Small town of Verbicaro in Calabria, Italy. (photo credit: Rosetta Constantino of "My Calabria")

We’re gearing up for Mother’s day this weekend and this Sunday’s Farmhouse Supper menu will feature a dish that was a huge hit for our Whole Hog Dinners in February, the Calabrian dish Sagne Chine. It is the Calabrian version of lasagne with sheets of pasta layered between tomatoes, mozzarella, hard boiled eggs and marble-sized polpettine.  The rest of the menu will be Calabrian as well.

Prix fixe $40.

For groups of one to twelve. Whole table must order prix fixe menu. A regional wine will accompany the meal at $40/per bottle.

Please join us!

call 510-547-5356

or reserve online

Oliveto Cafe & Restaurant

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Vocal Rush after winning their awards [photo courtesy of acappellablog.com)

In December, Vocal Rush, from the Oakland School of the Arts, performed for the staff of Oliveto while raising money to get to the Regional High School A Cappella Championship competition in Portland. It was really great, see a video of their mini performance here.  They blew through Portland and went on to New York to the international finals.

The results are in and we’re so happy to hear that Vocal Rush won 1st place in the ICHSA Finals and Sarah Vela (front, center in above photo), of Vocal Rush, won Outstanding Soloist.  Congratulations to Sarah Vela, Vocal Rush and the Oakland School of the Arts!

The kitchen just received the first beautiful King Salmon of the season from Monterey Seafood and it will be on the menu tonight.  Jonah will be serving the King Salmon with sauteed Brookside Farm fava beans, spring onions, Butterball potatoes, and a basil pesto.  Jonah, Natalie, and Bob tasted the fava beans last night and agree that they are the sweetest fava beans they’ve had.

We also just received some bright organic rhubarb from Oregon which Pastry Chef, Jenny Raven, has oven-candied to preserve the color and structure of the rhubarb.  Dessert will be a Napoleon of oven-candied rhubarb, homemade vanilla bean ice cream and puff pastry.

Please join us!

510-547-5356

or reserve online

Town of Barbaresco

Chef Jonah is still coming down from a spectacular weekend spent cooking Piedmontese dishes and collaborating with friend Chef Marco Forneris. We all had a great time and ate very well the entire weekend.  This Sunday’s Farmhouse Supper, on May 6, will feature Piedmontese dishes.  Keeping in mind the purpose of our Sunday Farmhouse Suppers Jonah has prepared dishes true to the Piedmont region in Italy. The traditional peasant dish bagna càuda, literally meaning “hot bath”, is crushed anchovies and garlic in warm olive oil and is usually served with whatever vegetables are growing on the farm at that moment.

Menu:
We’ll start with an antipasti of spring vegetables with bagna càuda
Using the whole hen, Jonah will make two dishes: a Tajarin pasta with sugo of hen followed by a Bollito of hen with salsa verde and seasonal contorni
For dessert Pastry Chef, Jenny Raven, will make a torta di nocciole with mascarpone and produttori del barbaresco wine-macerated strawberries

This Sunday’s Farmhouse Supper, April 29, 2012 will feature a spicy Calabrian menu.  Calabria encompasses the “toe” of Italy in the south where it is humid and has warm weather perfect for growing hot weather crops like tomatoes and peppers.

Chef Jonah’s menu:

We’ll start with the fave arrabbiata, dried fava beans & olive antipasto
this will be followed with
Gnocchi with spicy tomato sauce with pork drippings
the main dish will be spicy pork polpette & contorni

Please join us!

call 510-547-5356

or reserve online

Executive Chef Jonah Rhodehamel, Sous Chef Natalie Nesbit & Senior Line Cook Adelino Perez Cisneros hold the 60 pound Pacific Giant octopus

The kitchen was excited to see a 60 pound Pacific Giant octopus arrive today from Tom Worthington at Monterey Fish. It was caught by chance in a crab trap off the coast of Half Moon Bay.  Most octopus comes from abroad or the east coast so this is a pretty rare opportunity to try a truly local & wild seafood.  Oliveto chef Jonah Rhodehamel likes the texture of octopus, “slightly chewy … firm yet with a bite to it” and finds it to be “an interesting protein – pretty different from anything else”.

The octopus will be available through the weekend.

On the menu tonight, April 25, will be grilled octopus with artichoke puree, grilled ramps & watercress

Please join us!

call 510-547-5356

or reserve online

Marco & Jonah’s piemontese Tasting Menu

Marco arrived last night and was in to Oliveto this morning to finish planning the menus for this weekend with Chef Jonah.  Jonah had wanted this menu to reflect Marco’s menu at Osteria Lalibera.

