Jonah & Fred team up for Outstanding In The Field

On Sunday, June 26th, Chef Jonah will join Fred Hempel at his farm in Sunol, CA to take part in the 2011 Outstanding in the Field tour. This should be a blast for the obvious reasons: awesome food, breathtaking location, and great company. But it will also be a unique presentation of a close and truly collaborative relationship between a chef and a farmer….

Chef Jonah: Six Months In

Executive Chef Jonah Rhodehamel has been at the helm of the Oliveto kitchen since November 2010. It is amazing to us how much has changed at Oliveto over these last six months. First off, Chef Rhodehamel (and all of his crew) has been working like crazy. Basically, the level of energy and focus…

Welcome Chef Jonah

Maggie and I have been looking for several months for an exceptional cook—a vital, talented, and dedicated chef who could continue our tradition of learning and teaching, producing delicious food, collaborating, and, in a particular way, motivated by flavor, innovating. There are many talented chefs available, and we decided…

Dario’s Wedding

Hey alright! Everyone’s favorite Dante quoting butcher, Dario Cecchini, recently got married.  Craig Stoll of Delfina was in attendance and shared some pictures and videos of the joyous event:

Oliveto Beef Dinners 2010

Announcing Oliveto Beef Dinners 2010 with visits from trailblazing ranchers…

Dinner to Celebrate Agua Libre Rum

Coming up next Saturday, August 28th, Lance Winters of Hangar One will be joining us for dinner to celebrate the (limited) release of their Agua Libre Rum. Made from 100% California sugarcane, pressed fresh in their hangar on the island of Alameda, they have two editions available: the Fresh-Squeezed is a quintessential expression of newly cut cane. The Aged spent two and a half years…

Introducing the Oliveto Grain Project

We got our hand on seeds of three Italian wheat varieties last year, and asked our friendly farmers to grow them out for us in experimental plots. That put into gear a great adventure for us, which we’ll be sharing with you over the next few weeks and months…

Tomato Tasting

For the kitchen, the first step in planning the menu for Tomato Dinners is knowing what they have to work with. Yesterday, Chef Canales and his sous chefs sat down for three hours and tasted fifty-five different tomatoes from seven different farms. Each tomato was assessed using the following criteria: color, acid, sugar, gel, other flavors, texture,…

Playing Darts with Marcella Hazan

From someone we greatly respect, we recieved some gratifying praise last week. Marcella Hazan and her husband Victor usually stop by for dinner when they visit the Bay Area, so we are thrilled that she’s included Oliveto as one of her Fresh Picks on the Daily Beast blog….

Oliveto Fisheries Forum

The idea for a forum on local fisheries was sparked by one of our regulars at the upstairs bar who came in one night excited that Obama’s new head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would be Prof. Jane Lubchenco, a prominent and well-respected marine biologist from Oregon State University. Our friend thought the appointment portended…