I’m lucky to have a mother who makes a good risotto. It’s great comfort food.

And it’s been good to see risotto appearing on more and more restaurant menus over the years. It’s taking on new flavors, going well beyond classic Parmesan risotto or the delicious mushroom risotto my mother prepares.

Jamie West, executive chef at California-based Ojai Valley Inn & Spa,  has developed a risotto featuring a variety of flavor components. He adds smoked mozzarella, along with roasted corn kernels, white truffle oil, and a shaving of black truffles.

The dish is prepared in the traditional manner, with chicken or vegetable stock added by the ladleful while the risotto is stirred. The corn kernels are stirred in near the end of cooking. The smoked mozzarella, herbs and white truffle oil are added once the risotto is cooked, as are the shaved black truffles.

Chef West suggests serving the risotto with his pan-seared diver scallops – though I’m sure the risotto would be great with other dishes, or on its own.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Spring is just around the corner, but at the moment winter is showing few signs of retreating in northern California.  Cool temperatures and rain are in the forecast. In other words, it’s still perfect soup weather.

I have a hearty and healthy recipe that fits the weather. It comes by way of Ryan Scott. The San Francisco caterer and cooking instructor’s soup features cabbage, red potatoes and white beans.

It’s an easy dish. The chef keeps it vegetarian by using vegetable broth. You can cook your own beans ahead of time, or use canned beans to save time. The soup is finished with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Chef Scott, who appeared on Bravo’s “Top Chef” a few seasons back, is a classically trained chef and a graduate of the California Culinary Academy.

And he has his own show, “Cooking with Ryan,” on CBS’ Los Banos affiliate.

You can also check out our earlier blog post featuring his caramelized cabbage with pancetta and apples.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

San Francisco chef Ryan Scott thinks cabbage is way underrated. We agree.

Chef Scott – who’s worked alongside such culinary notables as Charlie Trotter, Gary Danko and Alan Wong – gives cabbage the treatment it deserves.

The San Francisco caterer and cooking instructor prepares a dish of caramelized cabbage with pancetta and apples. The pancetta is sautéed in extra virgin olive oil oil until crisp, and then set aside. Shredded cabbage, onions and apples are then sautéed until they’re golden brown. You want to keep scraping the caramel up from the bottom of the pot and incorporating it into the cabbage and onions.

Once the mixture is soft and golden, salt is added. You continue cooking until the cabbage, apples and onions turn a caramel color. You can sprinkle the cooked pancetta on top of the dish, or mix it in.

As a kid, the chef’s Christmas wish list included a food dehydrator, among other kitchen utensils. One of his first dishes, at age 9, was tuna quesadilla with canned chili over the top. He made it for his brother, who still cooks it to this day.

The Central Valley native favors local, seasonal ingredients.

“You should always decide what to cook by first figuring out which produce and vegetables are in season,” he told us. “From there, look for what will complement. Cabbage, leeks, oranges, Fuji apples . . . see what is in abundance, see what is bountiful. Then plan your meal around it.”

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Here’s another great recipe from Jamie West, executive chef at California-based Ojai Valley Inn & Spa.

This one features pan-seared diver scallops combined with a cooked tomato and basil puree. Chef West calls the tomato puree a fondue.

To make the fondue, onions and shallots are sautéed in extra virgin olive oil. The pan is deglazed with white wine. Roma tomatoes and fresh basil are added and allowed to simmer until thickened. The sauce is then pureed.

Chef West suggests serving the scallops atop his smoked mozzarella, corn and truffle risotto. The fondue gets spooned around the outside of the risotto. You can garnish the dish with fried basil leaves and go all the way by shaving some black truffles on top.

The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, where Chef West overseas four restaurants and a banquet operation,  is located in a scenic area about 80 miles by car northwest of Los Angeles.

Fresh, seasonal ingredients are a foundation of Chef West’s cooking. At the resort, he has a two-acre chef’s garden where he can pick seasonal vegetables to serve his restaurant customers. He also shops at the farmers market to stay “in touch with the season and what’s available locally.”

