If you hear the sound of slip-resistant shoes clomping around town, it’s from chefs flocking to San Francisco for Cookbook Week, a five-day celebration of your grandma’s — and Instagram’s — favorite book genre.
The festival kicks off Tuesday with live events, collaborative dinners, cooking classes, and talks centered around the culture of the cookbook. Gazetteer SF spoke to some of the visiting chefs about the restaurants, bakeries, and cafes they’re dying to eat at between events.
James Beard Award-nominated chef and TV personality Arnold Myint said he’s keen on returning to Sasa while he’s in town from Nashville. The lowkey restaurant in the Japantown Mall serves sushi and modern Japanese cuisine that Myint described as “high-end food for low-end commitment.” Myint said he’s going back for their mystery chirashi, a tic-tac-toe-style tasting of nine fish dishes. He’s been dreaming about Sasa’s crab chawanmushi, a steamed egg custard that was “so out of this world.”
Myint also hopes to return to Lao Table, the Laotian restaurant by Salesforce Park that he stumbled upon and had “a surprisingly fierce meal.”
“I think Lao food is having a great moment,” said Myint. He said that while Laotian food is very comforting for him, his last visit to Lao Table inspired him to push boundaries with his own cooking: “It inspires me to really go for bold flavor and to not scale back,” he said. “Basically, it green lights me, while serving a western market, to be a bit more confident in what I’m throwing into my dishes.”
He will definitely be ordering the Tang-Mo salad, which has cubes of watermelon, peanuts, and tomatoes dressed in an anchovy juice sauce and rice powder.
Jon Kung, a Detroit-based recipe creator and cookbook author, is on the hunt for a special Chinese restaurant where he dined while visiting his godmother in San Francisco. The memory, albeit two decades old, is clear: “There was just this very nondescript Chinese restaurant that had some of the best seafood that I’d ever had,” he said. Per his memory, the spot looked like a house and inside, an average-feeling restaurant. “But then [his godmother] said something to the host and then they brought us upstairs where it was all Cantonese-speaking people. And I was just like, ‘what is this magical place?’”
He’s hoping to find the restaurant with the help of his godmother and the shared knowledge of his following on Threads. If that fails, he’d like to hit Mister Jiu’s (get in line, buddy).
Pastry chef, cookbook author, recipe developer, and podcast host Justin Burke will be in town from Columbus, South Carolina. He has some spots fresh in his mind after having visited San Francisco on his book tour last summer, including La Ciccia, a humble Sardinian restaurant in Noe Valley. “It’s darling. I love a smaller neighborhood restaurant. The host was amazing, like she basically sat next to me at the bar and the food was incredible, the service was impeccable. I love the vibe,” he said.
“When exploring a city, I like stopping in the smaller places that may not necessarily get all the media attention that they probably deserve,” he said.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he shies away from tried-and-true spots, such as Kantine and B. Patisserie. Burke is also eyeing Mister Jiu’s (it is the moment), as well as Bodega, a modern Vietnamese restaurant by Union Square. He’s also craving some tacos in the Mission.
Reilly Meehan, a private chef, recipe creator, and cookbook author, is giving himself a full week in San Francisco. It’s a victory lap of sorts: Meehan launched his career here, working his way through different kitchens and running a bougie doughnut pop-up called Bespoke Doughnuts. Now, he works as a private chef in Phoenix and the Hamptons. He’s packing the car with his husband and their dog and “could not be more jazzed” to return to SF.
First stop? Terra Cotta Warrior.
The Outer Sunset Chinese restaurant has humble digs and a beef noodle soup worth dreaming about. “I’m telling you, it’s some of the best northern Sichuan cuisine I’ve ever had,” Meehan told Gazetteer. Their cumin lamb “burger,” which is more like a spicy lamb-stuffed pita, will also be on the table, as well as some tasty chilled veggies on the side. “I literally dream of it,” he said.
Another Sunset spot, Toyose, is on Meehan’s list. The Korean restaurant “literally looks like you’re in somebody’s basement that they converted into, like, a Disneyland Korean barbecue restaurant,” said Meehan. “It’s insane but the food is so freaking good.”
He’s also planning to hit Fifty/Fifty cafe in Laurel Heights, his old neighborhood, for a warm cup of nostalgia.
Others are still seeking recommendations. Hetty Lui McKinnon, a Brooklyn-based six-time cookbook author, said Greens at Fort Mason is the only spot she consistently dines at in San Francisco. She’s also hoping to get some pasta from Flour + Water, but will be keeping her ears peeled for suggestions otherwise.
Luckily for McKinnon, it’s hard to go wrong here. As Kung told me: “I have a hard time not enjoying whatever is in front of me.”
