EPIC CHEFS BLOG

July Fourth

Epic Roasthouse — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:39:14 +0000

I hope everyone is excited about the upcoming holiday. I know I am. We will be hosting a special happy hour BBQ on our fabulous patio. Also hosting will be Anchor Brewing and Skyy Vodka.
We will be offering a special BBQ menu including first of the season heirloom tomatoes with hand pulled mozzarella, pork shoulder and Schmitz Ranch brisket, rotisserie chicken, baked beans from the wood oven, potato salad, corn on the cob (probably with BACON BUTTER…a preview of High on the Hog)and ice cream cones. All of this with an Anchor Liberty Ale or Skyy vodka cocktail for $35 plus tax and gratuity. There maybe, just maybe (well, most likely will be)some specials on Drakes Bay Oysters as well.
I am super excited. Give us a call and let us know you are coming. It is gonna be a swell time!!
-ben

Kitchen of Champions

Epic Roasthouse — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 01:23:42 +0000

Celebrating graduation with a slice at Mission Pie

Over my ‘weekend’ I volunteered at the St. Vincent DePaul Society Kitchen of Champions in West Oakland, California. The students were a blast to work with and I am so happy to be a part of their learning experience.
Epic Roasthouse donated all of the flour and butter that we used in the recipes. My wife, Karoline Boehm-Goodnick, general manager at Mission Pie, was with me as well.
I would like to encourage all of you to check out the Kitchen of Champions webpage and help in any way you can. My friend Diana Petes is the Culinary Services Coordinator and can help with any questions you may have.
-ben

High On The Hog

Epic Roasthouse — Sat, 21 May 2011 18:00:12 +0000

Pork and Pinot is back. California wineries specializing in Pinot Noir, a western theme (including appropriate music) and lots of pig.
Our annual celebration is back this year on Saturday, September tenth. I’m not going to provide you with lots of details right now (I like suspense) but call 415-369-9955 for more information and to make your reservation.
I will give you a couple food teasers: corn with bacon butter, something roasted on a spit, lots of pulled pork, and plenty of house-made and artisian charcuterie.
We hope to see you there,
-ben

Wood Burning Brick Oven

Epic Roasthouse — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:16:55 +0000

As many of you know the soul of our kitchen is a wood burning brick oven. It is made of twenty-two thousand pounds of sand, brick and stone. We burn up to three cords of almond and walnut wood per month.

Many restaurants have wood ovens. We are different because we use ours so much. It is not just a place for pizzas and such. It provides us with a hot and smokey spot to cook everything from giant ribeye steak to Mediterranean sea bass to baby carrots. You can taste the smoke.

Maintaining a live fire for 18 hours a day is a challenge for our cooks and one that teaches us all so much about the act of really cooking. I hope that you appreciate what our oven means to us. Stop bye and peer in sometime.

-ben

Mothers Day Brunch

Epic Roasthouse — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:01:39 +0000

First of all thanks to everyone who made Easter brunch at Epic great! If you are looking for a place in San Francisco to celebrate with your mom, Epic is the spot. We will be offering a prix fixe 3 course brunch from 10am to 3pm on Mother’s day and would love to see all of you here.

-ben

Schmitz Ranch Meat

Epic Roasthouse — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 01:26:16 +0000

As I start to post more I hope for all of you to join in a very important conversation with me. A conversation about meat.

Here at Epic we serve lots of meat. We cook lots of meat and we eat lots of meat. This means we buy lots of meat. We are proud to buy lots of this meat from Schmitz Ranch. http://www.schmitzranch.com/

Kurt Schmitz or one of his sons delivers daily and they are great people. They ranch beef in Bakersfield and we source all of our tenderloins from there. They also bring in awesome Hutterite pork for us from Montana. http://www.hutteritepork.com/

-ben

Graduation

Epic Roasthouse — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:18:55 +0000

I just wanted to remind everyone that Epic is a great place to celebrate yours or someone elses graduation. We have an extensive selection of sparkling wines, great food for sharing and a beautiful space to enjoy it in. Make your reservation, come by and celebrate with us.

-Ben

Join Me at The Star Chef’s Vintners Gala on May 15th!

Epic Roasthouse — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:26:12 +0000

I will be joining over 70 other Bay Area chefs at the 24^th Annual Star Chefs and Vintners Gala, benefiting Meals On Wheels of San Francisco, on Sunday, May 15^th at Fort Mason in San Francisco! I hope you will consider joining me. For additional information – or to purchase tickets – please click the link. http://www.mowsf.org/gala/

Chef Jan Birnbaum

First Post

Epic Roasthouse — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:14:12 +0000

First shot. Without much fanfare. No cheesy intro. OK, maybe cheesy. I’m gonna talk about cheese.

We made ricotta today. Fun! You should hear Kevin’s story about eating warm ricotta in Corleone, Sicily. It involes sleeping in the dirt, goats and a very unsanitary spoon. ‘Nuf said!

In other cheese news we made a change to the cheese board today. I am giving the Cali. cheese a rest and taking the whole lot across the pond to Europe. Gorgonzola dolce, Brillat-Savarin, Manchego, Epoisse, and Compte. All delicious!

The cheese program is kind of my pet project right now. I have been developing a system to provide great, tempered, and properly aged cheese without wasting a bunch. It seems to be working. I am going to work on writing up my protocol and share it here. Maybe, just maybe, someone will find it interesting or usefull.

-Ben

Welcome to EPIC’s Chefs Blog

Epic Roasthouse — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:20:23 +0000

Welcome to EPIC Chefs Blog, a destination for food and wine lovers alike to interact with our chefs. Every month you can look forward to new and exciting recipes, pairing suggestions or just about anything pertaining to the world of food. It all depends on what our chefs are feeling!! We here at EPIC look forward to interacting with you and all our friends and community.