I have my hearts in San Francisco

If you have read my previous post, you already know that I have been a chef for around 30 years, and I owned and operated my restaurant, Timo's, in San Francisco for about 12 years.

For a long time, I have wanted to write about food - in fact, I finished the better part of a cookbook years ago. But that's another story that I'll tell another time.

I still think of myself as a chef, as food is my #1 interest. But I am now retired, not in the classic sense, but more as in refried beans (frijoles refritos). Refritos does not really mean fried twice or fried again or fried over, as you might think: it really means "well fried". Diana Kennedy, the Julia Child of Mexican cuisine, explains this in The Cuisines of Mexico, her first book, which is considered by many a classic – actually, her recipe is titled "Well-Fried Beans", not "Refried Beans". (See? already talking about food!). In Mexico, if those beans are really, really, really well-fried, they would say "requetefritos". Some times I feel requetetired. That is because, except for the good eating I have managed to squeeze in between disasters, the 6% of the 21st century that has already transpired has not exactly been the best time of my life. Consider this:

Fall 2001 -
I learn I have severe heart problems. My doctor (about whom I will write sometime – I love her) talks to me about the Stanford transplant clinic, bypasses, angioplasties and a bunch of other bloodcurdling stuff. I skip the crème fraîche in the mushroom soup at Zuni that day.

Fall 2001 –
My beloved wife of twenty years passes away. She would have loved to stick around a couple of more days: during the three days she lays in the funeral parlor in the East Bay, I get to eat lunch at Bay Wolf (Oakland, just OK), dinner at Bistro Liaison (Berkeley, a toilet, not even a good joke about French cuisine) and dinner at Oliveto (Oakland, fantastic! – Craig Stoll worked in their kitchen for a few months in preparation for opening Delfina; need I say more?).

Spring 2002 –
I am admitted to Kaiser Hospital bright and early on a Thursday and undergo quadruple bypass surgery instead of having breakfast. I really don't think much of hospital food, it's like the word "seasoning" is not in their lexicon. So, Saturday and Sunday, I get food sent by Suppenküche and Delfina, and wine I asked friends to bring me. My doctor shows up one of those days and tells me it's OK to have a little sip of red wine, then drinks the rest of my glass to protect me. On Tuesday, my son comes to take me home, but on the way, we stop at Zuni for lunch. I skip the cream again and the lunch is on the house. So, who said Denny's is the only one that has a customer loyalty program? (they will treat you on your birthday); but don't go there after open heart surgery or you'll be going right back for your angioplasty.

Spring-Summer 2004 –
After trying out several managers, and frustrated by my inability to find someone to help me run the front of the house, one day I have a fit and decide to sell Timo's; two weeks later I accept an offer (I regret this). Three weeks before close of escrow, an approved offer in compromise with the IRS is rescinded (I screwed up on this one). Result: the escrow closes and my proceeds are zilch – that's right, zero. However, there is a mitigating factor: my space becomes Range, where everything I have eaten since they opened has been perfect – I think it's some of the best food there is.

Fall 2004 –
I learn that my mother is in the hospital due to spinal column problems. So I go to Bogotá (population: about 7,000,000) in my native Colombia. I find remarkable improvement; the city is now very clean and seems more organized and the music and partying, as always, incredible (in a good way). Traffic there, as long as I can remember, has always been pretty bad, and now that the country is prosperous and everybody can afford to have a car, it's absolute hell; however, drivers are more polite – now a lot of them don't bring up your ancestry after they run over you. The food/restaurant scene down there has improved 900% since my previous visit, 11 years earlier: instead of 9 decent places to eat, now I find a couple of hundred, but overall, as in most places, the dining experience is second-rate, if we gauge it by San Francisco standards. Just in case, I would recommend three places to eat in Bogotá: Harry's Bar and Club Colombia (both operated by chef Harry Sasson) and Nazca (Peruvian cuisine).

January 31, 2005 –
Just back from Colombia, I go to lunch. When I get home at 4:30, in front of my apartment I find a couple of fire trucks, a pile of rubble, I see a fireman upstairs in my living room and a big hose hanging from the window. They are almost done when I arrive. Gato, whom you can meet on the Timo's web site, and (thanks to a fireman) my laptop survive. Then again, my Kiton-Barbera-Brioni wardrobe, ruined; the hammered copper and nickel pots from France, the 80+ Henckel-Wusthof knives (mostly the ones with real wood handles), the little now-discontinued Hobart mixer, the old style cast-iron sausage maker, and more irreplaceable stuff, all gone, finito, kaput. The day isn't all bad: the Aguadito de Mariscos, the Anticuchos (marinated beef HEARTS), a nice bottle of red at Mochica, all great!

Since March 2005, I have gone back and forth between Colombia and San Francisco a couple of more times, and was down there most of the time until the end of last year (2006).

My mother is still around, but now under permanent professional care. Her birthday is May 5, when she will turn 90. For the past 10+ years, each year I have sent her the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle with the pictures and news of the Cinco de Mayo, which is a big-time event in SF. I think I've got her convinced that all the hullabaloo is for her birthday, and I am just hoping this coming Cinco de Mayo is not going to be a really sad one.

Anyway, I'm back from my travels, now staying a while with a son and granddaughter in Southern California. I'm planning to return permanently to SF by this Summer, and hoping that what I have left of this century on this planet will be a little better. It's already looking good: I'm enjoying the writing and the web applications thing. And we may even continue to have at least one good cook in the family – my mom was a fantastic cook in her younger days and my nephew Gabriel already has two little Italian restaurants in Bogotá, called Trento (add that to my recommendations for places to eat if you go there). Gabriel was in SF last year for training at Delfina and Palio d'Asti, and is coming back for more, later this year.

I can't wait to go back to Zuni, Delfina, Slanted Door, Kirala (sushi-robata grill, Berkeley), Taco Loco (those buche tacos!) and Mochica (for my fix of HEARTS and other goodies). And I am sure there will be a bunch of new places – and maybe I'll even write about what I find.