Magazine day ...
A special foodie edition of San Francisco city magazine 7x7 is out, and noteworthy for two things. One is a quick-hit story on Jamie Oliver's visit to San Francisco a few months back. The takeaways are: Alice Waters, who visited Oliver's restaurant Fifteen in London last fall, praises him and notes that, ironically, her favorite cookbook authors are British rather than French; Jamie would like to open a fifteen in San Francisco; when he was in town he visited the Ferry Plaza farmer's market, at oysters at Hog Island, talked with Soyoung Scanlan of Adante cheese and stopped by June Taylor Preserves, which ships him jams every month.
Like any smart author on a book tour, Oliver says nice things about SF: "If I had a choice of living in any other city (than New York, where Oliver is about to move), I'd probably live here. It's quaint and reminds me of back home. Plus, people in this area know a lot more about food. Even teenagers who are pissed know where the great burgers and Chinese takeout are. They are all much, much more foodie."
The issue also features a meatier and engaging piece profiling Pascal Rigo, proprietor of Bay Bread, Chez Nous, Boulange de Polk, Galette, Le Petit Robert, Boulange de Cole, Marinette/La Table O & CO, La Table and Cortez. From the article:
More than once, he's been described as the Napoleon Bonaparte of the local food scene -- an ambitious upstrat with his sights set on conquering more than his fair share of the market ... is currently in talks with the Food Network ... Rigo: The local food world is 'too protective of a certain class of restauranteur ... It's always ... the Chez Panisse, Alice Waters. And the Zuni Cafe! And Elizabeth Falkner. I mean, really, it's boring.' ... Rigo's outsider status in the tight-knit food community ... the rapid growth ... has spurred a backlash among some of his former supproters ...
As it turns out, San Francisco may not have Rigo to kick around much longer, he recently retured from New York, where he will open a new restaurant. "New York is like San Francisco was during the dot-com, but it's like the dot-com all the time."
The current Forbes, meanwhile, has several excellent articles, including this quick-hit on how Michael Jackson and an Arab oil emirate are working to start an Internet-centric record label; how the OS for the iPod is not by Apple but by this company; and how mutual fund company Vanguard finally has a competitor on cost.
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