x

Mountain menu: Fans of Nepalese cuisine have something to rave about with the advent of Himalayan Chhahari in downtown Santa Rosa. Pictured are chef/owner Raju Mothe, Yagya Shrestha, and Sujana Shrestha.

Taste Trek

Savor the exotic at Himalayan Chhahari

By Paula Harris

THERE’S NOTHING like traveling to foreign parts vicariously through the simple act of eating at ethnic restaurants, where a mere menu can become your passport to exotic sights, textures, aromas, and flavors.

While I was growing up in London in the 1970s, the United States was considered the coolest place on earth and American food was the most exotic of all. The high school kids in my class took to wearing jeans, sneakers, and T-shirts emblazoned with that annoying swirly red Coca-Cola motif. They snapped bubble gum and devoured American Graffiti at the cinema.

A new place opened up in my residential London neighborhood–a real American restaurant! The first we’d ever seen. It was a glitzy place called W.C. Fields, and the walls were covered with photos of the drawling comedian.

Every Thursday night, my friends and I would frequent this combination burger joint/deli/soda fountain. We’d dine on novel items like crispy potato skins, Buffalo wings, chili-cheese burgers, and strawberry shortcake. We’d dream we were in L.A. or the Big Apple.

Of course, now that I’ve lived in the states for many years–those items have lost their mysterious allure. But I’m constantly on the lookout for other unusual eateries that can take those trusty old taste buds on tour.

When Himalayan Sherpa Cuisine, a small, no-frills eatery opened on the outskirts of Glen Ellen a couple of years ago, the place really satisfied this culinary wanderlust. The scene featured Himalayan posters and artifacts, haunting bell-like music, and hearty dishes bursting with unusual flavors. When the Sherpa owners brought us steaming cups of fortifying milky chai tea–redolent with cardamom, cloves, and fresh ginger, on a freezing day after a long hike in Jack London Park one afternoon–we closed our eyes, inhaled the scents, and imagined we’d successfully reached Base Camp.

The Sherpa place closed last year, but our addiction to the colorful diverse Nepali cuisine, which uses tantalizing flavorings like cumin, cardamom, green, and red chilies, garlic, ginger, fenugreek, Szechwan peppers, and scallions, was as strong as ever.

A Santa Rosa restaurant called Katmandu Kitchen opened about the same time as Himalayan Sherpa Cuisine and featured Indian and Nepali cooking, but never reached the culinary level of the Himalayan Sherpa Cuisine restaurant.

Now, that too, has closed and a new Nepali restaurant has been born in its location.

Photo by Michael Amsler

Himalayan Chhahari is a casual, comfortable place with friendly service. A new carpet, fabric-covered archways, and red-painted wall trim give a warm effect. There are posters of Nepal on the walls, and sitar music plays softly on the sound system. Diners can be seated either at regular tables or (more interestingly) on the floor, sans shoes.

The wine list is minimal and not properly described on the menu, so stick to imported Indian beers, like Kingfisher or Taj Majal ($3).

Appetizers include momo ($4.25), steamed dumplings stuffed with ground chicken and herbs served with tomato pickle. Although these are pretty good, we’d like to see a vegetarian version also on the menu, such as the tasty spinach-cabbage momo served at the defunct Sherpa place.

The alu chap ($3), deep-fried mashed potato with chopped onion and cilantro served with sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce is a mouthwatering appetizer that smells as good as it tastes.

We sampled an array of curries: mixed vegetable curry ($7.50), including carrots, green beans, and broccoli; chicken curry ($8.95) with onion gravy, tomato and ginger; and fish curry ($11.95), described as red snapper cooked in a rich curry sauce, but actually large chunks of moist salmon.

But all the curries were too tame. For example, the fish curry would have been more exciting livened up with some ginger, whole spices, and scallions.

The chana ko dal ($6.95), a dish of garbanzo beans cooked in olive oil with fresh minced ginger and garlic, which has a souplike consistency, is very satisfying and flavorful.

