Carolyn Jung

Journalist, Editor, Blogger, Book Author and Media Consultant

Carolyn Jung is a James Beard Award-winning food writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area with years of experience in traditional and digital media. She is the author of the cookbooks, "San Francisco Chef's Table'' (Lyons Press), and "East Bay Cooks'' (Figure 1 Publishing). She was a staff writer at some of the top newspapers in the country, including the San Jose Mercury News. Her work has been published locally, nationally and internationally in such publications as the San Francisco Chronicle, Modern Luxury Silicon Valley magazine, Food Arts magazine, Wine Spectator magazine, EatingWell, Via magazine, Edible Marin-Wine Country, Edible Silicon Valley, Every Day with Rachael Ray and Via magazine. She is also the creator of the award-winning blog, FoodGal.com. She has judged a bevy of cooking contests, including the biggie of them all, the Pillsbury Bake-Off. She has hosted cooking demos at Macy's Union Square San Francisco and been a moderator for the Ahwahnee Hotel's "Chefs' Holidays'' event. Additionally, she is a social media manager for local food companies.

Portfolio
The Nob Hill Gazette
08/27/2024
With T'Maro, a New Spirit Has Been Born in the Bay

T'Maro has arrived. Last month, it debuted as one of the few women-owned spirits companies in the United States. T'Maro was founded by Heather Freyer, a San Francisco spirits industry veteran; and chef Elizabeth Falkner, founder of San Francisco's groundbreaking bakery Citizen Cake and producer of the 2023 pandemic-era restaurant documentary Sorry, We're Closed.

AAA Via Magazine
07/23/2024
Great Food Stops on I-5 | Via

Forget the soggy fast food burgers. Here's where to eat on a road trip from Ashland, Oregon, to Los Angeles on Interstate 5.

Via Magazine
07/14/2024
Via | Special Bonus Issue

The Best Recipes from Top Chefs in the West. 23 favorite recipes from some of the most popular restaurants in the West, past and present.

Via Magazine
05/20/2024
A Weekend in Rogue Valley, Oregon | Via

Whether you're in the mood for hiking, wine tasting, or exploring a historic downtown, you'll find delights here for the entire family.

San Francisco Examiner
02/09/2024
Four Kings to bring Hong Kong food to SF Chinatown

Mr. Jiu's veterans Chris Long and Franky Ho will showcase Hong Kong-inspired casual fare at Four Kings when it opens in March. The duo hopes to bring their playful takes on iconic Cantonese dishes to a wider audience.

The Nob Hill Gazette
01/22/2024
Meet San Francisco Chef Richard Lee of Saison

It's all of six miles from the blue-collar, multiethnic Excelsior District of San Francisco, where he grew up, to the hip, artsy South of Market neighborhood where he now works. But for Richard Lee, it proved a formidable destination that took nearly two decades of grit and diligence to reach.

The Nob Hill Gazette
12/11/2023
Palo Alto's Peninsula Creamery Turns 100!

Over the decades, herds of dairy cows have given way to well-heeled shoppers on land where now sits the upscale Stanford Shopping Center; and auto repair shops downtown have been supplanted by high-tech firms creating the latest and greatest. Throughout Palo Alto's seismic generational changes, though, one beacon of constancy has endured - the Peninsula Creamery Dairy Store & Grill.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
11/14/2023
The Truffle Gamble

Armed with audacity plus his lucky shovel, Raymond Vineyards proprietor Jean-Charles Boisset stood poised to plant something that might never fulfill its promise. On this St. Helena parcel in spring 2022, he placed oak and hazelnut trees inoculated with Tuber melanosporum spores.

The Nob Hill Gazette
06/29/2023
"The Bad News Bears of Bakeries" Adds Another Location

At Firebrand Artisan Breads, wild yeast starters give hearth-baked loaves their loftiness, distinctive tang and formidable crust. But it's this East Bay bakery itself that has propelled an even greater

The Nob Hill Gazette
03/01/2022
Programmed for Success

Under its current leadership, a nonprofit that serves kids in the community has vastly broadened its offerings -- and shows no signs of slowing down.

The Nob Hill Gazette
02/24/2023
Cooking, Kin and Culture Come Together at Tal Palo

At downtown Los Altos' new Tal Palo, a winsome Mexican cafe and thoughtfully curated lifestyle boutique, it's all in the family. And this is one family who's clearly all in on their first venture together. In fact, husband-and-wife owners Aaron Porter and Adriana Dominguez are currently the only employees at their Main Street business that opened in December.

