Whole Hog 2010 is Under Way

In preparation for Oliveto’s Whole Hog Dinners sauerkraut is fermenting, prosciutto is curing, and orders are being placed. Chef Canales has already made some of the menu available including…

Hearty Winter Crops & Sensational Chanterelles

The season may provide fewer options by way of available produce, but Chef Canales uses his skillful creativity (not to mention his supersonic hearing!) to devise a slew of excellent dishes for the winter menu. Add to that one of the best chanterelle seasons in the a while, and you’ve got some serious deliciousness coming out of the Oliveto kitchen right now….

This Just In – Puglian Chicories

Starting tonight through the weekend, we’ll be serving Barciole di vitellone e cicora: scaloppine of Magruder Ranch milk- and grass-fed vitellone stuffed with Knoll Farm puglian chicories. For this dish, Chef Canales will be using chicories that were grown by Rick and Kristie Knoll of Tairwa’ – Knoll Farms in Brentwood. Rick and Kristie grew these chicories from seeds Oliveto co-owner Bob Klein brought back from one of his annual trips to Italy. Bob had stayed with his friends, Armando and Rosalba of Masseria Il Frantoio, Ostuni in Puglia….

In the Kitchen with Chef Canales: Dry-aged beef

This morning, Chef Paul Canales took a moment to show us some of the beef he’s been aging. Mac Magruder delivered a manzo six weeks ago, and the rib-eyes are now being prepared to go on the menu this weekend as tagliata & (maybe) wild mushrooms. Chef Canales also gives us a heads up on the porcini forecast for next week, tells us what “hard crack” means, and introduces us to Pablo “Tigre” Gavito….

Canales & Fujimoto Walk The Market

Yesterday’s solstice officially marked the beginning of summer, but already the markets are bursting with incredible produce. New things keep showing up every week; out of this world strawberries, followed by cherries and the rest of the stone fruits, summer squashes, pole beans, and…

Chef Canales Gives a Tour of the Meat Locker

We installed a large meat locker a few years back that finally provided the space for some more ambitious projects such as receiving whole sides of beef, as well as hanging and aging meat….

A Visit From Two Piedmontese Friends

Essential to the Oliveto Wine in Time project is Aldo Vacca, Director of Produttori del Barbaresco. Beginning in 1998, he has helped shape our ideas about wine, introduced us to many other fine producers, found old wine for our list, been a great host and friend, and helped us acquire hours of video tape about the region. On June 25th and 26th, Chef Canales will offer…

Menu for Oliveto Oceanic Dinners 2009

Appetizers and Salads

Plates Expressing the Best Catch of the Day (Raw, Salted, Marinated, and Smoked)

This is a new section for our Oceanic Menu. It is inspired by my recent trip to Japan where I was exposed to many new ways of thinking about and preparing fish. It is no accident that after Japanese cuisine, Italian cuisine is most favored in Japan…

This Just In – PORCINI MUSHROOMS

Romano Isole just showed up with some beautiful porcini foraged from the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento.  We bought up a whole bunch and Chef Canales plans to have them popping up all over the menu, starting tonight, in such dishes as:
Gnocchi with porcini
an entree of Riverdog Farm pasture-raised eggs poached in olive oil and [...]

Oceanic Dinners 2009

June 10 marks the beginning of our eighth annual Oceanic Dinner event, which our trusted co-conspirator Tom Worthington of Monterey Fish Company says is looking very good for all our fishery sources (except local salmon). Our Oceanic Dinners are the most spectacular of our special events. We will serve some sixty species of sea beings and…