Tuesday, February 7, through Friday, February 10

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Our thirteenth annual Whole Hog event will soon be here. Over the past twelve years Oliveto’s Whole Hog dinners have become a spectacular array of pork preparations, a delicious extravaganza, but also somewhat excessive, and in recent years much copied and well…very 2007. So Chef Jonah’s decision to narrow the focus and return to a simpler event for this year’s dinners is particularly satisfying to us.

This year we return to the essential idea of the Whole Hog dinners, honoring the old tradition of many farm families in Italy who spent the year fattening a hog in preparation for the winter visit from the traveling butcher, (or norcino) who would slaughter the pig and break it down for all the preparations the family traditionally made to last them throughout the year.

The menu will include many of these simple, rustic preparations of the farmhouse: sausages, chops, roasts, pickles, terrines, prosciutto, ragùs, and so on. (offerings of offal-and that ultra-western-Italian dish we can’t deprive aficionados of, choucroute garni-will comprise some of the fare in the Cafe downstairs during the event.)

There will still be plenty of extraordinary dishes, with the core of the menu coming from the humble farmhouse and these deeply satisfying and time-honored preparations. We will plan on posting the menu next week but we wanted to alert you to the coming dinners. For the reservations times you want, please reserve online or by phone: 510-547-5356

Tuesday, February 14th

Amuse:
Kushi oyster with Prosecco gelée and blood orange

First Course:
Brodetto of lobster with bergamot crema
~or~
Antipasto of roast wild mushrooms and root vegetables

Second Course:
Tortelli of Castelmagno cheese with red lupin honey and candied walnuts

Entree:
Pan-roasted duck breast (accompaniment TBD)
~or~
Pan-roasted seas bass (accompaniment TBD)

Dessert:
TBD

♥

$85. per person

Wine paring available.

Corkage $25.

Reservations with credit card ONLY

510-547-5356

On January 10, we hosted a wheat tasting in the Oliveto dining room. Our plan wast to begin establishing some basic vocabulary for how to talk about the flavor components of wheat and flour as well as discern how those components vary between different varieties.

In attendance were some of the most highly-tuned palates we know including: Randall Grahm (Bonny Doon Vineyard), Oliveto co-owner Maggie Klein, Manresa sous chef Jessica Largey, author Harold McGee (Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen), journalist Michael Pollan (The Botany of Desire), Master Baker Craig Ponsford, Oliveto Restaurant Executive Chef Rhodehamel, food historian and author William Rubel (Bread: A Global History), Manresa pastry chef Avery Ruzicka, and distiller Lance Winters (St. George Spirits/Hangar One).

Also in attendance was farmer Matt Taylor who grew the wheat we were tasting for Front Porch Farms, a small organic (soon to be biodynamic) farm, in Healdsburg, CA. As well as Community Grains founder, Bob Klein.

The group tasted three different varieties of wheat: Bolero, Christallo, and Desert King in five different forms/applications: straight seeds, whole-milled flour, porridge, pasta, and bread baked by Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco.

Panel members were gracious enough to let us collect their notes at night’s end and we are now in the process of compiling a first draft of a wheat/flour directory of terms which we will continue to add to and expand on as we become more fluent. There was definitely the consensus that this was a great first step, but that more tastings with additional variables and applications should follow. We’ll keep you posted…

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Discussion: 4:30 Dinner: 5:30 throughout evening

Athena smiled on us when the schedules of two internationally known olive oil experts enabled us to invite them to participate in a special afternoon and evening steeped, so to speak, in olive oil.

One is our old friend, Roberto Stucchi, of Badia a Coltibuono in Tuscany, who celebrates the semicentenary of Badia a Coltibuono Extra Virgin Olive Oil’s first bottling. Before 1962, there was quality oil available locally in Italy but no one was distributing it. Badia a Coltibuono, then headed by Robert’s father, Piero Stucchi-Prinetti, modeled the extra virgin olive oil business after what he and others were doing with Italian wines–– introducing traditionally made, world-class products to consumers in the US and Europe. Piero was an innovator, one innovation being the selection of the distinctive 1-liter square bottle (called a “marasca” because it was originally used for maraschino liqueur).

The other is a new friend, Tom Mueller, whose Extra Virginity–The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil has just been published by Norton. His book has received acclaim for its fascinating, scholarly, and “ridiculously overdue” exploration of current olive oil production, marketing, labeling, chemistry, and consumption (as well as its important history and culinary attributes). And Tom is a passionate advocate for true extra virgin olive oils.