You can also check out my posts about his spicy scallops and butternut risotto, as well as his grilled chicken breasts with tangerine honey and chipotle glaze.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

My first revelation of how olive oil can transform the ordinary into something special was a grilled cheese sandwich cooked with extra virgin olive oil. Another eye opener was a fried egg on toast, with the egg sautéed in good EVOO.

So my eyes lit up when I saw Mark Peel’s recipe for olive oil fried eggs on artisan toast. What kicks this dish up another three notches  is the egg is topped with a salsa romesco.

Peel – executive chef at Campanile in Los Angeles – makes this famed Spanish sauce using toasted almonds and hazelnuts, an oven-roasted tomato, a roasted pepper, toasted bread, and red wine vinegar. The ingredients get combined in the food processor.

The egg, meanwhile, is sautéed in extra virgin olive oil, placed on a toasted slice of sourdough batard, and topped with a spoonful of the romesco. What a way to start the morning – though I could eat it any time of day.

An award-winning chef, Mark Peel has quite a history in the restaurant business.

Just out of college, he landed a job peeling vegetables for Wolfgang Puck at Ma Maison. He eventually moved to France for stints at La Tour d’Argent and Le Moulin de Mougins. In 1979, he returned to Los Angeles and began working at Michael’s restaurant. From there he moved north to Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse and, finally, back to Los Angeles to open the original Spago as Wolfgang Puck’s chef de cuisine.

In 1989, he opened both La Brea Bakery and Campanile along with Nancy Silverton and Manfred Krankl.

Small surprise that such a creative mind can take the ordinary egg and elevate it to new heights.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Around Hollywood, Chef Katsuo “Suki” Sugiura is known simply as Chef Suki. The executive chef at the Beverly Hilton is a chef to the stars. Next Monday, for example, he’ll be overseeing lunch for the Oscar nominees. This busy man also happens to be a very nice guy. And he took time out from his kitchen duties to share a recipe for citrus-scented steamed broccoli accompanied by sautéed wild mushrooms.

The dish is topped with a citrus-infused sauce that includes orange and lime zest, fresh parsley, focaccia crumbs, and extra virgin olive oil. It all gets finished with fresh shavings of parmesan cheese and a drizzle of EVOO.

At the Beverly Hilton,  Chef Suki is in charge of preparing meals for Hollywood’s movers and shakers as well as the customers of his restaurant.

Last month he prepared an exquisite dinner for the Golden Globe Awards Show dinner. The meal showcased California ingredients, including our extra virgin olive oil. He also created the dinner for the pre-GrammyAwards gala on Jan. 30 at the Beverly Hilton.

“I have the highest respect for my guests,” Chef Suki told us.  “And I want to provide the best things they can possibly taste.”

Chef Suki was raised in Europe. He’s cooked all over the world – from Berlin, London and Paris to São Paulo, New York and Hawaii. And he’s meticulous about his cooking and the ingredients he uses.

Chef Suki, for example, stocks his kitchen with nine different types of rice. He also cultivates his own herb garden, smokes his own meats, and infuses his own vinegars.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I was intrigued to see one of my favorite restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area, César, is branching out in a new direction, beyond Spain and the Mediterranean. Executive Chef Maggie Pond has developed a new menu for the Oakland eatery showcasing the foods of South and Central America. César’s other location, in Berkeley, will continue to serve great authentic Spanish cuisine.

My wife and I have always enjoyed Chef Pond’s cooking. I’ve written about her roasted butternut squash salad and her phenomenal Marcona almonds, which are lightly fried in extra virgin olive oil.

Chef Pond is a big proponent of extra virgin olive oil. (Forget about requesting butter for your bread in her restaurant.) And I want to serve up another César recipe featuring EVOO: escarole salad.

Escarole is a hearty green with a slightly bitter taste. Its background is anything but straightforward. A member of the daisy family, escarole also is one of the chicories, along with Belgian endive, curly endive, and radicchio. And, to top it off, escarole is sometimes called Batavian endive … or Batavia.

