Eats

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 […]

In her bakery, Melissa Sorongon bakes naturally leavened loaves in a wood-fired oven, bread she’s crafted from American heritage grains that she mills fresh.  She’s the only one doing the work she does at Piedrasassi Wine and Bread. The Lompoc tasting room is open by appointment only, and Sorongon sells her bread online and on […]

Sonya Ela keeps her pad thai recipe close to her chest. So close, in fact, that she hasn’t taught her chefs at Baan Thai how to make it yet—and probably never will.  Ela comes in an hour before everyone else does to make the special sauce. Her restaurant off South Broadway in Santa Maria has […]

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 […]

Half deck, half tasting room, Kalyra Winery’s thin, long building overlooks the Santa Ynez Valley. The walls smell faintly of fresh paint, but the venue is hopping on Feb. 1. The walls smell faintly of fresh paint, but the venue is hopping on Feb. 1.  Every table is full, and there isn’t space at the […]

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 is way more doughnut than I bargained for. Four full-sized doughnuts are placed in front of me. Blueberry, apple, vanilla, and chocolate cake. Each is iced in frosting infused with the wine it will be paired with. Riverbench 2017 Bedrock Chardonnay pours into an etched wine glass. I gently tear the Blueberry Chardonnay Cake […]

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 […]

What’s most worth remembering about the past year? Think about all of your senses and what might deserve revisiting or at least savoring the memory of.  We at the Sun want to help you remember some of the most delicious places and meals of 2019 so you can relish those “oh yeah, that happened last […]

“Seriously?” I exclaim under my breath.  Exasperated, I realize now—after what feels like my millionth trip to the grocery store this weekend—that I don’t have any baking soda. It’s an essential for making Nestle’s chocolate chip cookies. And so was the granulated sugar that I had just brought back from the grocery store five minutes […]

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 […]