Another winner was the fantastic garlic nan bread ($1.75), fluffy pillows that are cooked in the tandoor oven and emerging dry and deliciously chewy.

For dessert, try the kulfi ($2.50), homemade Nepali-style ice cream with raisins. It has an unusual icy-custard texture. Or try the kheer ($2.95), a mildly sweet rice pudding with a slight rosewater flavor prepared with coconut, raisins, cashews, cinnamon, and cardamom.

THE LUNCH BUFFET is an unbeatable bargain. For $5.95, you can load your plate (as many times as you like) with smoky succulent tandoori chicken; steamed basmati rice; chicken curry; garbanzo beans; lentils with whole spices; cauliflower and potatoes cooked with tumeric; and red potato and yellow squash curry. Plus green salad, nan bread and an assortment of interesting condiments, including mango chutney, cucumber raita, hot green chili and mint sauce, and sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce.

And while the food in general tastes far less complex than the old Sherpa Cuisine restaurant, Himalayan Chhahari chef Rajul Mothey is so pleasant and accommodating, we’re sure he’ll spice up the dishes on request to send you on that culinary journey.

Himalayan Chhahari Address: 535 Ross St., Santa Rosa; 579-8471 Hours: Lunch, Sunday-Friday, noon to 2:30 p.m.; dinner, daily, 5 to 9:30 p.m. Food: Dishes from Nepal and India Service: Proficient Ambiance: Casual with table or floor seating Price: Inexpensive to moderate with bargain lunch buffet Wine list: Minimal selection Overall: 2 1/2 stars (out of 4), dinner; 3 stars, lunch

From the January 27-February 2, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Vision quest: Martha Lopez lends a personal touch to the upscale Mexican cuisine at her popular west county establishment.

On Her Own

Sebastopol restaurateur Martha Lopez finds a place to play house

By Marina Wolf

CHEFING is a transient business. There’s always a better gig at the new place down the street, better pay in the next town over. Ask around, and you’ll be lucky to find a chef who’s been in the same place for three years, let alone 35, as Martha Lopez had at her family’s restaurant, the popular Old Mexico in Santa Rosa, before opening her own place, Martha’s, in Sebastopol.

Lopez is nonchalant about the three and a half decades she spent working and cooking with her family, at the restaurant that their parents opened in 1964, soon after they arrived in the county from Michoacan, Mexico. “I was raised to do this,” she says in a rare moment of relaxation on the green-covered patio behind the cozy new space on Main Street. “I had no other choice. It was my father’s choice,” she says with not a trace of bitterness. “I don’t know what else I might have done.

“I have always done this.”

Lopez’s longtime compliance with her family’s wishes might be startling to Anglo-Americans, who usually want to flee the nest long before it’s a legal possibility. But to Lopez it’s simply the sign of a close family and good household economics. There are six children in the family–“My father had a good source of labor,” says Lopez with a chuckle–and all of them are still working in the family restaurant.

All except Martha.

“They’re not too happy, none of them,” says Lopez with a small shrug. “Because when part of the family leaves, the right hand, you know . . . Because I was one of the oldest, I had more responsibilities. I think the boys will have to pick up some of the duties.”

The “boys,” as she calls her four brothers affectionately, are all in their 30s, and Lopez is confident that they’ll soon fill in the space left by her departure. “They saw what I did,” she explains, “as I saw what my father did.”

THAT STOVE-SIDE training provided Lopez with a well-rounded education, as far as these things go. Lopez’s father did some of everything in the kitchen, and loved it, both at home and in the restaurant. Of course, in Mexico both are often the same place. “There you cook everything in your house, set a table outside, and serve it out like you were at home,” she says.

While U.S. health codes prohibit that exact sort of homeliness, the Lopez family did manage to reproduce the same feel at Old Mexico. Everyone was there, all the time. Ever since she’d finished high school and cosmetology school, Lopez had worked like the rest of them: six days a week, 14 to 16 hours a day.

She doesn’t complain; it was just part of being in the family.

