Chef

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

Ellen Bennett launched an apron company last year not knowing how to sew and not knowing how to run a business. Now she has the world, so to speak, by the strings. "There was just the idea," says the diminutive, consistently buoyant 25-year-old who also works two days a week as a cook at Providence restaurant in Hollywood, "that there could be a better (and better-looking) apron. " Her own first apron had two slightly angled pockets - one for her Moleskine notebook and the other for an orange - and another specifically for her tweezers.

What's a chef gotta do to land a job? Mette Williams competed against three other contestants on national television to win the title of executive chef at Culina at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. The former chef of Areal in Santa Monica emerged the champion on the Food Network show "Chef Wanted With Anne Burrell. " Each week four candidates, prodded by the bossy, electro-haired Burrell, compete for an executive chef job. Thursday's episode was taped over a few days in early December, and Williams, the only female contestant, has been cooking at Culina since January, keeping a low profile until the show aired.

One of two restaurant owners threatened with legal action by animal rights activists has decided to stop serving foie gras. Broadway by Amar Santana in Laguna Beach will no longer dish up fattened duck liver as a complementary side to a $55 glass of wine. “We're calling it quits,” Ahmed Labbate, Amar Santana's partner and director of operations at Broadway, said Friday. “I wish I had the money to fight PETA, but we don't. We're a small restaurant and we don't have the means.” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had sent each chef a letter in early April threatening legal action if the restaurants didn't stop serving foie gras.

David Viens, the chef who told authorities that he accidentally killed his wife and cooked her body to dispose of it, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Friday. Viens was convicted last year of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Dawn. He has since fired his attorney. He spoke for about 40 minutes in a failed bid to persuade Superior Court Judge Rand S. Rubin to give him a new trial. "I loved my wife. I didn't cook my wife," he said. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors called Viens "a liar and a manipulator" and said he had a history of narcotics-related crimes before the 2009 slaying.

The Santa Monica farmers market is more exotic. The Hollywood market is bigger and the new Altadena market more devoted to tiny organic farms. But the most charming place to buy vegetables in Los Angeles may be the Sunday morning market in the Pacific Palisades, a village street lined with flower merchants and fruit growers and bakers of dense sourdough breads. It's just a bit politer, a bit spiffier than the markets tend to be in town - even the strawberries seem to be arranged into neat rows.

One of the most appealing things about open kitchens — and the trend of letting the rest of us see into the inner machinery, the smoke and clash and vaguely militaristic operation of a restaurant — is the occasional flare and whoosh of fire. We are, most of us, secret pyromaniacs. Watching a chef flambé something (a crepe, steak Diane, an apron) maintains the willing suspension of disbelief that professional cooking is, after all, a beautiful and possibly dangerous high-wire circus act and not just dinner.

Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena cooked at an extraordinary private dinner in Bel Air last night. He is widely considered Italy's greatest chef. The French  have awarded him three Michelin stars and he placed number five (the highest ranking Italian chef)  on last year's World's 50 Best Restaurants list sponsored by S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna. Bottura was in town to celebrate Italian cuisine as part of the Italian government's " Year of Italian Culture . " With all that's going wrong in Italy right now, the chef said, he was excited to be part of something positive.

The chef who told authorities he accidentally killed his wife and cooked her body to dispose of it acted with a "calculated ruthlessness" that a probation officer found "chilling," according to a report filed with the court. David Viens, 49, was convicted of second-degree murder last year, and on Friday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rand S. Rubin sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.  In a report that Rand reviewed, a probation officer took issue with Viens' claims that he had no intention of killing his wife, Dawn, in October 2009 when he duct-taped her mouth, feet and hands and then went to bed. Viens told authorities that, when he woke up, he discovered that she was "hard.

Chef moves where? Readers will sometimes write in about a restaurant that's been gone for 10 or more years, wondering what happened. Maybe they don't get out much, but even frequent restaurant-goers can get so distracted with all the new places opening that they miss the quiet slipping away of an old favorite. For anybody wondering what happened to French chef Jean-François Meteigner when he closed up La Cachette Bistro in Santa Monica in late 2011, the L'Orangerie alum is now cooking in - Vietnam !

