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Culinary Adventures, Food and Wine, Headline »

Too many cooks? Not at this table
[28 Nov 2009 | No Comment | ]
Too many cooks? Not at this table
When eight East Bay culinary divas stir the pot and spill the beans, what you get is a sizzling stir fry of raucous musings, candidness, collaboration, ebullience and deliciousness.

By Wanda Hennig — See full story in Oakland Magazine, November 2009 and Alameda Magazine, November 2009

They met around three tables pulled into a rough circle at Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland. During the roundtable discussion, the women talked together, talked over each other and talked totally off-topic — more like being at a good dinner party where wine and conversation flow freely. But there was no wine, just coffee beforehand and slices of carrot cake with walnut at the end.

California Travel, Food and Wine, Headline, San Francisco & Wine Country »

Insider guide to Fort Bragg: 20-plus delicious reasons to go there now
[22 May 2009 | No Comment | ]
Insider guide to Fort Bragg: 20-plus delicious reasons to go there now
Could this be wine country’s new culinary hot spot?

Story and pictures: Wanda Hennig

Fort Bragg a hotbed of conscious creatives and sustainable agriculture activists? That wasn’t how I remembered it from previous visits. Good camping, yes, at the MacKerricher State Park three miles north on Highway 1; and the legendary Glass Beach that’s more interesting to read about than to visit; and unmemorable meals in the quaint harbor; and Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout at the North Coast Brewing Company. But now a foodie friend was telling me about their active Slow Food group and saying things like, “I went to Italy and saw what they were doing with agritourism in Tuscany and thought …

Food Culture, Food and Wine, Writers »

The Great Truffle Scuffle
[25 Feb 2009 | 3 Comments | ]
The Great Truffle Scuffle

Does your worst recent food faux par beat this?
Story and Pictures by Wanda Hennig
Picture the scene. A famous French chef has flown to California for one week to give a series of classes at a private cooking school. With him is his wife who among other things is a recognized expert, in France, on Colette.
The pair have a hotel in the Loire Valley well known for its food and wine.
The second dish on the menu they’re prepping on a sunny Tuesday morning for a dozen women who have come to …

California Travel, Culinary Adventures, Food and Wine, San Francisco & Wine Country »

Napa and Sonoma Cook
[16 Feb 2009 | 2 Comments | ]
Napa and Sonoma Cook

You can too!
Have you thought of adding “culinary education and cooking skills” to your wine country travel menu?

Story and photos by Wanda Hennig
First published in Black Diamond Living magazine
A food writer friend recently came to visit me from South Africa for the second time. On her first visit, at the end of the first day, she sat me down, poured me a glass of wine, and firmly advised me that she was not interested in any more of this sightseeing — unless the sight was between one good place to …

Conscious Living, Food Culture, Food and Wine, Slow Food »

An Appetite for Slow
[31 Jan 2009 | No Comment | ]

What’s fabulously fresh, scrumptiously seasonal, lusciously local and satisfyingly sustainable?
By Wanda Hennig
First published in Alameda Magazine, November 2008
It’s 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning at Alameda’s Ploughshares Nursery, and Vera Ciammetti and Steve Rich are setting up an outdoor table. They fill a basket with long crispy loaves, fresh from the Feel Good Bakery oven. They slice the succulent heirloom tomatoes picked up from Dan’s Produce. They daub this impressionist’s palette of variegated shades of orange, yellow, red and green with leaves of fresh basil. They sprinkle sea salt …