San Francisco Chronicle
02/22/2023
Forget Michelin Stars. Bay Area chefs want black belts in jiu-jitsu

San Francisco chefs Jason Fox and Ian Gordon may be friends and colleagues. But once they step onto the mat, Fox, the executive chef of the Proper Hotel, and Gordon, a chef at two-Michelin-starred Californios, transform into fiercely calculating competitors intent on forcing the other into total submission.

The Nob Hill Gazette
12/27/2022
An Immigrant Dishwasher-Turned-Restaurant Owner Reigns Over an Ever-Growing Empire

Nowadays, the Omakase Restaurant Group epitomizes laser-focused success with establishments that include two Michelin one-starred San Francisco restaurants, Omakase and Niku Steakhouse; the Michelin Bib Gourmand-anointed Okane in San Francisco; six wildly popular Bay Area outposts of Dumpling Time; and its newest San Francisco endeavor, the 3-month-old modern American-inflected Rosemary & Pine - its first non-Asian concept.

The Nob Hill Gazette
04/01/2022
A Sweet Sequel

Shekoh Confections marks the return of the chef-chocolatier behind Shokolaat.

The Nob Hill Gazette
02/04/2022
Food & Wine: Catering To The Art Crowd * The Nob Hill Gazette

When the pandemic first curtailed indoor dining, and with it the tech company private parties that were a lifeblood, owner Rocco Scordella stepped inside his Palo Alto restaurant, Vina Enoteca, and pondered whether diners would ever again fill this yawning 7,000-square-foot space. He thought he was done for.

The Nob Hill Gazette
12/09/2021
Food & Wine: From Puffers to Potables * The Nob Hill Gazette

The newest wines arousing an insatiable thirst aren't crafted by the likes of Mondavi, Harlan or Rothschild - but by Patagonia. The Ventura-based, environmentally conscious outdoor clothing company may be best known for fleece jackets, alpine pants and tough-as-nails duffels.

The Nob Hill Gazette
11/01/2022
A Century On, the Webb Family Is Still Farming in the Heart of Silicon Valley

When invitations went out this summer for Webb Ranch's milestone 100th anniversary party, Tom Hubbard, president of this family-owned Portola Valley produce-growing and horse-boarding farm, figured maybe 30 people would show. Instead, an astonishing 450 current and past patrons turned out for the celebration featuring live music, food trucks and a dunking tank.

The Nob Hill Gazette
09/23/2022
Our Reporter Hits the Oregon Epicurean Trail

If the once-friendly skies seem more fraught than not, skip the plane and get behind the wheel instead for a northward spin to Wine Country - Oregon style. In the famed Willamette Valley, not only do wineries abound, but also craft breweries, hip restaurants and bountiful farm stands, not to mention an endearing, quirky charm all too elusive these days.

The Nob Hill Gazette
05/02/2022
The Lasting Legacy of Bruce Lee

A Chinatown museum returns with an unprecedented and inspiring tribute to a trailblazing native son.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
06/01/2022
Free-Spirited Aperitifs

L'Apero les Trois delivers much-needed joie de vivre In this new normal, where home is work and work is home, the line between on-time and off-time has blurred unsettlingly, requiring near-herculean effort to entirely unplug and unwind.

The Nob Hill Gazette
06/01/2022
Robots at the Ready

Between the pandemic and the labor shortage, automation is having a moment.

The Nob Hill Gazette
06/01/2022
Taking Their Shot

A couple of tech veterans are making an award-winning whisky that merges Scotland and Silicon Valley.

The Nob Hill Gazette
01/03/2022
Staging A Comeback

A young couple revitalizes a Chinatown treasure, once the stomping grounds of Bruce Lee.

The Nob Hill Gazette
11/03/2021
Food & Wine: Uncorking The Potential Of Potter Valley * The Nob Hill Gazette

When Guinness McFadden first laid eyes on remote Potter Valley in Mendocino County, with its expansive pasture lands and pear orchards, he was told he'd never prevail in growing wine grapes in such cool temperatures. But McFadden has never been one to take "no" for an answer.

The Nob Hill Gazette
11/03/2021
It's All Relative * The Nob Hill Gazette

For the past 46 years at Redwood City's Gourmet Haus Staudt & Biergarten, husband-and-wife founders Lothar and Lucie Staudt have been adored fixtures at this charmingly patchwork German grocery store and specialty restaurant. Even after retiring in 2009, and turning the reins over to son Volker and daughter-in-law Maryann, they couldn't tear themselves away.

The Nob Hill Gazette
09/02/2021
Food & Wine: While The Iron's Hot * The Nob Hill Gazette

For 18 months, Sophie Smith diligently worked on the line at San Francisco's A16, roasting shishito peppers drizzled with Calabrian chili, and twirling pasta in verdant pistachio pesto, dreaming of someday, somewhere, ascending to executive chef. To her astonishment, she's forging a name now in a whole different way.

