Winter Luxe - December 2
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Chef Peter Jackson’s Canvas Underground presents a winter luxe dinner featuring:
- porcini mushrooms
- bone marrow and pork belly
- black truffles
- and more!
Come ready for fine food and good conversation and bring a heavyweight red wine to pair with your meal!
**Substitutions to the menu for people with food allergies only.
Pre-Thanksgiving Feast Recap 11/19/07
We haven’t hosted a dinner at the Alcatraz house since the SF Chronicle ran the “Guerilla Gourmet” story on the frontpage of its Sunday paper. With new roommates eager to experience underground dining and fans of Peter’s original Canvas restaurant seeking to relive the experience, we gambled on hosting dinner the same week of Thanksgiving. Our gamble paid off — 11 diners found themselves making new friends and of course, enjoying a menu that included spiced beef daube, a tower of delicata squash over celery root-potato mash, delicate steamed parsley root and poached pears with late harvest sauvignon blanc vinegar caramel sauce. The Katz Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc Vinegar is made by a local chef that Peter met at Knoll Farm’s Slow Food dinner in September; if you’re interested in buying it, click here.
Dennis and Mary Kercher of The Hidden Kitchen travelled from Sacramento to celebrate Dennis’s birthday with us — he surprised myself and Peter with a gift, a divine aperitif he brewed from coffee, lotsa sugar and cream. Dennis was inspired by the SF Chronicle’s story on the Ghetto Gourmet and Jeremy & Joe Townsend’s enterprising spirit. He and Mary started serving 5-course dinners for 12 in 2006 and have been going strong ever since. If you’re ever in their neck of the woods, please do dine with them in their elegant home — Dennis is a fine chef who cooks with the season and Mary the ever-gracious host. The Hidden Kitchen’s next dinner is December 8 (nearly a week after Canvas’s Winter Luxe dinner on Dec 2).
Also in attendance were Robert K., a former Canvas (restaurant) foodie, who came to dinner and introduced his friends to Peter’s down–but fine–home cookin’. Last night’s dinner also marked Jessica H’s 3rd time eating a Chef Jackson dinner — in this more intimate setting, it was a real treat for me to interact more with our guests and she and I now have a “date” to go see W. Kamau Bell’s “Bell Curve: How to End Racism in an Hour“! The Alcatraz house’s newest housemates (Tiffany, Jamie and Joe) also got their first bite of the underground dining experience that has made their home infamous — they were pleasantly surprised and I’m glad they were initiated in the original circumstances I first experienced it — 12 people, fine food, great conversation and music (yes, Guitar Fred made a special appearance).
recap of fall harvest dinner 10/28/07
October 28, Kristy opened the doors to her Lake Merritt apartment for a Fall Harvest dinner with Chef Peter Jackson. Half the guests had come to one of Peter’s dinners before and the other half were uninitiated to the underground dining concept. The menu included:
- Black Eyed Pea Falafel with Housemade Smoked Catfish
- Heirloom Tomato Early Girl Salad with Goat Cheese Medallions Encrusted with Pecans
- Gulf Prawns with Anson Mills Organic Grits
- Wolf Ranch Quail with Butternut Squash and Homemade Tasso Hash
- Beignets with Chicory Coffee Pot de Crème
Three of our lovely guests, Suzanne, her husband and friend, Judi, had been to Peter’s first dinner with the Ghet — the aerial view photo of that “parking lot” dinner has probably been the most published worldwide of any Ghet dinners to date and by yours truly. They hadn’t dined with us since 2006 and they enthused this was the best dinner by far - what a great compliment.
Matt had never dined at Canvas and he wrote a glowing review on Yelp:
Maybe I’ve been to the right ones, but I’ve only been to Ghets in nice little homes in Oakland. The expansion to SF and beyond gave me pause, but careful selection of chef and location seems to be keeping the thrill alive. I’ve met some fascinating people along the way and had some great food.
I do miss the old Alcatraz house, but I don’t miss the floor seating. Even in the ‘hood, we can roll with real furniture. My lower back must be getting old and hopelessly conventional.
When’s the next Peter Jackson meal?
outside the box
Our great friend, Lisa C., approached us in August to cater a fundraiser for a documentary titled “Outside the Box“. Outside the Box, a film by Lacey A. Schwartz, chronicles Lacey’s exploration of her Jewish-African American heritage. In keeping with the theme of the documentary, Chef Peter Jackson came up with a clever menu that combined Southern flavors with Jewish food: Black Eyed Pea Falafel with Mazal Made Smoked Catfish, White Boot Brigade Shrimp with Remoulade, Rugelach, Pecan Blondies, Quesadilla with Teleme Cheese, Shitake Mushroom and Chipotle Chile and Sliders on Foccacia. The Black Eyed Pea (aka accra) proved to be the hit of the party!
Lacey will previewing her film in Los Angeles and NYC — click here for more info.
Contact Info
You can contact me at pj@canvasunderground.com
Ark of Taste Dinner
My good friend Poppy Tooker, head of Slow Food’s Ark of Taste Project and leader of the New Orleans convivium, invited me to cook a course for her annual fund raising dinner at Knoll Farm in Brentwood. I was lucky enough to cook along side Stuart Brioza of Rubicon, Whitney Gault of Fish and Marc Rasic of Google, among others. We had a blast, I cooked up a big batch of Carolina rice grits. It was my first time making them and they were definitely and hit. I also braised various cuts of the rare Hereford pork from Black Sheep Farm in Mendocino with smoked Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes, roasted Anahiem chiles, and roasted garlic.
The Next Dinner!
The Omnivores Table continues with a dinner in Oakland celebrating the best of summer produce and the cooler weather crops that start to appear during the fall.
I don’t have a set menu, because I’m going to shop at the farmers market, use the best of what I find and let inspiration be my guide
Here are some hints though.
Expect Wolf Ranch quail, local chanterelles, green tomatoes, homemade tasso, sweet potatoes, clams, and more….
Below is the link to reserve a table
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/73687401
