Alix Wall began cooking when she was 13 years old. After working 15 years as a journalist for Jewish newspapers, she decided to attend Bauman College and was certified as a natural foods chef. She lives in Oakland with her computer geek husband Paulie about two miles from the Berkeley Bowl. She now cooks for several families as a personal chef. In addition, she volunteers with Berkeley's Tuv Ha'Aretz chapter at Chochmat HaLev, and is on the executive committee of Hazon's 2008 food conference. Some of her weaknesses include dark chocolate, sag paneer, Humboldt Fog cheese, seared ahi tuna, dark leafy greens and a really good Port, though not necessarily in that order.
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Among my Chanukah presents last year from my husband’s family was an almost pocket-sized book called “Chef’s Secrets: Insider Techniques from Today’s Culinary Masters.” When I randomly opened a page, to see what kind of tips it offered, I found this gem from Chef J. Bryce Whittlesly (a New England name if I’ve ever heard one…) and read it out loud: “How to peel a tomato with a blowtorch.”
Paulie’s family likes to eat, but they are hardly food-obsessed like I am. They all found this hilarious. Actually, so did I. While I had not yet decided to go to culinary school then, I was already a foodie and cook. I had been dropping tomatoes in hot water for a minute or two to peel them my whole cooking life. Crème Brulee wasn’t among my favorite desserts, so a culinary blowtorch was hardly something I needed.
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Alix gives a recap of Bravo’s Top Chef finale, part 1:
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It is with great amusement I have been reading this blog lately, and see that almost every post is about California, yet
none of those posting actually live here. This is not at all meant to sound condescending, rather, just to place myself properly, as writing from somewhere other than that great place that I called home for almost 9 years, New York.
I write from the great gastronomical capital of Berkeley, California – or Oakland, rather, and I’m quite proud to live in Oaktown, its southern neighbor, thank you. I am just over two miles from the Berkeley Bowl, a former-bowling alley turned grocery store so legendary, I often take tourists there just to gawk at its 50 varieties of mushrooms and 30 varieties of potatoes. Am I exaggerating? Maybe. But you get my point.
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