The Nob Hill Gazette
08/05/2021
Back Of The House * The Nob Hill Gazette

Madera, Menlo Park As Michelin-starred Madera's new executive chef, Sulatycky strives for the "complexity of simplicity." Take his roast chicken. In his hands, it is anything but ordinary. Sulatycky, Team Canada's highest finisher (placing fourth) in the Bocuse d'Or, and now head coach for Team USA, has spent decades perfecting his roast chicken.

Nob Hill Gazette
04/02/2021
Cooking School is in Session

After a helter-skelter year of one too many Instant Pot stews and limp takeout pizzas at home, we've fallen into a major culinary rut. Been there, chewed that. The time has come to heap our plates again with thrills and excitement. Get your gourmet groove back with a virtual cooking or tasting class.

Nob Hill Gazette
03/05/2021
Cooking in a COVID World: Former Tech Company Chefs Are Serving Up Their Own Food Ventures

Arif Mehmood once had what he considered an enviable life as a corporate chef. He earned a $120,000 salary overseeing breakfast, lunch and dinner services for the Bay Area offices of ByteDance and First Republic Bank. He also set up splashy new Silicon Valley tech cafes, and even cooked alongside Wolfgang Puck every year at the celebrity-studded Governors Ball in Los Angeles.

The Nob Hill Gazette
12/03/2020
Scenes from Chinatown

As a child growing up in San Francisco, I knew Chinatown innately. It was where my mother would shop for glistening, bronzed roast ducks for dinner; where my dad would pop into a bakery to pick up strawberry chiffon cake in a pink box; where we'd get our fill of dumplings at cacophonic dim sum parlors; and where I'd joyfully run up the iconic wide spiral ramp of the landmark Empress of China on my way to many a Chinese wedding banquet in its expansive hall.

Nob Hill Gazette
12/01/2020
Bent, Bowed, Unbroken Part I

Three restaurateurs. Three di!erent Bay Area regions. Three tumultuous experiences. What they share is unwavering resilience in a cataclysmic year.

The Nob Hill Gazette
10/07/2020
Who Said Opening a Restaurant During a Pandemic Was a Bad Idea?

On a fateful evening in late March, chef John Paul Carmona and his two business partners gathered for dinner after a taxing day of painting walls, hammering banquettes and polishing vintage brass lights for their impending casual French restaurant. Their timing for opening Routier in San Francisco couldn't have been worse.

The Nob Hill Gazette
09/11/2020
The Future of Fine Dining

The custom-made, quadruple-decker trolley that once rolled to tables at Protégé to entice wide-eyed diners with latticed pies, golden kouign-amanns and burnished canelés, is now parked unceremoniously in a corner.

The Nob Hill Gazette
05/1/20
Special Deliveries

As it marks its 50th year, the nourishment that Meals on Wheels provides is more vital than ever.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
11/21/2019
Not Your Average Retirement Plan

Fabrice Caporal's retirement plan is unusual, to say the least. To call it audacious would be a vast understatement. The Alameda software engineer with a wife and two teenage children didn't sink his million-dollar life savings into tech stocks or mutual funds, but into 26 acres of dirt.

San Francisco Chronicle
10/22/2019
For the first time, Spain's prized Iberian pigs being raised in California

Before sunrise one eventful summer morning, a double-decker 18-wheeler pulled into a sprawling ranch north of Calistoga, completing its 2,500-mile journey from Florida ferrying a precious and unique cargo. When the ramp descended, out waddled one black pig, which sniffed around curiously before 79 others disembarked.

EatingWell
10/01/2019
Fish For the Next Generation

As wild populations falter, aquaculture will be essential if we want to eat seafood in the decades to come. So it’s more important than ever to find ways to do it like Michael Passmore does—better, cleaner and more efficiently.

The Nob Hill Gazette
09/30/2019
Trick Dog Has Mastered the Art of the Cocktail Menu

You know you've achieved world domination when you win a top international prize so often that you're ruled ineligible for it ever again. Such is the case for Trick Dog, San Francisco's trailblazing bar, which was honored with the Spirited Award for "world's best cocktail menu" from the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation in 2017 and again this summer.