Menu for Friday, April 20, 2012

Shaved artichoke with purple asparagus, agretto
~ or ~
Vellutata of celeriac and potato with Santa Barbara sea urchin

***
Batsu’a (means “silk stocking”), braised pigs feet, picked and fried
~ or ~
Roast pigeon stuffed morel with pancetta, potatoes, and ramps

***
Tajarin with ragù di coniglio
~ or ~
Maltagliati with spring vegetables

***
Ravioli of nettles and ricotta

***
Roast black cod with salsify, hazelnuts and their oil
~ or ~
Octopus

***
Salt-roasted pigeon with garlic and rosemary
~ or ~
Charcoal-grilled quail

***
Roast suckling pig with broccoli di ciccio
~ or ~
Piemontese ribeye

***
Strawberry-prosecco gelatina

***
Chocolate-hazelnut bunet

//

Menu for Friday, April 20, 2012

Piemontese Tasting Menu

9-course $130

~ or ~

5-course menu of a selection of the above dishes $88

Great vintages of Barbaresco and Barolo; Produttori del Barbaresco, Castello di Verduno, and Barale  Fratelli.  By the glass, 1/2 glass, & bottle

Vegetarian options will be available

Saturday, April 21, 2012:

à la carte piemontese menu from Chef Marco & Chef Jonah

[Wine Dinner Sold Out]

Please join us!

Call 510-547-5356

or reserve online

The steers are the Piemonte breed, small, double-muscled, and highly prized for tenderness and flavor.  The animals are grass fed, then grain finished for a short time (and they are not fed corn).  The grains are milled and in some cases, cooked, before being fed to the cattle.  This farmer’s animals are very well taken care of.

Street view of Osteria Lalibera in Alba, Italy

Friday, April 20, 2012
Chef  Marco Forneris of Lalibera, Alba, and Chef Jonah Rhodehamel of Oliveto create a collaborative tasting menu of the Langhe – a dinner of nine samplings of essential flavors of the Piedmont.

Saturday, April 21, 2012
Produttori del Barbaresco’s Aldo Vacca will pair some of his most exceptional vintages with a tasting menu of Marco’s and Jonah’s Piedmontese menu.  Piedmontese a la carte menu also available throughout the dining room.

As our event gets closer, and more ideas express themselves over the internet among the chefs (Pastry Chef Jenny Raven has joined Marco and Jonah with an opinion and query about the Piemontese bunet), a postable, but not-quite-ready-for-prime-time, menu is taking form.  Added to the below menu will be the collaborative dishes Jonah and Marco come up with once Marco arrives.

(Preliminary) Menu may include:

• Salad of asparagus and purple artichokes with hazelnuts and their oil
• Sardine e gelato di “bagna cauda”
• Tajarin al raout di coniglio
• Gnudi with ragù of spring vegetables
• Ravioli with wild herbs and ricotta
• Ravioli di gallina nel suo brodo ristretto
• Pan-roasted scallops with …
• Roast local king salmon with..
• Charcoal-grilled quail with…
• Charcoal-grilled pigeon with…
• Spit-roasted suckling pig with…
• Charcoal-grilled beef ribeye with … [Piedmont specialty contorni depending on what's just come in from the farms]
• Chocolate-hazelnut bunet

And here’s the e-mail Pastry Chef Jenny Raven sent:

Marco’s response:

Ciao Jenny,

I still remember very well our meeting in Oliveto, you with your child in your arms… I tried to dig deeply into the history of bunet and I’m pretty sure that this recipe is very close… I mean this Langa dessert was not very sweet and of course with a strong taste of hazelnut. I remember that my grandmother used to cook it in the bain-marie, finish it covered with foil and with hot ashes just to have the crispy top!!!!  Wow, it was great-still soft and never dry!
Marco.

More about Chef Marco Forneris from Aldo Vacca:

“Marco was born and raised in Borgo San Dalmazzo at the feet of the Piemonte Maritime Alps. He grew up as a young chef in the Langhe region. Both areas of Piemonte played an important part in shaping his personality and skills as a chef. He has deep knowledge of both products and recipes from the Alps (the herbs, beef, cheeses) and from the hillside (vegetables, truffles, small animals such as rabbit, chicken, pheasant, wine, olive oil, etc.).

This wide and deep experience meets with his brilliant style, creative but not crazy, modern but with deep roots in tradition, with great knowledge and passion for the food and the wines of the region.  His cooking reflects his personality, humble yet confident.

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