zulooiam.blogg.se

1. ZAZU RESTAURANT CALIFORNIA PROFESSIONAL
2. ZAZU RESTAURANT CALIFORNIA FREE
3. ZAZU RESTAURANT CALIFORNIA MAC

Estes writes: "We like to highlight it in everything.

ZAZU RESTAURANT CALIFORNIA FREE

Remembering her college nights whipping individual batches of ice cream in Al Forno's kitchen, she laughed and said wryly, "We don't spin our ice cream to order here." Apparently even dervishes have their limits.įreelancer Molly Birnbaum '05 is a former BAM intern.ĭuskie Estes' Asparagus Carbonara with Black Pig Baconįor their Sonoma County, California, restaurants, Zazu and Bovolo, Duskie Estes '90 and her husband, John Stewart, make their own bacon from heritage pork that is antibiotic- and hormone-free and free range. It was smooth and rich with the faint twang of yogurt. Giving a tour of Zazu's sun-dappled kitchen one morning this September, Estes paused at a small metal freezer and pulled out a container of gelato: fromage blanc, one of many flavors that she and Stewart make from scratch. Estes hadn't expected to move back to California, but the vibrant farm community and the roadhouse dining room beckoned. "And now I'm married to a man who makes salumi and has a pig tattooed on his arm." The couple bought the Santa Rosa property that would become Zazu in 2001, when their first child, Brydie, was three weeks old. "I didn't eat meat for twenty-two years," she jokes. She also helped him write Seattle Kitchen, which won a James Beard cookbook award in 2001.Įstes met Stewart in 1996 while she was executive chef at Douglas's Palace Kitchen, a meat-driven restaurant that challenged her two decades of vegetarianism.

When she moved to Seattle in 1994 she befriended chef Tom Douglas and worked as corporate sous chef for three of his award-winning local restaurants. She flipped pancakes and omelets, butchered rabbits and lobsters, and fought her way up to positions often held only by men. Over the next few years, she hopped from city to city, cooking in San Francisco and Providence, working as a chef on a Nantucket yacht, and catering for a Grateful Dead tour of Colorado. "She's super high energy, spinning around all the time."Īfter graduation, Estes interned at a public defender's office in Washington, D.C., but was happiest sidelining as a pantry chef at Twenty-One Federal. "I like to call her the Tasmanian devil in the kitchen," says Zoi Antonitsas, a chef at Zazu. "It was wild, and I loved it."Īge hasn't slowed her. "There were timers going off left and right," she recalls. After taking time off to attend culinary school, she returned to Brown and spent her weekend nights sweating, scrambling, and whipping up individual batches of ice cream to order at the Providence restaurant duo Al Forno/Lucky's.

ZAZU RESTAURANT CALIFORNIA PROFESSIONAL

retro-hip." In 2005 the couple followed that success with Bovolo, a casual, family-oriented restaurant whose motto is "slow food fast." For Estes, food is a way to build community-communities of farmers, cooks, and diners.Įstes got her professional cooking start as a student. The San Francisco Chronicle named Zazu one of the top-ten new restaurants of 2002. In Sonoma's foodie culture, Estes's food was an immediate hit. "She understands both the thrill and the value of making her food accessible." "Duskie is a playful person with an incredible palate," says Daley.

ZAZU RESTAURANT CALIFORNIA MAC

In a Food Network Challenge mac 'n' cheese cook-off last spring, she served one made with truffled sheep's cheese and cauliflower-and topped with bacon. At Zazu you can just as easily order tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich (made with local cheese, of course) as you can tuck into a plate of red-wine-braised rabbit paired with mushroom risotto and rapini. A pair of Babydoll sheep named Pickles and Pancake fertilize and weed their vineyard, which produces a red wine called Holdredge Schiopettino MacBryde Vineyard, available only at Zazu and at the internationally renowned restaurant French Laundry.Įstes, who wears a sparkly nose ring, takes a hearty, irreverent approach to life and food. The couple and their two children live close by on a small farm where they raise chickens and grow figs and Meyer lemons, among other things. They serve casual Italian dishes with an American accent, reveling in seasonal, local ingredients.

Today Estes and her husband, John Stewart, own two restaurants, Zazu and Bovolo, in Sonoma County, California. Duskie Estes takes the heat in Zazu's kitchen.