Lopez hasn’t seen her family much since Martha’s opened on Nov. 1; neither she nor her family has the time. The most she has to look forward to is the standard set of American family holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter. The fact that she owns her own home in Santa Rosa makes the separation that much more complete. She has no husband, as her mother did, to take a shift at the restaurant’s stove, and no children to come home after school and help out in the kitchen.

BUT SOME TRADITIONS die hard. Lopez is still working with family: cousin Martha Lobato, who had worked at Old Mexico for 14 years, joined her elder cousin in the Sebastopol venture as hostess and server. Lopez and Lobato are also sharing a home, with Lobato’s two grown sons, who do sometimes come in to help on the weekends.

It reproduces the feel of her old family situation, in miniature.

Certainly the work environment has been downsized. “The first two weeks working in the kitchen, I was banging myself on the corners because I was not used to working in such a small place,” says Lopez. Small indeed: Martha’s will have maybe 17 tables during the summer, when the patio is open. There’s half that many now. Old Mexico, on the other hand, seats about 200 people, including those in the party room, for a total of 50 tables or more. “This is nothing; it’s like a playhouse for me.”

But at least the playhouse is all hers. “I like my independence,” Lopez says, folding her hands together firmly. “Working with the family, you have to go by Father’s rules, and have people tell you what to do, when you know what to do. Getting to decide for myself was the best thing about leaving.”

And it’s not just the sun-backed chairs and the arrangement of the condiments in the kitchen that Lopez can decide about. She’s got more latitude now to play with the ingredients, which she pulls from both her native Michoacan and her California home.

In a cuisine that, in this country, tends toward steam-table sameness, and in a city that already had one Mexican restaurant per thousand people, the young Martha’s restaurant is already serving regulars who appreciate the low price and freshness of Lopez’s approach.

“I’m not going to say my food is that different, but it has my own touch, in every plate.” She is particularly proud of her salad dressing, a creamy avocado sauce that she says came to her in a dream.

But still, after 35 years, why the sudden decision to strike out on her own? “Well, it was a challenge for me. After working for my family for 35 years, I kind of said, ‘I want something else.’ I’m 48 years old, so I had to do it while I still had the strength to do something like this on my own.”

From the January 27-February 2, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Watching the kettle: Instructor Jay Harlow (center) gives pointers to aspiring cooks Jeff Williams and Steve Hoeft over a bubbling cauldron of minestrone.

Somethin’ Cookin’

A daylong visit to Ramekins, a visionary new culinary school that caters to kitchen-savvy home cooks and eager amateurs

A MIGHTY HISS of steam billows up from the gargantuan stove as a herd of white-apron- clad students stand about in a loose semi-circle. They stretch up on tiptoes, eyes wide with appreciation as instructor Jay Harlow expertly tosses chicken breasts onto the waiting fire. Knives of all sizes lie about the room, along with the boned remains of numerous chickens.

Bowls of chopped-and-diced-and-julienned carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, potatoes, and chard, alongside several platters of glistening marinated chicken, stand waiting on a table nearby, where one student, a young gentleman with a very sharp knife, is methodically slicing a cucumber, his forehead furrowed in happy concentration. Harlow–the bestselling author of West Coast Seafood and Beer Cuisine–after exhorting the class to “come on back and grab a chicken breast,” glides over to encourage the hard-working knife-wielder.

“Still practicing?” he says, taking in the rising pile of cut vegetables. “Excellent work. Looks good.” Then he’s off to oversee the ongoing chicken preparations and to cheer on his students as they carefully apply all those vegetables to a massive, bubbling cauldron of minestrone. Weaving through the students, he now tackles the making of dessert: a rainbow-colored cranberry and citrus compote. “Stir the fruit gently,” coaches Harlow, peering over as the fruit mixture simmers on the stove.

“If you listen carefully, you can hear the cranberries popping.”

Everyone falls quiet, ears trained forward, listening for the sound of exploding berries. When it happens–a series of soft, liquidy snaps–an audible sigh of delight moves through the room, mingling with the sounds of overhead fans, banging pots, and clanking utensils.

