Cooking, Gardening, Eating, Drinking...

Click here to return to Jonathan Kaplan's Home Page

I was going to separate out cooking, gardening, and all the rest, but for me, they are all wrapped up together.  I garden because I want the product: the herbs, the lettuces, the beans, and all the rest...  I cook because I want to take full advantages of the foods available...  And the like...

I've been cooking 'seriously' for perhaps 8 years or so, depending on how you count.  I started when I was living in SF, and got more into it when my friend Avrom, also a damned fine cook, was there for the summer.  When I moved back to Palo Alto, things really got into high gear...

After finishing my Ph.D., and before starting my Post-Doc, I worked for about six months at Sent Sovi, a truly amazing restaurant in Saratoga, run by David Kinch.  (If you happen to pass through the Bay Area, you owe it to yourself to drop by his new place, Manresa)  I started out basically just hanging around, and worked my way up to being hired to do 'prep' and some other odds and ends.  OK, so it wasn't a stellar rise or anything, but I did learn an awful lot.  I've often said, not entirely in jest, that if it wasn't for the long hours, low pay, and appalling working conditions, cooking professionally would be the best job out there...

So here are some odds and ends from my world of cooking, eating, and gardening...

Memorable Meals: A page with descriptions, some brief, some not so brief, of some of the better restaurants I've been to...

Sharyn and I host the occasional dinner party, as well.  Click here for some sample menus and pictures!

Well, that's all for now!  Maybe I'll add more later...