Join Edible Santa Barbara at the annual Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival. Stop by our booth to pick up copies of our latest issue (and we'll even have a limited number of back issues to give away), and you can enter our instant drawing for a chance to win some great prizes.

We'll also have many of our writers at our booth, so this is a great opportunity to meet some of the people behind the scenes at Edible Santa Barbara. You can ask questions, tell us your ideas and suggestions for future articles or find out how you can get more involved with Edible Santa Barbara.

The Story on Local Food — Sunday at 1pm

Hear about the stories behind the stories of Edible Santa Barbara at a talk given by Krista Harris with writer Nancy Oster. Join us on Sunday at 1pm at the Live Green Harvest Stage. All attendees will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win some great prizes.

Visit the Edible Santa Barbara booth in the “Live Green” section of Alameda Park near the breezeway on Santa Barbara Street.

When: Schedule of Events 

Saturday, April 20 — 11am-7pm and Sunday, April 21 — 11am-5pm

How: To Get There

Getting to Earth Day has never been easier with all these green methods of transportation

Interviewed by Krista Harris

Tom Colicchio grew up in New Jersey, cooking with his Italian-American mother and grandmother. In 1994 he co-opened the Gramercy Tavern in New York City. In 2001, he opened up Craft. Later, he expanded with Craftbar and ’wichcraft. In 2010 Colicchio was named the nation’s top chef by the James Beard Foundation, one of the most prestigious prizes in the culinary world. He is the author of Think Like a Chef, Craft of Cooking and ’wichcraft.

As the lead judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” Tom has won numerous awards and has served as a mentor to many of the chefs on the series. He will be speaking in Santa Barbara on February 22, 2012, so we took the opportunity to talk to him about his restaurants, politics and—yes, of course—whether there will be another season of “Top Chef.”

“Top Chef” is a big part of why people know you, but it’s just a part of what you do. Tell us about your restaurants. Do you get to cook at your restaurants?

Well, chefs don’t cook in their restaurants. In the same way that if you go to the symphony, the person who gets the billing is really the conductor, but do you expect the conductor to jump into the pit and start playing a violin? No, the conductor is there to make sure that everyone is playing their part, doing things at a certain time. And that’s pretty much how it is for a chef in the kitchen. It’s the chef’s ideas and the chef’s recipes. Depending on how collaborative that chef is he’ll either bring people into that process or not. So the people who are cooking are the cooks—that’s what they do. In any of my restaurants there are usually six cooks working the stoves, there’s usually two people in garde-manger and two people in pastry.

If I’m in my kitchen I’m usually working with the sous-chef who’s calling out the orders, making sure everything is coming up at the right time, making sure that everything is seasoned right. So you’re tasting little bits and pieces of things as they’re being cooked, you’re walking around the kitchen and sometimes you jump in directly when someone gets behind, but you’re not cooking. But I do spend a lot of time in the kitchen—I’m usually not very visible in the front of the house.

I know you like to source food from farmers markets and small family farms. Are there any challenges in doing that at your restaurants?

It’s not that challenging at all, especially now. It’s becoming easier and easier, though using local farms is not a new thing for me. I’ve been doing it for 20-plus years. It’s just part of what we do. We buy local as much as possible, but in New York come December, January and February, you’re not buying local. There’s not much local to buy. In LA we’re buying local all year round, because you can. In Las Vegas we’re buying from mostly California farms. Wherever we open a restaurant, whether we open in Atlanta or Dallas, one of the first things we do is contact as many local suppliers as possible and go out to visit them and talk to them. But how far do you take it? If you’re a locavore in New York, are you using olive oil or oranges?

For me in a restaurant it’s more about supporting small growers—local when possible. It’s the large industrial ag business that we’re trying to avoid, and for so many reasons I try to avoid them. What it’s really all about is supporting the small producer, whether it’s wine, produce or a small producer going out and fishing on a day boat. It’s about taking care of the small family farms and small producers.

And how about ranchers raising livestock?

Yes, to me that’s even the harder part. The problem they have is actually slaughterhouses—there’s so few. What this country needs is more small or mobile slaughterhouses.

