I remember when I came to California in 1983 as a newly minted "Chef" having just graduated from the CIA (after spending a year in Miami while my wife who was also a CIA Grad finished her Bachelors degree). I was so excited to be a part of the Nouvelle Cuisine "revolution". After a year I got a job with a CIA classmate at the Tower Restaurant in Laguna Beach. It was very Nouvelle and some of the dishes seem silly in retrospect. However I do remember asking my friend over lunch "soooo....how do you make YOUR beurre blanc?" And that's how I learned how to make one. I left Surf and Sand a year or so later to take a job as a Sous Chef and Ma Maison. Wow what a time to be in the middle of it all.
I remember the restaurant at Surf and Sand with such fondness. I used to go there with Marion Cunningham when I visited her in Laguna Beach. I tried to find the review i wrote for the LA Times.... If I can find the menu, I'll post it.
It was a beautiful restaurant. I love that they had mirrors on the ceiling and so if you were not sitting at a table by the window you could look up and see the waves crashing on the beach below. It had an Art Deco theme which was foreign to me and I didn't like it. I now LOVE the Art Deco style. My wife and I lived in Orange County near Laguna for a several years and used to drive by or visit the hotel often. Though the Tower Restaurant is no longer there Splashes is a nice place. We fondly refer to it as the Smurf Land Hotel. :D
Just use the Crazy or Wacky chocolate cake recipes from the internet. One bowl, or even mix right in the baking pan. Recipes developed in the Depression. Use no eggs or butter, yet are moist and delicious. Can make same recipe sans chocolate in banana, apple, orange, lemon.
Ruth- I made your chocolate cake for my niece's 15th birthday party. It was both quick to make and delicious! I used good quality chocolate chips and triple sec. Thank you for sharing.
Your picture of Mendenhall and mention of Juneau's delicious air took me back to a trip during a near record-breaking heatwave. In a city largely without air conditioning, temps in the high eighties were almost unbearable. After a few days suffering this, we bussed out to the glacier and caught a perfect, sudden, unexpected breeze of about 60 degrees, even a mile away from the ice. It was easily the most glorious sensation of my life. To go with it: gorgeous fresh huckleberries right off the bush.
I remember when I came to California in 1983 as a newly minted "Chef" having just graduated from the CIA (after spending a year in Miami while my wife who was also a CIA Grad finished her Bachelors degree). I was so excited to be a part of the Nouvelle Cuisine "revolution". After a year I got a job with a CIA classmate at the Tower Restaurant in Laguna Beach. It was very Nouvelle and some of the dishes seem silly in retrospect. However I do remember asking my friend over lunch "soooo....how do you make YOUR beurre blanc?" And that's how I learned how to make one. I left Surf and Sand a year or so later to take a job as a Sous Chef and Ma Maison. Wow what a time to be in the middle of it all.
I remember the restaurant at Surf and Sand with such fondness. I used to go there with Marion Cunningham when I visited her in Laguna Beach. I tried to find the review i wrote for the LA Times.... If I can find the menu, I'll post it.
It was a beautiful restaurant. I love that they had mirrors on the ceiling and so if you were not sitting at a table by the window you could look up and see the waves crashing on the beach below. It had an Art Deco theme which was foreign to me and I didn't like it. I now LOVE the Art Deco style. My wife and I lived in Orange County near Laguna for a several years and used to drive by or visit the hotel often. Though the Tower Restaurant is no longer there Splashes is a nice place. We fondly refer to it as the Smurf Land Hotel. :D
Just use the Crazy or Wacky chocolate cake recipes from the internet. One bowl, or even mix right in the baking pan. Recipes developed in the Depression. Use no eggs or butter, yet are moist and delicious. Can make same recipe sans chocolate in banana, apple, orange, lemon.
Ruth- I made your chocolate cake for my niece's 15th birthday party. It was both quick to make and delicious! I used good quality chocolate chips and triple sec. Thank you for sharing.
Your picture of Mendenhall and mention of Juneau's delicious air took me back to a trip during a near record-breaking heatwave. In a city largely without air conditioning, temps in the high eighties were almost unbearable. After a few days suffering this, we bussed out to the glacier and caught a perfect, sudden, unexpected breeze of about 60 degrees, even a mile away from the ice. It was easily the most glorious sensation of my life. To go with it: gorgeous fresh huckleberries right off the bush.
Looking forward to reading your new book.
I have to ask, is there a gluten-free version of that cake?
I have a friend who's got to watch her gluten, but I wanted to make something nice for Christmas dessert for all of us....