First Bites

** just published Jesse's first post over at
http://www.cooleatz.com/smallbites/ **

It’s been a while since a sallied up to this side of the bar. It is a sleepy night in downtown Menlo Park and near the end of summer. The days are growing shorter but the air remains warm and still. Autumn hasn't yet set in.

Many years ago I used to do my part for Jesse up at her flagship restaurant, Flea St. Café. This was well before she wrote her book. One day, back then, Jesse came back from a benefit with other celebrity chefs in Napa Valley. They all had authored books. Jesse, full and angst and frustration knew it was her time to do something more than the monthly columns for the San Jose Mercury and local Gourmet magazine she was writing at the time. I wholeheartedly agreed. Jesse and I ultimately cut a deal for me to run Flea St. 100% for a year.

I worked as the GM while she got that first manuscript under her belt and her first book, ‘Tomatoes’, published. It wasn’t only her first book but the first time she had ever handed over this much control of her business to grow her career in this new direction. It was brave of Jesse. And of me too.

Since then, Jesse and I have grown with typical ups and downs as friends and partners. I now run her website and help her continue to get her name out there to a wider world. I love cooking, serving people, and the theatre restaurant. Jesse has vision, guts, and commitment to build a better world. Representing her isn’t difficult. In fact, it is an honor and a delight. It also comes with the invaluable perks for my taste buds and stomach. As she stated in the acknowledgements to her most recent and 7th cookbook ‘ONE-POT COOKBOOK’, “Thanks, Eric for being my friend an sharing one-pot meals, possibly more often than any other, and always with vigor.” That’s me! I'm a vigorous eater. I love of food, farming, hard work, wine and the community that comes with it.

Jesse and her team recently asked me to step in a couple of nights a week behind the bar at the new jZ Cool Eatery and Wine Bar. Jesse and her team are getting a new restaurant off the ground and as usual I love seeing new things begin, flourish and build. Tonight is my first official night. I actually jumped in on opening night when the community poured through the wide front doors. Tonight I’ve folded napkins, polished silver, reviewed the pours by the glass, learned the computer, memorized the table numbers, reviewed the menu and as might be expected noshed on the night specials prepared for the staff by jZ Cool’s kitchen manager Talia in the back of the house. There isn’t a harder working group of people in our country than those in food service. I honor, value and embrace the work. I’m glad I’m here. Come in. Join us.

Every couple of days I’ll update this blog with the nightly specials and seasonal cooking coming out of another of Jesse’s legendary kitchens. From time to time I might also throw in an observation (or three) from that special vantage point of a bartender looking out from behind the bar.

Specials:
Grilled Watermelon with honey & chili flakes
Fresh Melon with house cured Alaska Salmon
Heirloom tomatoes with lightly charred corn and basil salsa
Linguini with scallop

Soups:
Garlic cheese with saffron rice
Minestrone with chicken