And more people entering small farming?

Yes, and this is where I start to get political. I’m very active on the issue of hunger. My wife [Lori Silverbush] and her partner [Kristi Jacobson] are working on a film focusing on domestic hunger. And we feel that there is a role that government plays and one of the biggest issues is what we choose to subsidize in this country: wheat, soy and corn, which go into processed foods. If they would take some of that money and give it to small producers you’d see the price of real food—fruits and vegetables—go down. And that’s a big problem when it comes to hunger.

It’s very easy to point your finger at someone who’s buying chips and soda for their family to eat. Well, that might be all they can afford. If they could afford to buy whole foods, and foods that are obviously healthier and more nutritious, they would. They just can’t afford them or they can’t find them. So to tie that in, I think many small farms go out of business because they can’t compete any more, especially with the cost of land. A land trust that buys development rights can be a great way to go. So farmers can still stay on their land and farm.

Can you tell us more about the film on hunger?

In the last 25 years or so I’ve been involved in raising money for organizations that fight hunger. During that time, we’ve seen the problem just get worse. We’re raising more money and yet the problem keeps growing. So my wife and her partner thought: Would it be possible to change the face of hunger? Too often Americans think of hunger as flies buzzing around the distended stomach of a child in Africa. And yes, that is a major problem in the world, but right here in this country we have people—we have children, we have seniors, we have working families—that are struggling every single day to find food to put on their tables. So we thought that the first thing we could do is really change the face of hunger and show how deep the problem is here.

More than 50 million Americans, one in six, are having a hard time putting food on their table. It’s insane when you think about it—and it’s about 13 million children! You have to ask yourself at a certain point: Is this is the kind thing that we should allow to happen here. We don’t pretend to have the answer. We felt that it was really important for the public to understand the issue, and then to hopefully get behind it and force politicians and force government to address it. And we’re also showing that this is a nonpartisan issue. We all need to address it. Every president since Nixon has promised to do something about it, but nothing’s been done. So, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish with the film. We’re trying to change the narrative. And get people focused on the problem and hopefully come up with some solutions.

You testified at the hearing for the Child Nutrition Act last year. What brought you to become involved and to speak out on this issue?

The School Lunch Program is one of the safety nets. Ironically, it was started back in the 1940s because recruits showing up to fight during World War II were malnourished. My mom ran a school cafeteria. When we tried to get her to retire, she said, “I’m not ready to retire yet because there are a lot of kids who come into my lunchroom, and I know that this is all they eat all day long and I want to make sure they have something healthy.” Some people believe that school lunch should be completely free. There is a book by Janet Poppendiek called Free for All: Fixing School Food in America—a great read if it’s something you’re interested in.

So, there are these days when an average person can go and testify and you can get on the slate and get in there. So I thought, hey, let’s speak up and see if we can make a difference. Unfortunately, we didn’t. I mean, they finally raised the money that they’re giving to school lunches, but it’s woefully inadequate. The president was asking for $10 billion over 10 years and Representative [George] Miller [D-California] sponsored a bill in the House that was for $8 billion over 10 years and the Senate bill was down to $4.5 billion. The real travesty of that was that half of the $4.5 billion came from food stamps. It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s absolutely ridiculous. But this is politics. So at the end I think it came out to about six cents additional for school lunch and it did create more breakfast programs, after-school and summer meals. So that was helpful.

And finally, since we’re already most of the way through season nine of “Top Chef.” Will there be a season 10?

I’m sure there will be. There’s talk of a season 10 already.

Well Bread Rises on the Pedigree of Passion

by Nancy Oster

Photography by Jeffrey Bloom

At 7:30 on a frosty winter morning I’m standing with Bob Oswaks of Well Bread in LA (Los Alamos) as he draws a freshly baked loaf of bread from the wood-burning oven at Full of Life Flatbread and measures the internal temperature of the loaf. The smell of baking bread fills the room and beams of morning sunlight stream through the cold windows onto the oven. I can feel the magic.

