San Francisco Chronicle Food & Home - Spoken Edition

Behind the scenes at Ocho’s Oakland candy factory When Ocho founder Denis Ring first started experimenting with chocolate candy bars a decade ago, he thought it would just be a small hobby business. He quickly realized that his candies had more upside potential than he expected. In the early days, the former Whole Foods executive assembled a small team of food science majors from UC Davis to make everything by hand.

It’s often the subtle but creepy stuff: a lingering stare, an intrusive question, even an unwanted touch on the arm. Women get that every day on the street, and the servers at Homeroom, a busy mac-and-cheese restaurant in Oakland, were tired of getting it from their customers, too.“It’s when people start asking personal questions. ‘Where do you live? What are you doing later?’” says Kayla Sorensen, 30, a Homeroom manager and former server.

Do you know what’s really in your cocktail?That’s the question that Thad Vogler, barman and owner of Bar Agricole, Trou Normand and the upcoming Obispo, has been asking himself for the past 18 years.When Vogler was bar manager of the Slanted Door in the early 2000s, the restaurant eliminated the backbar, where spirits bottles are typically displayed. Vogler had to pare down the stock.

Towering above relatively placid waters along the San Joaquin River, casting a cylindrical shadow on pontoons, jet skis and speedboats stands a 55-step lighthouse. Next to that are noticeably out-of-place palm trees. Resting idly below the surface, a 100-seat restaurant.

Abutilons (flowering maple) are such a common sight in Bay Area gardens, and there are so many colors now available, that one would be hard pressed to call another entry “new.” But abutilon lovers will have to revise that thought in considering the truly double flowers on the, yes, new abutilon ‘Victorian Lady.

‘You died’: The resurrection of a cook in the heart of SF’s demanding culinary scene On New Year’s Eve, a young cook named Eric Ehler died. And then he came back. Now he and the restaurant community are grappling with what comes next for the city’s culinary workforce. ‘You died’: The resurrection of a cook in the heart of SF’s demanding culinary scene On New Year’s Eve, a young cook named Eric Ehler died. And then he came back.

Though Grubstake’s days are numbered, the diner’s owners Nick Pigott and Jimmy Consos are saying it’s premature for folks to starting saying goodbye to it.At the same time, they also acknowledge that changes are in store for the beloved greasy spoon, and they say that redevelopment of the restaurant will “ensure its vitality for years to come.

Remembering Robert Haas, one of the most influential figures in American wine Robert Haas, one of the most influential figures in American wine of his generation, died on Sunday at his home in Templeton, Calif., from pneumonia. He was 90. As an importer, Haas was responsible for bringing many of Europe’s classic wines to the United States at a time when liquor was Americans’ beverage of choice.

The base for Aisan Hoss’ kuku sabzi, like most any good Iranian dish, is a pound of fresh herbs, and possibly more. For this frittata-like dish, she had patiently minced her way through vibrant green bunches of dill, parsley, cilantro and chives long before I arrived in her Hercules kitchen, filling a large stainless steel bowl to the brim.“In Persian cuisine, we eat a lot of herbs. We even eat raw herbs as a side dish,” said Hoss.

As a schoolkid, I ate one almost every day. Though they were called “hot dogs” in Mumbai, they were closer to sloppy joes: a roll of bread, sliced in the center to form a deep crevice that would then be stuffed with a mixture of ground beef or lamb that had been cooked and seasoned with a splash of vinegar and a handful of spices. The stuffed roll would be sold wrapped like a taffy in white parchment paper twisted at both ends. I loved it.

It’s always a joy to come across a new and colorful winter bloomer. Here are two to add to the list: Papaver rhoeas ‘Pandora’ and Calendula officinalis ‘Bronzed Beauty.’Poppies and calendulas are well known to gardeners, but these varieties might open a few eyes. Start with the brand-new red-streaked papaver.

The Girl & the Fig, one of the best places to dine in Sonoma In his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, written after three or more visits, appear in the Sunday Food + Home section. With all the new restaurant openings, I sometimes forget about the tried and true. With that in mind I checked out the 20-year-old the Girl & the Fig in Sonoma.

When they opened State Bird Provisions in 2011, Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski were in fact working to open their dream project, the Progress, in a large space on Fillmore Street. But there was also a small space next door, so into it State Bird went.Because of a confluence of factors, including the narrow space with the kitchen in front, they came up with the idea of serving their California-inspired food like dim sum.

Steve Edmunds is the unsung hero of California wine “I’ve been hearing voices, somebody breaking out inside of me, can you tell me who it is?” —“Rocks and Gravel,” from the album “Singing to the Ghosts” by Steve Edmunds If you know about Edmunds St. John, you know. Most people don’t.

Best views of San Francisco? Head to MerSea, a new Treasure Island restaurant One of the joys of living in San Francisco is that we can be walking along the ocean in minutes, hiking on bucolic trails in a half hour, then skiing in the mountains a few hours after that. I also recently discovered that from downtown San Francisco, it’s only about 12 minutes to an island paradise: Treasure Island.