And so goes a typical day at Ramekins Sonoma Valley Culinary School.

A singularly remarkable, noticeably whimsical training facility for experienced home cooks and complete novices, Ramekins–the brainchild of General’s Daughter restaurant owner Suzanne Brangham–opened its spoon-handled doors just 18 months ago, in a unique custom-designed rammed-earth building (based on an architectural method that employs vast amounts of compressed clay and soil, but no wood in its basic structure). From the beginning, Ramekins was a certified culinary phenomenon, attracting students and tourists from across the country, while drawing the enthusiastic praise–and the teaching services–of renowned cookbook authors and four-star celebrity chefs from around the world. This morning’s class, called “Knife Skills with Jay Harlow,” is one of Ramekins’ hands-on classes, in which the students–both men and women, mostly non-professional, ranging in age from fresh-faced teens to seasoned seniors–are invited to work side by side with the instructor, sharpening their skills while preparing a complete meal in the school’s bright, light-filled kitchen.

Harlow’s class–now chopping and slicing and sizzling and simmering its way to an end, just in time for lunch–is today’s morning offering; across the hall, in the gorgeous demonstration kitchen-theater, author Michele Anna Jordan is already at work preparing for her sold-out afternoon session, titled “Risotto for Winter.” As Harlow congratulates his students on a job well done, they return the compliment with a warm round of applause.

Then it’s out to the dining room to taste the fruits of their labor.

In the kitchen: Steve Mailho sniffs a sauce while Jay Bolton looks on.

A RAMEKIN–as any self-respecting foodie will tell you–is a small fluted French baking crock, great for baking but most commonly used, these days, to hold butter and jam. They are inexpensive devices, unpretentious, handy and useful, lightweight and easy to pick up and carry with you. As metaphors go, the simple ramekin was a perfect, if not immediately obvious, symbol of Brangham’s user-friendly vision for the new school. That the funny little word bears an auditory resemblance to the term “rammed”–as in “rammed-earth” architecture–added rhyme and reason to Brangham’s decision to name the place Ramekins.

Located in downtown Sonoma–in the midst of the wine country–the school has seen a dramatic increase in applicants from outside the area. According to culinary director Bob Nemerovski, only about a third of Ramekins’ students are from Sonoma County, with another third hailing from Marin County and San Francisco and “parts south of San Jose.”

The remaining students are, basically, from everywhere else, a development that Brangham and Nemerovski never expected, but prepared for just in case. Along with the school and the classes, priced at $40 and up, Ramekins’ other attraction is a plush five-room bed-and-breakfast operation–including a regal chef’s suite for visiting celebrities–located in the upstairs portion of the building, arrived at via a typical Brangham invention: a stairway with a spindled banister made of green wooden asparagus stalks. Throughout, every detail giggles whimsy as it whispers elegance.

“Well, we believe in treating people well,” says Nemerovski.

The bivalved heart of Ramekins, of course, is the twin kitchen facility, where chefs such as Mollie Katzen, John Ash, Gary Danko, Narsai David, Mark Miller (Coyote Cafe) and Joyce Goldstein have blended their expertise with Nemerovski’s distinct philosophy; namely, that a cooking class should be part education, part entertainment–and should always end with really good food. “Since putting out our second catalog of classes,” Nemerovski says, “there are very few chefs who, when I call to invite them to teach at Ramekins, say, ‘Who? What’s Ramekins?’ Now they just say, ‘When should I be there?'”

“IT’S A WONDERFUL PLACE, a wonderful facility,” says Harlow, getting the buffet line to dish up the chow his class just created: sautéed chicken breasts with Madeira sauce, classic minestrone, and tossed green salad. Dessert will be served later by Ramekins’ attentive staff of helpers, under the direction of assistant manager and host Andrea Koweek, now busy pouring wine, red and white, at each of the students’ dining tables. Harlow, who’s been teaching at Ramekins since it first opened, is clearly enamored of the place. “Some cooking schools, especially those aimed at professional chefs, are very stuffy,” he says. “But Ramekins is organized with the belief that cooking should be fun. Ask anyone who was here today. These people had fun.”

