back of the house

August 14, 2015 Arielle Giusto

Karina, Cesar & Maynor - this particular day they all stayed long after closing to help me tackle a huge box of black eyed peas for a private dinner.

A kitchen is only as strong as its dishwasher. Not the machine (though hopefully that's in good working order), but the person who daily performs the wet, thankless, finger pruning task of washing every dish and scrubbing every pot in the place. I am thankful to previous chefs who taught me to treat them well, sneak over little treats (salmon collar snacks!) and show respect to the guy who often doesn't get a whole lot of it. This translates to how I feel about the entire kitchen staff: they are the rock and the wheels of a restaurant. And most of them are immigrants, some legal some not.

your pasta's getting fresh with me

May 17, 2015 Arielle Giusto

Before we opened the kitchen at Mill Valley Beerworks, we tried to roll the longest pasta on the planet..

There were many afternoons after rolling out the pasta for that evening's service when I felt like the worst cook in the world. I couldn't get it. It was too dry, too wet, it ripped when I was in the final roll, you name it, I messed it up. I was so scarred that I didn't make a single attempt at fresh pasta for two years. Thankfully I discovered whole egg pasta dough and the world opened up again. The best part about doing whole egg pasta dough (as opposed to just using the yolks), is it is forgiving. Mixing, kneading, and rolling are all infinitely easier when compared to the finicky yolk/00 pasta dough David had me doing at Mill Valley Beerworks.