BETH GIUFFRE

The barstools in 15 Degrees C Wine Shop and Bar and the view of chef Nathan Clapp’s open kitchen are on hold for the time being, but the authentic Italian food and neighborhood wine stop in Templeton has an outdoor oasis just for you.  Clapp dances and sings around his turntable of from-scratch pizzas and […]

Finding good local meat right now makes one feel like a pirate searching for pieces of eight and buried treasure.  Demand is up, impacting the ability to process local supply, thanks in part to the coronavirus’ impacts across the state. J&R Natural Meat and Sausage’s butcher shop has been holding the line as one of […]

Katerina Axelsson was tinkering in a wine lab when she unlocked the flavor matrix for wine.  She’s always been fascinated by human biology—particularly biotech—and relocated from Southern California to Cal Poly to pursue a chemistry degree, before getting a master’s degree in bioinformatics.  So naturally, data science professor Alexander Dekhtyar, who oversaw Axelsson’s master’s program, […]

If you haven’t been out to eat yet, and you can, I suggest you do so right now. Because the only variable that experts can’t predict is when customers will be patronizing food and drink businesses again, but it needs to happen for any of the Central Coast’s fantastic programs to work.  Judy Mahan—who has […]

It’s not the hand sanitizer, the E.T. hazmat suit, the sci-fi mask, or the fast-tracked frankenvaccine that’s going to be the super-forcefield to protect us from COVID-19. Most of the natural defenses we need are right at our fingertips. Besides, we always need to be on guard. According to the American Society for Microbiology, there […]

It’s awfully quiet outside. But farmers have not stopped the plows.  Checking in with our local food growers, many reported a huge increase in CSA boxes and farm stand sales. And local farmers’ markets are seeing increased visitors. Kathy McNay, who organizes farmers’ markets in Northern Santa Barbara County, said more people seem to be […]

The Chef Showdown started out like something on one of those Food Network competition shows: four top chefs creating gorgeous masterpieces in a studio kitchen. But this was on the Central Coast, at the Paso Robles Event Center before locals’ very eyes. The audience even participated in judging after visiting the tables of small bites […]

I learned just how fascinated I was with etiquette when I bought a copy of Emily Post’s Etiquette, 19th Edition, Manners for Today for my niece, an aspiring baker and future food biz entrepreneur. She’s a senior in high school and plans to pursue a hospitality major in college. The almost 700-page book is a […]

The ghosts of Prohibition still linger in the cool warehouse distribution rooms of our Central Coast wineries. Constitutional amendments of Prohibition enacted 100 years ago—the 18th and 21st specifically—continue to affect the production, distribution, and commerce of wine and other alcoholic beverages throughout the 50 states and abroad. And according to the folks at the […]

I was either the best or worst waitress (according to handwritten notes on my check receipts). My status depended entirely on circumstances because even the most skillful waiters could not pull off a triple seating on a Friday night when you’re understaffed and you got assigned the one busser who just started. To make everyone […]

This past year was all about alternative milks and nut butters.� Cannabis and/or CBD-infused food and beverages.� Flower flavors and bitter plant fronds in cocktails.� Salads, collagen-pumped foods, prebiotics, avocado toast, açai bowls, and antioxidants.� Real butter is back, and we all seem to be comfortable cooking with ghee and coconut oil. That was 2019 […]

I was fortunate to catch up with chef Debbie Duggan before one of her famous appetizer classes recently. We met at her gorgeously remodeled teaching kitchen on Parker Street in an industrial sector of San Luis Obispo, right around the corner from the Nautical Bean coffee shop. Her kitchen is designed in a Tuscan style, with […]