Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Top Chef, SF Edition


The Chef: Philip Gelb

The Menu: When a popular vegan chef/caterer offers to treat your staff to a lovingly prepared gourmet lunch feast, there's only one response in the world that's appropriate: Yes, please! Philip Gelb—a creative multitasker who juggles music and food—shuttled over from Oakland to our Outer Sunset offices and brought with him an amazingly delectable spread. We began with homemade seitan in a velvety molé sauce served with quinoa pilaf loaded with fresh herbs and veggies, then moved on to a colorful, perfectly sweet corn salad before tucking into bright green rappini paired with black olives. You might find this hard to believe, but each of us licked our plates clean. REALLY clean. For dessert, Phil dazzled our taste buds with heavenly scoops of homemade blueberry-cashew ice "cream." One of us—and I'm not saying it was our publisher, but it might've been—had four servings. It was that good.

The Goods: In addition to having established himself as a top-tier caterer in the San Francisco Bay Area, Philip is also known for hosting a popular series of dinner-concert events at different locations throughout the East Bay. Invite is by word-of-mouth only, and guests are always treated to a sensory feast, from the food to the live music to the great company. Look for a piece on him in an upcoming edition of Oakland Magazine, and of course, VegNews!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy Mole - this sounds incredible. I love mole on just about anything. I put it on cheese enchiladas!

Anonymous said...

it was a great joy to be able to share some of my culinary creations with you and to meet the staff of the magazine i have been reading for several years.
thank you so much!!

phil

The Veggie Queen said...

I just interviewed Phil and he, and his food, is amazing. Maybe you'd like to see what I'll be writing about him appear in VegNews?