MICHELIN Guide
09/25/2019
The Rise of Economic Pressures in the Bay Area

Last month, Jason Fox, chef and owner of San Francisco's MICHELIN-starred Commonwealth, closed his restaurant. And in the past nine years, Fox has done something rather uncommon: he managed to donate a portion of sales-more than $400,000 in total-to local charities. All the while, he weathered the doubling of food expenditures.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
08/21/2019
Junity is Busting Out All Over

GREEN TEA AND HONEY MAKE FOR A KINDER, GENTLER KOMBUCHA Carissa Ashman was spooning up a steaming slurp of chicken pho at Napa's Kitchen Door restaurant, a bottle of sparkling mineral water alongside, when she found herself longing for more. More, that is, beyond the bland beverage at hand.

San Francisco Chronicle
07/09/2019
Cyrus in Healdsburg will not reopen, chef-owner Douglas Keane says

No matter the direction he steers his pickup truck from his home, Douglas Keane inevitably confronts a vista so wrenching that it haunts him. Not far from where he lives in Sonoma County's Alexander Valley, four properties have come to symbolize promise and, ultimately, defeat.

The Nob Hill Gazette
06/02/2019
Tony's Seafood Makes a Splash in Marshall

Built on pilings over Tomales Bay to accentuate the soothing feeling of floating in the azure water, this quaint seafood shack on Highway 1 in Marshall couldn't be more peaceful and picturesque. But Tony's Seafood proved to be one deceptively turbulent ride for John Finger and Terry Sawyer, founders of Hog Island Oyster Co.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
06/01/2019
Forged in the Fires

TYLER FLORENCE'S UNCRUSHABLE CELEBRATES THE LIGHT OF A DARK ERA FOR WINE COUNTRY On a frightfully windy night three years ago, Linda and Clyde Lorentzen fled their Santa Rosa home of 48 years-where they had raised their children and babysat their grandchildren-uncertain if they would ever see it again. They didn't.

The Nob Hill Gazette
04/11/2019
Fair Play: The Magical Bridge Playground Is for All Children

Palo Alto's Olenka Villarreal is on a mission to bring inclusive recreational spaces designed for all ages and abilities - to more communities. It's telling that two play areas in Palo Alto's Mitchell Park are as deserted as a ghost town. After all, they're just not where the magic is.

San Francisco Chronicle
03/08/2019
Stunning new tomato hybrid, the Green Bee, makes a winter debut

At Sabio on Main in Pleasanton, in the dead of winter, chef Francis X. Hogan was serving something unheard of in the Bay Area. On the menu were locally grown, vine-ripened tomatoes. They were not only green, uncharacteristically crunchy and imbued with an astonishing flavor of stone fruit, but were still in peak condition - even after being harvested two months earlier.

The Nob Hill Gazette
03/06/2019
Michael and Lindsay Tusk's New Toast of the Town, Verjus

Unlike some contemporaries, husband-and-wife San Francisco restaurateurs and Lindsay Tusk are not all about stamping out cookie-cutter establishments one after the other as quickly as possible. No, they prefer to do their own thing in their own good time, opening their Michelin three-starred haute Cal-Italia Quince in 2003, then coolly waiting seven years before launching their casual trattoria Cotogna next door.

Via Magazine
11/01/2018
Where To Shop Like A Chef in Napa Valley | Via Magazine

Where to shop like a chef in California wine country. Explore the best California olive oil and wine, still-hot pastries, and local cheese. Visit Oxbow Public Market, Model Bakery, Sunshine Foods Market, Rancho Gordo, Oakville Grocery, and Finesse The Store.

Silicon Valley Magazine
09/03/2018
Palo Alto's New Babka Bakery Is Everything

You may think you know babka, especially if you've howled over that notorious Seinfeld episode in which Jerry and Elaine are foiled in their attempts to buy a chocolate one. But you haven't experienced the full potential of this Eastern European specialty until you've had Babka by Ayelet.

Silicon Valley Magazine
09/01/2018
Happy Days

There's no need to pitch a tent or pack a bedroll to be a happy camper at downtown Menlo Park's buzziest new restaurant. Camper, now open in the former LB Steak space, aims to celebrate the great outdoors with casual yet thoughtful cuisine dictated by the freshest bounty of the seasons.

Via Magazine
08/08/2018
Easy Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe | Via Magazine

Skip the trip to the coffee shop, and save a few bucks, by perfecting your own version of a pumpkin spice latte. This easy recipe uses whole, natural ingredients for a healthy twist on fall's favorite drink.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
06/04/2018
A Real Life Green(er) Acres

KELLI DUNAJ CREATES ART OUT OF THE TAPESTRY OF LIFE AT SPRING COYOTE RANCH Five years ago, Kelli and Ken Dunaj swapped their hard-charging big city lives for a different kind of hard work on Spring Coyote Ranch, a 210-acre olive and sheep ranch overlooking picturesque Tomales Bay in Marshall.

