Last
October, when I was out in California visiting my son Alex’s family, I picked
up a freebie publication called California Home Design. In it was an article about a wine making
family in Healdsburg who, with the help of local chef, put together one of
those classic wine country dinners. Held
in the middle of a vineyard, these parties are wildly photogenic as you
can see in this photo from the magazine.
And the menus tend to contain things that this Easterner has never heard
of before or at least in combinations that I’ve never even imagined. California Cuisine, as defined by Alice
Waters of Chez Panisse
in Berkeley and Michael McCarty of Michael’s in Santa Monica,
emphasizes freshly prepared local ingredients incorporated into recipes that
are often a fusion of cooking styles as diverse as the population of the Golden state
itself. Among the items on the menu at
the Healdsburg dinner was a very different take on a Bread Pudding. In fact, the ingredient list made me wonder
whether this was savory or sweet, a dessert or a side dish. So I set out to make it and to figure out
when to serve it once I had.