“Look at the color of this crust,” Bob says. It’s a deep reddish brown, lighter in the scored crevices that opened up during baking. This is the sign of good oven spring (a bursty rise just before the crust begins to set and harden). The edges of the score are sharp and crisply darkened. They will add a nice crunch to the slice. Our first six loaves go onto racks for cooling.

Perfectly baked bread sings as it cools. In the final shaping yesterday Bob rounded each loaf, pulling the outer layer taut. Tiny bubbles form and bake into the crust’s surface. As the crust cools, it contracts and crackles. These loaves are singing.

Bread Baking Choreography

Meanwhile he moves six more loaves from their proofing baskets into hot two-part cast-iron combo cookers, scores them and puts them onto the platforms in the oven to bake covered for 20 minutes.

That gives us time to go turn the 75 pounds of dough we mixed at 5am—bread that will be baked tomorrow. Turning means reaching into the bulk fermentation tubs to grab one end of the dough, stretch it upward and pull it forward then press it down. The levain (wild yeast starter) is working. Our dough is puffy, satiny smooth and cool to the touch. It feels alive. We give each tub a turn and repeat three more times (to stretch and fold each edge). Bob pats the dough approvingly before closing the lids on the tubs. Tomorrow Bob will use this dough to bake 22 loaves of country sourdough and 11 loaves of olive bread.

The timer alerts us that it’s time to remove the cast-iron pans that cover each bread—the steaming phase has ended and the browning phase begins. For even browning, Bob must pay close attention now and rotate the loaves so the side closest to the fire doesn’t burn. Eight loaves will fit into the oven at a time but six are easier to manage during this phase.

At this point in the morning, the Full of Life workers begin to arrive to prepare ingredients for tonight’s restaurant meals and catering events scheduled for the weekend. They are rounding pizza dough for its final proofing as our last loaves come out of the oven so we grab a knife to cut and sample some cooled bread while they finish up at the table we will use to shape tomorrow’s loaves.

As Bob cuts through the crust, crispy shards fly into the air. Spectacular! Bob picks up the cut loaf, cups it in his hands and breathes in the aroma. The promise of sweet, complex flavor is revealed in the fragrance of the creamy white crumb inside.

Real bread doesn’t need butter. This is the kind of bread that makes you stop whatever you were doing or thinking to focus on its exquisite flavor and texture, chewing slowly to make it last. A nourishing flavor balance of salt and caramelized grains, and a moist creamy crumb with the crunchy contrast of the crust makes this bread feel like the perfect food.

Becoming a One-Man Boulangerie

For 30 years Bob has been a marketing executive in the entertainment industry, most recently as marketing president for Sony Pictures Television. He managed a 70-person worldwide team, marketing programs like “Seinfeld,” the “Dr. Oz Show,” “Breaking Bad,” “Drop Dead Diva,” “Justified,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” “Days of Our Lives,” “The Young and Restless” and “The Nate Berkus Show.” His previous experience includes work for Norman Lear, Paramount Pictures and Orion Pictures.

While Bob and his wife, Jane, were living in Los Angeles, Bob had a woodburning oven built in their backyard as an anniversary gift. Discovering that it took about eight hours to heat the oven to cook a pizza in 90 seconds, he began to branch out, cooking other things with the residual heat. He also tried some bread. His first results were not real successful, but he kept working on it.

Bob left Sony during the recession. “My initial reaction was to look for a job doing exactly what I’d done for the past 30 years,” he says, “because marketing was what I knew.” But after a while he thought, “I’ve got to do something between sending out resumes and waiting for a call.”

Bob and Jane had a weekend home in Los Alamos. On one visit to Los Alamos he told Flatbread owner Clark Staub about his bread-making experiences. Clark gave Bob a copy of Chad Robertson’s book Tartine Bread and some sourdough starter. Bob says, “My bread came out amazing.” Even his brother said, “This is the best bread I’ve ever eaten.” That was the turning point.

He began experiments on how often to feed the starter and carefully observed differences when he made it in Los Angeles versus Los Alamos, in hot weather versus cold, on humid days versus dry. He developed his own techniques and began taking bread orders from friends.

When Prince William and Kate came to a charity event in Santa Barbara, Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis asked Bob to bake the bread for the event. He rented commercial kitchen space in Pasadena and with his brother’s help made and delivered 100 loaves of bread to the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club.