San Francisco Chronicle
06/03/2018
Salt Wood Kitchen highlights local seafood in Monterey

The Chronicle has launched a new weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here. Enter your email at the top and check the box marked "Travel." When he first moved to Monterey County in 2013, chef David Baron and his family were driving around one night in search of a place to eat, when they stumbled upon a restaurant at a hotel right on the beach.

Silicon Valley Magazine
06/01/2018
Strokes of Genius

Much like the growth of the World Wide Web itself, Yahoo co- founder Jerry Yang's passion for art has been an evolution of sorts. It started out with a definite whimper-not a bang-when he was a child in Taiwan, forced reluctantly to study calligraphy in school.

Silicon Valley Magazine
06/01/2018
Sweet Success

Anthony Tam was a supply chain manager at a Fremont tech firm when he embarked simultaneously on his own startup-waking up in the wee hours to handcraft one exacting piece at a time. His focus wasn't hardware, but rather software of a decidedly delicate nature.

Silicon Valley Magazine
04/01/2018
Worth the Wait

Beyond the dramatic backlit bar, tufted banquettes, and custom cheese and tart carts, there is a seemingly inexplicable memento tucked away on a back shelf at what is arguably the most anticipated restaurant to debut in Silicon Valley of late.

Silicon Valley Magazine
04/01/2018
A Global Effort

Silicon Valley's elite can easily jet to the poshest spots around. Yet, increasingly, when it comes to vacation destinations, some local movers and shakers are opting instead for some of the world's most impoverished places-to pick up paint brushes, hammers and shovels, and to listen to heartbreaking accounts of violence, upheaval and turmoil.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
03/02/2018
With Fire in Their Bellies

BAY AREA CHEFS AND FOOD COMMUNITY NOURISH THOSE IN NEED DURING THE 2017 WINE COUNTRY FIRES Whenever the wind starts to howl now, Kelly Smith reflexively tenses. It's enough to bring her nearly to tears, as the terrifying memories of fleeing her Santa Rosa home in the dark of night come flooding back.

San Francisco Chronicle
02/25/2018
To build or not to build? That's the question locals are debating in St. Helena

Guneet Bajwa, managing principal for Presidio Companies, knows what it's like to jump through the bureaucratic hoops involved in building hotels in California and the west. But his Sacramento hospitality development company nearly met its match when it first applied to build Las Alcobas, the tony resort that opened last summer on Main Street in St.

EatingWell
01/01/2018
Spice Genius

Bold flavors and nuanced spice combinations are hallmarks of Ethiopian cuisine. Here, Chef Fetlework Tefferi shares some of her favorites from this intoxicatingly aromatic cuisine.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
12/01/2017
A Chef Finds his Place

CHRIS COSENTINO COMES TO NAPA Chris Cosentino is in a good place now. Not just geographically, even if his surroundings at the moment are quite enviable. Fresh off a 25-mile bike ride, the 45-year-old chef is bolting down an egg-white frittata on the veranda of a historic St.

Silicon Valley Magazine
11/01/2017
Art & Soul

Th e Valley’s art scene is fl ourishing, thanks to passionate supporters like those featured on the following pages—including a major collector and a consultant to newly minted millionaires, as well as forward-thinking leaders at established institutions.

San Francisco Chronicle
10/26/2017
Aplat totes on a mission

She is known as "the bag lady.'' But to Shujan Bertrand, there is no higher compliment. Since founding Aplat in 2014, her line of novel, hand-made-in-San Francisco totes have become the darling of discriminating shoppers. Heath Ceramics, her first retailer, sold out of her culinary tote in one week.

Silicon Valley Magazine
09/02/2017
In San Jose, Viva L'Italia

The historic, barrel-tiled building on West St. John Street is a cornerstone of San Jose's Little Italy. When built in 1925, though, the original Italian business there took pains to cloak its ethnicity as animosity toward anything Italian reached a pinnacle. Now, a new venture is settling in at the site, proudly and fiercely proclaiming its Italian roots.

Silicon Valley Magazine
06/30/2017
Movers, Shakers and Makers

In recent years, the startup and tech boom has had a mouthwatering repercussion in the Valley: a thriving culinary scene marked by a fresh crop of chefs, buzzy restaurant openings and enterprising edible pursuits. Here, we spotlight a handful of individuals-both well-established and under-the-radar-impacting where and what we want to eat right now.

Silicon Valley Magazine
06/30/2017
Robot Revolution

Gordon can make a foamy cafe latte in less than a minute. Little Toro can take a ball of dough and flatten it into a perfect round of pizza crust in 5 seconds.

