, great dishes, a well stocked kitchen and all very new! That is saying a lot for a kitchen! We had to do a little shopping before we got there and arrived with Noah outside the venue waiting for us!

The theme of the event was, of course, the cookbook, Down Home: Downtown - Seasonal Recipes from Two Sonoma Wine Country Restaurants. The chefs each prepared items which were reflective of their personal styles. Here is the menu: (Jeff is Down Home, Josh is Downtown)

Tray Passed Items
Down Home - Fried Green Tomatoes topped with El Rancho Dressing (we picked, and packed our very own green tomatoes!)
Downtown - Potato Latkes topped with an Apple Fennel Slaw
Paired with Rodney Strong Chardonnay

First Course
Down Home - Mixed Greens with Bellwether Farms Pepato Cheese, Pickled Onions and Candied Pecans
Downtown - Simple Green Salad that is wrapped in a cucumber with goat cheese and enoki mushrooms and flower petals
Paired with Rodney Strong Sauvignon Blanc

Second Course
Down Home - New Orlean's-style Red Beans and Duck Cassoulet
Downtown - Deconstructed Cassoulet
Paired with Rodney Strong Symmetry (Rhone-style blend) and Syrah

Dessert
Down Home - Apple Upside-Down Cake with Salty Caramel Sauce
Downtown - Buttery Apple Cake with Mascarpone Ice Cream

I didn't get any pictures of the food because I was too busy helping to shop and cook! I was able to get pictures of diners, and of the chefs and guests. Here they are:





*Photographer Alan Campbell is standing to the left in this photo

The "fun" part of cooking at the Astor Center, the chefs are reminded that they are mortal. This my way of saying that they can't skate out of there...they have to help clean up! Here is proof:


The next posting: The Big Event at the James Beard House!

We're Not in Kansas, Toto

We traveled a long way from home...all the way to New York City! We went to the big city to promote our cookbook, Down Home: Downtown, by Jeff Mall (FarmerJeff) and Josh Silvers, along with photos by Alan Campbell, produced and sponsored by Rodney Strong Winery.

Our first stop was the "Green Market" in Union Square. I had scouted out the market when I was in New York in July, so I knew the guys could find some really great "local" produce. Here are some of the fun things we saw.








After shopping with the crowd, off we went to Katz's Deli, a temple to Pastrami, Corned Beef, Kosher Salami and all culinary wonders of the lower East Side. We were so enthralled with the food that we didn't take time to take pictures...we just ate! From there we ducked into Russ and Daughters Appetizers, another famous culinary institution. Being the crazy food people we are...we of course had to get knishes from Yonah Schimmel's famous Knish spot. On we wandered to the Bialy bakery, buying something for breakfast, and then we went off in search of the famous pickle place. Apparently the most famous was closed (sorry...can't remember the name) but ended up at Two Pickle Guys where we purchased many pickled items.

We had a break (shower, check email, make some calls) before we went out again for DINNER! We went to the temple of Cheese, Artisanal. There we ate...cheese! We ordered fondue, cheese and onion and bacon tart, a mushroom and cheese risotto and ended with ...CHEESE! Here are some photos to enjoy!

Down Home: Downtown Cooking Demo

Yes, folks, the new cookbook is OUT! We were lucky to have Rodney Strong Vineyards, Josh Silvers of Syrah Bistro, and Alan Campbell, photographer, as partners in this venture.

The wizard behind it all, Robert Larsen, of Rodney Strong, took this little video clip of Jeff (Mall) and Josh giving a cooking demo at the Windsor Farmers Market.



I hope you enjoy the clip! The cookbooks are available online at Zin Restaurant

Where in the world...?

(The above photo was taken by Alan Campbell at "Site 3", aka The Ruff Garlick Patch, of
Eastside Farm. Thank you, Alan!)

We haven't been on vacation, we haven't been sick, we HAVE been working our A***S OFF!!!

The farm is full to burstin' with corn, peppers, tomatoes, chiles, eggplant and more chiles! We have been picking, taking care of business at both the farm and at our restaurant, ZIN, have been selling at 3 farmers' markets AND catering 2-3 events a week!!!

In the last two weeks we have:
Had a visit from my German girl friend and former co-worker, Miz Julia, seen here with our other former co-worker, Muff.








The next day after this picture was taken, we catered a high end birthday party for 40 in the Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves. It was beautiful!






In addition to catering we have also been picking a lot of produce!!! We are even amazed at all that we have picked! The cherry tomatoes started coming in full force a couple of weeks ago and we are just now beginning to get our full sized tomatoes. The eggplants are starting to show up as are the peppers. The "Great Northern" pickling cucumbers are just flipping out with such a heavy production...we are picking something like 70 pounds every 3 days!!! Thankfully ZIN can take them.

We catered an event at Acorn Winery for their Eastside Bunch Summer Open House (99 degrees in the shade!) and made our fresh B.A.T.'s with Jeff's House-cured and smoked BACON, ZIN Garden at Eastside Farm Arugula, Tomatoes and home-made Focaccia. We also added a little home-grown Basil mayonnaise. YUMMY!!! It went PERFECTLY with their wines!

We were treated to a visit from faithful ZIN customers visiting from Utah for the afore mentioned open house. Apparently they come out every year to the Acorn event and eat at ZIN on their first night in town! Thank you!!! (So sorry, I can't find where I wrote down your names!!!)

The very next day we did another Farmers Market in Windsor and my girlfriend brought her totally darling son with her. He tasted his first raw sugar pearl corn on the cob and LOVED it!!!

I love to introduce kids to fresh produce. During market I give stuff to kids to munch on. It often freaks them out to be handed a strange raw food product, but their parents are amused by it and encourage the kids to at least try it. Every once in a while they will come back after their child realizes, Hey...this tastes good!

Not to be slackers, Jeff also taught a cooking class in our back yard on Friday night with Relish Culinary Adventures. It was an all tomato class, starting with Fried Green Tomatoes and ending with a Red Fig Tomato and Ricotta Cheese tart topped with Yellow Tomato sorbet. It was GOOD!!!

I guess I just wanted to show y'all that we haven't been slackers...although right now that sounds so appealing!!! Tomorrow we rest...right after a couple of meetings and Pilates class!!!

Happy Monday!