Oliveto’s founder and co-owner Maggie Blyth Klein, author of The Feast of the Olive (written in 1983 after her visit to the Badia), will host the two experts in a discussion ranging from the history of olive oil in Italy and America, to the state of government controls, to discerning a good olive oil, to the quandary of the conscientious producer whose beautiful olive juice must of necessity be expensive, and to the nutritional and flavor characteristics of olive oil and different olive varietals.

A dinner featuring new oil straight from the Badia a Coltibuono in Tuscany will comprise the evening’s menu, paired with a selection of the Badia’s wines, including a ’99 Chianti Classico Riserva, half bottles of Roberto’s specially blended Chianti Classico “RS,” and a ’99 San Gioveto.

Every year, Oliveto celebrates the arrival of olio nuovo, the first oil of the season, made from just-pressed, partially ripe olives, whose peppery, vegetal qualities last only a few weeks. California oils usually arrive in November; the Italian oils follow a few weeks later. Their production continues through the first month or two of the season. This year, alas, much of the California olive crop was wiped out in unseasonable spring storms.

But for the special dinner following our Saturday afternoon discussion, Chef Jonah Rhodehamel will have at his disposal several liters of Badia a Coltibuono olio nuovo, which Roberto will have brought directly from his frantoio. Jonah will have limitless dishes from the olive oil regions of Tuscany and, indeed, most of Italy, from which to devise a menu. (For millennia those who’ve lived close to olive orchards and presses have celebrated the arrival of the vibrant new oil by pouring it over suitable cold weather dishes, some as simple as a crust of bread toasted over a fire, others as complex as a hearty spezzatino.)

For more information and reservations call 510-547-5356

After a particularly beautiful batch of Brookside Farm’s Meyer lemons arrived last week, we followed up with Welling Tom to find out what else is going on at their Brentwood, CA farm. Here’s what he had to tell us:

Our Meyer lemons are some of the few things we currently have available. We also have a few Oroblanco pomelos already picked, and available as long as supplies last. Growing in the field, we have fava beans, green garlic (now available), broccoli, and Lacinato kale. Fava beans are a slow-growing crop, and will not mature until April or May. The cole crops (broccoli and kale) have been producing since October, but not quite as much as we had hoped. A major problem has been the Bagrada bug, an invasive species of beetle that was not found in the western United States until 2008. So far, Brookside Farm has not taken any measures to combat this pest. Aside from that, there all the usual pests like gophers and cabbage moths.

We were hoping to have other crops available this season. Most cold season crops should be planted by October, but we failed to get that done merely because of some breakdowns on our tractor. These have been mostly remedied, but doing so took away the time that should have been spent in actually preparing the land for planting. So that opportunity was lost. But we still have a chance to plant new crops for the late winter. Our neighbor, Peter Wolfe, whose family has farmed here for over 70 years, has kindly lent me his disc harrow, which has allowed me to till a large area more quickly and effectively than I could with our rototiller. The current weather has been fairly dry, and at least partly sunny, so we should be able to get some arugula, turnips, spinach, and sugar snap peas planted soon, and we should be able to prune our fruit trees without too many delays.

Although we have had our share of setbacks, we are grateful for what we do have, for what we are still able to do, and for the support of our community of friends (including our customers at the farmers’ markets and restaurants such as Oliveto) and neighbors. We look forward to a brighter New Year.

Vocal Rush, from the Oakland School for the Arts stopped by. They’re raising money to get to the International High School A Cappella Championship competition in Portland, later in January. Find them at facebook.com/osa-vocal-rush

Add to that the fact that we are roasting chestnuts & serving mulled cider on the sidewalk (3:ish-6:30ish every afternoon except Thursdays through Dec. 31), the appearance of eggnog ice cream on the dessert menu, and having sufficiently decked the halls…it’s beginning to look (and sound & smell & taste!) a lot like Christmas.

This Friday, December 16th will mark the 25th anniversary of Oliveto Cafe and Restaurant. More personally, we are celebrating Chef Jonah’s first year as Oliveto Executive Chef. We thought we’d take a moment to give you our impression on this past year.

What Chef Jonah Rhodehamel has accomplished in one year here at Oliveto doesn’t seem possible. Unless you consider: Jonah is the hardest working chef we’ve ever seen. Up until a few months ago (when he began taking a day off here and there), he worked seven days a week, many of them 16-hour days. And that work has been so well directed that every minute seemed productive. The focus and energy, complemented by Jonah’s skill, experience, curiosity, and innate creativity, brought a clarity of purpose and direction which transformed the kitchen and menu, as well as enlivening the Oliveto Café downstairs. And those characteristics have brought a quality that is utterly essential: consistency.