San Francisco Chronicle
05/14/2017
Tech industry backers lure top chefs to Silicon Valley

The tech industry's appetite for good food and its wealth of discretionary income has been a major driving force in the past few years in invigorating the restaurant scene in Silicon Valley. Just consider that when the Michelin Guide released its first Bay Area edition in 2006, only two Silicon Valley restaurants were honored with star ratings: [...]

San Francisco Chronicle
04/16/2017
Santa Cruz dining scene shakes off its college town image

When Andrea Nguyen, noted Asian culinary expert and cookbook author, left Los Angeles for Santa Cruz County 19 years ago, she was surprised to encounter a rather dispirited food scene. Despite local farmers' markets carrying the most vibrant of produce, the dining landscape was lackluster, dominated by the frozen, the fried and far too many flabby clam chowders.

Silicon Valley Magazine
03/20/2017
A Native Son Returns

Throughout his career, Charlie Parker has been a chef at impressive restaurants far and wide, including Manresa in Los Gatos, The Village Pub in Woodside, Ubuntu in Napa, Freddy Smalls in Los Angeles and three Daniel Patterson establishments (Plum Bar in Oakland, Haven in Oakland and Alfred's Steakhouse in San Francisco).

Silicon Valley Magazine
03/01/2017
The Empowering Entrepreneur

Carolyn Jung | Photo: Cody Pickens | March 2, 2017 As the QVC cameras roll, a young woman, dressed in a festive frock, with glowing complexion and lustrous ebony locks, uncaps a jar of thick-as-butter anti-aging cream made from wild shea nuts grown deep in the Nile River Valley.

San Francisco Chronicle
02/28/2017
The app that pairs restaurants with on-demand workers

The app that pairs restaurants with on-demand workers Because it's booked solid every day, San Francisco's Michelin two-starred Lazy Bear restaurant can't afford to lose any of its workers for a night. [...]

Edible Marin & Wine Country
02/21/2017
Cooking's Next Big Thing

Inside a secluded test kitchen on a sprawling estate on the outskirts of Napa, innovation of a most tantalizing type is brewing.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
02/21/2017
Singlethread

Chef Kyle Connaughton's singular focus leads to a singular sensation Chef Kyle Connaughton has treaded a most purposeful path in life. It started at age 9 with a bite of raw fish. He was so enraptured by that first encounter with sushi that he knew he had found his life's calling then and there.

San Francisco Chronicle
01/19/2017
How sleepy Healdsburg became a dining destination

Chef Dustin Valette is a third-generation Healdsburg native whose downtown restaurant Valette is proudly housed in his great-grandfather's former bake shop. A quarter century ago, he remembers the plaza as sleepy, with a vacant lot where the Hotel Healdsburg now stands, a funeral parlor across the street, empty parking spaces galore and just one restaurant of any distinction.

Silicon Valley Magazine
01/05/2017
Star Quality

Chefs Jessica Carreira and David Costa had but a modest dream: to elevate for a new generation a most soulful yet unheralded cuisine, one based upon their Portuguese grandmothers' cooking, marked by time-honored techniques and humble ingredients like tripe, pig ears and the indispensable salt cod known as bacalhau.

San Francisco Chronicle
12/11/2016
Roy Fong and the quest for a California tea farm

The founder of Imperial Tea Court, the venerated Chinese teahouse in San Francisco's Ferry Building and Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, Fong is on a remarkable journey to create what he hopes will one day be the highest-production tea farm in the United States.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
12/02/2016
Not waiting in the wings

Chef Douglas Keane Makes His Mark in Napa While Plotting Cyrus 2.0 When Chef Douglas Keane first stepped inside the renovated Freemark Abbey Winery-with its rough-and-tumble stone walls and dramatic steel-beamed, plank ceiling gently curved like a wine barrel-words fairly failed him. "It took my breath away," he says with a wide smile.

San Francisco Chronicle
11/07/2016
How Roy Shvartzapel is revolutionizing panettone

Brazenly buttery, studded with dried fruit and blessed with an ethereal texture, the Italian Christmas bread has produced a precipice of untold awe, anxiety and failure in many a pastry chef attempting it. A classically trained pastry chef who has worked at elBulli in Spain, Bouchon Bakery in Beverly Hills, and Pierre Hermé in Paris, he started his Richmond baking company, Panettone From Roy, last December.

Silicon Valley Magazine
11/04/2016
Spread the Love

He is an angel investor and serial internet entrepreneur who founded such successful startups as Hotbar, the first company to commercialize a browser toolbar. Yet Oren Dobronsky knows his true legacy will probably lie in something entirely different-a humble chickpea dip.