Bob started thinking maybe he should try using his marketing skills in this new venture, so he hired a consultant friend to help him put together a business plan. When Clark offered to let him bake at Full of Life Flatbread in exchange making breads for the restaurant, Bob began his current schedule of baking three days a week. He also bakes for special events and has other regular customers such as Bell Street Farm, Café Quackenbush, Succulent Café and Trading Company and Trattoria Grappola.

On his map for the future is finding a location in Los Alamos to open his own bricks and mortar bakery to keep pace with demand. He also gets orders from tasting rooms in the area such as Casa Dumetz, Zaca Mesa, Palmina, Brander, Koehler and Curtis. He says, “This speaks to the authenticity of the Valley and the relationship between the bread and wine.” The breads and wine complement each other well and both the wine grapes and bread starter reflect the unique terroir of the Valley.

Becoming a bread baker isn’t what he had planned, but he says, “I enjoy the process, touching the dough and taking in its aroma, molding it into loaves and baking it. It’s magical when you make something with your own hands.”

Bob and Jane sold their house in Los Angeles and now live in Orcutt. Instead of fighting early morning Los Angeles traffic, he stokes the fire at Flatbread, makes himself a coffee and puts on a little jazz to prepare for a morning of making bread—tapping into the ancient art of mixing together flour, water and salt then baking it over fire.

Resources:

WellBreadinLA.com

310 200-9194

We are excited to announce an additional panel discussion on Sunday "Building Local Communities Through Farming and Ranching." We'll hear from a group of young, activist farmers: Noey Turk, Elizabeth Poett, Guner Tautrim, and Robert Abbott about their role in our community.

We also have a wine tasting on Sunday with Rick Longoria of Longoria Wines, Chris King of De Su Propia Cosecha and Dave Potter of Municipal Winemakers. What a great way to wrap up the conference with a group of talented winemakers and clinking our glasses together with some great wine!

And finally we want to share this list of all the wonderful sponsors who have helped make this year's Edible Institute possible. We could not do this without their help and support, and we are honored to have such terrific support from this community.

Early strawberries are improved by this method and in-season dead-ripe strawberries become ambrosial. You also get your dessert and after-dinner wine in one dish. Local Pinot Noir pairs very well with strawberries, but you can also successfully substitute other types of red wine. Choose a wine that you enjoy drinking. The wine is not cooked, so you are essentially drinking this wine. And it pairs well with more of the same. You can easily double this recipe, making it an excellent dinner party dish.

Makes 2–4 servings

• 1 pint strawberries
• 1 cup red wine (Pinot Noir or another red wine)
• 1⁄8  to 1⁄4 cup unbleached granulated sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste (optional)

Trim and cut the berries in half, or in quarters if they are large. Combine them in a medium bowl with the sugar and then pour the wine over them and let macerate at room temperature for no more than 1 hour. Serve in a bowl or wine glass along with the wine and, if desired, a touch of freshly ground pepper. It is also excellent served with sorbet or as an accompaniment to the Wine Cake.

Cover photo by Fran Collin

Edible Santa Barbara

TABLE OF CONTENTS

For access to the full magazine, please subscribe or pick up a copy from one of our advertisers.

Departments

Food for Thought

Edible Notables

• The Baker's Table
• Pali Wine Co.
• Alchemy Vinegar Works
• Genuine Bread Co.
• Taste
• Vertical Tasting: Zaca Mesa

Edible Notable: 2012 Local Hero Winners

In Season

Seasonal Recipes

• Strawberries in Pinot Noir
• Wine Cake
• Blueberry Coconut Pancakes

Recipe from the Vine: Domades

Edible Garden: Growing Grapes

Edible Conversation: And Interview with Alice Waters

Edible Books: The Wine Library

A Walk in the Vineyard With Chris Hammell

For Love of Pinot in the Sta. Rita Hills

Zaca University

The Art in Artisan

Finding Harmony in the Natural Notes

Breaking into Bread

Grapeseeds and Vinotherapy

The Wine Infused

Event Calendar

Dining Guide

Source Guide and Maps

The Last Bite: Local Heroes 2013 and Edible Institute 2013

Recipes in This Issue

Appetizers and Salads

Dolmades: Stuffed Grape Leaves

Spring Salad with Goat Cheese Crostini and a Red Wine-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Main Dishes