That is immediately obvious. Throughout the enormous, peak-ceilinged dining room–packed with such Brangham touches as a hearth-side coffee table with many large bananas reclining under the glass top–the energy level is that of a rock concert crowd immediately after the show. “I’m just grateful I didn’t cut myself,” laughs Jeff Williams, one of the “Knife Skills” students, now carrying his plate to a nearby table. “I always feel exhilarated after a class,” says Nancy Vizi, who counts herself as a Ramekins regular. “I love it. Afterwards, I don’t want to stop talking about how much fun it is.”

Brangham stops in to chat with Harlow, and makes sure to quiz the students on their experience. Then she makes a shocking confession. “I love food, but I don’t know how to cook,” she admits with a laugh. “I have a few more projects on the table; then I’ve promised myself I’m going to take a few cooking classes myself.”

Photograph by Michael Amsler

TODAY’S morning class, with its even blend of male and female students, is fairly typical of Harlow’s past offerings. “Jay gets a good mix of men and women,” says Koweek, who elaborates, “We’re getting more and more husband-and-wife teams coming in for classes, though pastry classes still tend to skew female while sausage-making workshops always tend to skew male.”

Adds Nemorovski, “This one guy came in recently and said, ‘All right, I don’t know who you are, I’ve never been here before, but I’m glad my wife is interested in you rather than in Ricky Martin. She left your catalog in the bathroom, she’s dog-eared the pages, and she’s circled the dates. I decided I’d better take the hint,’ and he bought those classes for her. Now they’re both big fans.”

Joanne Weir, host of PBS’ Weir Cooking in the Wine Country, is another big fan of Ramekins.

On-site this week for a special program–in which she worked with a dozen professional chefs, not Ramekins’ main clientele, but a group that was instantly enamored of the school’s facilities–has taught at the school a number of times. “Aside from the staff and the facility itself,” she says, “I always find that the students are almost always just wonderful. They are savvy and intelligent, and they are interested and eager. And they are clearly here to have a good time.”

Weir, who’ll be back in March for a spring cooking class, has seen a strong national trend toward cooking schools, with many grocery store chains installing teaching facilities and running classes on the side. “It’s the next big thing in entertainment,” she says, “and Ramekins knows that.

“Above all, they know how to put on a really good show.”

Photograph by Michael Amsler

IT’S SHOW TIME in the demonstration theater, and the students–the audience–have taken their seats, three to a table, each table preset with cutlery, wine glasses, and packets of recipes and instructions. Every seat affords a clear view of the kitchen “stage”–with video monitors showing the stovetop and an overhead mirror revealing events on the counter–where Michele Anna Jordan, relaxed and happy after hours of prep work–“I tend to be ridiculously ambitious with my classes,” she says–is chatting with incoming folks as the Ramekins staff bustle about offering students iced tea and mineral water. Dean Martin sings from overhead. “Music is a very important part of the cooking process,” she jokes easily. “But you have to choose carefully. Either Dean Martin or Puccini are good for cooking risotto, while the Ramones are great when you have a lot of chopping and prep work.”

And the class begins.

Jordan, one could argue, is the purest embodiment of the food-education-entertainment trinity that rules the Ramekins philosophy. As she deftly prepares one risotto dish after another, from Golden Beet Risotto & Walnuts to Polenta Cakes & Warm Mushroom Vinaigrette to Grilled Pork Tenderloins with Apricot Risotto to Turkey & Cranberry Risotto, she dispenses pages of facts and cooking tips–“Always use an ice cream scoop to make your risotto cakes”–along with numerous witty observations: “Risotto is a Zen-like experience because you have to stand here and constantly stir it. It’s also useful for getting other people to do tasks you don’t want to do. ‘Honey, the cat just threw up. Could you get that? I’m making risotto.'”

