A Foodie’s Tour of San Francisco
Recently, I had the pleasure of helping to plan a San Francisco food education tour for eight journalists from China, who were visiting the country as guests of the U.S. Potato Board. They were on the last leg of their American discovery journey and we had just two days. With so many fabulous food-related places to visit, we had to make some difficult choices.
We started at public relations agency Ketchum’s San Francisco office, where I gave an overview of food trends, including a look at the evolution of Chinese cuisine in the United States. Shelley Roth, SVP at Ketchum, followed with a talk on trends in food B2B. Catherine Pantsios, Ketchum’s executive chef, demonstrated ways to use processed potatoes, the only type of American potatoes available in China. She showed imaginative ways to turn instant and frozen potatoes into delicious menu items and handed out samples.
With a basic understanding of American food, we were off and running! If you’re visiting San Francisco and want to do your own food exploration, here are some of the highlights from our tour to help with your planning:
- Lunch at the brilliant Basque restaurant, Piperade
- A tea and snack break at Poleng Lounge, the new lunch/tea/dinner/club hot spot , to meet executive chef Tim Leung, who won raves in a recent San Francisco Chronicle review
- Dinner at Great Eastern restaurant, where the journalists, starved for familiar fare, found authentic Chinese cuisine
- Dinner at Go Fish, Cindy Pawlcyn’s new restaurant in St. Helena
- Wine tasting at Beringer Vineyards, where we had a private tasting in the Rhine House and enjoyed a tour of the beautiful grounds
- The Ferry Building Marketplace, with its breathtaking interior and market hall-style of open stalls of food and food-related shops, including Delica rf-1, a pristine Japanese delicatessen, known for its crisp Japanese-style croquettes
- The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, the magnificent West Coast branch of the CIA school for chefs, where we toured the kitchens and the Rudd Center, built for serious wine education
- The Saturday farmers’ market surrounding the Ferry Building, a not-to-be-missed opportunity to linger over stalls burgeoning with just-picked produce from nearby farms, olive oils, honey, nuts, sunflowers, lavender and more. This jewel of a market is abreast of the sparkling San Francisco Bay, with a view fabulous view of the Bay Bridge.
Those of us who live in San Francisco are privileged to enjoy beautiful weather, diverse cultures and amazing food and wine. Seeing the city through the eyes of visitors is a good reminder of how lucky we are.
INSIGHT: Just living and breathing in San Francisco is a great way to be immersed in — and be inspired by — leading edge food trends.