Silicon Valley Magazine
11/01/2016
Sweet Spot

Carolyn Jung | Photo: Darlene Phan | November 14, 2016 If he bakes it, they will come. Such has been the response to the pop-up bake sales that pastry chef John Shelsta began hosting this summer on Saturday mornings at Zola restaurant in downtown Palo Alto.

Plate
09/04/2016
How the Flavors of Vietnam Found Their Way Across the U.S.

Phat Vu's journey to opening his first restaurant required navigating turbulent waters-in more ways than one.
 
 At age two, Vu, his eight siblings, his parents and another 25 family members crammed aboard his father's shrimping boat in the middle of the night, setting sail to escape the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Silicon Valley Magazine
09/02/2016
Proof Positive

Ulli Bisono grew up in an Austrian Alps village with the centuries-old tradition of homemade brandies distilled from local fruit. In fact, no Christmas was complete without the custom of marching bands going door to door to entertain before receiving at each stop a few coins and a glass of brandy.

Silicon Valley Magazine
09/02/2016
Farm Fresh

When longtime Peninsula restaurateur and caterer Maurice Carrubba first heard about an old restaurant for sale atop Santa Clara County's Mount Hamilton, reachable only by a serpentine road built with more curves than a Kardashian, it took his breath away-in more ways than one.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
09/01/2016
This Ain't His First Rodeo

Acclaimed Chef Ron Siegel Dazzles at Rancho Nicasio's Western Room Through soaring redwoods, past undulating hills and beyond stables of plaid-blanketed horses, no less, sits a low-slung building straight out of the wild, wild West. It sports a teeny post office, a not-much-bigger general store and a restaurant long known more for its live music than for any trend-setting cuisine.

EatingWell
08/22/2016
School of Fish

Alan Lovewell found a market for underutilized species of fish: school cafeterias

Silicon Valley Magazine
07/01/2016
Back to Business

Dan Gordon and Steve Sinchek prove you can go home again.

Silicon Valley Magazine
05/01/2016
Train Spotting

Commuting is such a chore these days. Good thing so many Caltrain stations are mere steps away from surefire sustenance, guaranteed to get any weary traveler going again.

Silicon Valley Magazine
05/01/2016
Sprouting Up

If one local inventor has his way, the future of furniture and home design will be fungal.

EatingWell
04/01/2016
3 Companies Doing Cool Things with Food Waste

Food waste is a mounting problem in our landfills. Alarmed that 40 percent of all food in this country ends up trashed, intrepid companies are turning former discards into innovative artisan finds. Here are 3 companies that are preventing tons (literally thousands of pounds) of food from ending up in the trash.

San Francisco Chronicle
03/19/2016
Restaurant in tiny Winters reaching for the stars

Ostrander, who grew up 40 minutes away in Sacramento, had never visited Winters, but he was lured by the opportunity to create a restaurant from scratch in an unlikely setting. Aaron Babcock, who came on board from Michelin three-starred Manresa in Los Gatos, oversees the wine program that eventually will grow to 500 selections, including Park Winters' own Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel, made in partnership with Berryessa Gap Vineyards.

San Francisco Chronicle
03/04/2016
Go fish! Monterey a model for ocean conservation

With its deep blue waters now teeming with life, it's hard to fathom that there was a time when whales, otters, sardines, kelp and other marine life were stricken here, fished to near depletion or driven elsewhere by the warming and changing of the currents.

San Francisco Chronicle
02/25/2016
Local makes chef good: how Napa nurtures a transplant

In the stillness of sprawling forest in Angwin, fallen twigs and leaves from mighty oaks and manzanitas snap and crackle under the feet of chef Christopher Kostow. On the tail end of winter break from the Restaurant at Meadowood in nearby St.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
12/02/2015
Red Rocker Sammy Hagar, as Comfortable in the Kitchen as Behind the Microphone

A Little Bit Of Everything, And It Works He may be known for his electric-socket blond curls, his sizzling chart-topping Van Halen vocals, and his devilish declaration that he just "Can't Drive 55." But these days, the Red Rocker also wants you to know he makes a mean red sauce.

Edible Marin & Wine Country
09/23/2015
Up on the Roof: Quince Restaurant

A Sanctuary Above the (Michelin) Stars Right before service begins at Quince restaurant in San Francisco, Chef de Cuisine Jonathan Black keeps to a ritual that girds him for the intensity of a kitchen soon to serve 100-plus exceedingly expectant diners on this typical evening.

San Francisco Chronicle
08/04/2015
The buzz at Google: Coffee pulp re-purposed as flour for sweets

When sipping that daily espresso, cappuccino or other cup of joe, you may pride yourself in knowing where the beans originated, their roasting method and whether they're Fair Trade certified. But what you might not realize is that every pound of coffee produced creates an almost equal amount of waste.