Once Jordan has talked us through the making of Golden Beet Risotto, the kitchen staff whisks the food out of the room and promptly returns to serve it up to the students–along with more wine. The room is filled with fervent murmurs of mid-meal appreciation. Jordan loves it. This prep-and-joke-and-serve process is repeated several more times, with each dish she demonstrates, until at last, as the class ends–with the requisite round of applause–Jordan happily announces, “Once you’ve practiced a while, once you really know risotto, once you’ve learned the basic principles, you’ll be able to make risotto without ever looking at a recipe.

“Now . . . go do it.”

Fruits of their labor: Students savor the results of their cooking class.

BY ALL OUTWARD appearances, Ramekins seems to be on its way to further success, with long-distance plans to compile a Ramekins cookbook and a series of videos; there may even be a Ramekins cooking show somewhere down the line. Until then, Nemerovski is focusing on extending Ramekins’ good word of mouth, building on the school’s growing reputation as a full-on, must-experience wine country phenomenon. Nemerovski is doing so, he says, by fine-tuning the day-to-day details of keeping the place running smoothly and by paying attention to customers, every comment, good or bad.

“We’ve run nearly 500 classes in 18 months,” says Nemerovski, “with over 225 instructors. We’ve sold over 12,000 seats, and in that time we’ve had exactly five letters suggesting some little thing that we could do better. And in each case, we’ve made the appropriate changes. The main Ramekins rule is that basic rule of retailing,” he says, laughing. ” ‘Always assume you can do more to make your customers happy.’ And with a place like Ramekins, making people happy is a whole lot of fun.”

From the January 27-February 2, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Ol’ Yeller

Mustard Festival spreads it on

By Marina Wolf

IN NAPA VALLEY, Mother Nature gets the last laugh on those who think the coldest time of the year is the dreariest. Long after the harvest crush of tourists has faded, crazy yellow blooms of wild mustard burst out along fences and between bare rows of gnarled vines. “It actually lends the valley to a whole other season that people don’t ever see,” says Patrick Finney, host chef for this year’s ambitious Napa Valley Mustard Festival.

The festival, running Jan. 29 through March 25 (see sidebar), is meant to honor the sunny mustard plant, all parts of which are actually edible. But in these parts, the wild weed gets used primarily for garnish. Even in the mustard festival chef competition, the mustard principle usually comes from prepared mustard instead of the whole seed.

If you’re having problems envisioning sophisticated cuisine incorporating the yellow spice, perhaps you’re stuck in that hot-dog-and pretzel paradigm. Let Finney help you out with the dish that earned him the title 1999 Chef of the Year at last year’s festival: smoked chicken with a mustard-cream sauce, served on a crispy wonton and accompanied by apple-Maui onion chow-chow. This exotic dish also earned the Napa Valley Wine Train chef the “People’s Choice” honor, but Finney isn’t resting on his laurels. He’s already engaged in “research and development” on his entry for this year’s competition.

Finney doesn’t use mustard as a mustard-season gimmick. This humble condiment, in all its variations, has a regular place in Finney’s rolling pantry, adding savor and a hint of sharpness to some of the train’s signature dishes. In his chicken liver and truffle paté, for example, Finney accents the dish with both Dijon and whole-grain mustard. Another dining-car favorite is his sturgeon with a saffron-mustard beurre blanc sauce. The traditional white-wine-and-butter sauce is touched with the intense color of saffron, and then spiced up with mustard at the very last minute, a key point for anyone cooking with mustard, says Finney.

“You never want to boil or overheat mustard,” he explains, “because it becomes very bitter. Add it at the last minute, unless you’re dealing with the whole seed.”

FOR THIS YEAR’S opening event, “Mustard Magic: Une Soirée Française,” Finney is planning another old favorite: a rack of lamb rubbed with a mild achiote paste before roasting, and then sauced with a chipotle pepper and whole-grain mustard concoction. “I’ve done this the last couple of years and people have asked for me to do it again.” He laughs. “I don’t want to let anybody down.”

