![]() We had few resources for butchering, so we had to figure it out, and then to make money, we had to learn how to use all the parts in a restaurant way.” Duskie Estes with one of her rabbits at her home in Forestville. Except at zazu, farmers came in with whole pigs. “Tom worked with farmers, and we liked that. “We’d been chefs in big cities who just ordered food,” said Stewart, who catered Bill Gates’ wedding in 1994. Stewart had grown up in New York, Estes in San Francisco. (Photo by Erik Castro)īut flash back to 1997, when Stewart, now 48, and Estes, now 47, met while working together at the acclaimed Tom Douglas collection of restaurants in Seattle. The potbelly pig known as “Lucky Precious Piggy Pop Nugget” at the home of John Stewart and Duskie Estes in Forestville. (Photo by Erik Castro)Īnd they’re constantly experimenting, from a new lip balm called Lip Lardo (made with their own pig lard, grapeseed and avocado oils, beeswax, avocado and shea butters, and almond extract), to a Lard Lather soap, to a prototype of bacon Pop Rocks, which Estes acknowledges may die a snap-crackle death because “they smell like feet.” Wood-fire roasted pork loin from Front Porch Farms and Santa Rosa plumbs served with a arugula and squash blossom salad next to an iron skillet of wood-fire roasted shishito peppers with Marcona almonds and shavings of Pennyroyal Farm Boont Corners cheese at the home of John Stewart and Duskie Estes in Forestville. In fact, Estes was a vegetarian for 23 years until zazu came along. After so many years, it’s still the stuff of wonder for Estes and Stewart, who admit that before moving to Sonoma in 2000, their pork came from packages delivered by a food-service company. Step three: Build a “pig palace” in the backyard (complete with a rain shower to keep the piggies cool), raise the creatures on a luxury organic diet, then humanely slaughter them and butcher in your very own USDA certified kitchen. Step two: Cut through red tape to procure the animals. Step one: Find some rare, European heritage-breed Mangalitsa piglets. Yet sketching one of their recipes actually goes like this: Duskie Estes tasting her wood-fired roasted shishito peppers with Marcona almonds and shavings of Pennyroyal Farm Boont Corners cheese alongside an arugula salad at her home in Forestville. The only positive thing to say is that the burger was good.It’s soul-warming fare in a rustic, California-Mediterranean style. At the end we decided to stay, although we considered this behaviour really unprofessional. When we arrived, there was no performance at all, only a soccer game on tv. We then talked to the waiter to know if there was a place inside (as we planned this dinner there in order to be entertained) and she tried to call the other location in Aragon, where they had our table inside: they assured us that they had performances also there so we decided to go there. The waiter told us that Terrace in Spain means on the street, but no one ever told us that and anyway you couldn’t hear the music. When we arrived at Alameda, we discovered that the “Terrace” was a table alone on the street, without any decoration and completely outside of the restaurant: you could never hear some music or anything. Therefore, we decided to book a table to be sure to have dinner also at Alameda: they had only space in the Terrace, which was fine for us, as long as we could hear music and see the performances. At the end, the waiter in Aragon told us he reserved a table but to call back for confirmation: no one never answered. We tried to call both locations 20 times as most of the time no one was answering or no one spoke English. As we knew we were going to be Valencia from Saturday to Tuesday, we decided to book a table at Zazu on Sunday night in order to see an “animated” dinner. ![]() We had many problems with Zazu, both the restaurant Alameda and the restaurant Aragon.
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