San Francisco Chronicle
07/05/2015
Half-sisters' family tree yields wine, and a story

Derived from the French word "to find," the name refers to the mission to express the singular terroir of its Central Coast varietals. [...] it also reflects the remarkable narrative of its founders, two siblings who spent half a lifetime apart on different continents, unaware of the other's existence, until a fateful phone call, a serendipitous letter and a shared love of wine reunited them.

Edible Silicon Valley
07/1/2015
A Man of 'Action!'

Like the pivotal climax of a drama unfolding on the big screen, Kevin Longa's freeze-frame moment jarringly came when he was all of 11 years old.

Edible Marin and Wine Country
05/29/2015
Calvin Lamborn's Magic Peas

PHOTOS BY ROD LAMBORN Fairytale Jack's Magic Beans Have Nothing on These Beauties BY CAROLYN JUNG French Laundry culinary gardener Aaron Keefer knew what he cradled in his hands was special. Even legendary.

San Francisco Chronicle
05/17/2015
Where to find the Bay Area's best Korean food

"When you talk about Korean food, you think of Santa Clara immediately," says Sung, board member of the Korean-American Chamber of Commerce of Silicon Valley and of Cupertino's Silicon Valley Korean School, the largest Korean school in the world outside of South Korea. [...]

San Francisco Chronicle
12/13/2014
Wine Country vintners turn to truffles

On the edge of his Sonoma vineyard aptly named Scintilla ("spark of an idea"), vintner Robert Sinskey has yanked out grapevines to make room for a few hundred oak and filbert trees.

Food Arts
9/1/2014
Snap Pea Sensei (2015 IACP Award Finalist)

Thirty-five years ago, Calvin Lamborn matched A with B and wound up with the world's first sugar snap pea. He's still at it, bringing to light a bushel of kaleidoscopic peas and leaves that make chefs swoon. At 80 years old, Calvin Lamborn would not be faulted for riding into the sunset.

Food Arts
9/1/2014
A Modernist Proposal

Nathan Myhrvold's technological solution to the kerfuffle unleashed last year by Time's "Gods of Food" dust-up: transform them into Goddesses and invite them to dinner. Carolyn Jung goes to his lab to taste how it all went down.

Korean Air's Morning Calm magazine
07/01/2014
Season of Saison

Chef Joshua Skenes created the ultimate pop-up success story in one of the world's most discerning cities. (Story pages 94-96)

San Francisco Chronicle
05/16/2014
Where the tech deals are made

Just ask Tim Stannard, founding partner of Bacchus Management Group, which includes the plush Village Pub in Woodside. BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse is so close to Apple's Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino and such a hangout for its engineers that it's jokingly been dubbed IL 7, an Apple building that doesn't actually exist.

Edible Silicon Valley
01/01/2014
GREEN GOLD GROWN BY THE COAST

Green Gold Grown by the Coast Story by Carolyn JungPhotos by Stewart Putney Fresh wasabi is not easy to grow. It takes skill, fortitude and endless perseverance. That's why in all of North America there are only a handful of farms that cultivate this nobby-looking Japanese rhizome, not the faux mash-up paste of horseradish, mustard and green dye most familiar to us at run-of-the-mill sushi bars.

Every Day with Rachael Ray
07/01/2013
Grill Out, Chill Out

Chef Curtis Stone offers tips and recipes for effortless summer entertaining.

Oakland Magazine
11/01/10
Stomping Grounds

When John Tudal purchased the unassuming, 6,000-square-foot, three-story property across from Jack London Square in Oakland three years ago, the real estate developer thought he was merely acquiring another old office building to refurbish. Little did he know that this once-cold storage building would be the catalyst to take him on a special journey home again.

San Francisco Chronicle
10/28/2010
Carlo Middione can't taste but still loves to cook

In the pint-size kitchen of his San Francisco home, chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Carlo Middione hunches over a counter, methodically rolling veal meatballs as tiny as necklace beads to add to a pot of simmering chicken broth. At the dining table, he ladles the soup into bowls, adding a shower of freshly grated Parmigiano to each.

Videos and Podcasts

YouTube
11/30/2021
Holiday reFresh 2021

On November 7, 2021, Acterra hosted a holiday cooking forum featuring a diverse set of notable Bay Area chefs demonstrated how to prepare their favorite plan...

"Talks at Google''
10/16/2020
YouTube

James Beard-award winning food writer Carolyn Jung discusses her latest book "East Bay Cooks", which features profiles and recipes from 41 chefs and business owners based in Berkeley, Oakland, and the surrounding areas. She shares her knowledge of Bay Area restaurants and food culture, and how to support restaurants during this time.