As with anything in Napa Valley, the annual Mustard Festival has a serious wine component. Bernard Portet, president and winemaker at Clos du Val, is this year’s host winemaker, lending a decidedly French flair to the proceedings. But still one pauses over the question–maybe it’s that classist, anti-mustard prejudice again–what kind of wine does one drink with mustard flavors?

For starters, it’s not usually an issue because most chefs prefer to keep the mustard in a complementary role, harmonizing gently with the primary flavors of the dish. “If you get to the point where mustard is the main flavor, then you’ve pretty much defeated the purpose of the dish,” Finney says. “You might as well be serving a bowl of mustard.”

The primary considerations, then, are the main ingredients of the dish, but mustard’s pungency cannot be ignored. In the case of his sturgeon dish, Finney recommends a sauvignon blanc, a fumé blanc, or even a chardonnay, “depending on how it was made,” he says.

“I’d want some woody overtones to cut the strength of the mustard.”

Those who can appreciate that subtlety are the target ticketholders to the Mustard Festival. But Finney relates a story that illustrates the pull of mustard’s magic on foodies of all ages. Either that or it might be another only-in-the-Bay Area item. Last year he brought in samples of mustard for the kiddies at his son’s elementary school. They dipped and nibbled mustards from all along the spectrum, from French’s brand–a staple for hot-dog lovers–to samples from the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Wisconsin. The hot-dog mustard ended up with the most praise, but not all of it.

“It was funny to watch,” says Finney. “Definitely hot-dog mustard was the favorite, but there were a number of children who tried the other ones–raspberry, apricot, zinfandel–and liked them very much. They probably went home and turned their parents on to them.” *

Festival Schedule

Mustard Magic Art, theater, music, and even aerial artistes load the opening event with an oh-so-French feel at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone on Saturday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m. The many-storied stone mansion lends itself to wandering and tasting from the offerings of Napa Valley chefs and winemakers. CIA-Greystone is at 2555 Main St. in St. Helena. Tickets are $95 per person in advance, $125 at the door. For information or tickets, call 259-9020.

Savor St. Helena The little town that could invites weekend guests to its downtown for a tasteful street fair that covers all of the important points: food, wine, music–ooh, and window-shopping! Tasting tickets and wine glasses are available on-site. Saturday, Feb. 13, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For a list of participating businesses and restaurants, see the website at www.StHelena.com, or call 963-4456.

The Awards Chefs go for the gusto in the night that decides the Mustard Festival chef for next year. Sensory scientists from UC-Davis and food journalists from all over judge the recipes, then the public samples and votes for its favorite. Clos Pegase Winery hosts in its reception hall and caves. Friday, March 10, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $75 per person in advance, $100 at the door; net proceeds benefit Napa Valley art, historical, and educational organizations. 259-9020.

!Olé Mostaza! Robert Mondavi Winery opens its doors for an evening of fine art, rare wines, and great auction packages, along with Latin music and appropriate hors d’oeuvres. Saturday, March 11, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $65 per person; proceeds benefit the River School, Napa Valley’s art-based charter school. 253-6813.

The Marketplace A foodie fantasy come true at the Napa Valley Exposition, where dozens of demos and scads of samples, plus music, exhibits, arts and crafts, and other great divertissements fill the building. Saturday and Sunday, March 11-12, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults, $2 for children 12 and under; tasting package is available for $25. 259-9020.

A Taste of Yountville The most gourmet restaurants per capita and more high-class fun per square foot in this afternoon of good taste and the good life, hosted by eateries and retailers up and down the downtown. Tasting tickets are available on-site; most demonstrations are free. Saturday, March 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 944-0904.

Other events include a golf benefit, a marathon, a Blessing of the Balloons, and a photography contest, the finalists of which will be announced at “The Photo Finish,” the wrap-up extravaganza on Saturday, March 25, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $65 per person in advance, $75 at the door. For further details about any of the festival events, call 259-9020.

From the January 27-February 2, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.