Chef Jonah has the ability to be creative and fresh while meeting (or exceeding) the expectations of guests (many of whom are returning after a several-year-long absence), and at the same time keeping within the general, albeit grandiose, Oliveto philosophy of food “based on the best seasonal local ingredients, cooked within the Italian idiom and Italian principles of cooking.” Even for Jonah, with his considerable internal drive, and whose experience is consistent with Oliveto’s demands, the job was a big one. But the results after one year have been quite remarkable. Some customers describe his cooking as “more delicate.” Others say the dishes sparkle with their pristine ingredients, while others feel that his cooking really gets at the essence of traditional Italian dishes such as agnolotti dal plin or walnut sformatino or vitello tonnato.

We are often perplexed and find ourselves wondering, “how did he do that? How could he know that? He’s only 28 years old”.
He continues to enlarge the Oliveto whole-animal project, maintaining and deepening relationships with sustainable ranchers, in particular with Mac Magruder of Mendocino County, who provides cattle from 26 to 30 months of age, boar, boar-domestic pig crosses, sheep, and lamb. Jonah has studiously observed what practices affect marbling, age-ability, texture, and flavor and has created a meat system around that knowledge. His unconventional approach to different cuts of meat appears frequently on the menu, as, for example, a choice among three cuts and ages of steak. He rethought the salumi-making process, improving mold casings, introducing a new proofing box for exact temperature control, making each salame type distinct and unique, and taking particular interest in cured whole cuts. (Lately he’s liked his bresaola and coppa.)

He took on the job of perfecting our pastas, introducing more Community Grains whole wheat varieties and blending them for flavor and texture with conventional flours, becoming adept at making them all himself––extruded and laminated, with and without egg (and with yolks only).

By phone, Jonah stays in touch with many of our farmers several times a week to discuss what’s growing best, and what the farmer anticipates peaking within the next few days or weeks. During problematic growing periods, he goes to the farmers’ market himself to make selections. He introduced us to Fred Hempel of Baia Nicchia Farm in Sunol, and with two assistants fed 140 persons at Fred’s Outstanding In the Field event.

Just five months after Chef Jonah began creating his kitchen and a menu that reflected his vision at Oliveto, Michael Bauer wrote a review in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Oliveto: Oakland Restaurant Bounces Back.” It was the first of a number of laudatory articles. Jonah’s most recent review, a feature article by Stephen Buel in the latest (December 2011) Oakland Magazine, was titled “In Good Hands: Get to Know Oliveto’s New Chef.”

Preceding that article were Diablo Magazine’s Best Restaurant in the East Bay award for 2011, and an accompanying article by Susan Dowdney Safipour and Ethan Fletcher in the September 2011 edition which stated that Jonah Rhodehamel has taken Oliveto’s passions and turned them into “creative, cutting-edge food.”

Patricia Unterman, who’s seen and experienced the whole of Oliveto’s 25-year existence, titled her October 2011 piece in the San Francisco Examiner, “Old-World Values Cultivate Exquisite Dining at Oliveto,” and returned not long after the article ran to enjoy Jonah’s spit-roasted sheep, one of her husband’s favorite dishes.

Three cheers for Chef Jonah! Toot toot. Pat pat.

The panini tartufati of Procacci in Florence

Most nights at Oliveto, we offer large menus with many choices. New Year’s Eve being a rare opportunity for the Chef to put together a prix fixe menu which combines earthiness and elegance, celebration and deliciousness, and a logic to bind the meal together (perhaps evocative of a place or time). We asked Chef Jonah Rhodehamel what we should do for New Year’s Eve.

SEE MENU

The Inspiration
On this year’s trip to Italy, we brought back a good quantity of truly exceptional white truffles for our November truffle dinners. They were so fresh that the one or two we’d saved for friends who were out of town, are still fairly pungent and healthy. Impressed by the quality of this year’s truffles, Chef Jonah decided to save some of them for our New Year’s Eve dinner by employing the best way to preserve their initial potency: he mortared them, combined them with sweet creamery butter, then froze them.

The panini tartufati of Procacci, Florence’s beautiful old food shop, are little brioche sandwiches filled with truffle butter. This became the starting point from which Chef Jonah began to devise a menu. To the panini he added risotto alla Milanese, and, of course, if you’re going to serve risotto alla milanese, then you’ve got to also serve osso buco.

The Specs:

Early seating
5:00 to 6:30
Panini tartufati and three courses:
$85.
with wine pairings $130.

Late seating
7:30 to 10:00
Panini tartufati and four courses (scallops course added)
$100.
with wine pairings $155.

Phone reservations ONLY
(510)547-5356

…and Chef Jonah wasted no time concocting a menu item that exemplifies everything that is fleeting (as in, we sold out with a quickness last night) & wonderful about it:

Dungeness crab salad with persimmon and chervil

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