Poached/Roasted White Fish with Meyer Lemons and White Wine

Desserts

Poached Apricots in Late-Harvest Riesling

Strawberries in Pinot Noir

Wine Cake

Body Product Recipes

Chocolate Scrub

Honey Brown Sugar Lip Scrub

Luscious Lavender Almond Honey Facial

by Nancy Oster

Millions of people in the United States live their lives in darkness. But do the rest of us really know what that means? Probably not. Even when we get up at night, we have moonlight, city lights and nightlights to guide us to the nearest wall switch. Playing Blind Man’s Bluff as kids is probably the closest most of us have come to the challenge of not being able to see where we are going or what we are doing.

With that in mind, the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) has incorporated Dining in the Dark dinners into their awareness and fundraising program.

The world’s leading private source of retinal disease research funding, FFB invests nearly 80% of their donations directly into research and public education. Their U.S. recipients include Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and many UC campuses including the Neuroscience Research Institute and the Retinal Cell Biology Lab at UCSB.  They also support research projects in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and Israel.

Santa Barbara is home to one of 50 volunteer-led chapters across the country. On January 24, 2013, our local FFB held its first Santa Barbara Dining in the Dark dinner at the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort.

I was seated at Table 5. On my right was Joe Vega, a local optician and to my left sat Marilyn Robinson, a businesswoman and longtime Santa Barbara resident. Across the table K.C. Wash introduced himself, his daughter Lily, and his wife Rhonda. Seated on K.C.’s right was Melissa Walker, a reporter for Noozhawk.

Gerd Jordano (Photo: Madeleine Vite)

Emcee Gerd Jordano welcomed us saying, “This will be a unique and unforgettable dining experience. During the entrée portion of the meal, you’ll be using only your senses of smell, sound, taste, and touch.”

Poached Pear with Goat Cheese Salad

Fortunately our salad course was served and eaten with the lights on. Our first challenge, however, was to figure out which of three forks to use. Since the new season of Downton Abbey includes a scene on silverware placement, Abbey watchers quickly agreed on the proper fork so we could move ahead. Noting the items on our plates, I was glad we had the lights on for this course.

While we ate, Jim Minow, FFB’s Chief Development Officer told us about some of the advances in research that FFB has helped to fund with the half billion dollars they have raised since their formation in 1971. These include a chip mounted at the back of the eye that brings digital vision to the eye, the slowing of vision loss through a vitamin and nutritional regimen or the implantation of a protein-dispensing capsule in the eye, the creation of a rudimentary retina using stem cells taken from the patient’s skin (research done at UCSB) and gene therapy that has already restored sight to 40 individuals.

The retina is the delicate light-sensing tissue lining the back inside wall of the eye. Photoreceptor cells in the retina convey information from the visual field to the brain. Clinical trials in progress hold promise for future prevention, treatment, and cure of retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, and Usher syndrome. Gene therapy offers the hope that even inherited disease can be treated by replacing dysfunctional genes with good genes.

The evening also offered FFB an opportunity to present Visionary Awards to community members Mary Romo and Dr. David Winter. Mary Romo has Stargardt disease, an inherited juvenile form of gradual macular degeneration. Dr. David Winter, former president of Westmont College, lost sight in both eyes about 15 years ago when his optic nerve suddenly and unexpectedly failed to function. Both recipients are inspirational as active highly functional community members in spite of their vision loss.

Mary Romo Receives Visionary Award from Sally Hamilton (Photo: Madeleine Vite)

Mary Romo talked briefly about the lack of treatment for her condition when she was diagnosed 50 years ago at USC. She then introduced Meghan Downing, the 11-year old daughter of a close friend. Meghan was recently diagnosed with Stargardt Disease. Mary told us “Meghan has a much more hopeful outlook than I did because of the research.”

