After a recent system cleanup, we found that we lost this page. We will be re-creating it in the near future, as time permits.
For now, you can view a printable copy of this Michael Bauer update, on a separate page.
Below on this same page, you will find this entry in "Patricia Unterman's Food Lover's Guide to San Francisco", Second Edition.
Excerpt from Bread and Chocolate, a book by Fran Gage.
The potato revival is elevating an old staple to a new status. But the chefs aren't inventing new ways to cook them. They stick to simple preparations, letting the potatoes' true virtues - their texture and taste - shine. Potatoes are simple food, simply served.
Carlos Corredor, the chef/owner of Timo's, a tapas restaurant in the Mission District of San Francisco, understands potatoes. They aren't used as an addition to the plate, they are the plate. One could make a meal of them here; I have. In the simplest of preparations, he roasts small, red-skinned new potatoes and serves them with a mayonnaise so infused with garlic that it oozes from the pores the next day. Maybe he has Belgian ancestors. He also makes a classic tortilla a la española, proving that good potatoes need only onions, olive oil and enough eggs to hold them together to make a dish that is more than the sum of its parts. Yukon Golds get a special treatment at his restaurant - cooked with earthy wild mushrooms that intensify the potatoes' taste; he fittingly calls the dish Potato Decadence. Only Yukon Golds will do for the decadence, and he won't make the dish if he can't get them.
Entry about Timo's in Patricia Unterman's Food Lover's Guide to San Francisco, second edition.
Carlos and Theresa Corredor took over this funky Mission District bar and turned it into a hot spot with their delicious, creative tapas. One fantastic little plate of savory food after another emerges like some kind of miracle from an immaculate kitchen. Crusty roasted new potatoes, the diameter of a quarter, are dabbed with the velvety house-made garlic mayonnaise called aïoli. Big firm mushrooms, hot off the grill, are tossed in finely chopped garlic and parsley, as delicious as they are simple. Bright green Catalan spinach with pine nuts, raisins and bits of dried apricot refreshes the palate. Timo's continues to prepare a superior version of a very typical Spanish dish, salt cod and potato cake, creatively pairing it with a lively cilantro-mint salsa. The chef takes a detour to neighboring southwest France with his crispy leg of duck confit surrounded by tender baby turnips. However, the last time I ordered Timo's legendary Potato Decadence, a cake of Yukon Gold potatoes, chanterelles and lobster mushrooms dusted with fresh marjoram, it had become soggy, dominated by chewy dried porcini.
Since the couple recently opened a second place in Ghirardelli Square, the food at the original Timo's has not been as breathtakingly exciting, but I'd still rather go to Timo's in the Mission than most other places in town. I love the wine list with plenty of Spanish and California red wine by the glass, and the variety of tapas on the menu - the simplest of which are still prepared perfectly and authentically. The colorfully painted rooms of this former bar remind me of beat coffeehouses, complete with a live guitarist who plays Spanish melodies instead of folk songs.
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