Green almonds have always had cachet - to find them, you really had to know somebody who knew somebody. But nothing stays hidden for long in today's food world and this year, for the first time I'm aware of, almond producers are making an effort to get green almonds into the marketplace. They're still pretty tough to find, but at least they're not hidden under the farmers market tables anymore. Green almonds are immature nuts. They look like almonds covered in a fuzzy green wrapping.

An animal-rights group has sent letters threatening legal action against two Orange County chefs who continue to serve foie gras. The chefs serve fattened duck liver at Arc in Costa Mesa and Broadway by Amar Santana in Laguna Beach, drawing the ire of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. California banned the sale and purchase of fattened duck liver on July 1, but chefs Noah Blom of Arc and Santana found what they believe are legal ways to continue serving the French delicacy.

Amateur cooks are invited to don their chef's aprons and prepare three-course meals during a series of culinary classrooms throughout the year at Bellagio in Las Vegas . Executive chef Edmund Wong will conduct the lessons inside the resort's Tuscany Kitchen. Once a month, beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesdays, a maximum of 15 participants will gather at individual work stations prepped with the ingredients and tools needed to create an appetizer, entree and dessert. Members of Wong's team will circulate through the kitchen to provide hands-on assistance as he prepares the dishes.

Chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook of Animal and Son of a Gun may be teaming up with Ludo Lefebvre for the new Trois Mec, but the pair are inviting another chef into their kitchen tonight. James Beard award winner Nate Appleman (formerly at A16, SPQR in the Bay Area) will cook a charity dinner Monday evening at Animal. The Food Network "Chopped All-Stars" champion and "Next Iron Chef" contender will collaborate on an eight-course menu priced at $135 per person. Wine pairings are available for an additional cost.  Jonathan Gold quiz: Flowers A portion of the proceeds will go to The Kawasaki Foundation . Appleman's son was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease in 2009.

Justin Miller is executive chef of Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa. Miller, born and raised in Orange County, describes his approach to cooking as "relaxed," a good fit for the rustic Italian cuisine at David Myers' restaurant, centered on a wood-burning oven. Miller once served as chef of a cruise ship that led professional surfers from San Diego to Panama in search of the best waves. He's also cooked at Mastro's Steakhouse in Santa Ana and Dolce in Newport Beach. At Ortica, he started as a line cook, within a year was promoted to chef de cuisine and now helms the kitchen.

Justin Miller is executive chef of Pizzeria Ortica in Newport Beach. Miller, born and raised in Orange County, describes his approach to cooking as "relaxed," a good fit for the rustic Italian cooking at David Myers' restaurant, where much of the cooking is done in a wood-burning oven. Miller once served as chef of a cruise ship that led professional surfers from San Diego to Panama in search of the best waves. He's also cooked at Mastro's Steakhouse in Santa Ana and Dolce in Newport Beach.

What are we going to do without Brian Merel on "Hell's Kitchen"? Who will provide comic relief? His time was no doubt running out after his wiseacre comment to chef Gordon Ramsay, who had given him a piece of burnt catfish and ordered him to taste it. "Tastes like fish," Brian said. Wrong answer, buddy. The right answer would have been more along the lines of, "Tastes like catfish that I burnt, chef, and I will happily accept the death penalty for my culinary transgression.

How's this for a slice of irony? Mario Batali, dressed in a suit, no orange Crocs in sight, is seated at a gleaming restaurant counter in a Manhattan eatery, haranguing a chef who works for him: "In a down economy, green doesn't play," Batali insists as part of a profanity-laden rant. "People don't give a damn where their hamburger comes from as long as it tastes good. " It's the last thing anyone would expect to hear from the ambassador of Italian cuisine, a man who wholeheartedly endorses the eating local philosophy.

Get a taste of the Maya Empire  - flavored by a touch of California cuisine - at an international chef series underway in Tulum, Mexico .    In May the series, sponsored by Zamas Hotel and Que Fresco ! restaurant, will feature Chef Alicia Jenish of the Grand Café in San Francisco . Her May 4-8 sessions will focus on the café's brasserie style of cooking and incorporate touches of Mexican and Caribbean cuisine. Other chefs and mixologists will lead sessions throughout the rest of the year and into 2014.  "We're excited to have a talented roster of chefs and bartenders visiting us," said Susan Bholken, a co-owner of the hotel.