Dr. David Winter Receives Visionary Award from Dr. Edward Birch (Photo: Madeleine Vite)

Anticipating our introduction to navigating our plates in the dark, Dr. Winter shared a story about eating in public shortly after losing his sight. Focused on just balancing the food on his fork he accidentally popped a whole pat of butter into his mouth, cardboard, paper and all. The solution? He discretely removed the paper and cardboard, then found a roll to eat with his butter.

Quoting M. Scott Peck in A Road Less Traveled, Dr. Winter said, “Life is hard.” Understanding that, he said he has learned that it’s not what happens to you that defines your character, it’s how you respond to life’s challenges. And with that he expressed gratitude for the support he has received from his friends and community.

And now it was time for the main course. Gerd gave us instructions. No cell phone lights or light of any kind. Each table has one chair with a tab attached to the back. Do not remove or cover it. Ropes and stanchions are being set up to guide our low- to no-vision servers to the tables. The tab on the back of the chair will help orient them as they serve our food. Exit lights will be off. Ask the server for help if you need to leave the room.

Servers Use Rope System to Navigate the Room (Photo: Madeleine Vite)

Gerd began the countdown, “Five, four, three, two, one” and the lights went out. As we waited for our plates to arrive we felt around for silverware, wine glass and water glass. Rhonda figured out how to fill a wine glass in the dark and offered to pour for anyone who needed more wine. I leaned over and touched Marilyn on the arm. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks. You feel kind of alone in the dark,” she said.

Our server Margarita Campillo introduced herself and began serving our entrees. Margarita started losing her vision 11 years ago from glaucoma. She is now totally blind, full of energy, and quick to laugh. Looking in her direction (he hoped) Joe said, “Can I ask what’s on the plate?”

“Surprises,” she said. Margarita touched my arm and put my plate down in front of me. Armed with fork and knife I found something large and firm at the center of the plate and began to cut.

“Is this chicken or fish?” Marilyn asked. I finally took a bite after turning my knife over so the blade side was doing the cutting. We decided it was chicken.

All of us were experiencing empty fork syndrome. Joe recommended using the knife to help push the food onto the fork. Most of us admitted to using our fingers to pick up the broccoli.

“What’s the long skinny thing?” Lily asked.

“A carrot,” Marilyn replied. I found a whole baked tomato and someone else discovered the scalloped potatoes. The sound of forks tapping against the plates indicated that not everyone had resorted to using their fingers. I personally was afraid if I set down my silverware I’d never find it again.

“You could sneak something off someone else’s plate and they’d never know,” Marilyn told me. And in fact when the lights came on K.C. found an extra tomato on his plate, quietly put there by his daughter Lily.

Joe’s Empty Plate

Joe got the award for the cleanest plate and I didn’t find any extra items on mine so I guess he really did eat it all. Joe said he was glad that we all communicated with each other during the meal and helped each other out.

Now it was time for dessert and coffee. After two courses that included goat cheese (not her favorite) Marilyn hoped our dessert would not include goat cheese.

Dessert

No, that’s not goat cheesecake. During dessert K.C. and Joe told us about the upcoming VisionWalk on April 13, 2013. K.C.’s daughter Lily was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa about 6 years ago and FFB has helped the family find treatment to slow the progress of the disease. Joe and the Wash family are co-chairs of the event, which raises money for FFB research.

The VisionWalk will begin at the Chase Palm Park Carousel Pavilion at 9 am with activities for children, music, and refreshments. Participants form teams and request donations in honor of their team. The first year, Lily’s team raised over $3000 in just 3 weeks. This will be the 3rd annual VisionWalk for Santa Barbara. The fundraising goal for this year’s walk is $50,000.

Joe Vega says the VisionWalk provides another way to help our friends and neighbors with retinal disease meet these challenges with support from their community.

Dr. Greg Olsen, Kathy Ireland and Bob Bason (Photo: Madeleine Vite)

Closing speakers Dr. Greg Olsen, Kathy Ireland and Bob Bason gave their personal thanks to attendees and encouraged future support for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Bob Bason added his recommendation to do the dinner again next year, “but serve spaghetti.”