Douglas Keane
Best Chef

Cyrus
29 North St., Healdsburg, 707-433-3311

THE MOST DIFFICULT THING I’VE EVER TRIED TO COOK: Mac ’n’ cheese. When we were making it at Market, my restaurant in St. Helena, I found it nearly impossible. It was the simplest thing, but I wasn’t trained to think like that. Turns out that it’s hard to figure out what makes dishes like meatloaf taste really good.

IT’S A GOOD DAY WHEN: One of my cooks calls in sick. That means I get to cover one of the stations. I get all excited. I especially love working the fish station. If I had my choice, I’d work the fish station every night.

WHY BEING COMPARED TO THOMAS KELLER IS NOT NECESSARILY A GOOD THING: It stresses me out. I’d peel that guy’s shallots. He’s legit. I’m brand-spanking new. I read that stuff and think, “Oh, shit. People will hear that and be like, this place better be good.”

WHAT’S NEXT: Nothing. This is it. I wouldn’t do anything that would take me away from here.

by Lisa Trottier



Greg Dunmore
Rising Star Chef

Ame
689 Mission St., S.F., 415-284-4040

I KNEW I WANTED TO BE A CHEF: The first time I saw a soufflé. I was in high school and working as a dishwasher at a place called the Coventry Forge Inn outside Philadelphia. I saw that soufflé and that was it. I found it there.

THE JOB THAT ALMOST GOT AWAY: Hiro Sone and I were working alone in the kitchen at Terra one morning when I told him I was ready to move on. He said, “No, stay. I want you to be the executive chef at my new restaurant in the city.”

WHY IT'S COOL TO WORK IN A HOTEL RESTAURANT: If the dishwasher breaks in the middle of the night, I can call the St. Regis engineering department and they’ll come down to fix it. There’s a staff cafeteria here where they serve burritos and we have feature-film Friday once a month. Today we get to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding at lunch.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I KNOW ABOUT COOKING: Treat every ingredient the way you would want to be treated.

THE ONE RECIPE I'VE YET TO MASTER: Spicy fried chicken. I had some in Nashville once that I’ve never been able to recreate. It was 2 in the morning and there was a line out the door. Inside, an old woman was frying chicken in a huge cast-iron skillet filled with lard. You could order it medium, spicy, or hot. One of my friends ordered the hot, and I’d never seen anyone turn so red or sweat so hard. I’ve tried three times to make that chicken, but I just can’t get it right.

by Rachel Levin



Michelle Polzine
Best Pastry Chef

Range
842 Valencia St., S.F., 415-282-8283

BEFORE I WAS A PASTRY CHEF: I played guitar in a punk band called Special Agents of Her
Majesty’s Secret Cervix.

MY BIG BREAK CAME: When the bread baker at the restaurant where I worked got drunk and I stepped in to take his place.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I’VE LEARNED: Never serve anything that’s less than my best. When I was pastry chef at Delfina, I left work one night knowing that the desserts

were not all they should’ve been. When I came in the next morning, I found out that Alice Waters had been in for dinner. I was horrified. These days I have what I call the do-over policy. If something doesn’t turn out, I throw it away and do it over.

WHY IT’S BETTER TO BE A PASTRY CHEF THAN A PUNK ROCKER: If people like what you’re doing when you’re playing punk, you’re doing something wrong. As a pastry chef, I can please people and still retain my integrity.

BIGGEST COMPETITION: I’m up against everybody’s grandma. The best compliment I can get is when someone tells me that something I’ve baked is as good as what their grandmother made.

by Jan Newberry



Chris Blanchard
Best Wine Director

Redd
6480 Washington St., Yountville, 707-944-2222

BEFORE I WAS INTO WINE: I was a rapper who went by the name DJ Vita-Mix. My song “That’s the Way Girls Are” was number 13 on the charts in Britain in 1987.

FIRST SIGN THAT I WOULD BE A SUCCESS IN THE WINE WORLD: I won a television set for selling the most cases of Boone’s Farm strawberry wine when I was working as a sales rep for Gallo.

THREE QUALITIES A WINE MUST HAVE TO MAKE IT ONTO MY LIST: (1) It has to taste good; (2) It has to go with the food. That’s an easy thing to say, but I turn down good wines every day because they don’t fit with the menu; (3) It has to have soul. You know how when Lester Young plays the saxophone, he doesn’t always hit every note just right, but the music has so much soul. When Wynton Marsalis plays, the music is perfect, but it’s boring. It’s the same with wine. You’ve got to feel the winemaker’s connection, because the truth is that the most interesting thing about wine isn’t how it tastes, but the story of the people behind it.

THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL DECISION I'VE MADE: To include wines from all over the world on my list. I’m not a slave to Napa.

by Jan Newberry

 

2006 Critics’ Choice Awards Panel
Gene Burns, host, Dining Around with Gene Burns, KGO Radio
Meesha Halm, editor, San Francisco Bay Area Restaurant Zagat Survey
Leslie Harlib, food writer and restaurant critic, Marin Independent Journal
Scott Hocker, assistant editor, San Francisco 
Carolyn Jung, food writer and editor, San Jose Mercury News  
Kate Krader, senior editor, Food & Wine 
Jan Newberry, food and wine editor, San Francisco
Paul Reidinger, contributing editor, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Sara Schneider, senior wine editor, Sunset
Josh Sens, restaurant critic, San Francisco
Tanya Wenman Steel, editor in chief, Epicurious.com
Patricia Unterman, author, San Francisco Food Lover’s Guide, and restaurant critic, the Examiner