In César’s salad, escarole is tossed with a dressing made from Arbequina EVOO, sherry vinegar and chopped garlic cloves.

It’s not your typical dressing. To flavor the EVOO, the garlic is cooked golden brown in half the oil. The rest of the EVOO is whisked in, along with the vinegar as well as salt, pepper, and sugar.

The escarole is tossed with the dressing and topped with black oil-cured olives and croutons. It’s clearly Mediterranean-inspired.

That said, I look forward to trying Chef Pond’s new Latino menu.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Mark Estee loves olive oil. He consumes it straight out of the bottle. And he likes to showcase it in recipes such as his extra virgin olive oil soup.

“It’s a good vehicle to get the olive oil flavor,” said Estee, executive chef at Moody’s Bistro & Lounge in Truckee, Calif., about 100 miles northeast of Sacramento, near Lake Tahoe

Moody’s mantra, by the way, is “Fresh. Seasonal. Simple. Local.”  Chef Estee has developed personal relationships with local farmers, fishmongers and ranchers. Many of these purveyors deliver their goods directly to Moody’s kitchen door.

The extra virgin olive oil soup includes chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you want to go vegetarian), garlic cloves, EVOO, and toasted cubes of artisan bread, such as ciabatta or baguette.

The bread helped inspire the dish. “Olive oil and bread together are delicious,” Chef Estee told us.

And the bread serves a practical purpose, acting as a thickening agent.

For the soup, the garlic gloves are simmered in the broth until fork tender. The toasted bread cubes are added. The ingredients are then puréed until smooth. The EVOO is added during the puréeing process.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can top the soup with a dollop of garlic aoli and a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I’m back from Napa Valley and an amazing conference about healthy dining at the Culinary Institute of America. Chefs demonstrated dishes like farro and mushroom burgers. Avocado cake with figs was served as dessert at a meal. A citrus cucumber puree was offered as a lunch drink. It was inspiring to see and eat the healthy food. And I want to stick with that theme. While this pan-roasted red snapper dish with orange and mango salsa wasn’t on the conference agenda, it could have been.

The recipe comes from Chef Allen Susser. The New York Times has called the chef – who’s a native New Yorker – “The Ponce de Leon of New Florida Cuisine.” He’s won numerous awards, including a James Beard Foundation Award.

Chef Susser operates Chef Allen’s in Aventura, north of Miami. The eatery opened in 1986. His cuisine draws on the influences of the Caribbean, Latin America and “modern America.”  The chef works with the bounty of south Florida foodstuffs.

In this recipe, the salsa combines an orange, mango, red onion, half a jalapeño pepper for some heat, as well as fresh lime juice and extra virgin olive oil.

The snapper fillets get a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil before being sautéed. Garlic and fresh orange juice are added to the pan. The cooked fillets are removed to a platter while the juice simmers a few minutes. The snapper is then topped with the juice. The salsa is served on the side.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I’ve been attending a conference this week in Napa Valley at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus in northern California. The topic: healthy dining. Here’s a dish that fits that bill.

The recipe features delicata squash, pictured below. (My computer’s spell checker, which lacks culinary smarts, insists the squash is spelled “delicate.”)

“This is one of the quickest cooking winter squash, yielding a sweet, delicate flavor,” writes Lou Seibert Pappas in an excellent cookbook named A Harvest of Pumpkins and Squash (Chronicle Books, 2008). “The skin is easy to peel.”

In this recipe, the delicata squash is peeled and sliced into thick rings. The rings are sautéed until lightly browned. They’re combined with mixed field greens, persimmon, dried cranberries and feta cheese. The whole dish gets topped with a vinaigrette made from extra virgin olive oil, Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Delicata squash is considered an heirloom variety. And, as Pappas noted, it’s a winter squash. This squash family – which includes butternut, acorn and Hubbard, among others – is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals.  It contains beta-carotene, which packs antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Winter squash also boasts vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, and different B vitamins.

Pappas, by the way, suggests serving the sauteed squash “slightly warm” along with the “cool salad topping.”

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch