Chef owners Paul Arenstam and Charlene Reis have a slow food sensibility in a take-out business better known for fast food. That’s because the culinary couple (partners in life too) come with stellar cooking credentials: She’s an-ex Chez Panisse pastry chef, he did stints at upscale L.A. joints before landing at San Francisco’s acclaimed Rubicon. […]
Berkeley Bites food aficionado
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Berkeley Bites: Daniel Miller, Spiral Gardens
Just around the corner and down the street from where I live on a stretch of Sacramento Street that includes liquor stores and the dodgy characters who frequent such places, you’ll find Spiral Gardens, a slightly disheveled verdant oasis on a fenced in corner of a formerly empty city lot. It’s a welcome addition to […]
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Berkeley Bites: Lisa Rogovin, Epicurean Concierge
Lisa Rogovin. Photo: Robert Durell. A former ad sales rep for Gourmet magazine (R.I.P.), Lisa Rogovin had what she calls her Eat, Pray, Love moment in 2005, meaning she left an unhappy marriage, sold the house, and embarked on a food-fueled journey around the world, visiting 14 countries (yes, India was in the mix) in […]
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Berkeley Bites: Christopher and Veronica Laramie, eVe Restaurant
This culinary couple met cute at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, no less. He followed up his gastronomical studies with a stage at the prestigious Georges Blanc (three star Michelin) outside of Lyon, then the two headed to Miami, got married, and went to work at posh nosh spots in South Beach; Blue Door for him […]
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Berkeley Bites: Alex Hozven and Kevin Farley, Cultured Pickle Shop
Photo: Marian Acquistapace Sour foods really appealed to Alex Hozven as she battled brutal pregnancy-induced nausea with her first son. Nothing unusual there, right? Millions of women crave pickles to combat morning (or all-day) sickness. But Hozven’s obsession with fermented foods didn’t end once her baby was born. Instead, she set out to master making […]
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Berkeley Bites: Ambrocio Hernandez, Mi Tierra Foods
Ambrocio Hernandez. Photo: Sarah Henry. San Francisco has the Mission District and Oakland boasts International Boulevard. In Berkeley, when it comes to Mexican grocery goods, Mi Tierra Foods is the go-to place for fresh tamales, both powdered and fresh masa, and multi-colored pinatas. Ambrocio Hernandez, originally from Michoacan, Mexico, manages his cousin’s Latin American specialty […]
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Berkeley Bites: Samin Nosrat, ex-Eccolo and co-creator of the Pop-Up General Store
Samin Nosrat is a veritable poster girl for the current trend (some would say necessity) of workplace reinvention. Since the shuttering last summer of Eccolo, an acclaimed Italian eatery on 4th Street, that restaurant’s one-time sous chef now juggles an impressive number of part-time jobs in the culinary world. Nosrat is the co-creator (along with […]
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Berkeley Bites: Ben Feldman, Farmers’ Market man
This weekend, Berkeley’s Saturday farmers’ market reaches its 20th anniversary milestone. Ben Feldman is program manager for the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, a project of the Ecology Center. Previously, Feldman worked as a market manager for the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association. The 30-year-old lives in Albany with his wife and two young children. The Tuesday farmers’ market […]
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Berkeley Bites: Amy Murray, Venus and now Revival
Amy Murray moved to Berkeley and opened Venus Restaurant on Shattuck Avenue in 2000. The restaurant began serving up seasonable, organic, sustainable California cuisine with worldly accents — which was something of a novelty back then. A nice nod early on by Kim Severson, then a restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, now at the New […]
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Berkeley Bites: Jessica Prentice
Jessica Prentice’s claim to fame comes from coining the term locavore, chosen as the 2007 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. The New York City-trained natural chef lives and breathes the locavore lifestyle. She is a co-founder of Three Stone Hearth, a community supported kitchen cooperative on University Avenue, which sells […]
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Berkeley Bites: Tanya Henderson
Tanya Henderson is a cooking instructor for the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD). During the day she cooks with teens at Willard Middle School. Once a week she whips up dishes with kids in the after-school program at Malcolm X Elementary. She also teaches evening nutrition classes to parents at several BUSD locations. A former […]
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Berkeley Bites: Marc Rumminger
Engineer Marc Rumminger grew up in Michigan on a then-typical Midwestern diet: casseroles, canned soup and jello. When he moved to Berkeley for graduate school his culinary world expanded and he became an avid home cook. Rumminger experimented with Asian flavors, particularly Indian cuisine, and he immersed himself in pressing food issues, including the concept […]
